Dandelion Spring art project

This is a cute dandelion project that I've seen floating all over the internet. I used the lesson found on the Pacon website HERE. I didn't do the rubber cement step because, well, rubber cement!! 

So, our dandelions might not show up as well. 

These were done by Grade 4 students and was a quick 2 class project. 

Finished Grade 4 artworks!

 

Norval Morrisseau Indigenous Woodland Art Project

 

Woodland Art is a genre of painting among Indigenous artists from the Great Lakes area, including northern Ontario and southwestern Manitoba. The majority of the Woodland artists belong to the Anishinaabeg, notably the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi, as well as the Cree. 

The style was founded, in the 1960's, by Norval Morrisseau, a self-taught Ojibwe artist from Northern Ontario. He is widely regarded as the grandfather of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada. He learned Ojibwe history & culture from his grandfather Moses "Potan" Nanakonagos & collected oral history of his community. Morrisseau was originally criticized for disclosing traditional spiritual knowledge. He signs his work using the Cree syllabics writing ᐅᓵᐚᐱᐦᑯᐱᓀᐦᓯ. Woodland Art explores the relationships between people, animals & plants & is rich with spiritual imagery and symbolism. 

                                                  

This was a project I did in collaboration with a Grade 8 Literature teacher at my school. They had been studying Indigenous literature and she wanted a creative project to accompany her unit. 

I've taught Woodland Art previously HERE.

This time, instead of black and white ink paintings, we did colour versions using markers. We only had two 40 minute periods to complete this, so I stuck with faster markers.

I introduced students to his work by showing images of his art as well as a couple of videos.

HERE is a good documentary from 1974 from the National Film Board of Canada. 

We discussed the subject matter and his use of colour and line. We then discuss the symbolismsymbolism used. 

 Students then chose an animal(s) and sketched it out onto smooth 8x10" cardstock. They included energy lines, etc. in order to give a true Woodland feel to the work. I have to really emphasize that the animals were to be stylized as some tried to draw really realistic animals. Once everything was drawn, they coloured it with markers.

Some finished Grade 8 artworks:

 

Low Relief Cardboard Bird Creations

 

This is a very cool cardboard bird project inspired by the cardboard 'pigeon series' by American contemporary artist Cheryl Cochran @cardboardsea. You can see her work on her Instagram. She uses found cardboard pieces and paint to create cardboard forms, often pigeons, with startling personality and humor. Her style plays with texture and loose brushstrokes.

This lesson was taught by one of my recent student teachers. It turned out very successfully!

Students first looked at her work on her Instagram and discussed low relief.

Then, they used laptops to look up bird images. They sketched these out onto scrap carboard, making all the body parts separate shapes.

Then they cut everything out and roughly assembled it to make sure it looked good and complete. 

All the pieces were painted using tempera paint.

Let dry until the next class.

Then assemble all the pieces using white glue. Students can then use coloured pencils, crayons, oil pastels, etc, to make random texture marks or details on top. 

I love how fun and quirky many of these turned out!