Out of this Sprayer

I was first introduced to spray paint art about 18 years ago when I was on a college trip to Oaxaca Mexico.  Yeah, that dates me a little.  But I remember that we would sit and watch those guys paint outerspace scenes for hours.  We were fascinated by the colors and the techniques that they used.  I also loved the control that they had over cans of spray paint. They just made it look so easy.

Well anyways, 18 years later I don't know what sparked my memory and made me want to try the project, but this spring we decided to give the spray paint project a try.  I had each student bring a can of spray paint and we started watching videos on how to make the planets and worlds.  The only thing we had major problems with was the weather and the fact that school was ending quickly for the year.  So I decided to try it again this year, but this time in the fall.

I have since learned that that was a smarter decision.  It is amazing how less windy it is in South Dakota in the fall and since we didn't have to race the end of the school year, we also had more days to choose from.
 We have gotten really good at the basics or planets and simple mountain scapes.  We would like to try harder to get in some more techniques that deal with cities, trees or water scenes, but we are now running into fall weather and it is cooling off really fast.

So in case we don't have time for more, here is what we created so far.

Alli H.

Ashley G.

Sydney Hag.

Sydney Haus.

Madison S.

Sammy K.

Foam in new form

The Art 2 class was given a foam board sculpture project.  They had a few requirements like it needed to be taller than 12 inches,  it could have paint, it needed to be a recognizable theme, and it has to stand up on its own.  The students discover that the hardest part is designing something that can stand up and be interesting on all three sides.

Jayden S.

Jena F.

Madisyn V.

Mikayla R.

Yeva S.

Melted art?

Art 2 also created stencils on one paper and then melted crayons on another and put the two together.  I think this is one of my favorite, simple projects that the students enjoy.

Brooke A.

Hawa M.

Jayden S.

Madisyn V.

Yeva S.

Drawing movement

To start the year for Art 2 I asked them to first take a picture of movement and then to draw it.  Here are some of our examples.  I was really happy that they did a little of everything.

Alasia J.

Brooke B.

Eli H.

Kamber L.

Maggie H.

Splatter fun

I wanted to start the year with a fun, messy project to try to get their creative juices flowing.  So I had them cut a stencil out of contact paper, stick it to either white or colored tagboard and then they splattered paint on top.  They had a lot of fun figuring out the best ways to splatter and each one came up with their own techniques.

Sydney Hag.

Sydney Haus.

Jozlynn P.

Karly N.

Malary M.

Yeva S.

Jump for art

Art 3 started the school year by learning some photography basics.  One of those assignments dealt with shutter speed, and I wanted to make the project more valuable then just get the shot and call it a day.  So I had them draw someone jumping and then required them to draw that person jumping.

  I wish I could say I thought of it all on my own, but I happen to be looking at one of my blogs that I follow and I saw it on another teacher's site.  Of course, I want to give that person credit and now I can't find the post, but I am very grateful that the idea was presented just as I needed it.  So if it was yours, Thank you.  My students might not thank you, but i appreciate you.

Anyways, they did a great job and here are a few of those drawings.  I did let them alter the pictures slightly so that they could put some creativity into the photos, and I did let them get rid of the backgrounds if they didn't change them.  They were supposed to at least add a shadow or simple ground so that the viewers could see the reference to the ground.

Ashley G.

Demi H.

Hanna S.

Sydney Haus.

KaSandra K.

Malary M.

Yeva S.

Still in contour

Art 1 drew their guitar still life's the other day.  This is their first graded art project of the year.  Here are some of the better examples.