Playing with Chalk Pastel

One of my students came back from a trip to Mexico, and shared a journal he had purchased.  It had some pretty cool original art work on the front and back.  It reminded me of street art, and I thought my art students would enjoy this type of expression.  

Inspiration for the project:

I had several boxes of chalk pastels that I had never used, but wanted to.  I chose to use brown construction paper as the canvas (originally I thought to use brown paper bags). The darker paper made a nice contrast for the bold colors.  

I had never used chalk pastel (I'd only ever played with oil pastels) and was pleasantly pleased with how pigmented and bold the colors were, as well with how nicely the colors blended.

Here's the unfinished product of my play:

Below are a few of my 6th-8th grade students' pieces:

Art Portfolios

My art class was a semester long.  During the last two weeks of the semester, I had my students take pictures of all of their art work, and create a Google Slide presentation to house their digital portfolios.  Once they had an art piece on each slide I had them reflect.  

I asked these four questions:

1. What did you do to create the art piece?
2. What do you like about the specific piece?
3. What did you learn?
4. What would you improve?

My students took their time with their reflections, and it turned out to be a very positive experience for them.  As well, a great way for them to keep their art work and share it with others.

Below are some example slides and links to completed portfolios.

Links to digital portfolios (6th-8th grade)

Radial Color Wheel

Radial Color Wheel

Basic Color Theory

I was inspired to have my students create radial color wheels when I saw several pop up on Pinterest. It seemed like a great way to teach my students basic color theory.  I used the directions from the following post to help guide my students in creating their initial designs.  

Once my students drew the outer circle with a compass, they used a protractor to divide the sections.  

They then drew a design in one of the sections.  once it was to their liking they used tracing paper to copy the design to the other sections.  I had them turn the tracing paper over and fill the back side with pencil.  This created the transfer.  Check out the following post by Emily Mclemore for detailed directions.

My students used colored pencils (primary and secondary colors) to fill in the design.  They combined the primary and secondary colors to make the tertiary colors. 

It

3D Name Sculpture

3D Name Sculpture

The first project I had my students do was a 3D name sculpture.  This was the inspiration for the
project (scroll down). I was very impressed with the outcome.  My students' sculptures came out great - especially since it was the first project of the year.

First I had my students type out their name using different fonts.  I recommended they use thicker fonts that would make a better base.


Next I had my students draw out the letters, sketching them lightly in case they needed to erase.  I had them add designs in each letter.



They then used markers to fill in the designs to create a bolder look.



Afterwards they glued each letter to a piece of card stock (or file folder) to make each letter sturdy.  I reminded them to position the letters on the card stock before cutting them out to make sure there was enough and not to waste the card stock, and then I had them cut them out.



I had them build the structure using a glue gun (which worked very well).