Seventh Grade Value Shading

Seventh graders created these pieces with pencil, using shading techniques. First, they drew simple line drawings. Then, they used additional lines to chop up the page and the objects. Finally, they created a full range of light and dark values inside each shape created with the dividing lines.

 

Windows in Art (Rashi School Online Lesson)

Windows have inspired many artists. Here are some amazing ways that artists have represented windows:

Salvador Dali, Figure at the Window, 1925

Henri Matisse, Open Window at Collioure, 1905

Rene Magritte, The Telescope, 1963

Marc Chagall, Hadassah Hospital Windows

Notre Dame Cathedral, France

Windows have been an inspiration for authors and illustrators, too! This great book, Outside my Window, by Linda Ashman, is a perfect companion to our lesson about windows. 

What do you see out your window? Try drawing the window, then observe the details of the things you see outside and draw them, too. 

Digital Graffiti Art (Rashi School Online Lesson)

Hello artists! We've been learning about graffiti art at The Rashi School. Artists like Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Keith Haring have created expressive works that tell the world about who they are, what they believe, and what they have experienced. 

"Smilz" by Mrs. Smiley, 2020

Assignment 1: Create your name in graffiti style. Feel free to look up reference images for inspiration, but all work should be your original design. You may use the mirror (radial symmetry) function for your design, but you do not have to. Click on my MyOats tutorial for how to shut this on and off.

Assignment 2: Create a graffiti-style illustration of a word that describes an emotion that you've felt about what's going on in the world

Requirements for both projects:

1. Use at least two different kinds of brushes (taper, airbrush, round brush, line)
2. Use at least three different line widths
3. Use at least three variations on opacity

Stained Glass Drawings (Rashi School Online Lesson)

Today we are going to create drawings that will look like a kind of art called stained glass. Stained glass is made with colored glass and metal. It is not easy to do, I have tried it!

Here are some famous artists who have made stained glass.

Marc Chagall, Tribe of Benjamin, 1962

Kehinde Wiley, Saint Remi, 2014

Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, Iran, 1800's

Materials:
-A small object, about the size of your fist
-A pencil
-A piece of white paper
-A black marker or pen
-Something to color with (colored pencil, marker, crayon)

Here's what we're making. I created it by tracing something I found in my house. Can you guess what it is?

If you guessed a roll of tape, you're right!


1. First, choose an object. It can be anything you want, as long as it's about the size of your fist.


2. Ready? Now, use your pencil to trace it onto the white paper. You can start anywhere you want.



3. Now, trace it again. BUT make sure that you put the object down so that it is on part of your first tracing.

   

4. See how some new shapes were created with the two tracings? Here, I will show you by highlighting it:



5. Now, continue to trace and overlap until you've filled the page. You should trace the object at least 8 times.














6. When you have it traced at least 8 times, go over all of your lines with a black marker or pen. this is what will look like the black lines in stained glass.



7. Then, notice all the new little shapes and start coloring them in.

Second Grade Nature Sculptures

Second graders at The Rashi School learned about artist Andy Goldsworthy, who creates incredible sculptures using only materials from nature. They located a "sign of spring" in their yard and gathered materials to create a frame around it. 

Op Art Floating Spheres (Rashi School Online Lesson)

Hello everyone! This is a lesson for my students at The Rashi School, I hope you'll join us.

Today we're going to learn about (and create) a style of artwork called Op Art. Op Art began in the 1950's and 1960's. "Op" is short for "optical" which is a word meaning something that has to do with the eye. Op Artists used simple lines and shapes to create art that played tricks on the eye. Sometimes it looks like artwork is three-dimensional, sometimes it even looks like the art is moving! Here are two examples of Op Art:

Victor Vasarely, Sign Sculpture, 1977

Bridget Riley, Fall, 1963

Whoa... right?! 

So, here's what you're going to do:
Don't worry! It's easier than it looks. 

Materials: white paper, pencil, ruler, colored pencils or markers, large round object to trace (I traced a container of Lysol wipes!)

Time Needed: Three or four 45-minute sessions

1. Start by tracing your round object in pencil on the paper.

2. Now, use a ruler to measure and make small marks across the long side of the paper every inch. In other words, at the numbers.

 3. Now, use the ruler and line it up with the marks to make lines that are one inch apart. Don't go through the circle! If you do by accident- no big deal! Just erase it so the circle is clean.

 4. Now, draw horizontal (across) lines on the paper. But again, don't let them cross through the circle. Now you have a circle with a checkerboard, or grid background.

 5. Draw a straight(ish) line across the middle (ish) of your circle.

 6. Now, start on the top of your circle. Draw 2-3 curved lines from the top of the circle to the bottom. Make sure they are also bending like frowns, like below.

7.  Now, start on the bottom of your circle. Draw 2-3 curved lines. Make sure they are curved, and also bending upward, like smiles, like below.

8. Now, turn your paper long-side up (portrait) and draw a line through the middle (these are the same steps going the opposite way to create a grid in the circle)

9. Draw curved "frown" lines above the middle line. Cross over your other lines. See?

10. Now, draw 2-3 curved "smile" lines under the middle line, like this:

11. Start coloring! First, we'll color in JUST the checkerboard background. Just follow a grid pattern. I recommend outlining what you're coloring in; it helps you stay in the lines. Take your time!

12. Because of the circle, some of the shapes will not be squares.

13. Background done!

14. Time to start coloring in the circle! Follow the same checkerboard pattern, and continue to outline shapes so you can color in the lines. If you go out, it's not a huge deal. The finished product is so fun and confusing for your eyes, it is very difficult to notice mistakes.

15. Done!

16. Now, add a second color. Then hang up and enjoy!