Art Julz

January 10, 2013

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's my ART SUPERHEROS!

So Loving This! At the Arkansas Art Educators Conference I attended a session on paint.net. It has some similar components to photoshop but it has a free download and seems to be easier for students to use.

Ok... this was my first experience at using my new friend paint.net so I have a long way to go I know, but it was super fun. I did this first with my afterschool digital art class of 3rd-6th graders. We did a quick look at the site that I had downloaded in our lab at school. We took headshot photos of each of my students. They learned how to design the background and tools for editing. They learned how to take images and overlay them after cutting and cropping. Our next piece was to add text, but unfortunately time was not our friend. It took us 3 class periods to complete just this piece, but by our final class they had the hang of it and were ready to do more! I am planning to try it again with my 6th graders this 9 weeks and try a different lesson. My fingers are crossed and the students can't wait! Below is a quick you tube video link that shows you some basic tools of paint.net as well as the site for the free download. The download site has random download buttons so be sure you just click the one you need.

Go Here to Download Free paint.net

Click below to watch a quick how to video to showcase some of the tools on the site.

Paint.net Quick Look Video

January 01, 2013

The Nutcracker Ballet sketches

My 2nd & 3rd graders did these Great sketches after we looked at some clips of the ballet and did a little artist study on Degas.

December 29, 2012

Happy Holidays from NYC!

Happy Holidays from my boys and I during our incredible getaway to NYC!

Premio Dardos Award

The Premio Dardos Award

I'm so excited that Elizabeth at Dream Painters (http://paintersofdreams.blogspot.com/) presented me with this holiday gift for my blog! It is so fun sharing ideas with each other and learning to inspire our students! Thank you Elizabeth for contributing such great ideas on your website and inspiring others!

The Premio Dardos award is a virtual award sent as a ‘gift’ from one blogger to another as “recognition for the creativity, effort and dedication” we each put into our blog. The award originated in Spain around 2008-2009 and has been sent from blogger to blogger ever since.

To accept the award, you simply:

Link back to the person who nominated you
Display the award icon
Nominate others whose blogs you admire for these qualities.

Here are some of my favorite blogs that I would like to spread this holiday cheer with and give the Premio Dardos Award:

Natalie at smART Class (http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/) I love her blog because she really keeps her students creativity in their art pieces.

May at MaryMaking (http://marymaking.blogspot.com/) does an amazing job of encouraging her students to make amazing creations with chalk and pastels.

Princess Artypants (http://princessartypants.blogspot.com/) because I LOVE her blog name and the incredible use of bright colors and collage in her international art room.

And finally...
Sleepy Head Studios (http://www.sleepyheaddesignsstudio.com/) with her great inspirations of students painting on canvas.

Thank you to Elizabeth and these 4 other artist that continue to inspire me!
Happy New Year!
Julie

December 19, 2012

Line Painting Elf Hats for the Holidays

Oh this was fun! We were reviewing the elements of art that we had studied during our first semester. I gave them large sheets of paper and they painted a variety of lines all over. Next they cut out an elf shape hat and used white to add the rim and ball. I took their photos and printed them off on the copier and they glued on the hats. They look really cute for a quick reivew piece!

December 14, 2012

Holiday Ornaments K-6

INDIA'S FESTIVAL OF ELEPHANTS: We learned about customs and traditions of India then we did a little research on Elephants in India. Some of the elephants there are treated like royalty and live in the temples. We looked at various pictures and video clips of the parade they have called the "Festival of Elephants" and used this as our inspiration for these fabulous elephant ornaments.

For this project we used tin sheets.

1. The students sketched their elephant on paper first.

2. They took a stack of newspapers, placed this tin sheet on top of the newspapers and placed the sketch on the very top of that.

3. Take a pencil and trace HARD over the sketch.

4. Cut out the elephant

5. Use colored sharpies to color selected areas.

6. Hole punch and add a hook or ribbon.

"Mini" Canvas Paintings

These I ended up LOVING because it was their art work teeny tiny. I took old cardboard inserts from random boxes I had saved through the years and cut the pieces into small rectangles. I hot glued ribbon on the back to create the hanger and they used these to paint their United States Santa Claus portraits and they also did a smaller version of the "Peace on Earth" that I have already posted directions for in an earlier post. They just really POP on the tree! Definite for painting next year.

Two Turtle Doves

This is another one I loved! We did karaoke on the big screen to the Twelve Days of Christmas. We stopped and talked about the Two Turtle Doves which are actually European Turtle Doves.

Next the research started and we learned all about the turtle doves.

One of the highlights was watching the you tube clip of from Home Alone where the guy in the toy store explains the meaning of the turtle doves. The link is here:

http://youtu.be/AUKAKReQgF8

Then we used clay to design 2 small turtle doves. We used texture mats that I had to add texture to the doves and created a hole in them for hanging. They wrote their name and date and were told for the holidays to give one of their turtle doves to someone they loved and cared for like they did in the movie.