GET YOUR ZEN OUT

LINEAR TEXTURE WITH WATERCOLOR

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 4TH QUARTER - 2016-2017

watercolor on cold press watercolor paper & fine marking pens

It always amazes me what these young ones will pull out of their hats on this assignment.

These designs are so intricate, 

and the watercolor backdrops so beautiful.

Back in my day these kinds of marks on paper were called doodling.

Now it's referred to as Zentangling and has become quite the rage.

Let's take a peek.

Custo Yang Huang made one of the class favorites.

It's really remarkable how patient and crafty this young man was able to work

in such a short amount of time,

as well as how many design ideas he was able to think up.

We all loved his sweet fox.

Notice the leaves in the fur?

Here's another by Camille Dang that is so complex and gorgeous.

It's really astounding how many itsy bitsy marks she is recording on this.

Bryan Fan has really captured a peaceful easy feeling in his piece,

and the range of value he was able to achieve with his watercolor was extremely difficult to do.

Serah Park is working to the theme of Ocean Child,

and it really feels like we are underwater.

And Eric Ren can up with his own twist on this assignment 

by choosing to leave a bit more negative space for the eye to rest

for a really striking piece.

LOOK AT THOSE 7TH GRADERS GO!

OIL PASTEL

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 3RD QUARTER - 2016-2017

oil pastels on black construction paper with graphite accents

Put Oil Pastels in 7th graders hands after a quick demo. and watch them take off.

They love them and visa versa!

Let me show you.

Everyone was really impressed that Pearl Wang turned hers into an ornament,

and created such nice branches as a backdrop,

even managing to put the required cast shadow into those branches.

And Heer Patel went for the extra credit

by Zentangling with a blunt pencil after laying down her background.

Bhumika Kalaimalai created so much movement in her backdrop,

while putting in a lot of value into both her sphere and foreground.

Then balancing her exciting back by bringing texture into her foreground.

We all loved the amazingly realistic teal sphere that Eric Liao put down.

And Tiffany Cheng brings in so much wonderful texture into all sections. 

And very brave Anisha Hemnani was super successful trying her hand at pointilism.

Let these sweet 7th graders know what you think of their work.  

They get so excited to see your comments!

WELCOME 2ND QUARTER 7TH GRADERS

COLORED PENCIL SPHERES

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2016-2017 - 3RD QUARTER

colored pencil on paper

When 7th graders come to me they are used to using colored pencils like crayons,

pushing down hard on the paper.

But Colored Pencils need to be build up with many thin delicate layers,

and crosshatching is often a favorite method to do this with.

I teach the kids to shade using one of these 3 methods,

Monochromatically, Analogously or Complimentary.

I demo and we practice one day and the next they do one to turn in for points.

Let's look at two outstanding examples. 

Pearl Wang blew us all out of the water with this remarkable work.

So sophisticated in both design and technique.

She is an up and coming superstar in the Arts here at Whitney as is her little sis Sabrina.

And this next piece by Tiffany Cheng is incredible as well.

These little ones amaze and delight me,

most of the time.

Ha ha

Now let's see which of my new 2nd Quarter 7th graders bothered to read this post.

For 2 points of extra credit on Tuesday when you walk in the door,

hand me a small quarter piece sheet of paper

 that you have tried to do a SMALL colored pencil sphere on.

Even if you don't think it turned out very good,

that's ok,

just looking to see if you read this post.

Put your name on the back side of the paper,

si I know who to give the points to.

LOTS AND LOTS OF SOAP SUDS

FELTED SOAP SCRUBS

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 3RD QUARTER - 2016-2017

bar soap, dyed wool roving & hot water

The little cuties love this messy and wet assignment.

So messy that we have to do it outside the classroom,

and sometimes with gloves.

Alexis Raquino,

from the 2nd Quarter Art Wheel group,

 cutting off excess wool that was being stubborn and not felting down correctly.

Know it came out just fine.

Now to the 3rd Quarter group.

Bianca Pagal did this adorable face above.

And Tiffany Cheng arranged a bunch of hearts that showed up so nicely 

because of the wonderful contrast between light and dark.

But my absolutely fav was this one by Viviana Cruz.

Reminded me of pictures I've seen of the Irish countryside.

On my bucket list.

So lovely and heathery.

DIPS & FOLDS

SHIBORI

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 3RD QUARTER - 2016-2017

100% cotton sheeting ripped into squares, indigo vat, rubber bands, string, staples

gloves (optional)

These Shibori pieces were beyond gorgeous this quarter.

The indigo vat loves 7th graders

:)

Tiffany Cheng

Sriram Murakonda

Hana Sandomirsky

Siri Gullapalli 

Daniela Reyes

Pearl Wang

Madison Plotkin

These are all so exceptionaly done I can't seem to pick a favorite.

Check out those smiles below.

Nick, Izzy, Brandon, Bhumika, & Siri

BACK TO WORK...

GRAPHITE SPHERES

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2016-2017 - 3RD QUARTER

both at school and on the blog.

I've still got pages and pages to do from last school year

 that I know all my students have been waiting to see.

So I'm starting with my sweet 7th graders from 3rd Quarter.

This Winnie the Pooh and Tigger are adorable,

and so beautifully crafted as well. 

 Notice how Bhumika Kalaimalai even took the time to outline his piece in ink.

Needless to say,

I was really impressed.

I felt like this next one was so clever and cool by Ashley Lee.

I love the ants working so hard and how her piece tells a story.

I'm not sure what's going on with my camera lighting/correcting (pink tones),

but I sure like how it's making this next piece by Tiffany Cheng look a little erie

The kids were also required to put in a visually pleasing border treatment,

and I really like how Anisha Hemnani balanced her piece using more spheres.

I also love how she put in the backdrop with delicate bands of pencil.

And a super talent who came in this year was Gail Baltazar.

Can you believe a 7th grader coming into a survey class 

with this much drawing and design skill going on?

She blew us out of the water and made us look forward to each of her next pieces.  

We end with this crazy colorful border by Madison Plotkin.

Love her and the effort she brought into all her artwork!

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

VALUE SCALES

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 3RD QUARTER - 2016-2017

graphite on paper

Oh my, oh my.

I got me some new younguns for 8 weeks

and they are crazy wonderful.

They take instruction and demonstrations and apply them so creatively as you will see.

We are starting with Gail Baltazar who blew me away with this sophisticated work above.

Most children this age do not know how to compose a balanced artwork

or know how to completely fill up a paper.

Not this young lady.

Every single assignment was brilliant as I was to find out.

Next up we have Bianca Pagal with this beautifully crafted work.

Something else young ones this age usually don't know to do is to draw to the edge of the paper

and let the composition go off.

This was something that Bianca innately knew to do.

Loanvy Dang showed us this very playful side of her by doing some fun Zentangling 

inside her butterfly.

And the implied line adds so much to this wonderful piece.

Another very adult piece was done by Tiffany Cheng.

Just beautiful!

And we end with Pearl Wang,

who came in with these incredible drawing skills.

It just baffles me that kids so young can draw like this.

Look at the way she uses her pencil so consistently,

those amazing diagonal strokes that create texture along the bamboo.

Then the soft way she applies the pencil along the leaves.

Pearl,

you ae so gifted

and you rocked this assignment!

THE BLOBS ARE BACK

 WATERCOLOR BLOBS

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2ND QUARTER - 2016-2017

watercolors on watercolor paper & pen & ink, colored pencils

Well,

this is my fond farewell to you,

my 2nd Quarter cuties.

So many of you have so much artsy fartsy in you,

 and I hope you will be back next year for more art classes.

And if not next year, 

when you have room in your 11th & 12th grade years.

Let's take a look at how you put all your learning into your final.

Loreinice Zilabbo  & Janice Ji both chose to work in a Primary Color Scheme.

What's really "spicy" (Eric  :) when you do that with watercolor and use this wet into wet technique is the 3 primaries mix and create secondaries, intermediates and brown.

The whole color wheel plus its neutral.

Loving these!

Super sweet Emma Bertel,

took a really cool approach to this design.

She was able to figure how how to interconnect all her creatures which impressed me greatly.

And Felica Hildago & Samantha Catacutan 

both chose to work to the Cool side of the color wheel for one really soft & atmospheric design,

and one really intense and striking design.

And then there is Siddhant Watwani who surprised not only himself but the rest of us as well.

He was able to focus for an entire hour and a half,

yes,

 working diligently and creatively on his final.

Who knew?

Amy Wang put tons of energy into her piece with several really awesome focal points,

and Anushka Panjwani really takes off as well using lines with lots of energy.

Again both girls working with the cool side of the wheel.

Thank you all for your effort,

but more importantly on a personal level,

thank you for coming in to check on me after my fall.

You support, hugs and love helped me heal faster so I could get back to work,

doing what I love to do,

teach art.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxo

WIRE THEM UP!

COLLAGE BOXES W/ WIRE WRAPPED PENDANTS & STAMPED TISSUE

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2016-2017 -2ND QUARTER

paper collage on recycled jewelry boxes, craft wire, tissue paper, stamps and stamping ink

Wow,

we only have 7 or 8 more weeks of school left 

and I'm only still posting 2nd Quarter posts.

Seems like every year I get more and more behind schedule.

So 7th graders,

 bare with me as I try to get to you 3rd quarter kiddos.

Let's see these stunning boxes and pendants.

We start with Felicia Hidalgo with her Inspired theme box.

Loving that light blue mixed with the black and white tissue.

And her pendant is so well  crafted.

Bravo young lady!

Samantha Catacutan uses an Analogous Color Scheme for her very pretty box.

And we loved her stamped tissue.

She found the coolest leaf stamp to use in an Alternating Pattern.

And the class favorite was this black and white themed box,

stamping and pendant that all flow so well together by Samantha Becaria.

This beautiful box in a Cool and Analogous Color Scheme was done by Katelyne Gonzalez.

I really like that textured purple pattern paper she found to incorporate in her lid.

Really makes this box pop.

And we end with Keilani Alejandro and her Live Laugh & Love box.

I feel like she picked a stamp that feels very Hawaiian when Mirrored with itself.

It reminds me of a traditional Hawaiian needle turned quilt I bought in the islands several years ago.

And how well that goes with her turtle pendant.

TO RUST OR NOT TO RUST

SHIBORI

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2016-2017 - 2ND QUARTER

recycled white cotton sheeting & indigo vat

plus some rubber bands, cotton string & clamps

and of course anything rusty

There are several techniques used to make Japanese Shibori cloth,

but with the 7th graders I pick the fastest & funnest,

using tye-dye methods.

The results are always spectacular & varied.

Youngster Janice Ji folded her cloth like when making a paper airplane.

Then she held it tightly shut it with a rusty paper clamp.

And tah dah,

all different shades of indigo plus speckles of orange rust.

Are you wondering where the pink is coming from?

I hope you noticed.

She also clamped it with a wooden clothes pin

 that had previously gone into a red tye-dye bucket.

The clothes pin became stained and passed it onto the cloth.

Ooh, ooh,ooh, Liz from Texas,

what cool things you could do with that idea!

Right???

Lorenzo Rodriguez fan folded his cloth on the diagonal 

and then used rusty clamps as well all the way down his fan,

so that when he opened his cloth he had beautiful orange spots all the way thru.

So beautiful Lorenzo!

Now compare,

young James Lee also fan folded on the diagonal

 but mostly used rubber bands or string to resist the dye with.

Which look do you like best?

Hard to decide,

right?

Then there is Roshni Powers

who looks like she folded her cloth in half,

 then in half again,

and two more times to get 16 little squares in her design.

But it's what she did on one of her corners that turned out super cool.

Looks like she wrapped it with rubber bands,

and when she opened it up she had an eye going on.

Wow!!!!

That's so neat-o Roshni.

Kira Curry fan folded on both the horizontal and vertical

to get these really intricate squares using clothes pins to clamp with.

Gorgeousness!

And oh my,,

Justin Lee did the class favorite with this one. 

How?

You'll have to ask him,

he's not telling his secrets.  

ha ha!