THE BLOBS ARE BACK

WATERCOLOR BLOB ANIMALS

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

watercolor, marking pen & colored pencil accents

It's time to say farewell to all my 2016-2017 7th graders.

This will be your last post before I start with this years young ones.

So many of you have such a special place in my heart, 

and I've never had so many of you return for an 8th grade year with me.

It's so very poignant to look back at these young pieces

and to now see the maturity you have gained in such a short amount of time with me this year.

And to also see how much you've grown as artists.

It was a pleasure to get to know all of you.

Arrim Jung

Rebecca Joy Simbol

Andrew Lee

Camille Dang

Tin Pham

Bryan Fan

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.

WHO'S IN YOUR CORNER?

CORNER OF THE ROOM

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite, watercolor accents, colored pencil accents, felt tip marker accents

I will always be honest with you here,

so let me tell you one of the least favorite assignments of my Art I kids 

is to draw on location,

 a corner of my room.

The reasoning behind this horrendous task

 is to allow the kids to practice and perfect their

Dr. Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Sighting skills.

Sighting is another way to teach perspective but way faster.

But the kids hate it because it requires them to use some left brained skills

involving rulers and measuring to get distance and correct angles.

But it's like any new global skill,

once they learn it they will always remember it and it becomes easy,

 like riding a bike.

In this first one,

11th grader Nara Choi took off like gangbusters

 because she knew she wanted to get to the watercolor and sparkly things.

The kids have a choice to draw exactly what they see happening on the walls and cabinets,

or to make something up to put into the corner.

Everyone loved Nara's finished piece,

the whimsy and color really made her work pop.

Sarah Oh, 

11th grader as well,

thoroughly got into the assignment too.

After she finished drawing with her pencil,

she brought in watercolor and pen & ink which made this work extra special.

Was color required?

Nope,

just if you wanted to and if you had the time.

Do I give Extra Credit for going above and beyond?

You bethcha!

Here we have senior Cathy Huang with this very soft & delicate piece.

She chose to draw the area right above my teacher desk.

I really enjoyed how she captured the branch of Bougainvillea

that 2014 art student Alex Lee donated to the room several years back. 

And if you look very closely you will see a dragon sitting on top of the shelf on the right.

Cathy made that in her 8th or 9th grade year from her aluminum lunch wrappers,

and it's been there ever since.

I really enjoyed how senior Melissa Ongko turned my sink corner

into an ocean themed wonderland.

I'm pretty sure she used colored pencil but honestly I can't remember 

from this photo.  

Could have been watercolor too.

All's I know is that I really liked it!

Look closely at the texture see rubbed onto the walls.

One of my personal favorites was this one by junior Tiffany Chen.

As a child I always loved playing with miniatures,

I think we called them Tumbellina dolls.

I still have mine in hopes that my first granddaughter will play with it.

So I adored how she put the tiny girl atop the bird to fly thru the room to it's nest.

In fact,

there were many small,

cool details to find and explore.

I could totally see Tiffany building this magical journey 

into a children's book complete with illustrations.

And last but never least is upcoming superstar,

 8th grader Ashley Gong.

Just look at the energy and effort she brought to this work!

Wow Ashley,

this is powerful!

Bravo young woman  :)

and kudos to all of you who rose above this awful assignment

hee hee

I felt your pain since I also had to do this when I took Betty's class back in 1982.

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

TIME TO SAY GOOD-BYE...

WATERCOLOR BLOB ANIMALS

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2016-2017 - 1ST QUARTER

watercolor, marking pens & colored pencil accents

to these crazy 1st Quarter 7th graders.

What a handful they were!

Gotta be honest,

a challenging group with lots of squirrels,

but that's the way the 1st Quarter always is

 because the kids are getting adjusted to being in this new

 7th grade more adult environment.

But man oh man, 

there was a lot of raw talent in this bunch,

and I hope many of them will be back for more art.

Just look at those great smiles, 

the kids are having too much fun felting their soap scrubs.

Now let's check out their Watercolor Blobs,

their Final for the 8 weeks with me.

Chloe Choi you must come back for more art.

You are a natural, this piece says it all.

Talent & creativity.

Ankitha Venguswarmy, 

great balance & color scheme going on in this composition.

Plus it's just so much fun!

Ashley Yang I just love all your little creatures,

and your colors are perfect with lots of great value going on.

Just like I asked for.

Thank you! 

Katherine Chen this is a brilliant work of art.

You put so much great energy into developing it to it's fullest.

Bravo young woman!

Sophia Oporto. this is adorable.

I think I have featured you and Katherine the most from this group

which means, 

you two much come back for more art classes!

CREATURE FEATURE

WATERCOLOR BLOB ANIMALS

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2015-2016 4TH QUARTER

watercolors, pen and ink & colored pencils

This is always a terrific assignment to end with for the 7th graders.

They love it!

It actually keeps them quiet & busy for a whole two hours,

not an easy task.  LOL

I have them pick a color scheme to work within.

Then they mix their watercolors to that scheme in their palette, 

drop clean, clear water onto their paper,

 then splatter, dip & drop the paint onto the paper.

Fun times at Whitney High!

This would be accomplished the day before the 2 hour testing final period.

On the day of the 2 hour final,

when the paint is dry,

 they turn their paper every which way

 & use a fine felt tip marker and find creatures to highlight.

They can also come in with colored pencil to bring up values,

add texture and details.

One of my personal favorites was this first one up top by Robbi Cayabyab.

By choosing a Primary color scheme

 and with the water moving around on the paper 

he is also getting secondary color mixtures.

How beautiful is that! 

This next adorable one belongs to Sachi Nandedkar.

I also ask the kids to bring in some Zentangling with their markers.

Look closely and you will see a lot of great doodling by Sachi.

We all loved the pinks and purples that Vianni Villanueva got with her Primary color scheme.

Notice she left out the Primary color Yellow?

By doing that she got a lot of purple mixtures

as well as sky blues & soft pinks with the extra water on the paper.

Lots of great value ranges.

My eye was caught by Helaena Ebalobor's piece.

I love the text she brought in and how she curved it

and arranged it from small to large.

Great critical thinking!

We end with Shukthi Senthilraj and her Primary colorway.

Love, love , love all the creatures she found and how full and balanced her piece feels.

She had a lot of great shapes to work with,

and actually still does! 

She could do even more if she wanted.

I hope your parents frame these sweet little pieces up,

they are tiny masterpieces.

GO AHEAD, BLOB IT UP!

WATERCOLOR BLOB CREATURES

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2015-2016 - 3RD QUARTER

watercolor, colored pencil & marking pen

The 7th graders love to end the quarter with these crazy blobs.

Mixing up a color scheme then dropping it into water on watercolor paper is so much fun.

But the best part is after it dries,

turning it in all 4 directions,

and finding buried creatures and making them come alive with a fine point marker.

Then let's bring in a bit of colored pencil to put in a little value & texture,

plus some zentangling for interest.

Let's check them out.

Athena Sanchez

Charles Chen (1st Quarter)

Palmer Patel

Sivani Vedula

Gabriel Mapa

Enedina Hu Loera

IS IT DOODLING OR ZENTANGLING?

LINEAR TEXTURE WITH WATERCOLOR

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 4TH QUARTER - 2015-2016

watercolor & pen & ink

I left the names of these art students at school 

so tomorrow I will insert them,

but I wanted to post tonight so my new 7th graders 

could see some amazing designs for their next assignment.

The new catchword for this kind of art is called Zentangling.

When I was growing up in the 60' & 70's, 

and scrawling this on the outside of my Pee Chee (folder), 

it was called doodling.

I still feel like it's doodling.

But man oh man,

is it popular right now. 

 Walk into any Michaels or JoAnns and you will massive amounts of books on the subject.

And now they are taking the Zentangle designs

 and putting them into Coloring Books which are also taking off in popularity across the country.

Let's take a look at these very talented 7th grade designs.

Helena Ebalobar  & Aden Gomez

Shukthi Senthilraj & Amrita Vinjamury

Kamilah Islam

Danielle Louie & Sachi Nandedkar

Samantha Yamaguchi & Reese Guitche

Elu Loquias Malena Santos