flower drawings – Art with Mrs Filmore

4th Grade -COLLABORATIVE FLOWER DRAWING!

I was so excited to try this out with my 4th graders as a continuation on learning about Georgia O’Keeffe and it didn’t disappoint! I can’t wait to hang it up on the wall above their lockers with their other flower drawings (see previous post on that below)!

The artwork below was created by Ms. Eagleston’s 4th grade class during one 40 minute art class. It was a collaborative enlarged flower drawing using oil pastels of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Red Poppy painting. Scroll down below it to view the printed photo of O’Keeffe’s work students observed.

(Photo below of everyone’s drawing glued together. Total image size 30″ x 36″)

(Photo below of the printed photo of her painting “Red Poppy No. VI” that has been cropped a little, with a grid drawn on it. Each student received one 1 1/4″ square to draw)

(Photo below is of Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Red Poppy, No. VI” in it’s entirety)

Each student got a tiny 1 1/4” square section of the photo to copy on a 6” square of 80# drawing paper. Each tiny photo had a number written on the back as well as the word “Top” along the top edge, so students knew how to view their image before drawing. Students wrote their corresponding number on the back of their 6″ paper as well as the word “top” along the top edge. This would make assembling the flower a whole lot easier for me later on!

They then drew the lines and shapes first with pencil then colored in trying to best match the colors of the print out.

Once complete, I brought them all home and assembled together on large white paper with hot glue.

PLEASE NOTE: The photos of students working below are from Mrs. Roberts class, and observed a different flower image by O’Keeffe to copy. (Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to snap pics of kids working on the red poppy flower).

4/10/18 UPDATE!! View Mrs. Roberts classes finished collaborative flower drawing below these “in process” pics!

Any takers on trying to guess which flower their working on???!!!!!!!

(Below is Mrs. Roberts Classes collaborative flower drawing of Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Pink Tulip, 1926”)

(This was a bit tricky to create trying to have everyone’s lines connect! In retrospect, I think selecting an image with less line changes/ shapes and colors would have been more successful, but I LOVE this painting so much I wanted to give it a go and see what would happen. Although it’s a bit fragmented, it’s still VERY beautiful and I love the attention to detail students put into each individual section!! Awesome work everyone! )

(Below is a selection of the image by O’Keeffe I used to create the grid. )

(Below is Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting “Pink Tulip, 1926” in its entirety.)

Thanks for visiting my blog! More to come SOOOOOOOOoooooooon! ….

4th Grade Enlarged Flowers and 5th Grade Falling For Foreshortening

4th Grade- Enlarged Flower Drawings inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe!

Students learned about the artist Georgia O’Keeffe, and viewed examples of her flower paintings. We talked about the scale (size) of her work and that her flower paintings were so large because she thought flowers were incredibly beautiful and wanted people to notice them! She loved to create close-up paintings of flowers. Looking at her flower paintings is like looking at a flower with a magnifying glass!

We also reviewed what abstract artwork is (artwork that focuses on mainly lines, shapes and colors), which is how Georgia O’Keeffe depicted a lot of her flowers in her work. She focused on just small sections of a flower –instead of the entire flower in a lot of her work, therefore abstracting the image. Not all of her flower paintings are abstract, but many are.

DAY 1:

I showed students multiple examples of her flower paintings through a power point presentation and discussed her work and background.

After demonstrating how to focus in on one area of a flower and block out the rest (students could choose their own printed flower image to observe) by using a viewfinder, (using a black square piece of construction paper with a small (about 2×2″ square) cut out in the middle). Students had to select an area of their flower so it’s petals touched or ran off at least 3 sides of their viewfinder (see pics below).

Students then practiced drawing and enlarging small sections of their chosen flowers, in their sketchbooks. They did this 3 times, each flower drawing on a different page in their sketchbook. They had a choice of choosing 3 different flower images OR drawing from 1 flower image but focusing in on different areas of the flower each time.

DAYS 2-3:

Students selected 1 photo of a flower for their final drawing. They enlarged a section of their flower on 12×12” paper, making sure that their drawing of their chosen flower ran off or touched at least 3 of the 4 sides of their paper, while considering the composition (how and where things are placed on the page).

Once drawn, students colored in using oil pastels. Students had a choice of coloring in their flower any colors they wanted!! In previous years I had students color in their flowers trying to best match their flowers colors in the photo. The only rule with color I had was, was to switch to a different color when their was a transition of color in their flower photo. Also, If their was a bit of background showing in their composition, (some students selected areas of their flower that only showed the flower– without any background) they needed to color it in with any one chosen color for contrast.

DAY 4:

For a final step, students created a bit of depth within their flower by adding shadows around the edges of their flowers petals with black oil pastel, then blending with their finger. Adding black for shading with oil pastels is a pretty tricky step, and can be a bit challenging, but I think students did a wonderful job adding that element to their artwork!!

5th Grade- “Falling for Foreshortening” Drawings!

For this art lesson, students learned about a type of perspective called foreshortening.

(Scroll down further to view more photos of students working on this lesson!) Foreshortening is a drawing technique used to create the illusion where parts of something or someone appear to come out at the viewer strongly, making those areas seem closest to the viewer, and some parts appearing to recede strongly, making those areas seem the furthest away from the viewer.

Students used this technique by drawing a person that appears to be falling backwards into something, with their arms and legs outstretched. They did this by tracing their hands along the top of the paper, and their feet along the bottom of the paper, leaving space in the middle. They then drew the head, neck, arms, and legs of a person smaller, to create the illusion that the body was further away than the feet and hands.

Students were instructed to pay special attention to the soles of their shoes, being sure to add details and texture to make it look like the bottom of their shoes. Students also had to draw the person’s facial expression to match whatever it was they were falling into (something scary, or something soft and fun!), show movement in the hair, and add details to the palms of the hands.

Once the person was drawn, 5th graders outlined in black sharpie, then drew a background depicting what their person was falling into, and colored in everything using colored pencils.

Thanks for visiting my blog! Check back soon for NEW artwork by 1st Grade!! (Mixed Media Alphabet Soup!!)