Cityscape Art

Yikes time can get away quickly! Haven't posted in a little while with reports (and sickness!) on the cards.

Just wanted to share a new artwork I did with my class last week which looks fantastic! As we've been learning about wet and dry environments we've also been thinking of the differences between natural and built environments. I used this lesson to highlight some of the features of built environments as well as think about how ultimately built environments are part of natural ones. To do this we created a city at sunset (or sunrise!)

To start with we looked at a power point I created of different sky scrapers from around the world. Pointing out the features and elements that we see in these sorts of city landscapes.

Next, students created their own city landscape using lead pencil on black paper which they then cut out, 

After that, we spoke about the sorts of colours you see in a sunset and the progression of colours in the colour wheel. Students then chose their colours (in rainbow order) and painted their background with water colour paints.

 Once dry, students stuck their cities on the backgrounds and then added some stars or clouds if they wanted to (using oil pastel). Obviously I'm a bit biased but I think they look great!

Mountains Artwork

As we are learning about Wet and Dry environments in HSIE I have been trying to link in a lot of the other Key Learning Areas to what we are doing.

Yesterday we learnt about what a 'mountain range' is and thought about the features of alpine environments. As a mountain range is a series of mountains it was a really good base to create a class artwork displaying what we know!

Here are the steps to creating a fabulous mountain range!

First, I got students to draw a dot for the tip of the mountain in the middle of the top edge of their page.

Then student drew a grid on their mountain (you could use this as a start to a discussion about how humans have impacted the environment)

Next, have students fill in their grid using oil pastels (they are nice and bright but can be used for smaller areas!)

Once students have filled in their grid they can use a black oil pastel to draw over the lines and snow and then cut out!

Makes an awesome mountain range! 

Underwater Sihouettes

This term we are learning about wet and dry environments in HSIE. After being inspired by the Bees Knees cousin we created the artworks below.

We learnt what a silhouette is and I gave students free range to create their own silhouette of an underwater animal in a wet environment. Needless to say, I was totally amazed by their creativity! We had sharks, hammerhead sharks, jellyfish, sea turtles, starfish, sea horses and more!

This was also a great lesson for learning about perspective as the artwork is looking up into the sun from underneath the sea creatures.

Have a look at the Bees Knees Cousin for a full description of the artwork!