Picasso Playing Cards

7th grade art students recently finished a Picasso style drawing assignment where they cut up playing cards to create a cubism style image. Kings, queens, jacks and jokers were used in this fun creation. Students were encouraged to make it interesting with unnatural colors and features.

Feels Like Fall

7th grade art students drew decorative pumpkins and gourds from observation. they really enjoyed looking at all the different shapes and colors.

Seashell Observations

7th grade Art students finished observation drawings and paintings of seashells. I hauled a bunch of my own shells to school for the students to use. They spent a few days drawing and shading images of shells from their observations. I asked them to pay close attention to details, shapes, shading, and texture. Students then transferred their drawings to a large sheet of paper. They could choose their color scheme and design elements they wanted to add with watercolor. They all turned out very different but beautiful. It's amazing what students come up with when given room for creativity.

Op Art Floating World

7th grade artists just finished an Op Art lesson or Optical Art. We studied the Op Art movement and began sketches for our own designs. Students created the illusion of a 3D space with floating spheres on a surface by using knowledge of perspective and shading. Classes began step by step first creating spheres, then the background, and shading last. Students were very surprised at how easy and cool it was to create an optical illusion.

*For more information on this lesson please comment below.

Mandala Radial Designs

7th grade art students recently created Mandalas. These are radial designs, or designs that go in a circle. They can be found all over the world, but originated in Asian cultures. Students used their knowledge about fractions from Math class to create a design that repeated 8 times around. They transferred their design 8 times by rubbing the graphite of their pencil on the emptly spaces on the paper to repeat their design easily. When they were finished, students painted with watercolor to create colorful works of art.

*For more information about this lesson, please leave a comment below!