Monday, November 27, 2017

In the Art Room: Second Grade Super Hero Selfies!

 My second grade kiddos just finished up their Super Hero Selfies for their Artome art show! These 12" X 9" works of art were so much fun to make...and to see the finished result. I thought I'd share the process with y'all!
 We began by chatting about Vincent van Gogh and looking at Starry Night. From there, we used our paper and my VERY favorite oil pastels (Sargent's florescent brand!) and created our skies. Because I have 30 minute art classes, that took one art class. The following art class, we added either all warm or all cool watercolor to our skies:
Y'all might have heard: I LOVE me some Crayola watercolor paint. I order the following and place them in each watercolor pan: magenta, red, red-orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue-violet and violet. I place them in that order so the kiddos know what colors they can use as far as warm/cool colors go. The following day, I busted out the tiny brushes and India ink for some cityscape painting:
We started by painting simple rectangle shapes. Then we added shapes on top of those like triangles, rectangles and squares. From there, windows were added. They really rocked these!
Many of my students sketched their cities out on dry erase boards first. This really helped them get comfortable with their ideas before attacking their paper. It did mean that some kids took two 30 minute art classes to complete their cities...I was okay with that. I never mind the kids going slower if it means they do their best and are proud of their work.
Once the paintings were complete, we could start creating our Super Hero Selfie! The kids were given a circle template...simply so we didn't end up with tiny little folks. The template really helped them gauge size and get a jump start. I did a quick demo on how to create a body by using shapes like a rectangle for the torso. I showed them how to draw stick arms and legs and turn them into THICK arms and legs. Some of us are still pretty skinny tho, ha!
LOTS of kids wanted to add their pets or their siblings as their sidekick...how cute! After drawing with pencil, tracing with Sharpie, the kids added color with color pencils. In all, that process took about two art classes as well.
 Then the CAREFUL cutting began. Not gonna lie: some of us may have cut off limbs. No biggie, we simply glued them back in when we glued ourselves onto the background. 
 When coloring, we did talk quite a bit about color schemes. We chatted about the colors of Superman and Spiderman, Wonder Woman and the rest...they have about three specific colors. The kids were tasked with picking out 2-4 colors for their hero.
 Weapons were not approved but shields were, of course!
 And capes! 
 And disguises!
 One thing that really helped was giving the kids an About Me super hero sheet. They had to come up with a name for their hero, what their special power was and how they make the world a better place. On that same sheet, they had to create a sketch of themselves as well as a sidekick. 
 I'm really excited about these and cannot wait to see them at our art show!
 I don't often repeat projects but this one was a winner with the kids and parents last year. 
 Last year, I had the kids paint a black silhouette of the city and add the windows with paper. I didn't love that as much...the paper didn't really stick well to the ink and the kids didn't really rock those windows. You can see it here. 
 I'm IN LOVE with the designs on her buildings. Second grade, y'all! 
 I've also done a lesson similar but more advanced with my fourth grade kiddos. You can check that out here. 
  Every time I see one of these, I laugh...they are so stinkin' cute. Especially when you know the artist behind the masterpiece!
 Taking that color coordinated thing super seriously...you know I like that!
 In all, this is not a quickie project...but one that really teaches so much and creates something that each kiddo is proud of! 
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6 comments:

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  2. Thanks for shearing Casiee! I love it!!You are an inspiration for me!! Regards from Argentina !!

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  3. Wow! These grade 2 artworks are wonderful and I will be using this idea for next year's grade 2 when it is time for them to do their portrait drawing! I use my student's art journals ( a scrap book for each student) for all their rough drafts and experiments. The students enjoy looking at their rough drafts and then discussing (with me or a partner) how their art work changed, developed, improved from their rough draft to the finished artwork. You can't really do this if their drafts or practice runs are on a dry erase board.

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  4. Heather Lundy11/29/2017

    How do you distribute your India ink? It stains SO bad! Thanks!! = )

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  5. Hi Cassie! This looks amazing! I do a Cityscape project with my second grade using Paul Klee and the book "The Cat and the Bird". It is also an ELA integrated lesson. I was thinking that your cityscapes look very similar and was going to tell you to take a look at that book. You may like it! Thanks for the great posts, keep up the inspiring and fantastic work!

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