Sweet Potato Print Art

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Okay, Jeff writes the titles, so let me explain.  It's not sweet potatoes, it is sweet art -- sweet potato art.  Sweet is an adjective in this case, opposed to sweet potato, which would be a compound noun.  

I had tried potato prints with my elementary students and greatly enjoyed it, so I thought the high school students would also appreciate it and have some interesting ideas -- and they did.

  We experimented with both organic and geometrical shapes, a variety of colors, and printed on both paper and fabric, applying the paint to a sponge and then pressing the potato onto the sponge.  If a fabric medium is mixed in with the acryllic paint, the paint will stay on the fabric even when it is washed and dried.  These could be used on pillow cases, dish towels, dress fabric?  The possibilities are endless.   

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Related Posts:

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four; How to Make Potato Prints

Graphic Art Day

                        

Recently, the Abiding Peace Virtual School students and I had a class on graphic art.  We sketched a sample plant and then experimented with a few different painting techniques to decorate the pot. (I love using the wooden end of the brush to make the dotty-dots.)  Then the students sketched and painted their own plants and pots using only black and white acrylic paint.  

graph·ic arts

/ˈˌɡrafik ˈärts/. noun

the visual arts based on the use of line

and tone rather than three-dimensional

work or the use of color.

                                  

               

                    

                               

Related Posts with Black and White Art:

Bamboo, Bamboo, Bamboo!  

Current Event Stencils 

How to Make a Silhouette, or Science Art 

I Thought These Were Cute Pinteresty Things, but My Husband Thought They Were a Form of Alien Plant Life That I Grew

     For us, the holidays are a time for resting and for being creative as well.  The next few posts will feature creative ventures that are happening around our house this holiday season while we've got a break from school.  

     Cloves are my favorite spice, and I especially enjoy the smell of them around the holidays.  My first day off school, I volunteered all day at another school, and one of the teachers had pomander balls that her students had made in her classroom.  They were all lined up on the window sill and smelled delightful.  So, when I got home, I made my own.  Happy holidays!  

Rising Moon Art

This is another art project we gleaned from artprojectsfor kids.com, and here is how it is done.

Begin by taking a circular object (a CD works well) and drawing the moon in the upper center of a regular piece of copier paper.  This will remain unpainted.

Next draw a tree extending from the bottom left corner to the upper right corner.  Make sure that the tree trunk and branches taper at the ends.

An animal on a branch is a nice option.  (A few students added bats hanging upside down.)

Paint said tree and animal with black tempera paint.  Let the black paint dry.  (Jeff waited until the next art period.)

Using oil pastels, color the sky with night time or dusk colors.

Once the entire background is colored, blend the colors using your bare fingers in a circular or side-to-side motion.

Jeff actually got too much dark blue oil pastel colors on his (the top one), and when he began rubbing it, it made this swirly solar system design.  It was a  mistake, no doubt, but his students loved it and most of them had to work this astonishing accidental effect into their projects as well.  Yay for accidents-- I mean experiments-- in artwork.

              

Swirly, Snowy Night

This is a great January art project.  We got it from artprojectsforkids.org, which is a fantastic resource for teachers.
First of all, draw the snowy ground line at the bottom.
Next, draw the snow-topped buildings, making sure they are touching, and add windows.
Then, draw the swirlies in the sky.  (Notice that they swirl in different directions, but they don't have to.)
Outline everything with a black marker.
Using water colors, paint the sky with one layer of blue.
Then go back and outline the swirlies, using blue again, to give them depth.

Paint the buildings with desired water color paints, leaving the snow on the tops of the buildings white.  (Paint the windows, too.)
After the water colors have dried, (the next art class period) add drops of snow using white tempera paint.
Don't forget to put snow on the buildings as well.
Happy January!

I Wonder If Shredded Paper Horses Mind Grammatical Errors?

This was a really well done torn-paper art project.  She even twisted and wrinkled some of the pieces on the horse's mane to give it more of a three-dimensional affect.  Yay for art projects!

And, to explain the title, yesterday's post was about a horse standing in front of a sign with a grammatical error.  Scroll down, or click here to see that one.  

Will Trade Art for Dr. J Converse

      Three of the walls in Jeff's classroom are wallpapered with the blue ocean stuff.  I really like this particular wall because of the art on it--and the art has an interesting story behind it.  The one on the right is a poster of The Broad and the Narrow Way which is fascinating to sit and look at in detail.   The other one is this below.  And it has quite an interesting story.

     Several years ago my husband had a music student who was an exchange student from Japan.  Besides being a good musician, she was an amazing artist.  When she finished her art project, which is made of many, many little strips of paper torn and glued on to create quite a dramatic, textured effect; she showed it to my husband.  He loved it, and so did I.  He asked her if she was interested in selling it, and for how much.    

     She looked at him and smiled.  "Give me your shoes," she replied.  My husband just happened to be wearing a pair of old-school Dr. J Converse tennis shoes he had bought on eBay, and they were just her size.  (Jeff has very small feet.)  He took them off.  She gave him her art.  We framed it and have had it hanging in our home or classrooms ever since.  It never hurts to ask.  

SAD JAM ZAX; Illuminated Letters for Art Class

    

 I am fascinated by most any kind of lettering art, especially that of the Medieval scribes.  I had the privilege of seeing the Book of Kells while in Ireland this past summer, and it just intrigued me more.  So, I put illuminated letters on my list of art projects for the upcoming school year.  

     First of all, I printed out  three or four pages of examples of illuminated letters from a search.  This gave the students some ideas.  Then, if they wanted to, I would do a search for them specifically, like “illuminated letters 'M' ” and that way each individual student could find something that he or she really liked using their own initial.  Next, I printed out the specific design that each one liked, and they began working on their own (freehand--no tracing allowed!)   Here are the beautiful results.

 

The Art of Clean Up - Part V, and a QUIZ

     I found two more sets, so here they are, and a quiz.  If you get both answers right, 

you win a cup of coffee and a muffin, but you have to come visit me to claim your prizes :-).

1.  The student who organized the 1,000 Club board for her art project

 wants to be a _________ when she grows up.  

A.)  zoologist     B.)  plumber     C.)  teacher

 

2.  The student who organized this granola bar for her art project is ____________ .

A.)  an obsessive-compulsive cook     B.) a health nut     C.)   a biochemical engineer

The last two pictures were taken by +Lexi Miller .

To see more these projects by our students click here.

 

The Art of Clean Up, Part IV

And here are some more art projects our students were inspired to do 

from the book The Art of Clean Up.

The above two pictures were taken by +Jerilyn Friesen.

To see more of these, click here.

The Art of Clean Up, Part III

Here are more of our students' art projects inspired by the book 

The Art of Clean Up 

by Swiss artist Ursus Wehrli.

The above two pictures were taken by +Jerilyn Friesen.

 

To see more of these art projects, click here.