2nd grade artists created a unique sea turtle painting. We discussed characteristics of sea turtles and their habitat. We used texture plates to create an interesting shell. We also tried our hand at a new technique of adding salt to our watercolor background. It leaves a neat effect on the paper and worked out well because after all, sea turtles do live in salt water!
2nd grade students took a look at artist Pablo Picasso. Picasso is best known for his artwork involving cubism but, like many artists, sometimes strays from their normal style. We were inspired by a Picasso painting that reminded us of spring. Students worked with overlapping and details and finished their work using oil pastel.
In 2nd grade we studied the art movement known as Pop Art. We looked at several examples and discussed the similarities that we saw between them. 1. bright colors, 2. the same image repeated, 3. popular items/people, 4. divided into squares/rectangles. One of the most famous Pop Art images is the colorful Campbell's soup cans by Andy Warhol.
Along with creating a Pop Art inspired piece of artwork, we also studied primary and secondary colors and color mixing! 2nd grade artists also created a project to make our SCES hallways festive for Valentine's Day! We looked at pictures of real birds and discussed the characteristics that all birds have in common. Students were surprised to find out that there are actually birds called "love birds" in real life! We took a look at them as well. Artists then drew a pair of birds. Some chose to make them love birds and some chose to just make them birds...without all the mushy Valentine stuff! Our birds were completed using Sharpie and watercolor.
2nd grade artists created snowmen for their winter project. We discussed the term foreshortening and looked at examples together. Then, we applied that term to our snowmen. Students used chalk pastel to color their snowmen and even worked on adding a little value to their snow and twig arms by using a darker color. They turned out beautiful!
2nd Grade students studied habitats in their Science classes. In Art class, we created a project to incorporate their new knowledge from Science class. We read one of my favorite books, "Where the Wild Things Are" and investigated exactly what we thought a "wild thing" is. Students were then able to create their own "wild thing", which is a combination of several different animals put together. Students then put their wild thing into a habitat. It could be a habitat they learned in Science, or they could make up a whole new one! Our wild things were colored with mixed media. When finished, students had the opportunity to write about their wild thing. They were able to name their creation and tell us all about where it lives, what it eats, and what it likes to do!
2nd Grade artists created a fall abstract piece of artwork. We discussed and looked at examples of abstract artwork. Almost all abstract artwork contains 3 important things: shape, line and color. We began our project by drawing different types of lines. Our shapes were fall leaves and our color was mixed media "fall" colors!
2nd Grade explored the artwork of Laurel Burch, a modern female artist known for her colorful paintings of cats (and other animals too)
We looked at examples of work by Laurel Burch and discussed similarities and differences. The students enjoyed how colorful the artwork was! Because Laurel Burch's work is so colorful, we studied the color wheel and discussed the important color combinations of WARM, COOL and NEUTRAL. We created our own "Crazy Cats" and used our new color combinations to color them with chalk pastel! It sure was messy but a whole lot of fun! Happy Summer Vacation! Hopefully you are finding time to relax and make Art. Check back in the fall for 2nd Grade Art updates!
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