Tetra Blink 2 (2008-2009)

If you are looking for Tetra Blink it has moved and become Tetra Blink 2 (2008-2009). We will still be using some of the links and references on Tetra Blink 1 (this site) but you should get used to checking the news address:

www.tetrablink2.blogspot.com

See you in class!

String Art 2 Links

Hey there Grade 6, here are the links that we looked at in class today:

1. String Art Basics
2. The Parabola
3. Isometric Cube
4. Repeating Triangles Make a Circle
   
5. Gallery

And don't forget your homework:
The square within the square within the square within the square (like the image in the this posting). That is four squares nested into each other for one big challenge. Good luck.

String Art 1

Get ready for it, we are starting String Art this week. Please bring your Development Sketchbooks, a regular pencil, coloured pencils, and a ruler to class. This week you are going to learn how to create various designs/shapes using the String Art technique and next week you will start designing a pattern that you will then create as an art piece.

Student Led Conferences

Student Led Conferences are this Friday, April 18th. As I have explained in class, your art work is still being displayed for the art show. You will need to either start or end your conference by going for walk up to the third floor and pointing out your art pieces to the person who will be here for your conference. This will probably take about ten minutes, so plan accordingly (either come early for your conference or count on taking that time at the end).

I encourage Grade 6 and Grade 7 to share their Development Sketchbooks during the conference as well.

Grade 6
Your mobiles will be delivered to your homerooms in time for Friday.

Calder Mobile

Hey, while I am gone to Ephesus for the week you are going to be exploring the world of kinetic energy and making your own Calder-like mobile. Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976) was an American sculptor and artist who is credited with inventing the mobile. He discovered a way to create a sculpture that was in constant movement and therefore always changing, making it a dynamic and exciting art form.

Your job this week is to complete your own mobile. A mobile is a type of sculpture that is made up of carefully balanced parts that move. They move, are kinetic, because they respond to the energy in air currents. When your mobiles are completed you will be able to watch them shift from one form to another.

Materials Needed:

1. Cardboard
2. Template
   
3. Stapler
4. Oil Pastel Crayon
   
5. Ball Point Pen
   
6. Scissors
   
7. Acrylic Paint
8. Needle
9. Thread
   

Grade 6 Studio Work

1. Trace your template on the backside of the paper using an oil pastel, you can use the window for this;
   
2. Carefully staple your template to your cardboard;
3. Trace your template using a ballpoint pen
   
4. Cut out the six pieces of your mobile;
5. Keep all of your pieces together using the blue construction paper that the teacher has given you;
   
6. Paint the pieces with acrylic paint. You can use any colours that you like. Be sure to paint one side at a time and allow the side to dry completely before you turn it over to paint the other side;
7. Find the centre of balance for each piece by balancing it on your finger. Lay it flat on your finger until is does not fall off, it will balance perfectly like a see-saw. Mark that point with a pencil;
8. Make two holes in each of your mobile mobile pieces using a needle. One hole just below the top edge of the piece at the balance point and and one hole at the "tail" end of the piece (see the demo board behind my desk);
9. Using thread string all the pieces together;
   
10. Check to see that your mobile is balanced and make any adjustments needed;
    
11. Hang it up in the classroom above our work table.
    

If You Finish Early
Work on your Sock Monkey Portrait

Sock Monkey 1

by Marisa @ www.creativethursday.com

We are starting our Sock Monkeys this week or as some of you are already calling them, our Shock Monkeys. You will need to have 1 pair (2 socks), a needle and some thread in order to make your monkeys. The first thing that you are going to do is lean how to sew, so come prepared to do some stitching in your Development Sketchbooks. That is right, you will learn to sew on paper, then we will move on to a cloth sample AND then you will start creating that monkey.

In Your Development Sketchbook
You should have written an exploration of who your Monkey is going to be and how you think it is possible to create a Monkey from two socks. I asked you to think about the following things:

1. What kind of character do you think your Sock Monkey will be?
2. How do you know what kind of personality traits s/he will have?
3. Do you think that the colour and pattern of your sock helps determine who your Sock Monkey will be?
4. Draw a diagram of how you think the socks will become the various parts of your Monkey.
   

Target Final

The Target Project is almost complete. The Grade 6 is putting the final touches on their Target pieces, all that is left are some touch ups in paint and last minute details to be added to some Bows and Arrows.

Here is a picture of the Target that we took in class today. It has turned out really well. 6_03 especially like how each individual piece is a stand-alone work, but also how well the 12 canvases fit together to make one larger work. Very cool!

Targets 2

Belmont School Hassocks

As a collective group the Grade 6 has come up with the following design idea for their Target project:
6_01 are creating Arrows
6_02 are making Bows
6_03 are designing the Target

The classes are creating three main elements for the final installation. Each item will be an individual sculpture that adds to the final collective work but can also stand alone as an art piece. The Target is a Bull's Eye with twelve different Endangered Animal species floating in front of it. The students want to bring attention to things that we are close to losing because they have been targeted by us in some way. The Arrows will carry wishes towards the Target, wishes such as freedom, peace & safe habitat. The Bows will represent how that wish is sent forth, for example a wish could be launched with good will, freedom of choice, peace or integrity. The overall aim of the Target project for the Grade 6 is to bring an awareness to their audience.

Grade 6, you are doing a great job with your Target project, most of you brought in materials to use on your Bows and Arrows and all of you have made good mock-ups of your concept designs for them. Remember to keep collecting materials that you can use to enhance your design.

For those of you who are working on the Animals, your research has proven to be excellent and it shows in your clay models. While you are painting your models, remember to look at the small details and colour nuances.

Targets 1

Target, Jasper Johns (1974)

Since you have just finished your Archery unit in P.E. we have decided as a group to complete a project in art related to Targets. The three art classes in 6th grade (601, 602 and 603) have each come up with a different approach to this assignment. This project is going to be a mixed-media project and so far we are in the brainstorming phase trying to figure out what message you want to get across in your art pieces and how you are going to accomplish that.

Things that we have decided as a class are:

1. Your targets are not about destroying something. They are about bringing attention to an idea that you each find important.
2. You have also decided to create a larger group piece that each of you make a distinct part of.

Next we are going to start sketching out your ideas and clearly defining how the project needs to be planned and executed in your Development Sketchbooks.

Final Fingerprint

Just about everybody has completed their Fingerprint Paintings so, this week we will be getting ready for the Science Fair on Friday by mounting and displaying your art work.

Grade 6 Studio Work
1. Mount artwork;
2. Write Artist's Statement;
3. Complete grading RUBRIC;

In Your Development Sketchbook
Write a reflection about the Fingerprint Paintings describing how this project developed. Remember to connect to Science and what you were learning while doing your Forensics Unit.

Think of these questions when you are writing:
1. What did you know about fingerprints before we started this project?
2. What have you learned about fingerprints since completing this project?
3. What is the single most interesting fact/idea you have discovered while working on this project?

Fingerprints 3

This week the students were able to trace their fingerprints on large A3 or A2 sized paper and have started working independently on their paintings.

Nearly all of you were able to use the projector to trace an enlarged version of your fingerprint. Your assignment now is to choose how to represent your fingerprint using colour. You are supposed to decide which pairs of complementary colours to use (Red & Green, Yellow & Violet OR Blue & Orange + the tints and shades of those two colours). Remember to be imaginative with your colours

Grade 6 Studio Work
1. Complete tracing of print.
2. Using Acrylics to paint your fingerprint using complementary colours.
3. Don't forget to use tints and shades.

While waiting for the projector
1. Complete Subway Car contour drawing in Development Sketchbook.
2. Complete a Short-Brush Stroke painting in Dev. Sketchbk.

Fingerprints 2

This week Grade 6 successfully researched about fingerprint patterns. In their development sketchbooks they did an initial sketch of one of their own fingerprints. After sketching the print on an A4 size page they identified what kind of print they each have by naming the characteristics of the print patterns. It was fun to see kids holding their fingers up to each other and asking, "But do you see that loop there? Does that mean it is arched or just regular?" All of the students were very discerning and showed great observation skills as they explored their own prints. The final sketches in their Development Sketchbooks were impressive, both for their size and detail.

Grade 6 Studio Work
1. Complete large fingerprint drawing.
2. Identify characteristics of fingerprint pattern.
3. Label print (which finger is the print from, what kind of print is it).
4. Choose colours for painting.

Fingerprints 1

The Grade 6 is doing a Forensics unit in Science class and so their next art project is going to be a large painting of one of their own fingerprints. The students will paint using only 2 complementary colours + the shades and tints of those colours. These paintings will be a unique portrait of each student.

This week the students explored what a fingerprint is. Some of the words they used to define a fingerprint are: identity, visible, recordable, unique, incriminating, code, password, everywhere, skin, oil, useful, forensics, DNA, everybody has them and they are everywhere.

The students also experimented with how to record a fingerprint in their Development Sketchbooks. The three types of prints made were an ink print, an acrylic paint print and a cocoa and oil print. There were varying degrees of success but by far the most difficult one to "capture" was the cocoa and oil print.

6th Grade Homework (see the Calendar for due dates)
In your Development Sketchbooks research the following vocabulary for fingerprints: Arch, Loop, Whorl, Accidental, Composite. For each word write a definition in your own words and draw an example fingerprint. The size of your drawings can be quite small but 3cm x 3cm should be the smallest.

Complementary Colours

As a continuation to learning about Colour we talked about Complementary Colours this week. Complementary colours are the colours that are found directly opposite each other on the Colour Wheel.


So, for example, Yellow and Violet are a complementary pair, as are Red and Green, Blue and Orange. The students learned that the complement of a Primary colour is always a Secondary colour. They also discovered that all 3 primary colours (yellow, red, blue) are present in any 2 complementary colours. Let's take Yellow and Violet again, Yellow is a primary, Violet is made up of Red and Blue, thus all 3 primary colours are present. Using this idea the students were then able to deduce what a complement of a colour would be without looking at the colour wheel. If I asked them what the complement of Orange is they know that Red and Yellow make Orange, therefore Blue is its complement as it is the only remaining primary not named yet.

Colour Charts

Grade 6 and Grade 7 have completed colour charts to use as a reference for future painting assignments. Each student was asked to make a chart using only their Primary colours (Yellow, Red, Blue) + Black and White. These five colours are all they will be working with for their next painting project and so they were asked to create a chart representing the following Hues: Yellow, Orange, Red, Violet, Blue, Green, their Shades and Tints, as well as a Greyscale.

The aim of the exercise was to teach the students how to mix their own colours successfully while they got to know the properties of their particular brand of acrylics. It also showed them in a practical manner how to determine Value (the lightness or darkenss) and Intensity (the brightness or dullness) of a Hue.

Supply List

Middle School Art Supply List:

1 set of Water-Color brushes
1 set of Acrylic paints
1 set of Water-color paints
1 Sketchbook 33 x 47 cm or larger
1 Development Workbook, blank, bound, approximately 30 x 22 cm
1 set of Water-Color pencils
2 each of 2H, HB and 4B pencils
1 box to hold all the supplies in