Lesson 1 Day 3

Today students were able to continue developing their paintings. Students painted their imaginative play structures in a variety of environments: outer-space, tree-houses, the beach, inside the home, and “in the middle of nowhere.” Students were encouraged to paint the entire surface of their paper and were successful in creating compositions that considered the entirety of their paper. Here are several of their paintings in assorted environments.

Here one student mixes an orange-brown and applies the paint in a more liquid state using extra water to spread it around. The student describes how he uses the paintbrush: “I am moving it smooth… and not too hard.”

Here a student shows the environment is near the ocean. The student has used a blue that she made. When asked about it, she describes: “because it is pretty.” Notice that while she wanted the background to remain white, she has painted it, showing her consideration of that space.

Notice the distinctive colors in this student’s work. Students are provided with the primary colors as well as black and white: the green, gold, and pink in this painting are all original and student created/chosen. Students seem to create a sort of palate and use the colors that they make in various areas throughout the painting.

Students were encouraged to explore color-mixing and use their experiments in their paintings. Some students continued exploring with color after their paintings were finished. Throughout the work time the classroom was filled with excited explanations of “look at this color!” followed by an explanation of how it was made. We observed fantastic turquoise tones, as well as gold, pale yellow, deep brown-red, orange-brown, and “peachy” colors. When students were really excited about colors, they would voluntarily collaborate in the mixing process and discussion. The turquoise was shared between two girls at one table. At another table the excitement over the gold lead to important explanations of color mixing. Here is a video of one student describing a color that he made that matched an existing color in the classroom environment.

Students were very proud of their works during this lesson. One student describes that it is her “best artwork ever.” She is proud of her piece and excited to share it with others. Here is a video of her talking about the colors she used.

Some students were encouraged to continue working even past their initial “finishing” point. For example, one student wanted to return to the drawing process and ended up cutting out his piece and adding it on top of his painting. We are going to use this idea in our next lesson to help students continue to develop their paintings and prepare students for our three dimensional lesson. Here is the painting with an additional “cut-out” added on.

Here, one student shows further development of his painting by adding an additional cut out to the painting. Notice how the figure stands out in the painted environment.