Term 4 Week 4- Animal Portraits and Mosaics

March 17, 2017March 20, 2017Leave a comment

Amber & Turquoise Class

This week the reception, year 1 and year 2 artists made collage portraits of dogs and cats, based on the work of contemporary American artist Denise Fiedler. We learnt how to make a basic dog portrait, and then used our new skills to come up with our own animals. Our creations had lots of character!

Magenta & Violet Class

This week our year 3 and 4 artists tried their hand at mosaics! We chose different colours of 2cm x 2cm glass tiles and laid them out on a paper grid to help us come up with a design for a coaster. Once we’d finalised our patterns we transferred the tiles to a piece of MDF, using PVA glue to fix them in place. The tiles come on a sheet of brown paper, the remainder of which we’ll soak off once the glue is dry. We will be finishing our mosaics off next week with grout.

Maroon & Emerald Class

The year 5 and 6 artists also created mosaic coasters, and will be finishing them off next week!

Arts Award Explore

March 10, 2017March 13, 2017Leave a comment

Indigo class continued with their main projects. Photos of the finished pieces next week!

Term 4 Week 3- Food Collages

March 10, 2017March 13, 2017Leave a comment

This week, each class worked on a collage in response to the fantastic designs created by artist Amber Locke. Amber arranges fruit and vegetables into vibrant compositions (see below!) In our versions, we used dried foods such as lentils, peas, seeds and pasta.

Amber & Turquoise Class

We arranged our dried food onto hexagonal paper- our patterns looked great when we put them all together!

Magenta & Violet Class

We used the dried food to decorate various shapes cut from mountboard. We needed a lot of patience and perseverance but the results were great!

Maroon & Emerald Class

We worked on our own designs, choosing beans that we thought would work well in our images.

Arts Award Explore

March 3, 2017March 13, 2017Leave a comment

Indigo class got their main projects underway this week, after spending last week’s session planning and preparing. Each student was free to choose the direction they wanted to take with their project, depending on their interests. We have paper sculpting, acrylic portrait painting, a papier mâché coastline and a portrait drawing project on the go!

We’re going to be working on our main projects over three weeks- watch this space to see our progress!

Term 4 Week 2- Matisse and Animal Portraits

March 3, 2017March 13, 2017Leave a comment

Amber & Turquoise Class

This week it was the turn of Amber and Turquoise classes to create some Matisse-inspired artwork! The students really put their fine motor skills to the test, cutting some intricate shapes with their scissors. We were really pleased with our results!

Magenta & Violet Class

In the year 3 and 4 classes we looked at the fabulous animal portraits made by American collage artist Denise Fiedler. We used pages from an old book to create the basic shapes of our own dog and cat characters, then used black paper to add details. We got some lovely results!

You can see Denise’s lovely work on her website.

Maroon & Emerald Class

The year 5 and 6 classes also used Denise Fiedler’s collage portraits as inspiration. We came up with some great characters with a range of expressions!

Term 4 Week 1- Abstract Paper Collages

February 24, 2017March 13, 2017Leave a comment

For term 4 we will be focusing on collage! This week, we created collaged artwork based on the work of various artists.

Amber & Turquoise Class

Our reception, year 1 and year 2 artists started off by creating a colourful background using paper squares. We used fineliner marker pens to add details. We also discussed the work of Hungarian-French artist Victor Vasarely and made some black and white striped collages in response to his designs.

Magenta & Violet Class

Our year 3 and year 4 students looked at the work of French artist Henri Matisse. We discussed the different elements we could see in the images, including geometric shapes, organic shapes, positive and negative shapes, repeated patterns and stylised shapes. We included each of these elements in our own collages.

Maroon & Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 artists also looked at Matisse’s collages, and in particular his two works ‘Polynesie la Mer’ (The Sea) and ‘Le Ciel’ (The Sky). We created our own versions, first making a repeated geometric background and then cutting intricate organic shapes to lay over the top.

Arts Award Explore

February 10, 2017Leave a comment

This week Indigo class met illustrator Craig Pattrick. Craig specialises in plasticine sculpture, and has run fab holiday workshops with Art Stars in the past! Craig took part in a Q & A session, with the students asking questions in order to complete an artist profile as part of their Arts Award. He spoke about how he became an illustrator, and where the inspiration came from for the characters in his picture book. He then showed us some techniques for sculpting in plasticine, and we had a go at creating our own characters using Craig’s set of dentist tools!

You can see more of Craig’s work on his website, Craig Pattrick Illustration

We also screen printed the third layer of our Marcus Walters inspired designs.

Term 3 Week 6- Bubble Wrap Printing and Alphabet Stamps

February 10, 2017February 10, 2017Leave a comment

This week, each artist printed the final layer of the Art Stars logo design onto our tote bags, alongside our other printing work. Some classes used red ink and some used blue. We think they turned out really well! Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see them all.

Amber & Turquoise Class

Our reception, year 1 and year 2 classes used bubble wrap to print spotty designs in our sketchbooks. We painted patterns onto the bubble wrap before laying it onto the paper and gently pressing it down. We also painted onto acetate sheets and transferred these images to paper- a form of monoprinting.

Magenta & Violet Class

The year 3 and 4 artists tried their hand at bubble wrap printing and monoprinting too, and then used their spotty papers to create a collage. They used different styles of alphabet stamps to write messages in their sketchbooks.

Maroon & Emerald Class

The year 5 and 6 artists also experimented with bubble wrap and stamp printing, and produced some lovely monoprinting too! We also completed our reduction block prints. We got some really effective results!

Our Finished Tote Bags!

Term 3 Week 5- Stencils and Lino Printing

February 3, 2017February 3, 2017Leave a comment

This week each student screen printed the second layer of our design onto their tote bag in orange, alongside other printmaking activities.

Amber & Turquoise Class

Our reception, year 1 and year 2 artists learned how to use stencils to create images, similar to the technique we’re using to screen print. We used sponge brushes to paint through a stencil cut from card, and tried hard to use a stippling effect so that the edges of our images were crisp. We began with primary colours, then layered the paints up to create secondary colours.

Two of our students in Turquoise Class brought in some artwork they’d done at home- we were shown a fabulous painting of a truck on canvas, and a whole folder of Jackson Pollock-inspired work! It was great to see some artwork they’d done outside of Art Stars. Thank you for sharing it with us!

Magenta & Violet Class

Our year 3 and 4 classes designed and cut their own stencils from moisture resistant card. We experimented with combining different techniques in our sketchbooks, including using the stencils to produce both positive (solid) and negative (outlined) shapes. Some of us chose to base our designs around our initials, while others created characters or more abstract designs. We created some really bright, cheerful patterns!

Maroon & Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 students continued with their reduction block print. We cut away areas of our lino blocks that we printed from last week, so that less of the surface area would be exposed to the ink. We then printed directly on top of last week’s prints, using a contrasting colour ink. We had to take care to line up the lino block carefully so that it would correspond with the image underneath. This produced a successful layered design.

Term 3 Week 4- Screen Printing and Collograph Printing

January 26, 2017January 30, 2017Leave a comment

This week we began a three-layer screen printing project. We learnt about the stencil method of screen printing, in which a stencil is cut from moisture resistant card and taped to the underside of a silk screen. We were shown how to apply the ink across the top of the screen, and how to use a squeegee to drag the ink across the screen in order to create a print onto the paper underneath. We each printed the first layer of the design onto a tote bag, which we’re going to use to carry all our art work and materials!

We also used the printing blocks we made last week to create a series of prints.

Amber & Turquoise Class

We practised making prints from our collograph blocks in our sketchbooks. It was a messy job and we soon got covered in ink- we ended up with some lovely patterns on our hands though! We each printed the first layer of the screen print successfully.

Magenta & Violet Class

We produced some really successful prints from our collograph blocks in our sketchbooks, and also experimented with creating characters using fingerprinting!

Maroon & Emerald Class

We practised printing from our lino blocks in our sketchbooks before producing a final set of four prints onto heavy duty cartridge paper. We will be working on these some more next week, adding a second layer in a different colour.