The fifth grade recently completed a project that adorned the walls of the castle that decorated the gym for our Winter Festival. They created beautiful “stained glass” windows out of plastic and tissue paper. Starting with a sketch, the students traced their image onto a piece of plastic sheeting and then painted the back with tempera. This reverse-painting method creates clean lines and shining colors to help give the illusion of glass. They then drew black lines to represent the panes in the windows, and then they glued tissue paper behind the painting to complete the effect. The finished windows were mounted in a black frame that had a signature pointed top, characteristic of the Medieval style.

Click here to view the gallery of Medieval windows.

The fourth graders recently completed their project for the Winter Festival castle walls. Adorning the Medieval stone and mortar were their tinfoil knights, made from metal tooling foil and India ink. We began the project by looking at images of Medieval knights and their armor. The students paid careful attention to the joints and separations in the armor that would have allowed the knights to move. They then designed their own suits of armor and transferred them onto the thick foil with pencil. Once the suits were completed, they brushed them with a coat of India ink and then scraped it away with steel wool to create a distressed look. They then cut out their knights and began working on the shields that served as the background. Using tempera paint, the students designed and painted colorful patterns and then added a couple of feathers to complete the suits of armor.

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Batik techniques originated in Indonesia, and today it is a popular artistic medium as well as a way to decorate fabric for clothing and sarongs. Hot melted wax is applied to a clean cloth to protect the fibers from dye in a specific pattern. The artist alternates between wax and dye until he has layered the cloth with all of his colors and patterns. The fabric is then dipped in a chemical and hot water bath to remove all traces of the wax and reveal the design. The students looked at many traditional Balinese paintings and hand carved masks for inspiration.

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Google doodles have become a worldwide phenomenon, with over 1,000 different versions created in the past decade. The doodles periodically replace the well-known Google logo on the search engine’s homepage on different holidays and events. To start the year in Graphic Design, we looked at different examples of doodles over the years and discussed the elements that could be replaced but still preserve the identity of the logo. Some doodles kept the Google color-scheme for example, while others kept the word but changed the overall feeling with color and pattern. The seventh graders each designed a doodle for Unquowa incorporating imagery and themes related to our school. They started by drawing their logos by hand, and then they scanned them into the computer and finished them in Photoshop. Who knows? You might one day open your browser to find an Unquowa-themed doodle in place!!

Check out all of the doodles here!

Inspired by the movie poster for Eat, Pray, Love, the seventh graders created words out of ordinary objects. The movie poster uses pasta to construct the word “eat,” mala beads to create “pray,” and orchid petals to create “love.” The students came up with their own words and thoughtful ways to visualize them using items that relate to the concept without being too literal. For example, they could not spell the word “pencil” using pencils, but they could use pencils to spell the word “draw.” The students also had to think about the surrounding areas and background, as it would also be part of the final image.

Check out their remarkable designs here!

The fifth grade students have been working on a project that explores the earliest known records of art found on cave walls. 32,000 years ago, our ancestors painted using natural materials as well as techniques that scratched away at the mineral deposits that built up on the stone surfaces. The most famous of these locations are in Lascaux, France, where images depicting bison, deer, human hand prints have been found. It is not known why the paintings were created, except that the areas they were found in were not usually inhabited. Therefore they could have served ceremonial or communicative purposes. The fifth grade recreated the process of cave painting through a carving and printing project. We created schematic drawings that we then etched into a copper material and distressed with ink and steel wool. We then covered a piece of paper with chalk to simulate mineral deposits and then carved stamps that were printed as a border.

Click here to see the “ancient” works of art.

On a brisk October morning, the sixth graders journeyed into our outdoor studio to create beautiful, complex, and ephemeral works of art. We have been studying the environmental artist, Andy Goldsworthy, and his sublime manipulations of nature, which he creates using nothing but the natural materials he finds outdoors. After watching the documentary on his work, Rivers and Tides, the students were inspired to create their own outdoor sculptures with the acorns, leaves, sticks, and flowers found on Unquowa’s campus. Part of the intrigue of Goldsworthy’s work is the fact that he purposely chooses sites near streams and environments where the elements will eventually destroy all he has done. His reasoning is that he merely puts the pieces into motion; the real potential is reached when nature changes what he has done in ways he could only have imagined and hoped for. Photography and video play an important role in capturing the essence of his work, and it is also what we used to document our own experiences in nature’s classroom. Perhaps you will feel inspired to create your own works of art the next time you take a walk in the woods.

Click here to experience their environmental designs!

The sixth grade explored color matching with oil pastels to create their abstract designs we call “The Hidden Triangle Project.” They each received a sheet of paper with a triangle cut out from a magazine glued somewhere on the page. The image on the triangle is purposely unidentifiable, mostly just colors and shapes from a landscape or other abstract image. The students then must match the colors in the image as closely as possible to blur the line between the magazine and the paper. After successfully “hiding” the triangle, they then extend their design onto the page to create an abstract pattern. This is a great exploration in terms of color matching and color theory. The students must figure out how to blend colors and mix the pastels to get as close to the colors on the triangle as possible.

Click here to check out their amazing designs!

For our first graphic design project and introduction into thedigital world of Photoshop, students in sixth grade transformed their pictures into silhouettes reminiscent of the famous iPod ads. Starting with a digital picture, the students learned how to create a path around their bodies, cut and paste into a new layer, change the background color, desaturate and silhouette, and finally add a realistic shadow and even an ipod or two.

Click here to see their dynamic images!

The fourth, fifth and sixth grades began the year in art creating shadow puppets in the Balinese style. Puppeteers are considered to be among the most talented artists on the island, and they perform seated behind a rice paper screen, which is backlit by an oil lamp hanging above. They not only make the puppets, but they also perform the shows (usually based on the Ramayana and Mahabharata Hindu epics) in at least five different languages and voices and add local humor and slapstick comedy to entertain the audience. The puppets (called Wayang in Balinese) are chiseled out of a tough rawhide and then painted in the traditional style. Puppeteers also provide the sound effects for the show, which can last up to five hours if it is being performed for a religious festival. The students looked at different examples of Balinese puppets and then created their own characters out of styrofoam with moveable arms. They punched holes to create the intricate details that are the hallmarks of Balinese-style puppets with toothpicks.

Click here to see the puppets!