We talked about a variety of artists including: Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, and modern Jeff Soto...
We talked about how each artist sees the world differently, and how their life has shaped their work to be unique and reflective. We discussed how each artists decides to not only reference the world but also their imagination. How these artists have also been received by the world! We discussed inspiration and the importance of sketching for an artist. Artists using symbolism to convey messages about their life and thoughts pertaining to their experiences. We compared artists sketches to final pieces. Then we made our own sketchbooks out of paper! We took two sheets of paper folded them and stapled them to create mini-sketchbooks. For inspiration, I placed baseball gloves, vintage tennis rackets, flowers, mini- Japanese Statues, Mexican Decorative Skulls, etc. . They were free to fill their sketchbook with anything from these items, to fears, to dreams, to favorite things, favorite colors, etc. I encouraged them to explore and really think about what they wanted to say within their sketchbook. The students were so quiet and worked ever so intently on them.
Finally, Here are some photos!
Look at 'Starry-Night' on the far right...
Which he drew from his memory...
Must have been inspired!
A bird and a lion!
What a little artist!
Look at the cool multi-colored sky! Look at the detail in those flowers!
Encouraging play with color and tons of detail really makes a huge difference!
Beginning Stages. He's thinkin' away.
Miss Alyssa! Miss Alyssa! Look what I did!!!!!!
They were all so proud!
And they should be!
They all turned out wonderful!
