It may be raining outside, but it has been snowing in The Studio.

After working so hard on the Sunflower Paintings, I wanted to start the year with a fun project that introduced some new art concepts. Last week, the elementary art students finished their mixed media winter scenes.

The students enjoyed the creativity involved with the project and, as always, I took every opportunity to introduce art concepts. So while the pieces of work look like a winter, glittery scene we also learned the following:

Value: We talked about value and shading. Value is the amount of light reflected from the surface. Value creates depth in a picture making the object look 3 D.   We looked at photos of the moon at night and saw how the circle around the moon is lighter and how the sky gets darker as you move away. We then created value circles around the moons on our project.

Color: We also talked about the way different colors convey different emotions and feelings. Cool colors (blues and greens) can make you feel calm, tranquil or at peace. Reds and yellows can invoke feelings of happiness, excitement and optimism. A sudden spot of bright color can provide a strong focal point.  We looked at some examples of color photos and the mood created.

Silhouette, Shadows and Perspective: We also talked about how a silhouette is the dark shape of someone or something visible against a lighter background. Cast Shadow is the shadow made by an object. The moon will cause a cast shadow of the trees on the ground. We can predict where the cast shadow will fall based on the positioning of the moon. We used the position of the light source (here the moon) to position highlights and shadows more accurately.

Mixed Media: Lastly we let our creativity flow by adding ourselves and some glitter to the images.

Hope these brightened up your homes.

See you next week!