Artist in Residence Dingle Elementary

Leatherback Sea Turtle,  By: Xitlaly - 5th grade

I recently completed an Artist in Residence program at Dingle Elementary in Woodland, CA. I split 18 hours of class time between three classes of 5th graders over three weeks.

Using my endangered species book, "Through Endangered Eyes - a poetic journey into the wild" as an example, my goal was to create a book that the students would write and illustrate about California endangered species. 

Each student was assigned a different animal. I spent three hours with each class writing poetry. The poems were four line stanzas, which two lines rhymed. I devoted three hours with each class painting. We used my style of painting, a mosaic acrylic dot painting approach in front of a sponge painted background.

The results were surprising, fascinating and magical.

Here are a few of my favorite poems and paintings from the students.

Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizard (Endangered)

By: Anyeli C. (5th grade)

I have the pattern of a leopard,

                              and my snout is flat.

      Yes, just like a leopard, but

                    of course I’m not a cat.

California Condor (Endangered)

By: Mason T. (5th grade)

The California Condor

              has a bald head.

   California condors

          will eat stuff that’s dead.

California Red-Legged Frog (Threatened)

By: Jessie (4th grade)

You usually find me 

         in the Bay.

                  I use my eyes 

                          to track my prey.

Alameda Whipsnake, - By: Gerardo - 5th grade

California Clapper Rail, - By: Eli - 4th grade

Coffee Cup Painting - ARTitude Workshop for Kids

The coffee cup acrylic paintings were so much fun. I had eight girls all between 11-12 years old in this workshop.

I gave them my example and they each ran with it. I love that all of their color choices were different, their designs were different, their coffee cup shapes were different. And the best part, they all seemed to have a blast doing this project.

Things that I learned to explain better:
1) The importance of layering color. We had to do two coats on the background, and two coats on the cups. Using a hair dryer to speed up the process only makes the paint crack.
2) Using color as an outline. This is supposed to be a flat painting, without shading or depth.
3) Practicing drawing the cup shapes was important before doing it on the canvas paper.

I'm planning on repeating this project tomorrow. I look forward to seeing the unique results and posting those next week.