Studying the Land

Recently my elementary students have been learning about fundamental subjects of art. We started with still life, moved on to landscapes, and next week we'll be venturing into portraits. For our landscape project I stripped back our supplies and only gave the students the option of using colored pencils, but still gave them freedom to create any kind of landscape they wanted. I was pretty happy with tonights results. We're working REALLY hard on making "complete" drawings that have a background, and aren't just "scribble scrabbled". Some of them are really taking their time and enjoying the results that they're getting. Here are the couple that were completed this evening:

I have this whole group of kids that like to draw things really small, and write words on their projects. I find it SO interesting. 

House in the forest.

This last pictures makes me especially happy :) it was made by a boy who is easily described as a "problem child" and he's never taken much of an interest in coming to art class or participating. I think he has a lot of issues with trying to fit in and be seen as cool around the other students, but there was something today that really clicked. He started this drawing last week and hardly got more than a few lines drawn, but when he sat down this afternoon he just started going for it. He added so many details, and took great care in creating something he was proud of. I only checked in a few times to sharpen pencils, and he was so in the zone that he was the last student in the room as the rest were dismissing. He handed me his paper and as  he headed to his tutor he said to me, "I really liked making this" and I wanted to cry I was so proud! I told him that now that I know what a great artist he is I'm going to start expecting much more and he just laughed. Here's hoping that I can keep his motivation up!

I'm happy that I've been able to share so much of the art that my students make, sometimes it feels like this is the only thing I take pictures of during the week haha if you're interested... click here and you can see more of the art work that I've featured here on the blog!