Images made by the 3rd graders.

118 images in total! I am really proud of the students of both classes who worked hard on their images for the Billboard Art Project. I love the images: their diversity, colors, and compositions. It was not easy to make images on this long format and the students had to find interesting solutions with space. Mixing techniques stimulated their creativity: they tried things they never tried before, like making several images and then using different elements and recomposing a new image. They made excellent use of the combination of a background and a layer on top.

They explored abstract compositions and representational ones. They made good use of short words, working each letter as a graphic element.

During all the sessions, the students could use different types of colored papers, different glues (liquid and stick depending on the paper), watercolor pencils, sharpies, scissors.
And of course an unlimited supply of strips of white light cardboard in the proportion of the billboard (pre-cut by myself).

The Billboard Art Project in Salem, OR.
May 25-26-27, 2012
Images made by the 5th graders.

I am very excited to start working on the images for the Billboard Art Project show in Salem, OR with the children from 3rd and 5th grade. I participated in several exhibitions with the BAP in different cities in the US and it is a project I find amazing. The application process is simple and there is no fee. I thought it would be a great idea to have the kids participate and for them to see their images on billboards, which is not a classical way to show art!

We took some time to talk about what would be a good theme for an image which will be seen by drivers. But the children are free to do whatever they want. Specially for this first session. We may get more specific as we progress through the project.

This first session is a start. We’ll have more sessions.
The classroom was organized in three workshops: collage, doodling and watercolor drawing.
The children could go from table to table to try different techniques and make as many images/collages as they wanted. Nothing is discarded, we are keeping everything. Next time we can cut, combine several elements from different strips, re-arrange. The more material we have to work with, the better!

Many thanks to the teachers, who are very enthusiastic about art and about this project!

Material
Pre-cut stack of white cardstock paper strips (11″x3.25″), with the proportions of the billboards, which is very special – very long!
Collage workshop: tissue paper, strips of colored cardstock paper (for the geometric collages), acrylic medium for the glue, brushes.
Doodling workshop: sharpies (fine point)
Watercolor drawing workshop: a box of 36 watercolor pencils to share, nice brushes, water.

The Billboard Art Project.

One session – one hour

material
- a photo of a landscape for each student
- colored paper, magazines
- glue (Liquitex fluid acrylic medium works really well)

The idea is to look at the photo of a landscape, to SEE the structure of the photo: main lines, main features: mountains, forests, lakes, etc… And then to make an interpretation of the landscape with torn pieces of paper. The accuracy of the colors are not important in this exercise, the structure is. Some students chose to work with the structure and the colors.

One session – one hour Material
- one colored pencil, one pencil 4B
- a black and white photo of the head of an animal (one copy per student).

The students find the few basic shapes contained in the picture, starting with the large ones. They draw the frame of the photo on a paper (in this case a square).
Then the shapes, with the colored pencil, starting with the larger one.
They then draw on top of the colored pencil lines, to adjust and refined the contour, watching carefully the photo.

This basic exercise helps to understand how to break down to simple shapes a photo of an animal (but it could be pretty much anything) and how to position the subject and to find the proportions inside a frame (how far are the ears from the top?, where does the line of the neck touches the right frame? what is the distance between the nose and the lower left corner?, etc…).

The idea is to train the eye, not necessarily to use this when one draws. And to take the time to look.
To train the eyes to “see” the structures (before the details) and the main lines of a landscape or a subject in a landscape can be very helpful when taking photos for example.

One session – one hour Material
- one colored pencil, one pencil 4B
- a black and white photo of the head of an animal (one copy per student).

The students find the few basic shapes contained in the picture, starting with the large ones. They draw the frame of the photo on a paper (in this case a square).
Then the shapes, with the colored pencil, starting with the larger one.
They then draw on top of the colored pencil lines, to adjust and refined the contour, watching carefully the photo.

This basic exercise helps to understand how to break down to simple shapes a photo of an animal (but it could be pretty much anything) and how to position the subject and to find the proportions inside a frame (how far are the ears from the top?, where does the line of the right leg touches the bottom line of the photo? where does the line of the back of the dog touches the right side of the frame?, etc…).

The idea is to train the eye, not necessarily to use this when one draws. And to take the time to look.
To train the eyes to “see” the structures (before the details) and the main lines of a landscape or a subject in a landscape can be very helpful when taking photos for example.

One session – one hour Material
- one pencil 4B
- a black and white photo of the head of an animal (one copy per student).

The students find the few basic shapes contained in the picture, starting with the large ones. They draw the frame of the photo on a paper (in this case a square).
Then the shapes, with the colored pencil, starting with the larger one.
They then draw on top of the colored pencil lines, to adjust and refined the contour, watching carefully the photo.

This basic exercise helps to understand how to break down to simple shapes a photo of an animal (but it could be pretty much anything) and how to position the subject and to find the proportions inside a frame (how far are the ears from the top?, where does the line of the right leg touches the bottom line of the photo? where does the line of the back of the dog touches the right side of the frame?, etc…).

The idea is to train the eye, not necessarily to use this when one draws. And to take the time to look.
To train the eyes to “see” the structures (before the details) and the main lines of a landscape or a subject in a landscape can be very helpful when taking photos for example.