Experimenting with Black Light Painting

In the summer last year I came across an article in Artist's Magazine by Tom Bacher, who creates beautiful landscapes using phosphorescent and fluorescent paints.  Here is a link to his website: www.tombacher.com.  Because of the properties of these paints the paintings continue to emit light after the lights have been turned off, or under black light.  Mr. Bacher corresponded with us and we were delighted to learn that he had visited Wickenburg and had painted the Saguaro Theater. 

This assignment was a challenge for the students because they drew the city buildings in 2-point perspective, which makes the buildings look three-dimensional.  The students used both types of paints, as well as metallic colored pencils to color their drawings.  The photos show the original drawing, followed by the drawing under black light.  I cropped the photos in Adobe Photoshop and where noted with an AF I used Photoshop Auto Fix setting.  This setting actually gives a better idea of what the painting looks like under black light or just after turning out the lights.

Some of the artwork:

Alex 1 with black light below

 

 

 

Chase with black light below

 

 

Jazmin 1 below

 

 

 

Jazmin 1 with black light below

 

 

Jazmin with black light and Auto Fix

 

 

 

Olivia 1 below with black light next

 



 

Sierra 1 with  black light following

Victoria 1 with black light following

 

 



 We hope you enjoy these artworks.  The classes had a lot of fun painting and then turning off the lights in order to see their work under black light.  

And the Kiln is Opened!

 

  
 

Green plate by Melissa, Red star by Chase, Heart plate by Alicia



About 90% (at least) of the students in middle school love working in clay.  It's often the first thing they ask about when they arrive in August.  In December we made plates, bowls and platters.  I asked the students to either impress or draw designs on their projects, and if possible, to add an attachment of  clay.  Attaching clay is much harder than it looks.  Several problems can arise: if not scored correctly before attaching, the piece can fall off.  Or, if there is not a good seal and air is trapped under the piece, it can blow off during firing. 

After constructing the pottery it is bisque fired - the initial firing.  Then after glazing there is another firing.  Below is a "before" and "after" photo set. The first photo shows the plate/bowl after bisque firing and glazing.  The second photo shows the pottery after the glaze firing.  The bowl is attached to the plate, and doesn't come off.  Great job, Jeremy!

 

Here are some more clay projects.

 

On some of these the clay is impressed with crocheted doilies, making a lovely pattern.




Torie                            Tate                                  Sadie G



Hans                                     Kylie D                              Nick

 

Next post: Disaster in the clay studio!

 



 

 

It's Edvard Munch's Birthday!

And just who is he?  Everyone probably recognizes this painting, but remembering the name of the artist is a bit more difficult.  VP students recently made their own versions of Edvard (spelled correctly!) Munch's most famous pastel painting: The Scream.  We defined parody and then looked at some of the more well-known parodies of this painting.  They especially liked the Homer Simpson one (naturally) and also the Home Alone movie poster.  Munch, born in 1863 on December 12th, was a prolific Norwegian artist who is mainly remembered for the several versions of this painting.  The 1893 version sold at auction in 2012 for 119.9 million and was the highest value recorded for an artwork sold at auction to that date.   That price was surpassed this year by a Francis Bacon painting, but the price was still way beyond what we can imagine.

Students were asked to create a parody of The Scream.  As you can see, they were very good at coming up with situations where a scream might be appropriate.  Other instructions were to come up with both a creative background and foreground, to use a variety of lines and repetition of lines, as Munch did in his paintings, and to think about color scheme. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUSY HANDS AT WORK!

There's been more delay than I would like to see in posting since my laptop suddenly got very ill.  Happily it's back on track (thanks to techie elves) and I can get back to sharing Vulture Peak art with you. 

Students were busy happily creating ornaments for the PTA trees just before the Thanksgiving break and you might enjoy seeing some of their hands at work.  We enjoy supporting PTA which does so much for our students. 

Studying Value in Painting

One of the principles of design we study is "value."  In this case, it doesn't mean money, but rather refers to the lightness or darkness of a color.  This is often a difficult concept for middle school students to grasp.  To reinforce this concept, students made a value sketch in one color - blue.  We call them our "Blue Man Group" paintings.  When those were finished, students then used oil pastels to draw the painting but this time using color. They were much more successful in including the darker shades using color.

Here is a group of work with the blue paintings and the final artwork.  Great job, VP Artists!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure Drawing in Middle School

I'm probably more excited about these drawings than my students but I thought they did such a fantastic job drawing the figure, and getting the proportions of the figure correct isn't that easy for young or new artists.  We used the wooden mannequins  to learn the proportions of the figure.  Students first spent some time sketching these figures. Then we painted and printed a background on good paper, and lastly they added figures.  Click on any photo to enlarge. 
Let us know what you think.  

 

      

 



         

            

 

More Art Toolkits

Here are a few more of the Elements of Art Toolkits students designed.  Inside each toolkit is the definition of that particular element. 

From Period 1:

 

 

And from Period 3: