Using technology in the art room: Percolator App

After seeing the 'Santa Up Close and Abstracted' post waaaaaaay back in December, I downloaded the Percolator App. Ms. Fuglestad is an incredibly talented art teacher, who actually received the Illinois art teacher of the year award in the same ceremony at the National Conference, so we haven't officially met, but I have seen her in real life...so I sort of know her. ;-) If you are looking for some inspiration in your classroom, check out her amazing blog and especially watch the video on this post where she showcase her incredible use of technology in the art classroom with very young students. Makes me feel WAAAAAY ancient and behind the times.

Anyway, the percolator app is pretty cool and she used it in her classroom in a very real way....I'm hoping to find a way to incorporate iPads in the classroom in the future. This would be a great way to do it. I love how you can take either a photo or a drawing and apply a filter in the Percolator app. It yields beautiful results.

All of the photos below were taken on my iPhone. If you are looking for something creative for your own kids to do at home this summer, or a way to incorporate technology in the classroom, you might consider giving this app a whirl. 

This was a painting by one of my students. I love how it morphed into this abstracted design.

A photo of shells

The next few photos are from a recent post,  Out and About in Galveston, Tx

a drawing from my sketchbook!

a mural from my classroom

A gorgeous student painting of a tiger from the end of the year

I tested out a variety of photos and I think I used basically the same filter for all of my images, because it was the one that I personally liked the most. It would be so fun to give my students total control so that they could experiment with all of the options available on the app. 

If you decide to try it out, please share a link below, I would love to see your (or your kids') work!!

Student Inspired Artwork

A few weeks ago I interviewed artist Danny Brito about being a professional artist. I shared his interview with my 3rd and 4th grade students, showed them samples of his work, and challenged them to create a self-portrait using Danny's style as their inspiration. While some of my students found this very challenging, I was very happy with many of the finished products.

I think it is important for my students to learn how to draw a self-portrait and at least try to make it look like them instead of just drawing a stick figure with a smiley-face. Students have to illustrate all sorts of things with their own drawings in elementary school and if they have never had a chance to learn the details of how to compose a face so that it looks somewhat realistic, the will never be able to conceptually grasp the difference between an illustration, a cartoon, a realistic drawing and a photograph....and I hate it when kids say that they can't draw! I know that by adulthood, many people give up...but kids have so much potential to develop that skill.....just practice!!! I try to teach my students to create self-portraits every year, and I was super excited to have some new inspiration this year with the polaroid portraits by Danny Brito!!

I encouraged my little artists to keep the white border around the portrait like a polaroid picture (I had to show them a sample polaroid photo and a camera and explain how this sort of photography works...some of them had never seen such a thing before!) But I also suggested that they add a pet or a thought bubble so that the drawing would look more like them, even if the portrait part wasn't an exact match...I was hoping to relieve some of the pressure because I realize that not all of my students are confident in their drawing abilities...especially when it comes to drawing people.

At this age, sometimes craftsmanship isn't exactly what it should be....so I try not to focus so much on every speck of coloring inside the lines and instead, embrace the personality behind the entire composition. For some of my students, that style of coloring will always represent them. It is hard to think of it that way because craftsmanship is super important...but so is personal style...I learned a lot about my students from this project. Hope you enjoy!

And like any project that I have really high hopes for...I had my students create some practice drawings while looking in a mirror to get warmed up to the idea of drawing their own face. These preliminary sketches are some of my favorite things from this experience...I almost hated to make them add color--sometimes that ruins it!

I would just like to thank Danny for his inspiration and his interview! If you haven't seen his work, you should really go check it out. I can't wait to order my custom Polaroid Portrait!!