Non-Figurative Artwork vs. Abstract Artwork

Abstract Art is an image of something broken down into lines, shapes and colors. 

We looked at the painting "Musical Forms" by Georges Braque and discussed how once you know the title, you can see more of what the image is based on... but that it isn't an exact drawing of a guitar or music. 

Students then took a subject (their name)

and drew them onto 9" square paper. 

We cut the squares into 3" squares

and students were able to move them around.

Students focused on turning their names into an abstract image 

of lines, shapes and color (black and white). They focused on making sure 

the image was interesting to look at. 

They then uploaded them to Artsonia. You can see our images here.

Non-Figurative Art is artwork that is art created by using lines, shapes and colors. 

(sound familiar?)

We looked at this sculpture by Louise Nevelson called "Case with Five Balusters."

And then we created these non-figurative watercolor paintings 

that focus on lines, shapes and colors.

You can check out our non-figurative paintings here.

This was a fun way to create some quick projects that really 

help us understand the differences between abstract art and non-figurative art. 

Display's...

So far this year I have put up a few things... and I still have a few to put up.

The 5th and 6th grade students made these cubes. 

I finally got around to putting all 600+ on display together. 

It is always impressive to see kids working independently 

but seeing them all together is so very impressive. 

The 6th graders created color wheels and when I finally put these on display

the kids all impressed. I had put a "exhibit under construction" sign on this 

cast at the start of the year. When that finally came down and this went up, they agreed

 it was worth the wait. 

The 5th graders are working through the difference between abstract and non-figurative art. 

Our abstract art project had us drawing our names, chopping them up and rearranging 

them into images based on lines, shapes and colors. 

6th Grade WIN Time

Every 3 weeks we rotate through different WIN (What I Need) groups. For my last group I had 6th graders and we worked through using Google Drawings to create these polyline self portraits. I think they did a great job.

I learned how to do these drawings from the amazing digital artist Joshua Pomeroy. 

You can check out his online videos on YouTube. 

The first video I watched and was amazed by was his drawing of Justin Timberlake. 

5th Grade Awful Alphabet Letters

I was super impressed with the drawings the fifth graders finished up. They did such a great job of creating their creatures and making fun places for them to "live." I also think they did a great job of creating alliterations to go with their projects. Here are just a few:

Enormous E eats extraordinarily elaborate eggs with an energy elixir everyday.

Jolly J jumped when Jayden Jaguar emerged from the Japan Jungle Jaguar Exhibit.

Artist A at an amazing art gallery

The cruel carnivorous C was creatively colorful.

You can check out the rest of them at our Artsonia site.