Art Ninjas in Training!

As we walked into the kindergarten room this week, we were greeted with a yellow sign that read "Art Ninjas Only."  This sign sparked a lot of interest and curiosity.  Being experienced spies, we started to look around for more changes or clues... As we looked around, we saw a cart of Ninja Turtle toys and a funny picture on the Smartboard.

As we began to explore the discovery tables, we didn't know at the time, but the tables had more clues to help figure out what an "Art Ninja" was.  A few of us had seen the picture of the girl (Mona Lisa) before, but what did that have to do with being an "Art Ninja?"

 

When we gathered at the carpet, Ms. Dowd asked us if we noticed anything funny or curious about the picture of the four men on the Smartboard.  Someone said: "They are wearing masks like the Ninja Turtles!"  Exactly!!  The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were named after famous Renaissance artists.  

                                 

To become an "Art Ninja," like the Renaissance Masters, you need to experiment, practise and learn about the different art tools and mediums. 

Day 1 - Artist Tools

First, we used watercolour paint pucks and practised loading the brush to ensure a bright colour. We also, practised gently cleaning our brush to make sure not to splatter water everywhere.

Next, we experimented with liquid watercolours.  We discovered that unlike the watercolour puck paints, a little goes a long way!  Some of us noticed that when two colours are mixed together, you get a new colour!  

Finally, we painted with tempera paints.  We learned how to hold a paint brush, pick up small amounts of paint and how to use a detail brush.  A few of us got very curious and decided to mix all the colours together.  This resulted in a big muddy mess and a hole in the paper.  Now we know what NOT to do when painting. 

  

Day 2 - Looking Closely

Another tool or skill an Art Ninja must practise is "Looking Closely." Leonardo daVinci was very curious about the world around him.  He noticed that you can learn a lot by "studying" or following something closely with your eyes.  Many questions and ideas can also come from looking closely!

When drawing or painting objects, scenes or people, it is very important to "study" or look closely at them.  Everyone has a basic idea about how things look, but by looking closely and recording what you see, we get a true representation of what we are trying to create. 

                     

Inspired by Leonardo's idea of "looking closely," we each were given a strawberry to sketch.  We knew what a strawberry looked like, but when we really started to look, we were amazed at all the details we had never noticed before.

       

            

Day 3 - Portraits

To help set the stage, Ms. Dowd and Mrs. Dale put on an art skit to show how to sketch a portrait. As Ms. Dowd (dressed as a scientist) and Mrs. Dale, (in beach attire) slowly began to sketch each other, they explained their thinking and how to draw the different parts of the face.  We also looked at some of Raphael's portraits and learned that he too looked closely and made many, many sketches before he started to paint frescoes or wall murals. 

Following the skit, it was now our turn to sit across from a friend and to sketch their portrait. With pencils and clipboards in hand, we tried our very best to sketch a life like portrait.  It wasn't easy, but we did our very best!

Day 4 - Painting like a Master


The following day, the sketches of our friends had been photocopied and we were asked to paint them.  When we went to do our job, we didn't see any of our sketches or paint on the tables.  We soon learned that we were going to paint as Michelangelo did, when he painted a fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  Because, we couldn't paint on the ceiling of our classroom, we used our imaginations and painted under chairs and tables.

Once we finished our paintings, we hung them in our very own Kindergarten Sistine Chapel.

Day 5 - Discovery Creations and Ninja Turtle fun


At discovery this week, many of us tried to sculpt like Donatello.  We used our hands to mold the plasticine into various shapes. We also experimented with different tools to carve and scrape designs into the plasticine.





                   
               


Being the last day before spring break, we wanted to have a little fun. We learned how to draw a Ninja Turtle by following step by step instructions.  Then we coloured our turtle drawings with pastels and used a watercolour wash for the background.  We displayed our Ninja turtle art on the outside of the Kindergarten Sistine Chapel.
       

We took a break with some Ninja Turtle treats, put on Ninja masks and started filming some of our awesome Ninja moves.  Stay tuned for the finished music video!

 

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