Alien Blue Dog by Nicholas, 2nd Grade
Blue Dog in the Park by Momo, 1st Grade
This month, the Dragons have been learning about the artwork of George Rodrigue--a contemporary artist who lives and paints in New Orleans, Louisiana. Rodrigue is famous for his colorful and imaginative Blue Dog series depicting his childhood dog painted in various colors and in various interesting environments. He has been painting Blue Dog for over thirty years!
To start the unit, students were introduced to the paintings of Blue Dog in several recognizable places (the White House, outer space, the swamp, a field) and some paintings of Blue Dog in entirely imaginary places (like a dream of Ancient Egypt, or one where he is a butterfly dog, or in a decorated background). We even saw Blue Dog dressed up like people wearing a necktie; he was even dressed up as a clown!
We then read George Rodrigue's own wonderful children's book Why Is Blue Dog Blue? which explains his thought process and the reasons he chooses to paint Blue Dog different colors. The book also introduces some colors the students never heard of before: salmon, mustard, cherry, avocado, chocolate, and apricot to name a few!
Pre-K and Kindergarten cut out a pre-drawn Blue Dog and then mixed their own special color for their Blue Dog and painted him. (We learned that even though Blue Dog is named Blue Dog, he is not always painted blue! George Rodrigue says this is because, "artists don't have to paint things the way they really are.")
On our next visit to the art room, I had the students make a math connection. Pre-K reviewed names of shapes and drew lots of shapes with oil pastels and crayons on colorful paper of their choice. They then glued their Blue Dog in "Shape Land." Kindergarten reviewed the rules of pattern-making and named some patterns for me to draw whole group. They then drew patterns of all different kinds all over their choice of paper and glued their Blue Dog in "Pattern Land."
The work below is from the early childhood students of our school:
On our next visit to the art room, I had the students make a math connection. Pre-K reviewed names of shapes and drew lots of shapes with oil pastels and crayons on colorful paper of their choice. They then glued their Blue Dog in "Shape Land." Kindergarten reviewed the rules of pattern-making and named some patterns for me to draw whole group. They then drew patterns of all different kinds all over their choice of paper and glued their Blue Dog in "Pattern Land."
The work below is from the early childhood students of our school:
1st and 2nd grade used a tracer of Blue Dog. The students selected the best placement on the paper for their dog, traced the outline, and then drew his face from observation. The environments and accessories were drawn free-hand with pencil and Sharpie first and then we did a colored pencil color study to practice our paint colors. The last step was adding color with acrylic paint. The students then wrote journals about their work in the style of George Rodrigue's book that explained their choice of place for Blue Dog and his color, too. I love the imaginative and varied places and looks for Blue Dog the students came up with! They really captured the spirit of Blue Dog in these paintings.
Camouflage American Flag Blue Dog by Derek, 2nd Grade
Space Blue Dog by Arlan, 1st Grade
Angel Blue Dog by David, 1st Grade
Blue Dog's House at Night by Angel, 2nd Grade
Blue Dog Over the Earth by Abraham, 2nd Grade
Blue Dog at the Circus by Myrsa, 2nd Grade
Hypnotic Blue Dog by Nika, 2nd Grade
Blue Dog in the Desert by Cloe, 2nd Grade
Blue Dog in the Jungle by Kushal, 1st Grade
Blue Dog Helping a Police Boat by Nico, 2nd Grade
Blue Dog by a Volcanic Island by Ethan, 1st Grade
Darth Vader Blue Dog by Leo, 2nd Grade
Anakin Blue Dog (Star Wars) by Ethan, 2nd Grade
Blue Dog in the Desert by Adja, 1st Grade
Blue Dog Catches a Wave by Olivia, 2nd Grade
Blue Dog in the Mountains by Gabrielle, 2nd Grade
Blue Dog in the Solar System by Anthony, 2nd Grade
Blue Dog as an Ice Cream Chef by Gaby, 2nd Grade
3rd through 5th grade took Blue Dog to a whole different place entirely! First, they created observation drawings of real images of dogs to practice for our paintings. On their next visit, the students had a lesson about using basic planning shapes to draw things that can be difficult to sketch. We started with a circle for the head and an oval for the body in the right orientation for our dog's movement in the painting. The students then free-hand drew in the background details and even gave their dogs some fun imaginary environments like George Rodrigue. We traced the sketch with Sharpie and then painted them with acrylic paint!
These pieces have been shared with the George Rodrigue Educational Foundation and may be appearing on their website! Updates coming soon!
Some rules are meant to be broken. This makes me want to retract my tracer statment. They are soooooo creative! American Flag Blue Dog, Blue Dog at the circus! By the way my dog's name is BLUE:))
ReplyDeleteThank you, Erica! :) I have a policy about tracers that I made for myself which really helps with the dilemma of "to trace or not to trace." I usually provide various tracers of different kinds and sizes and allow students to select the one they want to use for their project.
ReplyDeleteFor the Blue Dog pieces, the students traced but then drew the inside from observation, so it made it a little more varied and individual and not "cookie cutter." My PLC colleagues and I frequently discuss our dislike of identical artwork. I am so with you on that one!
I loved these pieces myself. The Star Wars Blue Dogs are some of my favorites! :)
I love this book.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite dog is the Hypnotic Blue Dog.