Fifth-graders become online artists.
By: Elaine Worden
Sitting in a hand-painted rocking chair adorned with undersea creatures, Brooks Crossing art teacher Kamyee Ladas held the tip of her wooden Asian paintbrush up to a sheet of paper resting on an easel.
"I start one line at a time," she said, loosely tracing the outline of a pencil drawing of a leaf she had sketched.
On Sept. 30, Ms. Ladas was showing Melissa Heath’s fifth-grade class the basics of contour lines.
Ms. Ladas dipped her brush into a bottle of India ink, showing her students how to blot and roll the tip of her brush to prevent dripping.
Wearing smocks over their clothes, the students sat cross-legged, intensely watching Ms. Ladas’ brush strokes.
"Again, I didn’t follow my pencil line and later you can erase it," Ms. Ladas said. After telling the students to experiment with both thick and thin lines, she told them to sign their masterpieces with a Sharpie marker, but only put their first name and last initial on the corner of the paper so that they could not be identified. This is because each student’s drawing will be placed online, on a Web site called Artsonia.com.
The Web site allows teachers to post student artwork online, which can be purchased in the form of T-shirts, prints, coffee mugs and more. Even three-dimensional art, such as papier-mâché piggy banks, can be photographed and placed online. This way, student art which is often made from flimsy materials that may not stand the test of time can be archived and saved forever. Artsonia will then take 15 percent of the revenue made by each purchase and then donate it back into the school’s art program.
"It’s the goal of art teachers to display artwork, and every student gets that chance," said Ms. Ladas.
The Web site is accessible to schools across the world, and it can give students’ relatives a chance to see what they have been learning in school.
Site visitors can leave the students comments and family members can join their young artist’s fan club.
"It motivates the children so much," said Ms. Ladas. "It’s great inspiration."
Ms. Ladas allows her students to check the Web site from the art room to see if they have accumulated any new comments.
Sitting at various tables cloaked in sheets of newspaper, the students dipped their brushes and applied the ink to their drawings.
Earlier, Ms. Ladas had put together several displays of items found within her classroom and told the students to draw what they saw.
Student Jordan Sternberg was outlining a sketch of scissors.
"We tried drawing what we saw without looking at the paper," Jordan said.
Across the room, Kyle Brown was working on a guitar.
"I like it because I think it’s probably the best because I didn’t mess up. I have some over there where I messed up really, really bad," Kyle said, motioning to Ms. Ladas’ desk area, where previously completed artwork was stored.
Nisha Kanyan’s project was a scenic view of mountains, hills and clouds.
"I keep practicing so it’s not that hard," said Nisha.
As the class period began winding down, the students scurried to finish their projects, wash the ink out of their brushes and clean up their tables.
"Freeze," Ms. Ladas said as she rang a small bell sitting on her desk.
The students stopped in their tracks as Ms. Ladas told the students to finish cleaning up and to meet her back by the rocking chair.
"I’d like to compliment you on your artwork," she said, smiling.
She gave the students a few final instructions to put their drawings in the drying rack and to make sure they had signed their artwork before going back to Ms. Heath’s classroom.
"I forgot to sign my picture!" said Lauren Goodstein, who walked over to the drying rack to look for her drawing.
After the class’ projects are dry Ms. Ladas will be placing the completed projects from each of her classes onto Artsonia. She will take photographs of each drawing and then upload it to the site.
The Web site can be accessed at www.artsonia.com/schools/crossing1.