James Rizzi Happy Houses

Fifth and sixth grade students at Currier Memorial have been looking at the work of James Rizzi.  Rizzi is a Pop Artist, best known for his brightly colored animated cityscapes that are rich, full, and bubbling over with life.  Both fifth and sixth grade students made a strong connection with his work.  His cartoon-like drawing style was a big hit with everyone and who can resist his cheerful style?  We looked at lots of examples of Rizzi's work and picked apart the elements of his style.  Each student completed a rough draft of a Rizzi-style building and when they were satisfied with the result work began on a large scale Rizzi City.
I'm so impressed by the commitment both classes have put forward on this large undertaking.  Kids have really put their heart and soul into this project and it's a joy to watch them work.  Fifth graders transferred their designs to mural paper students outlined with ink and brush or with sharpie pen.  Colored pencils were used for the small details.  Larger areas were painted in using liquid watercolor.  When the buildings are dry we'll add the background colors.  

Kinder-Cities

 

Colorful cities created by kindergarten and first grade.  The buildings were scraped on with a cardboard scraper in primary colors.  When the buildings were finished, black paint was put out and the road was scraped along the bottom.  We let the paintings dry and in the next class added the outline and windows.  To make the outline students used the edge of a smaller piece of cardboard to print (not scrape) straight lines  around the buildings.  When the outlining was finished, white paint and a brush was used to add the windows.  I really like the look of these.  They were easy enough for the little ones, and the kids really liked making them.