Or what you think you know...
Then, we moved onto continuous contours where they could look at their page to connect lines and make modifications.
Inspiration from this lesson by Ali Marcotte. Draw what you see, not what you know. Or what you think you know... Similarly to the contour line drawing project I did with my classes last semester, I gave the students the challenge to draw what they see. This time, I tried adding something new to improve it. We started the same way, doing an upside down drawing… Then blind continuous contours of their hands: “Only look at your hand! No peeking to your page. Draw what you see!" Then, we moved onto continuous contours where they could look at their page to connect lines and make modifications. Their drawings improved with each exercise and finally, they were ready to start the sketches for final drawings. The students were to bring in or choose an object that in some way had meaning to them. See a sketch below. Before they moved onto their final contour line drawings, we had a peer review session. This way, the students were able to receive some suggestions (and compliments!) to see if there was anything they might be able to improve. Once they were satisfied with their sketches, they were able to move on to their final drawings. The new improvement to this project was adding color to their contour line drawings. The students used gouache (similar to watercolor) to fill their drawings with an array of vibrant colors. Since many of them did not have a ton of experience with gouache, I had them practice layering and blending the paint in a mini colorful lettering activity. Once they felt comfortable with the gouache, they could start painting their drawings. Below are some pictures of the painting process. Through this additional painting step, the students learned how to layer and blend paint, while also getting a better understanding of color theory. They had to combine an array of colors successfully while creating contrast without making them muddy or dull. My favorite part of this was asking the students if they were surprised by how accurate their drawings turned out to be and just about every hand went up!
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“People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings.” ― Salvador Dalí The many mysteries of surrealist art are what led me to plan this lesson of surrealist collage dreamscapes. To start, I taught my students about the birth of Surrealism in France and how it began as a literary movement but later evolved into a more visual art form. We looked at and discussed many paintings from the movement, focusing on those specifically painted by Salvador Dali. We explored his "hand-painted dream photographs" and commented on the different techniques we saw that were used repeatedly throughout his work and others'. Some of the techniques recognized were changing the scale of things, creating mysterious objects, reversing the acceptable order, and juxtaposing objects, which is placing contrasting things together. The goal of the students was to create a surreal landscape that combines dream and reality. By cutting images from magazines, they were able to keep the realism but create the dream effect by combining them with other images using the Surrealist techniques. As a pre-activity, I cut out multiple images and allowed the students to play with them and combine them to get an idea of how they might start their collages. Here's an example of what some of them came up with. After this activity, they were ready to start collecting their images. I challenged them to create a theme for their work instead of making it random. Check out their finished projects below. To get a better look at the smaller images, click them to see a larger view. By Mustafa, 7th grade I encouraged them also to try overlapping images and cutting into the background so some of their objects could be interacting with each other while also giving the appearance of being in the environment. By Junior, 7th grade By Curtis, 7th grade By Kayla, 7th grade I just loved how creative they got with this project! Here, Jordan, a 7th grader, was able to incorporate a theme that was pretty recognizable even from the first glance! By Samantha, 8th grade Once everyone finished their projects, we had a critique where each table (3-5 students) had to pick one collage as a group, collaborate to answer discussion questions, and present their ideas to the class. One of the critique questions was, "What is the story behind this piece?". The group that chose this came up with a pretty good one! The story goes like this... There were some animal friends at the pound who escaped and ran into a wizard who zapped them with his wand. The animals legs and paws turned to human arms, hands, legs, and feet! Of course, playing basketball was the first thing they thought to do so they went to gym and played a great game! The group also talked about what they found was most successful the collage. They talked about how Sydnee, an 8th grader, did such a great job finding parts that fit each player so nicely. I was impressed! I just love the oddity of this one of a lip woman walking a one-eyed potato by Thea, a 7th grader. By Ani, 8th grade By Lily, 8th grade By Brayden, 7th grade Look at those tiny, little people on the rock in the bottom left corner in this dreamscape by Lauren, an 8th grader! By Grace, 7th grade By Hannah, 8th grade By Kayla, 7th grade Look at the precision in this one! Props to Darian, an 8th grader.
Keep up the fantastic work 2D students!! Kelly, 8th grade This is one of my favorite projects! I love starting off with this as the first big project because it builds confidence and allows students to try a variety of mediums. We started by studying the pop art movement with a focus on Roy Lichtenstein. We discussed the characteristics of pop art and concentrated on the ones the ones they would be incorporating into the projects. M-Maybe by Roy Lichtenstein I took photos of the students and allowed them to use glasses or an old phone as a prop to give it more of a 60's vibe to go with the Pop Art movement. I printed the photos and they then traced the contours or outline of their face, hair, and shoulders. This left a cartoon-looking version of themselves on the reverse side. Next, they drew grids on the back of the photo as well as on a larger piece of paper. The students then transferred the drawing box-by-box, which encourages them to draw each line they saw instead of drawing what they thought they saw. This helps a lot with proximity and the drawings usually look pretty accurate! Then came the dots! We looked at the history behind the Ben-Day dots used in Lichtenstein's paintings and practiced making our own. They picked a color for their skin and started dotting! This step can take some time but really adds to the finished product. Next was painting! They used primarily the primary colors but we able to use secondary and neon colors as accents. Check them out! Sarah, 7th grade Kayla, 7th grade Hannah, 7th grade Nick, 8th grade Ani, 8th grade Sydnee, 8th grade Audrey, 7th grade Kaden, 7th grade Kakari, 8th grade Nia, 8th grade Sophie, 8th grade Madysen, 8th grade Juan, 7th grade Ian, 7th grade Zane, 8th grade Ian, 7th grade Hannah, 8th grade Thanks for doing such a great job 2D students! You rock!
After almost a full semester with my 2D Art students, I'd come to realize something about them, they have really big hearts. Which is why I thought they would enjoy making Christmas and holiday cards for a good cause. I started by introducing the idea of donating handmade cards to patients at Nationwide Children's hospital in Columbus and then showed my students this video. Even though it was about monetary donations, it was still nice for them to see some of the actual patients at the hospital. We discussed the reality that some of these kids may not be able to be home for the holidays, or ever again for that matter. I paused for a moment to let the weight of the statement sink in. I think this was something that many of us had not realized before now. Next, I introduced Franklin County Children Services and showed this video. It too was about monetary donations, but it led us into a discussion about how many of the children who use these services may have been be neglected or abused. Either way, they are probably not receiving the love that they deserve so we thought it would be nice for them to hear that someone cares or is simply thinking of them. Our goal became simple, to show care and encouragement through the making of creative Christmas and Holiday cards. As you can see from the board, I got pretty excited about this little project. I wanted to give them some ideas and suggestions for the cover, salutations, and inside messages, but they just wanted to start creating! Throughout the semester, we’ve learned lots of fun techniques that I encouraged them to use to make their cards. I got out the shaving cream, bubble wrap, Styrofoam (for printmaking) and lots of other art goodies and they were off! Take a look at what they came up with! This student used Styrofoam to make a monoprint of Rudolph. Shaving cream and food coloring was used to create this beautiful marbling technique and then a Styrofoam stamp was printed on top. What’s even more beautiful about these cards is on the inside. I was amazed at how creative they got; designing their very own darling coloring pages… Original pop-ups... A dancing deer... Decorate-a-snowman (with parts included!)… And even help Santa put the presents under the tree! But what I was most impressed with was the heart-felt messages they wrote to these kids like they’d known them for years. Timmy wrote, “May the Holidays for you shine brighter than the Northern Lights this year!” “GUESS WHAT?”, another student wrote, “I care. In case nobody has told you, you are beautiful, special, strong, wonderful, smart, sweet, cute, fabulous, and most of all… you're a princess. Stay strong for me, yeah?” (Click to see larger) Autumn wrote, “Dear Friend, Happy Holidays. I hope you feel better. I will say a prayer. Stay strong and remember that you are beautiful. Feel better. Sincerely, Autumn <3 Keep your head up high and may God look upon you forever” Some wrote lovely poetry… “…Love is strong and so are you. Forever is long, so we shall be too. Friends we will be no matter how close or far. You’re as cute as a butterfly, you’re as beautiful as the sky. Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!” And some even included homemade gifts. While doing some research on the hospital, I found a donation list and printed it out. I told the students not to feel any obligation to donate anything but that I just wanted to give the opportunity if anyone had the desire to bring in a new toy or something else to donate with their card. This is what we got: Like I always say, my students never cease to amaze me, but they really outdid themselves this time. It made me so proud to be their teacher. My class is only a semester long, so for those not taking my advanced class, this was goodbye! I told them all that I wasn’t sure what to expect this year, being my first. I said I’d hoped for some smart students, and they are all so bright! I wanted some students who were decent at art, and they are all artists and many of them had far surpassed all of my expectations! And lastly, I desired to form meaningful relationships, and I felt that I had and hoped that they felt the same. I thanked them for making me a better teacher and told them that if they ever need anything, that I will be here. I really couldn’t have asked for a better group of kids. Thanks for a great semester! That day after school, I dropped off our cards and donations to Franklin County Children Services, which looked more like Santa’s Workshop. The employees and volunteers were so thrilled with our cards and asked if we would like to do it again next year! Of course I said yes :) Then I was off to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which looks more like a magical forest. They too were very happy with our donations. Thanks again to all who made the cards, I'm sure you made some kids' Holiday a little brighter! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. |
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