The first day off for the holidays and it is pouring rain!  Darn, so much for my Christmas shopping, I guess I should do some cleaning and get some jewelry made for this week's sales.
Before I get to that I wanted to show you some of the work that was done by my kids.  The drawings above were created by my Art 2 students using oil pastels and tempera paint.    They measure 18" x 24" and took them a good two weeks to complete.  It was the perfect project right before the holidays.
Hmmmm, I think the rain is letting up, I just might be able to do some shopping today :)
Hope you are enjoying some time off as well.

My Art 2 kids just finished these simple stills using colored pencils.  I didn't want them to take too long on this project so I made sure they kept it simple.  They are now working on some tempera batik pieces which are more detailed and larger in scale. 

These contour faces are being created by my Adv. students.  I got this idea from my trip to TAEA.  I love going, I get so many great ideas. 

Hope you are doing well. Bye

Sorry it took me so long to post these pictures.  These are just a few of the scratchboard projects my art 1 kids finished a week ago.  I explained this process a bit in a previous post.  The kids really enjoyed this project and I enjoyed the results.

I spent a wonderful few days at Galveston, TX where the annual TAEA conference was held.  I went to several workshops where art educators shared their tried and true lessons.  There's nothing like surrounding yourself with "like minds" and seeing how other art programs from around the state differ from your own.  I always return rejuvinated and excited to teach.  I have so many ideas thanks to the conference.  This year an artisans market was held so art educators could sell their wares.  I decided to sell my jewelry.  I didn't think I would sell much since it was only for two and a half hours.  Boy, was I wrong!  I sold out in less time than that.  What I enjoyed most was meating all of the wonderful people that stopped by my table.
I posted pictures of the view from my window and a few shots that I took when I went out for some shopping.  If you are ever in Galveston you don't want to miss some of the wonderful antique shops.  I now have to write a power point presentation that I will be presenting tomorrow to area art educators based on "Creative Background Techniques".  After the great time I had I feel up to the challenge.  I hope you had a great weekend.

My Art 1 Students have finally completed their scratch art projects.  I decided to post this particular piece because I had the sense to take pictures through the development of this piece.  I first have the kids draw on paper, they then trace it onto poster board.  After they color the poster board they cover it with ink.  They retrace the drawing which allows them to see where the original drawing is.  I then have them look through a grid they created with different patterns.  They choose the patterns they like and scratch the patterns out on different sections of their drawings.
I'm very happy with the results and I believe the kids are too.
Hope you have a nice weekend.

These kids make me laugh :)  Happy Halloween!

Art 2 Painted Still Life

My Art 2 kids finally finished their paintings.  For this class I wanted them to experiment with their backgrounds.  I then wanted them to mix their own colors for their paintings, never taking paint straight out of the bottle.  Some of these kids had not been my students last year and had not been exposed to painting before.  I hope this project boosted their confidence. 
All of these paintings were done with acrylic.  Some of the backgrounds include:
Crayons with watercolors.
Never Dull on magazine
Shaving cream with watercolors.
Until next time.

Pen Shading

I think I have mentioned before that I just LOVE pen drawings.  I very rarely allow students to draw with a pencil.  In my years of teaching I have only allowed one student to create a portfolio with pencil drawings.  The concept of shading with a pen is difficult to grasp, but so worth the trouble of learning it.  Some students grasp the concept quite quickly. 
Even though this piece has a few issues, I believe this adv. student did a great job with her shading.
This is the first time I have this young lady in my class, she had been with another teacher and never did any drawings!  All she did was collage and paint (with very little direction) so now she is trying desperately to create some drawings for her portfolio.  Now I just need to put her creativity together with her new found ability. 

Painted Still Life

This is what my Art 2 students are creating.  Even though they were exposed (or should've been) to painting in Art 1, I like to assign them a still life painting to get them to pracitice their painting techniques.  I'd rather they come up with their own still life, but it is so difficult to get them to set up some good compositions on their own.  I set up this still life, but I didn't want them to all look the same, so I pushed them to create their own unique background.  If you look through my blog, you will find some "stills" that were created last year.  I didn't push them on backgrounds last year, but I was happy with the results.  I'm already thinking of how I am going to change this up next year.

So far I am pleased with their efforts, I do hope they come out well.

Pen and Ink Shoes

I give this sketchbook assignment every year to all my art classes, from beginning to adv.  There's nothing like shoes to help students learn how to draw.  The first two photos were made by two of my Art 1students and the last one is by an Adv. student. 

I only allow pen drawings in their sketchbooks, I just don't like pencil in those books, they begin to smear after a while, even after spraying.  OK, the real reason is because I don't think there is anything prettier than a pen drawing.

The top two drawings were done with a sumi brush and india ink.

OK, don't laugh

OK, don't laugh, let me explain.  Every year we are asked to decorate our doors for homecoming.  I usually grab a few students and send them to the art lab to draw something for our door.  After an hour I went to go see what they were doing and there I was... in a bikini.  Although they did me the favor of drawing me in a nice figure, I was a bit shocked to see it.  They were pretty prepared to hear me complain because they were ready with their replies. 

I had told them "Whatever you want to draw is fine by me".  Oh Lord, when will I learn.

In case you were wondering this year's theme is Las Vegas ( I have no clue why).  Sorry to say we did not win a prize this year, I guess noone was ready to see me in a bikini.

First Project for Art 1

Yay!  The first project for Art 1 is complete.  Students had to draw their hands using modified contour drawing.  The objective was to draw their names in sign language, drawing from observation.  This is why the sign language hands are the left ones and not the right hands. 
I gave the students the option of coming up with their own backgrounds, if they could not they had to do a collage. 
I am happy with the end results.