Two more weeks for summer break!!!  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!
This was an end of year assignment that I gave my adv. students a few years ago.
 I found this old paper that looked like paper bags, but thinner.  I gave the students conte crayons and gave them a week and a half to complete.  No preliminary sketches, just straight to the drawing.
There was a relaxed feel to this assignment, the kids worked quietly and I could see that they were enjoying the process of just sitting down and drawing with these materials.  I will definitely do this assigment again next year.
To view some of my work go to @nenasart

Shake it like a polaroid picture!

Somtimes the simplest ideas turn out to be the best, don't you think?  The top one is a sketchbook assignment that took about 15 minutes or so.  I give the kids a Smarties candy and had them draw it as we opened the wrapper.  At the end, the kids can eat the candy, if they wish.

The bottom picture is of a polaroid picture selfie.  The kids had to take a selfie, I then let them sketch in their sketchbooks for  a class period.  Afterwards, I gave the students paper with the dimensions of a polaroid picture.  I have a template I created and the kids traced it in order to have the picture frame of a polaroid picture.

I think they came out great, don't you?

To see more of my work, please visit @nenasart

Drawing Horses!!

My co-worker and I asked for money to buy supplies to construct drawing horses this year.  My coworker was in charge of building the 35 horses (no easy task) and my students are now creating art work on them.

This project is going to last several weeks, I'm sure.  I'll update as I go.

On a different note, I am shocked at how much time has passed since my last post.  With the ease of social media, posting on my blog became a thing of the past.  I am going to try and revive my blog.

You can find me on Instagram to see some student work, but I mostly post about my own work and my quest to keep creating.

I am @nenasart

Still Life

When I set up objects around my classroom for students to draw from, I make it a point to make the most out of it. 

The first square on the left hand side is Art 1, tissue paper collage, second square is Art 2-charcoal, third square is Art 3-charcoal and conte, fourth square is Art 4, colored paper, mixed media.

This particular project took about 2 weeks with 47 minute classes. This is from sketching to completion.

Sign Language Hands-drawings

Art 1 started off the school year doing sign language hands.  I start the art 1 kids  with modified contour drawings .  They practice their drawing skills in their sketchbooks and when I feel they are comfortable I get them started on this particular project.

They really enjoy this project and are always happy with the end results.  I laminated the finished pieces, something I never do.  I decided to do so this time because I have heard from former students that they still have their sign language hands up on their walls in their bedrooms.  I figured they'd last longer if I laminated them.

I hope your school year is off to a great start!

Lesson Plans

I just returned from my summer semester at Texas Tech University and have a week off before I return to my next summer session.  One more year and I will be done with graduate school.  I will share pictures of the work I created, soon.

Instead, I want to show you something I've been thinking about.  Keep in mind, I've never done this before and charting new territory is scary.   I'm thinking of selling my lessons on line! 

My original idea was to write a book incorporating my lessons, but truth be told, I don't have much time with graduate school and my first grandchild arriving in the next few months.  Instead of putting the whole idea on hold, I figured I could start offering my lessons.

The first lesson I'm thinking of selling is the one that I posted about previously.  I've already put it together, I just have a few finishing touches to do before I start selling my lesson.  This first lesson is going to be a test, writing a lesson for myself and for my admin (which knows nothing about art) is one thing, writing for other art educators is another.  I'm hoping I will get feedback that will help me improve on the lessons I will be offering. 

I will probably put this lesson up for sale in August, this will give me enough time to return from graduate school, rest and prep for the start of the coming school year.

I hope you are enjoying your summer vacations, till next time!
 

Let's try this one more time.

Wow!  It has been three years since I last wrote in my blog, time sure does fly.  In case you were wondering, many things kept me away from my blogs. 
When I first began this blog, I was posting pictures of student work with no thought of where these images might end up.  One day, as I was perusing a new site (at the time) called Pinterest, I came across my pictures!  I was upset at myself for being so careless with the images of my student's work.  This prompted me to stop posting and sharing student work. 
I've wanted to return many times, but other factors began to impede my return.  Life, as they say, got in the way.
School ends in a few weeks, but I decided to peek in and say "hello" and to ease myself back to posting. 
I will be attending classes at TX. Tech in the summer and hope to share the work I create there during the summer.
As for the pieces I have pictured here.  They are being created by my Art 2 students.  In retrospect, this is a great beginning of the year project, but my brain did not come up with this idea until recently!  We are dealing with positive-negative space and design.  I'm getting mixed reviews on this project, but mostly positive.  I'll post the finished results as soon as they are done.


Construction paper on paper.


See you soon!

It seems like forever since I last posted, what is wrong with me!?  Rest assured, I am still teaching art and have kept myself and my students quite busy.  February is competition season for us and things were quite busy, but, lucky for me things are beginning to wind down.  I'm glad because I can now show you the latest pieces my adv kids have created.
These are batiks, which I just loooove doing, but due to budget cuts had not been able to do for quite some time.  I submitted a lesson to Donors Choose and my project was fully funded.  Thank you Donors Choose!
 I asked the kids to create something that was inspired by nature, this way any errors with the wax could be easily incorporated into the piece. 
Some of the kids created large piece while others opted for a much smaller size, either way the results were wonderful and we were all happy with the results.
Until next time!

I've been doing a couple of things differently this year, beginning with my Art 1 kids.  I decided to make drawing a priority.  That's not to say that this is all we do, but it is the main thing we do.  I am just finishing up with colored pencil techniques and came up with this assignment.  I had the kids take a large sheet of drawing paper, then create six squares on this one large sheet.  They then have to create six different drawings (of one object) on each square.  I had them paint in the negative space around the squares so that the squares would stand out more.  I am going to have them add shadows around the squares so they will look more 3-D.    I'll post the finished products as soon as they are done which will be in a few more days.
 Looking forward to the time off, already making a list of household chores that need to be done, including painting and rearranging my art studio.  I'm actually looking forward to that :)
Bye!

I love working with stencils, so it's natural that I would want to do them with my art students.  The images that you are seeing were created with spray paint by my Art 1 kids.  This is the most lengthy project that I do with my kids, but they can do so many different projects with stencils. 

As soon as I have more pictures of some finished results I will post them. 

Moving on to another topic, did you hear about the four (or was it five?) states that have adopted the addition of 300 hours to the school year?  Oh geez, what the hell?  So many questions arose in my mind.  I'm pretty sure our state is headed that way, our EOC scores were terrible last year and if things don't change quickly we will only be headed towards longer school days and a longer school year.  Interesting how countries with high performing students actually have shorter school time. Hmmmm, are we headed towards the wrong direction?  I don't have all of the answers, mostly I have questions.  Why don't kids turn in their homework?  Why don't they study for tests?  Why, why, why?  Yes, it starts at home and God only knows what these kids are going through at home.  I just hope we find the answers soon.  Perhaps a career change is in the horizon.

That's me in the middle, along with two good friends of mine.  We had a booth at the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Festival in Old Mesilla, NM this past weekend.  A total of five teachers ( all UVAs. What's an UVA? http://uniondeviejasartistas.blogspot.com/)participated in the festival where we sold our wares and took pictures with people that came to the festival. 
We each sold different things, I mostly sold my jewelry and a few prints of my work.  We spent the weekend there and shared a hotel room, where we drank some wine and did some art (beleive it or not :)  I had a great deal of fun, but was dragging this morning and wondered why I didn't think to take the day off.
Next up is the TAEA Convention in San Antonio, TX.  You going?  I will be there with two of my fellow UVAs and we will be selling our wares one evening.  Come by and say hello if you stop by.  I will not have my costume on, but will have a picture at my table. 
As for school, well the kids are working hard and are creating some great things.  I have changed many things this year concerning my program so I have been quite busy rewriting my lessons and curriculum.  I will post pictures of their work soon.
Hope to see you in San Antonio.

Contour faces

Art 1-This project was a continuation and finale of the modified contour drawing section that I do with my Art 1 kids.  I start them off with mcd of the hands and then move on to other objects.  The face is always daunting, especially to Art 1 kids, but after a few demos they dove right in.  They did a fantastic job and they were quite pleased with the results.  They are so different, it is hard to believe that they are from the same assignment. 
I'll be back soon with some photos from Adv. kids. 
See you soon.

When I told my Art 2 students that they were going to draw shoes they all thought I had finally lost it.  Once I assured the kids that I knew what I was doing I had them take several photos of their and family member's shoes.  I then reviewed the photos with them and we selected the best compositions.  For this assignment all students had to use colored pencils as their medium.  I stressed to them the importance of shadows and lights.  NO black allowed!  All of the shoes had to have several layers of color, even the white shoes had to have other colors blended in.  For the most part the kids did a great job and I just love looking at my wall of shoes when I walk in to my classroom every morning.

Is this a Texas thing?

The school that I work at celebrated homecoming this week and with it the parade of homecoming mums and garters.  A student asked me out of the blue if this was a Texas thing or did every high school student wear mums and garters for homecoming?  My first reaction was to say "yes", but then I realized I might not really know.  So, is this a Texas thing?
We've had these traditions for as long as I can remember, but the mums and garters have gotten larger with time.  When I was in high school our mums were smaller than the boy's garters are today, and they were even smaller when my dad was in high school :)
Well, either way, it is always fun to see everyone's adornments and the jingling of the bells as the kids make their way down the hallway.

My Art 2 kids are working on colored pencil projects this week.  I like teaching them several different techniques using this medium and they end up with great looking drawings when they are done.  I usually teach them how to work with colored pencils prior to teaching them how to paint.  Showing them how to layer and mix colored pencils gives them a pre-view on how they will be working with paint.  Some of the kids struggle at first because I do not allow the colors black and white (sometimes just a bit) to be used in their projects.  They have to figure out how to make those colors using other colors. 
Can't wait to show you the finished product.

Students teaching students

I have an extremely talented student in my Adv. class.  The majority of my students are in awe of this young man's work, especially his pen and colored pencil drawings. 
I decided to let him give a demo to my Art 2 students and Adv. students one day last week.  He was extremely nervous at first, but once he got into the swing of things he did a great job.  The classes were very attentive to what he had to show and they are now applying what they learned to their own projects.
I hope to bring in former students into my classroom to give demos to my students.  I believe my former students are a great resource and my students will enjoy learning from them.
I will post the picture of the piece he was doing for the demo soon.

Imagination

I started with a completely different project this year, mostly out of necessity. There are many schedule changes in the beginning of the school year and there is no point in starting drawing lessons until the classes get settled. 
I decided to give a lesson on imagination to my Art 1 students.  I spoke to them about creativity and imagination then had them create the pieces pictured on top.  The kids created these lines using ink and straws, they then had to use their imaginations and look for images within the lines they had created. 
The first one is a wolf, the second is butterflies and the third is a bear (I photographed it before it was completed).  I believe the students enjoyed this project and gave them some time to relax before the real work began.
The last two are from my Art 2 kids and are part of the project that I wrote about in my last post.
My Adv. and AP kids are also hard at work, I will post some pictures soon, along with a door project that my art club is working on.
Have a good weekend.

Musical instruments

Our fine arts dept. was giving away damaged instruments this summer and I was lucky enough to pick up a few.  I decided to use them for the first assignment of the new school year.  School started last Monday and as the kids walked in, I instructed them to pick up an instrument and start drawing.   The kids are finishing up, some just need to add some finishing details.
The top two are oil pastel completed by Art 3 and 4 students and the bottom two are watercolor completed by Art 2 students. 
As soon as more are completed I will take pictures and post.