First Day of School Still Life

These pictures are of the still lifes created by my Art 1 students.  I had asked in a previous post what would be a great first day assignment for Art 1.  I wanted something that would set the tone for the rest of the year.  My Art 1 classes fill very quickly, but many of the kids that register for my class have no real interest in art.  They assume that it is an easy class and easy to pass.  When the weeks start to pass and we start to draw, many of these kids complain about drawing and painting.  They then turn their attention at talking and soon begin to fail. There are so many kids that have a true interest in my class, but can't get in because my classes are full.   Ms. Art Teacher suggested that I begin the year with a still life and some book work.  I took her advice.  After the second day of drawing the still life I gave the class a talk about needing to have a real interest in art in order to succeed.  They also need dedication and should find the act of drawing enjoyable.  After two days of drawing a few kids had a change of heart, opening up spaces for kids that had been trying to get into my class. 

For this project I gave the kids some guidelines and a couple of pointers.  They had two and a half periods (47 min. classes) to finish.  I think they did a fabulous job! Thanks Ms. Art Teacher.

I also have a few other pics to show you of my Adv. classes, but I will save those for now.

Collage Paintings

These are some paintings that my Art 1 students created before the puppets. I had forgotten to post these. The kids weent through different magazines and created a collage. I asked them to think about composition and to add graphics. After creating the collage the kids created these paintings. I think they did a great job with these.

Here are the Finals

The first semester is finally over. I graded all of the final exams and the kids did good for the most part. They had to write about and illustrate four projects or techniques that they did in the first semester. The exam took much longer than expected but it worked out great.

I am now starting color and colored pencils for the second semester. The second semester always seems the longest to me, but the count down has begun, well, at least in my head it has. I have several new students this semester, kids that did not pass the second part of art in previous years or new students to the school that have never taken art before. It is such a diservice to the kids that are given the second half of art first, but as much as we tell the counselors, they just don't get it.

Scratch Art

First I'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas. I've had a great time surrounded by family and now I'm sitting with my legs up relaxing in front of the computer.

I've had the scratch art pictures stored in my computer for a few weeks and I figured this was a good time to upload them. I ordered the scratch art paper a while back and wasn't sure what to do with them. I saw this project idea from a teacher at TAEA, he was very kind to share and I'm sorry I don't remember his name.
The kids liked the results and it was a perfect project right before the holiday.

The kids glued on the "skin part" of the images and scratched off the rest. I asked them to scratch patterns for their clothes and the background.

Finished!

Finally, they're done! Well....the majority of them are done, just a few more to go but they should all be done by Fri. You can view the instructions to this project below.

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peak at the latest Art 1 project. After I taught the kids how to cut the concentric circles (see below) I then had them apply it to their drawings. They had to create symbols for nature, geometric form and a human representation.
They then cut out the stencil using exacto knives. This takes about three days, depending on the intricacy of the piece.

Once the stencil was cut they traced it onto a black construction paper. They then took the stencil outside and spray painted it on a colored construction paper. They spray with black first, then shift the stencil a bit and apply white paint. Some of the results are amazing.

The kids then cut the black construction paper and apply cut magazine to the back. The one pictured is not completed yet.

Cut Paper Project

I thought I would give my kids a reprieve from all of the drawing and shading and give them a more hands on project. I had done a cut paper project years ago when I was a middle school art teacher with great results so I figured I'd revisit this particular project. I honestly thought it would be a quick, painless process for them. WRONG!

The concept has completely gone over their heads, I'm not exaggerating when I say that I am completely shocked that they can't grasp the process. I gave them a practice paper and when I looked at the results it was clear they did not understand.

I have had to take a few steps back to help them understand the concept. One thing that I did was have them create this "bulls eye" design out of construction paper. The goal is to have one complete piece when they are done cutting. I want them to understand that everything has to be connected in order for it to work. Afterwards I had them paste a magazine page on the back for added interest.

Shading

My Art 1 kids are finally done with their shading projects. The majority of the pieces came out great and I do hope they grasped the idea of light and shadow, hopefully they will keep this in mind when we get into color.

I have now started a cut paper project and I am afraid I am expecting too much from them. They are not grasping the idea of how to cut the paper so that the outline of a shape stays behind. I am going to have to take this project slowly which is a shame because I was hoping to start on color right after Thanksgiving break.

Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Turning shapes into forms.

When students learn to shade, they begin to turn shapes into forms. We now have to get away from line and I begin stressing the importance of defining edges with value and shadows.

I saw a project on School Arts years ago with something similar. The teacher had created some forms with paper and then had the kids use pastels to draw them. I thought this idea would work for a shading project. Aside from having to shade, they also have to draw the intersecting forms.

When I introduced this project to my kids their mouths dropped. Comments like "I can't do that Mrs.!" and "No way!" were heard over and over again. With some encouragement and practice they finally felt confident enough to try. They were very pleased with their results.

Next comes shading

After line and pattern comes shading. I talk to the kids about shapes becoming forms. I do your typical value scale (you know the one) stressing a gradual change in value. After doing several shading exercises I give them strips of paper to curl. They then place them on their desks and shade. I do several of these, asking the kids to create different curls with their papers. I enjoy seeing their expressions when they see the finished product. Love it!

Shapes and Patterns

After spending some time doing line drawings we get into shapes and patterns. I don't spend too much time on these particular principles and elements, but I do come back to them and do continue to speak of them from time to time. Again, I wanted to experiment on a new project for my art 1 classes so I was not too sure what the end results were going to be.

I start off by asking them to create a grid and fill each square with different patterns. I talk about natural patterns and man-made patterns. Once they complete the grid, they bring an interesting shape cut out of a magazine. They then fill up some of the shapes with the patterns they have created. Their work should look balanced when completed.

After my Art 1 kids are done with line we get into BCD and MCD. I do your typical hand drawings and the kids really get a kick when they see the big improvement in their drawing skills. I usually do a project that involves sign language hand signs, but I decided to do something different this year. The kids had to look for a song that delt with a social issue that they could relate to. They then collaged some of the lyrics on a paper, did a MCD drawing of themselves and finished it off with some color. The verdict is still out on this project, but I am glad that I changed it up a bit.