Progress on creating unity

In my studio classes I have been going around and helping students improve their work. I do this by comparing their work to the image that was given to them, and by placing their work next to other students. I only do this because, for this project the image relies heavily on shapes and the values used in each square. If one students work is off, the whole picture can be disrupted.

When the students are done with a square, they are encouraged to put it up on the wall as soon as possible. This way everyone can see the progress and what needs to be altered in any squares. Having the pictures up also helps the students from losing their work because all the squares look the same after a while and blend together on the drying rack.

I also noticed that some of my studio classes do better with this project than other classes. One class finished all their squares in the first day, while my other class takes their time and really puts effort into the image. I just hope that all of these studio classes are benefiting from this project.  It’s always fun to see the students work as a team.

Making Unity

            In studio class, the students began working on their squares from Twilight. The students understood how the pieces were going to fit together after they did a small worksheet of a lion and they saw pervious student work. They students were inspired and understood that they were responsible for creating the shapes perfectly in their square in order to make the whole image come together in unity.

      Many of the students finished some of their squares and began to hang them up. It is interesting to see how the pieces come together and if the students really looked closely at the different values and shapes.

 

(To the left is a previous student example

and below is my students beginning to work

with ink and hang up their work)

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       This week in my drawing and painting class, the students began to learn about different hues and combinations of hues. For starters, the students had to make a color wheel with blocks of color from a magazine. Many of the students found difficulty in this. Students did not know how to identify where the color should be in the color wheel coming from a picture. I pointed out different hues and made it clear to the students which should belong where. I also helped a student with a disability collect all the images and place them together.

 

     Next the students had to create a grid where next class they will fill out. They must choose one color and make the variations of tints to white and shades too black.  

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Lastly in yearbook class the girls had to make an announcement that retakes for school pictures were coming up. Mrs. Valenti and I were responsible for handing out the forms. It is a lot of work to keep the yearbook class in line.

Twilight

       In studio class, Mrs. Valenti wanted to do a project where the students create an image with the ink. Mrs. Valento chose to do a person from Twilight for each class so the students would be more excited. Mrs. Valenti asked me to go find good images that had high contrast with great shadows and lighting of the actors. I also had to crop the images and alter them to black and white. It took a whole class period to get the right images together. I also had to break the images up into small squares so students could do a small piece each. Mrs.Valenti and I are going to assign the harder pieces to the more advanced students.

 

     Students have already been asking about the assignment and are excited to begin. Maybe using students favorite celebrities is a great way to motivate them in other assignments as well : )

Artist paper

      Today is the beginning of my 4^th week! Before class started, Mrs. Valenti and I began to plan out the days I will be planning and instructing my own lessons. We decided that I will be teaching a lesson on watercolors, which I am very excited to do. Making this decision we had to look at the calendar and figure out when the students will finish the other lessons we are doing. We decided I will also do a PowerPoint to introduce the topic, and have the rest of that block to have the students experiment with the watercolors and different techniques. The next class will be when I start the actual project with the class. I can’t wait to begin!

      Then in my studio class, the students had to choose an artist they wanted to write a paper on. If the students did not know any artists then I went around and helped them choose someone they might like. I discovered that some students found an artist quiet easily while some searched all class and claimed they didn’t like any of them. So therefor I wrote down all the qualities the certain students were looking for in an artist and will search for some artists for hw. One of my students discovered that his artwork was inspired by Islamic architecture. We found this out by searching over an hour on the internet. Now we just have to figure out an artist that will relate to his study.

       What I also noticed was that most of the students choose a chalk artist named Julian Beever. I think this artist was great but I was shocked to see all my students found him as the most interesting. His work is very cool because he creates 3-D effects on pavement from standing at a certain viewpoint. Having this assignment made me see what kind of art should inspire our next project…maybe chalk ??

(All of these images are chalk

art created by Julian Beever)

 

Shades and tints

In studio, I started to work on an example to show for the students. I was responsible for doing a demonstration as well.  

During class the students had to finish tracing their shapes. Then they had to paint ink to fill their shapes from darkest to light, from start to finish. To lighten the ink, the students had applied water to lighten it. I showed the students that they could build up the layers so they wouldn’t use a tone that was to dark. Building up was better for the students because you can't erase if you applied to much.

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 In year book class, Mrs. Valenti and I passed out papers to the students. These important papers were what the students had to bring to companies so they can sell adds for the yearbook. I noticed that many of the students were not too thrilled with this assignment even though most of them had jobs they could bring them to. Hopefully they can sell a few. After, the students went around the school to take picture of the senior VIPS. It was an adventurous class.

Studio/Drawing/Ceramics

Today in my studio class, Mrs. Valenti and I finished grading the student’s prints. I then hung up all the work in the classroom. The work looked great and other art teachers came through and complimented the work. While I was hanging up the work, the students had to answer a worksheet, and read out of a text book about art criticism. If the students had any questions, I answered them.

Later in studio, we introduced a new project. The students had to create a crazy shape that was either organic or geometrical. Students were NOT allowed to use hearts, stars, or flowers. The students had to be creative and thoughtful about balance and line. With that shape, the students had to trace the shape at least eight times, overlapping each other. The goal was to try and make the shape look like it was moving one spot to another. The repetition of these crazy shapes was great because the students are going to have to fade ink from one shade to another. So far, the students shapes have been very interesting and abstract.  

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In my drawing/painting class, my students continued to work on their sections. I went around and had the groups physically put the parts together so I could point out where the parts need to align up. Some of the groups were much more talented than others and needed less direction. My one group of young girls put 10 times more effort in than the whole class and I like to use their work as my examples so the other students are inspired to try harder. Oil pastels can either turn out sloppy or very well blended like my one group. So far so good.

 

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Before I left, I decided to stop in the ceramics room to see the progress of the students rattle heads. The students just finished glassing them and some of my students are in this class and wanted me to see their work.  I saw their work and ALL of their rattle heads looked amazing. Some are so funny and others seem so commercial. It was nice to see how my students were doing in the other art classes.

 

Week 3- Studio/Drawing/Yearbook

(example of the print label)

Today in my studio class, we had the students finish up on the print making pieces they have created. The students had to place the prints on a larger matt board and under each print they had to correctly label them. This is done with pencil and has 3 areas that are filled out. That is the number/ edition, the title of the artwork, and the date and name of the artist. Many of the students work came out successful and they were proud to display their work in the classroom.

 

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In my drawing and painting class, the students had to continue to work on their section of the oil pastel portraits. I noticed that it is hard to keep some of the students at the same rate as other students. I had some students who took their time in making sure every little detail was perfect and then I had students that were done by the end of class. I prefer my students to be more involved and caring about their work than the students who throw together a project in the first class. So now Mrs. Valenti and I have students who are finishing and students who need another week to work. It is up to me to think of assignments I can give to students who are already done.

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After my two classes, I had to take the responsibility of doing things that all art teachers do on a daily basis. I had to move all the art work in the hall way and display new art work. It does take a lot of time and sweat to get all the work up, but it is very important to display new work of the students. I see that many students in the hallway really appreciate the work and are inspired by the student’s hard work. If I created something great, I would want it up in the hall for everyone to see as well!!

I also was responsible for cleaning out all the old magazines that were no good and replace them with new ones. Because students use images for nearly all their art work, it is good to have some fresh materials. The library donated a new large stack of magazines to our classroom and I tossed all the papers that were cut up and no good. It is good to keep your classroom clean and organized.

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Lastly, because today was the due date for the yearbook cover, our student who created the cover finally brought it in to show. It was very exciting to see. The image was made on photo shop and was all images of the students from spirit week.

 

Studio Print making + Drawing

(Student finishing up on carving)

In my A day studio class, we finished working on the students prints. Because I am doing a special power point on the steps of print making, I took photos of students at different stages. So far, all mine and Mrs. Valenti’s students in the studio classes are caught up and next class we will matt the prints.  

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           Next in my drawing class, Mrs. Valenti asked me what we could do next with the students. We both combined our ideas and decided we were going to take famous paintings and break them up into 4 even squares. Then the students would be responsible for choosing a piece of the image and work together in a group to create the whole image. So the students would be completing ¼ of the image.

          Because the students were still learning to work with oil pastels, the students were shown images of Seurat and Van Gogh to see examples of impressionistic artworks. The students were also told to alter the image and change the colors in the images. Many of the groups came up with ideas where each block they would do a different color scheme. Most of the class time went to sketching out the image and planning the group’s idea.  Class was very successful so far and I was glad my idea input was good.
 

                                            ( Students working together and mapping out their ideas.)  

         Mrs. Valenti and I also found some older art work in the back of the class room. These examples were cool because the students were only allowed to use two primary colors and black and white. These examples really proved to the students that there is a lot of variation of colors that can be created with few colors. The examples were also broken up into smaller squares to make a whole, so the students could see how their images would fit together as well.