Mural Practice

One of the things that I believe is very important in education is integration.  I would like to think that art can be incorporated into any subject to help enhance it!  This year at The Graham School I have had the opportunity to teach foundations (freshman) in our experiential program.  With the help of another art teacher, Jodi Kushins, we were able to get the students involved in some public art: The Mural Project.  You can see our progress on our student-created blog site!

These pictures show the students working together to create a practice mural.  This practice was integral to their education about learning how to work together as a group and also to practice painting.  We did many studies like this before we were ready to work on the real thing. 

Hand Study

One of the resources I have found for teaching students how to draw is Betty Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  Edward's writes about how people would be more comfortable with drawing and making artwork if we as educators spent as much time nurturing the right side of the brain (spatial, emotional, visual knowledge) as we do the left side of the brain (verbal, logical knowledge).

This exercise  begins with students using a piece of plexiglass to trace all the contours of their hand.  Then they transfer these contours to an 18" x 24" sheet of white drawing paper.  Students then fill in all the value they can find in their hand.  Every hand drawing is as unique as the students are!

The Wexner Center

I believe that it is so important to take students on field trips so that can see the actual artwork.  This is an image of some of my students on our trip to visit the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Wexner Center.  Even the building is a work of art!

Value Collage Ink Drawings

This a lesson for students to practice depicting value.  They begin by creating a collage and then recreate their image by using india ink.  

Reverse Value Drawings

This project really makes my students think!  Their job is to draw the high lights on the skull rather than the shadows.  This project also helps to prepare them for drawing their portraits by having the examine elements of a skull.

Personal Interest Portraits

I love this project!  I use it as an icebreaker for the first few days of class.  I got the idea from a fellow classmate while I was working towards my Masters in Education.  

Step 1: Photograph the student.

Step 2: Upload photograph into Photoshop and change the image to black and white.  You want to have strong shapes and shadows in the image.

Step 3: Students overlay a white piece of paper over the image and trace all the black spaces with a pencil.

Step 4: Students use fine tipped Sharpies to write about themselves and fill in the areas they traced.

As you can see, this project is open to the student's interpretation! 

Christo Chair Drawings

One of the tools that is useful to use when teaching students how to draw is to set up a still life.  However, students can get bored with this concept.  To make a still life more interesting for my students, I had them begin by studying artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their wrapped artworks.  We watched the video The Gates, which documented the artist's recent work in New York City.  The students  began their still life studies with a warm-up drawing of the negative space of a chair.  Next, the students wrapped the chair in fabric and twine.  Students spent several days working on these drawings.

Negative/Positive Space: India Ink

In order to learn how to draw, it is important to study the concept of negative and positive space.  One of the ways I have taught this concept is by having the students make an india ink drawing of a potted plant that I keep in my classroom.  The results are always beautiful!

Art Cart

One of the things I have had to learn to do while being an art teacher is to be creative!  The school I teach in has a limited budget.  My classroom is a large space that my class and I share with a math teacher and a math class.  Unfortunately, we do not have a sink so I found this cart to function as a sink.  There are tubs of soapy water for kids to wash their brushes and hands in. 

Calendar

This is a picture of my calendar.  I have incorporated this into my blog because it has been such a huge asset to my students and I!  I believe that it is important to model the behavior you would like your students to demonstrate.  A piece of knowledge I hope to impart upon my students is how to plan and use time management skills to get projects completed on time.  My calendar is color-coded for each of the classes I teach.

Impressionist Oil Resist Paintings

Students began their study of the Impressionists at the Columbus Art Museum.  We looked at several of Monet's paintings, as well as Cezanne and Renior (just to name a few).  The class documented their trip by recording information about the paintings they saw and made some sketches.  After the trip, students replicated a Impressionist painting of their choice using oil pastels.  Students brushed watercolor pigment over the drawing to complete it.

Kandinsky ink-watercolors

Students studied artist Wassily Kandinsky and Expressionism.  As a class, we looked at several of Kandinsky's artworks and learned about his life, his travels throughout Europe and his interaction with artist groups such as the Bauhaus and Der Blaue Reiter.  We also discussed Kandinsky's passion for music and how he attempted to paint/visually depict music.  Students demonstrated their knowledge of Kandinsky by making a glue/india ink and watercolor painting while listening to music in an attempt to paint what they thought the music looked like.

The Sculpture Project

When I first started teaching at The Graham School, they asked me to teach a class that incorporated sculptural elements.  Unfortunately, we do not have a lot of money to be able to buy the necessary tools or supplies.  Here is how I solved this dilemma: I used inexpensive items such as coat hangers, aluminum wire, tights, fabric stiffener and acrylic paint.

Students begin by constructing a wire sculpture from the aluminum wire (less expensive if purchased from the hardware store).  Then the students stitch cut pieces of the tights to the wire (less expensive if the tights are purchased at the thrift store).  Third step: the students use fabric stiffener on the sculpture.  Finally, the object is painted with acrylic.