High School Portrait Unit

The introductory art course for high school is a combination of freshman and sophomore students. The class has a range of artistic abilities, from beginning to middle level.

It is now Term 2, and my class of nine has begun a portrait unit. For a beginning level art student, portraits can seem like a daunting challenge. We have been taking this step by step and so far my students and I have been pleased with the results!

To kick off the unit I had my class sit in separate parts of the room away from each other. They were given two or three small squares each. These squares all had something different on them. The students were to draw what they saw on those pictures onto blank squares that were provided.

On the back of each square there were numbers. When the students had completed their drawing, they were to stick their finished square on the corresponding number to a grid chart I had at the front of the room. Piece by piece their collaborative drawing was put together, until they could see what they had collectively made.

 This activity worked really well and got rid of some of the portrait "anxiety" that my students were expressing.

During the next class period, I had students bring in a photo of themselves. We discussed facial dimensions and proportions. Students were also given a handout with helpful drawing tips and reminders for certain facial features.

The students cut their photo in half however they preferred, and practiced drawing the other half with different shading techniques. They really did a great job and enjoyed completing these as well!

The students are now practicing a full portrait using the grid method. They brought in large photos of someone they admire and will complete the drawing using oil pastels. I will post them when they are finished! Well done high school!

Beautiful Oops

I just read the book Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg with my Kindergarten classes. Every art teacher should own this book! It is as the title suggests, a beautiful story about how wonderful making mistakes can be. I always tell my students, "It's not a mistake, it's an opportunity!" and this little story fit in right along with my motto.

After exploring the pictures and making creative guesses about what each splat, spill, or blob could be turned into, we created an "Oops" of our own.

The day before their class, I had made an "Oops" on different pieces of paper for the students. Each individual paper had a paint splatter of a different color, shape, or line.

 My Kinders were instructed to use their paint splatter in order to create an image, object, or picture. Their amazing imaginations went to work. It was exciting to see the students so engaged and I'm happy to share their creativity!

 Aren't these just too much fun? If you don't have Beautiful Oops in your library, I suggest ordering it. Great book for any art teacher!

Pop Art Pizzas

I love Pop Art. What I love even more about Pop Art is teaching it! I always do at least one lesson on this art movement with every grade level, so I am always looking for new ideas. This year I stumbled upon a fabulous blog with this wonderful lesson: Pizza Sculptures so I decided to give it a try!

Before we started the project my third graders and I discussed a few important artists involved with this movement, one being Claes Oldenburg. The students loved viewing and talking about his giant sculptures. When I revealed our next project to the class, they literally cheered.

First the students cut two large triangles of some recycled paper I had been saving. At the beginning of the school year, our overseas supply shipment was delivered. There was so much packing paper leftover that I have giant black garbage bags full of the stuff waiting to be used! (Yay!)

 

As you can see, we had quite the mess. Paper everywhere!

 After the two large triangles were cut, they stapled both of the sides together leaving the top open. Students crumpled leftover packing paper and stuffed it into the opening. Once the pizza was full, they stapled the opening to form a crust.

The next class period third graders began painting red for the sauce and brown for the crust. When the paint was completed, they began to cut toppings of their choice. The toppings were then glued onto the wet paint.

 Our wonderful pop art pizzas were completed in only two class periods. We had so much fun with this!

Warm And Cool Colored Mosques

Towards the middle of term one, my third graders were learning about warm and cool colors. The project that we attempted involving these colors turned out to be very successful!

The first step the student's took was to paint warm colored stripes of watercolors on a single sheet of paper, then cool colored stripes on another.

 
After the watercolor stripes were completed, I passed out pictures of mosques that are in our town of Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia. Students chose which pictures to draw from and began their drawings on graph paper. The graph paper lines allowed them to draw straight even lines with correct proportions on their buildings.

When their drawings were finished, we cut them out and placed them on the completed warm colored striped paper. We traced our buildings and cut those out as well, adding details with a black sharpie marker.

Students then cut out their cool colored stripes and glued them onto a black background. The warm colored mosque was then glued on top, with a few accents of glittered stars in the background.

Although there were many steps involved, the students did a fantastic job. All the mosques looked unique and different as the students were able to decorate them individually. Parents and teachers alike enjoyed them at our first annual art show this past week at IPS!

 

Outstanding Organics

My fifth grade girls completely blew me away with their finished paintings this week. I'm so excited to show them off!

Before we started our awesome paintings, we began with a simple cut and paste collage activity dealing with geometric and organic shapes. We discussed historical and contemporary artists that use(d) these different shapes within their work such as: Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, and Reggie Laurent.

Once these collages were completed, the girls were introduced to Peter Max and his world of bright wonderful colors. They loved his work, and inspiration was born! So we began designing our own "Organic Landscapes" with a Peter-Max-like palette.

Below are some examples of how we got started:

 

Students began with a design in their sketchbooks first. They were then given a larger piece of paper and reproduced that initial sketch. Once their drawing was finished in pencil, they outlined their drawing with a black permanent marker. After that, paint was applied.

Check out the final product!

                                 

Overall the project was fun, engaging, and pretty successful. It also allowed every student to have a huge amount of creative freedom. The results were outstanding, way to go fifth grade!

A New Year For Art At IPS!

This is my second year teaching K-12 art at the International Programs School of Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. During my first year of teaching, I enjoyed gathering ideas from other helpful art teacher's blogs, so I have decided to join the 'blogging world' and share a few ideas of my own! 

We are now entering our fourth week of school, it is going by so fast already I cannot believe it. In the art room we hit the ground running with some great projects. The work the students are producing already makes me proud to be their teacher!

In the kindergarten classes, we began the year learning about primary and secondary colors. I read the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh and we discussed how primary colors make the secondary colors. Every student was given a mouse that I had drawn and photocopied. They were shown how to paint different sections of their mouse with the primary colors. Once the mouse was completely covered, they folded it in half, mixing the paint together. When the mouse was unfolded, wallah! Secondary colors were revealed. The KG's loved it!

    

Another successful project in kindergarten these few weeks of school, was our line and circle family abstract paintings. We discussed and practiced all the different lines and types of circles that we could think of, making a wax resist for the final product. Absolutely beautiful. 

The high school seniors just finished up their first project as well. I have so many elementary classes, that the art room tends to have an "elementary feel." I didn't want my older students to feel left out, so our first project was for them to help personalize the art room. We designed our own puzzle pieces, with an underlying theme of personally meaningful design. I was inspired to do this project by The Puzzle Installation and Collaborative Project at http://www.timkellyartist.com/tk_puzzle_meaningful.html. Once the students completed their puzzle pieces, we decided to install them on the ceiling. Our art room is quite small, so we need to utilize the space!

I am excited to see what else this year will bring for the IPS Art Department. Many photos, lesson plans, and updates soon to come!