Self Portraits!

I took my students photos in front of a brick wall, and printed it in grayscale.  Next students divided their photos with a 1" grid, and their 12" X 18" papers into a 3" grid.  Students used the grid drawing method to draw their likeness as well as the background, and they used ebony pencils to shade them.

It is amazing what students can accomplish when they really focus and put forth 100% effort.  I think they surprised themselves on this one!

Preparing for pencil work

Students are getting ready to do self portraits, and I want them to use only ebony pencils to shade in a range of values.  We went over some basic shading practices, and then I also gave practice using grids to draw.  In my experience, students either love them or they hate them.  Either way, it is great to help them to draw only what they see.  I made some "Warholed" grey scale pictures with grids for the students to draw and practice making values with only their pencils. Here are the celebs I used:

When we are done, I plan to take students photos so they can draw themselves.

Kaleidoscope

I think all art teachers have done some version of a mandala or kaleidoscopic image with their students.  After all, it is an awesome art activity to learn about radial balance!  So, students had to include their name and three things that they like in their design.  i wrote my last name in cursive, drew a thread with a needle, an orchid and a zebra longwing butterfly.  Here is my example design:

The students enjoyed this assignment, although the transfer process can be a little complex for some.  It is so cool how those things that are drawn make their own unplanned design elements when the mirror image is added.  In the future, I believe we will not use watercolor washes on it so they can be more vibrant.

Graffiti!

One thing I like to do every year with my students is Graffiti!  I LOVE graffiti!  Of course we talk about the not so great side of it, vandalism, but I just think it takes so much talent to be able to create with spray paint!  I even found this nifty example on a train during a vacation in Atlanta:

But back to the class activity.  We continued to talk about line and shape, and we talked about common characteristics of graffiti, and some steps to making them.  I really enjoy putting up artwork in the hallway, so that people know that we are actually working in my room!  Plus, it just makes the students feel great to have their artwork out for all to see.  I started out with this backdrop:

And then added the students work, and voila!

I Am...

We are back from an unexpected break, AKA Hurricane Harvey, but we are anxious to dive right in to the Elements and Principles of Design.  For this activity, we are focusing on line and shape.  Students had to learn the characteristics of lines and shapes--different types and ways they can look, and then they had to list about six adjectives that they would use to describe themselves.  Here was my example:

Overall, I was very pleased with how the student work turned out.  A not-so-intimidating activity to start the year!