Artist Trading Cards are so amazing

Today the Interactive Art History students are finally getting their paint brushes at their mini canvases for the ever popular Mini Masterpiece project idea. In the past they have been both excited and incredibly intimidated by the teeny-tiny canvases both this year I think I finally discovered a way to allay the fears because check out what they did with these Artist Trading Cards...

If these don't show that they are reasonably prepared and confident for really turning out some extraordinary tiny paintings that I don't know what will prove it. They will work on their tiny canvases for at least a week (starting today) in order to leave enough time for them to set and dry to give as mother's day gifts. I really look forward to sharing their finished works with you all because if this is any hint at what's to come? Surely they are going to be amazingly done!

Hand check

Returned from Spring break but I have so much to do now that I am officially in the fourth and final quarter. Where in the world did the rest of the school year go and how am I at the end of another one?

I have plenty that I know I owe you all in updates and other good stuff but I also need to get my grades in for this week for report cards to go out AND I also have some grad studies work due this weekend so gotta put the blogging on hold even longer! Sorry!!!

The above image is a preview at least of what I have ventured into with the Interactive Art History class. I took a pinterest idea and crossed it with a lesson plan found on Dick Blick for them to be able to study World Art! At some point upon my return, I will share the lesson plan idea as well as some of the tricks and tips (and snafus) that yielded from the endeavor. Probably will see you next week if I'm lucky!

Keep Calm and Paint Sumi-E

In addition to Spring bringing all of the studying of installation art with the 3D Design class, the other thing that Spring brings is the Interactive Art History's class unit of doing Sumi-E ink painting...

I have already shared the lesson/project idea HERE and it's quite popular as it's become a real mainstay in the popular posts list link in the right sidebar over there. ------------------------------>

This year I found a great instructional video on how to paint Sumi-E on youtube and I shared this in addition to showing them some quick demos. I think this particular video is really great for an introduction to Sumi-E painting...

Also, as I mentioned previously when I originally shared this lesson idea, I ban the listening of "personal music" (that is: music that the students listen to from their own music players with headphones) and everyone listens to nature sounds while they do their ink wash painting instead!

Here are two that I used this year and they were quite popular and it was amazing how calming it was for the otherwise hustle and bustle of the classroom...

I would turn either of the two videos above and just play the sounds through the speakers as I would quietly circulate the classroom in order to check on the students as they worked. Also? There were very few protests from the students! Well... at first a few kind of fussed about it but after just one class period of this - and we had four total - there wasn't a complaint that I remember because I think the students really appreciated it in the midst of their days.

I don't have finished pieces of work to show you right now because I am currently on Spring Break and I forgot to snap some pictures of them before I left campus but I hope to share them with you in the coming weeks when I am back to school and in the swing of things.

Cave Art Lesson idea :: New and Improved!!!

This semester I am teaching one section of Interactive Art History and they are kicking off their first major project doing a fan-favorite: Cave Art!!!!

I have previously shared our adventures with Cave Art located HERE and HERE and this year we are doing pretty much the same sort of thing but I decided to expand upon it a little bit by requiring the students to create sketches and drafts before they get to the plaster sculpting and painting stage.

I don't know why I didn't do it like this before but it's working out quite well and almost all of them were able to adhere to their original design intentions for the faux rock portion itself...

Something else I have done purely for the fun of it, I am playing music that is specifically meant to create an working environment that is decidedly more authentic in order to make all of the student artists feel more like cave artists. Here is one thing I have been playing for them at least once a day/class period...

I don't show them the video because this clip is actually from a movie that is not entirely appropriate for the students to watch in its entirety - though the clip is fine for the most part - in addition to the fact that it pretty much makes fun of prehistoric people/society in the way it is depicted but that's hardly the point of the sounds of the video that I share anyway. The point it, it has actually served as great creative inspiration for the students that has yielded quite positive results. Something very good from something decidedly bad? I'll always take that.

Master Study - Marc Chagall :: 2D Design

I've got one section of 2D Design this semester and while I could just do what I did last semester with the three sections of 2D that I had, I have decided to change things up a bit. What can I say? I get easily bored with things. *shrug*

I have never done a master artist study with any of my classes but I feel like they are important and really interesting when you do them so I think it's time to start doing them. Our artist of focus is Marc Chagall and I think the student artists I have will really appreciate his work because of the colors and overlapping elements that he used in his pieces. I am not sure exactly what it's going to look like for subsequent projects but for the initial one we are going to use Chagall's work to produce some continuous line drawings. I feel like it will make sense to the students to take these two and put them together because they will feel the connectedness of the overlapping elements of Chagall's work and then they will have to physically connect them all with the continuous line technique.

Something else that I am going to have them do is time themselves - at first we will do it as a class - and then they can time themselves individually with their phones/music devices. I want to encourage them to try out different things within their creative processing in order to be able to get different results so they start to understand that successful works of art don't happen simply by chance and they are intentionally created based upon specific decisions that are made in the process of creating them. I want them to learn to see/feel the differences and then attempt to make changes within their own processes in order to get different creative results.

We just started this last week so I will let you know how it starts to pan out and if it ends up flopping? Well, of course I will let you know that as well. ;)

Lesson idea: StampART for Black History month

Said it before and I'll say it again: I LOVE doing things to recognize the holidays that come and go!

My every intention was post this at the tail end of last month but it just didn't happen because of all of the set design and painting for The Sound of Music. *shrug* What can I say? I should make the tagline for this blog "better late than never."

Anyway.

This project was one I did to recognize Black History month. I stumbled upon the idea by way of This is Collossal when they highlighted the work of New York based artist Molly Rausch. I loved the way it drew in the nostalgia and real history of postage stamps as arts while also touching upon the idea of how important it is to "see the forest from the trees" since a postage stamp - while small and well designed - is such a small snippet of an illustration of a persons while big wonderful life.

Each of the students was allowed to pick whomever they wanted within Black History and I also allowed them to utilize the tracing table because, for some of them, this is their first studio art class in all of high school or in many many years.

This is a very VERY small sampling of pieces that were completed and I wanted to photograph a lot more but a combination of laziness and running out of time has yielded only this much. You get the idea of what we did at least with this much.

Fun tidbit of this project: The edging of the stamps (that were about 4"x5" in size) was done with this handy-dandy paper edging machine that my artsy-craftsy grandma gave me last year in a bin of other random art materials. The machine is specifically for card making and scrapbooking but I'm not into either one of those things so the only times I get to use the machine is during seemingly random times like this project.

Everybody's favorite: Cave art!!!

The Interactive Art History classes started the prehistoric art unit and so far they are L-O-V-I-N-G the cave art project I implemented last Spring.

It is the messiest of all of the projects and even when you are doing all of the steps correctly, it's pretty close to impossible to not get your hands dirty. For as much as the kids fuss about the messiness though? They always cite it as one of their favorite projects of the whole course.  I can't blame them for loving it. Plaster of Paris is SO cool to work with!!!

Mixing the plaster of paris and then pouring it onto trays to start the sculpting process.

Some of the students ended up breaking their cave chunks but that's OK! Nothing that gorilla super glue won't fix and(!) the cracks that result from a broken plaster piece end up making the pieces look that much more realistic overall.

Some of the students weren't loving the uniformity of the edges of their cave chunks so they chiseled down the edges of their pieces to give them a more realistic feel.

Painting has begun!!! I expect that it will take them somewhere around 3-4 days of layered sponge painting in order for them to achieve the effect painting results they ultimately are going for. After they get the visual texture and coloring right? It will be another 3 days or so to do the actual designs/forms to imitate the cave art we looked at.

So embarrassing but this is one of the sinks in the art room!!  This happens at least once a year and Friday of last week seemed to be the day. There is no standing water in this picture but if I try and flush the drain that's just what happens. At one point I was standing on the counter plunging the drain (I am so hardcore like that *wink*) and then I had to call in reinforcements in the form of our building and facilities management. I am good friends with those guys despite the fact that I create so many issues for them on any given day.

So, that's where we are so far with the cave art project. I am thinking that the students will turn out even higher quality/more creative pieces this year because 1) I have more experience doing this project having done it before in two different forms, 2) I had some really great examples of last year's student work to really show them what they should (and shouldn't) do with their work, and 3) I just plain have a really fantastic and enthusiastic bunch of student artists this go 'round (par for the course as it has been for most all of this year).

WiPs: Think outside the stamp - Commemorating Black History month

In case you need reminding: I am all about projects that can be appropriately timed with holidays!!

Last year we did an idea that was awesome in theory but completely underwhelming when we attempted to pull it together for Black History month. *sigh* I still cringe at the thought that we didn't even finish the work until long after Black History month was OVER and then I had such disdain for the whole experience that I didn't actually hang them in the student gallery for another month and a half. *whatev*

Since I'm constantly trying to improve the curriculum and not be boring with the project work (by doing the same thing over and OVER again), I changed it up this year after seeing the work of Molly Rausch in my Google reader the one day by way of This is Collossal.

Here are some pictures of what the students have been working diligently on. Since it is a seriously foundational course and I don't have a lot of advanced art students, I allow and very much encourage "crutches" in their learning for this (their first project) especially. They are allowed to use the quad light box set-up I got from a local hospital's X-ray department last year and they are working with mixed dry media.

It's been a very fun project so far and I am very anxious as I anticipate how each of their pieces starts to come together, take shape, and then get refined and polished up. I will (of course) try and show you that work when it happens.

Just reorganized the lessons page!

Hello, all! I have been meaning to reorganize the lessons page that shows a comprehensive and bulletized list of all of the lessons I have used in my classroom - both my own originals as well as those I've been inspired to use from places all over the web.You can always find specific lesson ideas based upon the specific media used or the class by clicking on one of the categorized labels on the right sidebar but for quicker look up I categorized all of the lessons in the lessons page link (see the top side bar below the header graphic) according to the courses in which I use them. The course categories are as follows: 2D Design, 3D Design, Interactive Art History, Graphic/Digital Design. Hope this helps you to navigate the site with a little greater ease.

Lesson idea: Apparel as art (a study of Expressionism)

This project is the last one I did with the Interactive Art History class. We tackled Expressionism and it was a project I specifically implemented because I knew it would be the end of the year and I wanted the students to be as engaged and invested in the creative process and fabrication of their projects as possible. It originated from the idea that we would do painted ties (meant for display and not wearing so much) with acrylic paints for them to give to their fathers for the fathers day even though it would be happening long after we were released for the summer. I figured that we had done the mini masterpieces for the moms so doing something for the dads was just as important.

The original idea was to study the work of Peter Max and then have them create designs on neck ties in that style with fluorescent paints.  I picked Peter Max because it's something that I feel like has always been fun to look at and served as inspiration for the students (we have a Peter Max poster in the classroom) and I've also had the great advantage and opportunity to actually see plenty of Peter Max originals via his gallery in Vegas, some pieces in a private collection of someone I used to know, and also a number of pieces on a Caribbean cruise I went on last year (at their art auction). The students loved the idea of Peter Max and the neckties but of course attempt to sway me into a direction that allowed them a little more creative flexibility. Because I love them so much and I aim to please and I'm always wanting to let them push and propel themselves as much as possible, I caved and opened it up to being more than just Peter Max inspired designs and also something more and other than just neckties and they really "hit the ground running" so enthusiastically with the door open to them to pick either a shoe OR necktie. I am so proud of the pieces that they yielded and I didn't have to fight for their attention or investment in their work even in the last days of class. If anything they were trying to find time in the rest of their schedule to be in the artroom to work on their projects.


This shoe was designed by one of my students who is a dedicated dancer. The inspiration was Swan Lake and the shoe was heavily gesso-ed in order to ensure that the ribbons would stay in their sculpted shape as much as possible.

This shoe was inspired by the Wizard of Oz movie and book and the student did such a great job at taking so many of the characters and putting them together to have this piece truly speak of the crew if characters that helped Dorothy find her way back home.

This student took an old bedroom slipper so that it looked like a golf course layout not unlike one that her own dad would spend his early tee-times at.  She did a really great job at using the textures of the slipper to imitate actual landscape elements and she spent a lot of attention really getting specific details just right.

This student used a favorite scripture and heavily gesso-ed her necktie to create the heart shape at the top of the tie knot as a way to complement the rest of the design of the tie.

This student did a great job with a painted design despite the fact that he was forced to use a color palette that was his secondary and tertiary choice.

This tie was the actual one worn by the student's father when he got married. (I KNOW. I was a little concerned because of the sentimental nature of the tie she chose to deconstruct and fabricate for her project!)  The student assured me it was OK though but then used elements of her parents' wedding day in order to inform the design and make a little more of a visual memento of their incredible wedding day from years before. It became something that can now be proudly displayed in the family art gallery space (in their home) instead of being tucked away in a closet. I feel like it was a big risk that was taken but a big win in terms of creative expression and that was the whole point of this project to begin with.

This student ended up painting over this design but I just love it anyway. The quote is so thought provoking and I love how that is juxtaposed by the "doodled" quality of the graphics that surround it.

These shoes were designed/painted by two different students and their goal was to design something "fashion forward" that a sort of Carrie Bradshaw clown would wear. I feel like they nailed it pretty well and even thinking back on the time they spent in class, looking at these shoes really makes me smile.

This tie was just awesome. I did an awful job at photographing it because what you can't see is how gigantic it is. It's a GIANT NECKTIE fashioned from a drapery panel. I encouraged the students to go in this direction and only one really took the idea and ran with it. I was so proud of her and bragged about her to no end that of which I'm sure everyone (but the student herself) tired of. *shrug* A giant tie is AWESOME. I don't care what anyone says. A GIANT TIE IS AWESOME!!!

This student took the idea of juxtaposing a black and white palette with a very colorful one. He was very frustrated (at times) with this project but he did a great job at sticking with it.

And I just love this one because it looks completely illustrated in nature almost like it was lifted right out of a cartoon off the character who was wearing it. It's got such a fun spirit about it and all of the students commented continually about how it was just really neat. AND despite the fact that it is of the primary color palette, it didn't have the very specific "feel" that primary colors sometimes yield - that of which can be very scholastic or school-ish in nature.

Overall I was so incredibly pleased with the turn out of this project and (if anything) I will change it in the future to push all of the kids to "sculpt" giant ties and shoes instead of just taking what could be found in the backs of closets or thrift stores and upcycled.

Lesson idea: Bas-relief sculpted portraits

This project went along with the portion of the Interactive Art History class that was the Middle Ages. When I was preparing this section of the curriculum I had a really hard time deciding what I wanted to do for this time frame because I really try and make the introductory/exploratory as diverse as possible so that the students get a real sampling of as many different medias and styles of art as possible. That being said, I went with Bas-relief sculpting for this one to encourage a greater appreciation for subtractive sculpture art and help to train them to have more careful attention to detail.

They were only allowed to do pictures of faces/people but they could pick any subject they wanted - celebrity, stock photo model, someone from their family, etc. I encouraged them to pick a subject who the really felt connected to in some way because I felt like they would be more invested in the project (that which is a real challenge for them since they are mostly beginner in their skillsets). I encouraged them to pick subjects of a younger age and even those that were babies since the younger the person, the softer and rounder their features and the easier they would be to sculpt overall. Some of the students did pick celebrities - Will Smith, Bono, Steven Tyler, various NBA players - but for the most part, the students each chose subject matter to work with that matched their individual skill levels.

They were each given a 4x6 block of Balsa foam (purchased HERE from DickBlick.com) and then each table of four students worked with one set of Mini Ribbon tool sets (Six in a set sold HERE at DickBlick.com) to carve and shape their foam surfaces from designs that were impressed upon the block through the chosen picture/guide that they placed on the top of the foam block.

Once they were satisfied with their sculpturing, details, and reliefs, they sealed them with a white glue mixture slightly diluted with water in two thin and even coats. After the foam was sealed and hardened, they painted the finished surfaces with metallic acrylic paints - bronze, silver, and gold. I encouraged them to use all of the colors and really be adventurous. Certainly what we turned out was far from the style of art we were imitating but as I said, I was trying to really get them to push themselves and their skillsets as well as stretching them beyond their own creative bounds.

Tips for you if you try this in your classroom:

• Definitely go with the Balsa Foam class pack of 4x6 pieces. It's a really great value and this is the second time around I've used it. I/the students enjoy using them so much and they are so easy to work with that I'm trying to figure out next year's budget to accommodate larger scale projects for the more advanced students I work with.
• Encourage the students to "think in reverse" when showing them how to go about raising and lowering the surfaces to create the relief and dimension necessary to sculpt out the facial features. Anything they might think they want to carve out/outline - like a nose or eyes, tell them to stop and carve out everything around it. Doing this kind of work requires working in a way that is sort of counter-intuitive to what the students are all used to doing.
• Maybe use this lesson as scaffolding for clay sculpting/modeling if you/your students want to do more realistic (and less cartoon) busts. This kind of sculpturing is great practice for facial features and realistic expressions. 

Lesson idea: Mini Masterpieces *Updated with finished work*

Last year I tried to do this and it sort of tanked. My intent was to offer up an opportunity for the students to be able to look at artwork of history that has been regarded by many as the most masterful (Michelangelo, DaVinci, Rembrandt, Monet, etc.) and draw some inspiration from them to create their own pieces. The easiest style for them to create inspired works is (of course) in impressionistic style. Of course, it's hard to NOT look at all of the styles before that and not want to try and go in that direction. But, you know? We can't all be whipping out the Sistine Chapel, right? Anyway...

How do you take inspirations like that and make a project that is both approachable but not completely compromised and totally scholastic looking? What materials do you use that are still serious in feel but now overwhelming to work with?

Enter: smaller canvases and a media that feels a little more serious.

Translation: Mini canvases on mini easels and water-miscible oil paints.

The student work for this project this round far exceeded my expectations. The funny thing is, I spent less time looking at and dissecting and analyzing the original works that served as the inspiration. In theory I feel like that should have yielded student work that was much lower in complexity and quality overall. *shrug* I guess I really did take the extra time from the lecture and give it back to the students for their projects but I don't know. Whatever the case, we took one class to look at works and then almost a solid week and a half of class time (so, I think, six meetings of 55 minutes?) in order to give the paints a solid week to set, dry, and cure in time for Mother's day. (Water miscible oils definitely dry in less time than real oils BUT they still take a significant amount of time to dry longer than acrylics. I'll say they take 3-5 times longer depending upon how heavy handed you were with laying the paint down.)

Here are some of the best finished pieces turned out. I am really bursting with pride at how hard the students work, how truly invested they were about them, how enthusiastic they were to come to class every day, and the level of complexity that yielded overall. I cannot believe I get to work with student artists who makes stuff like this every day when I come in to work.

Some tips if you try this out in your classrooms...

• Set aside brushes that are on the medium to very small size (of bristles) that will be used only for this project to ensure that the students have the right tools for even the tiniest detail work
• Set aside a little more time than what you think you might need for the painting of the pieces
• Set aside at least that much time and a half to fully set, dry, and cure the finished works
• Definitely get the mini easels because they really do make all the difference with making the pieces feel even more finished and refined. I know they can be expensive but it's worth it.

The students will be delivering these to their mothers this weekend in time for Mother's day celebrations. I gave them plain white envelopes and surplus color tissue paper for wrapping/packaging purposes and gave them a chunk of class time yesterday to decorate the envelopes and package everything up. The students were so excited that most all of them admitted that they would probably be gifting them to their mothers as soon as they saw them after school because they just couldn't wait until Sunday. I think that's both sweet and very cool.

Lesson idea: Sumi-E painting

This is from the world art study from the interactive art history class I teach. We looked at four different areas of world art - Asian, African, Native American (to include South American), and some European. I chose to do Sumi-E style painting because it was a project idea that would be easiest to fit into the week we have in the schedule for this chunk of time. Sad, but that's how I sometimes have to decide on things.

We used the Holbein Bamboo Brush sets, Yasutomo Liquid Sumi ink, and Kozo paper rolls - all from Dick Blick. Each student was given the following portions or paper - (2) 15" lengths, and (1) 30" length - and they had to submit their best brushwork on a minimum of 15" of paper. They practiced on community sketchbook pages (leftovers from what past students didn't want to take with them) and experimented with the medium. Once they were confident enough with their brushwork and understanding of the way the ink bleeds itself, they developed design ideas from examples they found online as well as from the book Japanese Ink Painting.

Throughout the creative process, I stressed the importance of holding the brush in the proper way like this:

And I also banned "personal music" (from Ipods and such things) for the week and played streamed sounds of nature from Pandora while they painted. The environmental changes in the classroom yielded exceptional work despite the fact that they fussed about the process overall...

A few kids have even told me that they went and got Sumi-E painting supplies to have at home and have continued with this style of art independently! I think it's something that they are seeing is a nice change of pace that has added balance to their very busy and regimented lives.

Here are some more amazing examples of what they did. Last Spring's collection pales in comparison to what is shown here. This is not to say that last year's students are more talented but probably more than I was more  experienced at teaching this style of artwork.

Last Spring I tried to do lanterns made of balsa wood and tissue paper and then I tailed it with this project but  I believe I will stick with this and only this for this course. It's an easy winner and offers the students and experience that they wouldn't otherwise consider for themselves.