Lesson Idea: All Creatures Great and Small | 2D Design

This work was done almost three semesters ago by the 2D art and design students and I never got around to sharing it with you all! While it didn't pan out entirely as I had planned it would, I feel like the final works are still interesting and provided a great in depth study of lots of the principles of design and elements of art. I called this project endeavor "All Creatures Great and Small" since the subject matter was animals.

The inspiration of this project endeavor came from Heather Galler's Art on etsy. Clearly the students saw what Ms. Galler did and took a whole lot of creative liberties but I didn't have the heart to tell them not to be quite so ambitious and adventurous.

The students worked on poster board support and then used solvent based pens and markers to draw and color each of their works. I stressed the importance of using the positioning and arrangements of the patterns in order to show correct form as much as possible.

Mixing and changing things up in 2D Design

This week has been such a gauntlet for 2D Design class and me (personally).

The current project for 2D Design focuses on using color theory in order to create patterns with great visual diversity and variety in order to create very contemporary-style portraits of animals. Sound like some craziness? It is. It really really is. But the great thing about it is all of the student artists are REALLY sticking to the challenges presenting themselves and turning out amazing work!!!

One of the major things of this project is that I am requiring students to design and then draw, color, and detail (with the most precise technique) a set number of patterns that they will ultimately use in their final portrait of their self-selected animal. I originally started out requiring them to do at least nine unique patterns but after about two days of class time, I realized that they all were struggling in one of two ways:

1. They weren't stretching themselves far enough to make the nine completely unique diverse patterns
2. They were stretching themselves and they couldn't narrow things down and were becoming indecisive.

I took "tabloid"-size paper (I don't know the exact measurement but it's called this as a standard format measurement in Microsoft Word) and made a grid of 21 blocks as a giant worksheet for the students to be able to stretch themselves without feeling disorganized. They were able to take as many worksheets as they needed while I allowed them as much time and space as possible in order to let them really stretch themselves.

This week was even so nice that I was able to take almost all of my classes out two different days (Monday and Tuesday) because it got up to the 70s!!! What a treat to be able to let them work en plein air. I really feel like it helped them within their own creative processes.

 After giving them pretty ample time to devote to just designing and coloring, I pushed them to the next stage of the creative process (so stage two and three in the methodology I have been using) in order to facilitate them being intentional and decisive with what they will ultimately use in their final work.

All of the working en plein air and otherwise really REALLY helped because a lot of them had not only 14 different pattern blocks to choice from but so many that they filled up all 21 blocks!!! I am SO proud of the way they have invested themselves!!!  I encouraged them to tidy up their worksheets but cutting out their decided upon pattern blocks and pasting them on fresh worksheets so that they would have a nice clean and organized inventory of what they would end up using...

The goal with this project was to try and have it completely finished before we break for Christmas but I don't think it's going to happen. And why? Well... because my student artists and I are not a bunch of work horses and if we convince ourselves that we can just run on fumes then we might end up losing our minds and trying to cut off our own ears a la Van Gogh. (There's your daily art humor, eh?)

But seriously. If the good Lord Himself took a rest on the 7th day of creation then we certainly need to rest ourselves and not work ourselves into burn out. For this reason, I have given the students some rest time to be able to do things of leisure so they learn that part of the creative process is learning to give your brain, imagination, heart, and soul some time and space to take a breath.

A really cool game I scored from Zulily that is kind of like Connect Four but uses primary colors tiles to make secondary colors to make patterns in order to win the game!! It's called Color Scheme and was just made for the art classroom.

We are so SO close to Christmas break but I'm feeling the stress within myself and seeing it the faces and of the artwork of my student artists and when I announced this staycation (of sorts) for them to relax a little, they were all so relieved to hear it. I feel like this might be something of the creative process that I will do way more often now.

And that brings me to the weekend! Hope you all get some good rest and play time in as well.

WiPs: Creation from the Abstract | Watercolor on paper

This week was very fun for the 2D Design class because we jumped right into our first project which was watercolor painting!!!

In the past the first 2D project has always been scratch-art of some sort but after doing it like that for the last three years, I finally came to terms with the fact that while it had a good run? It was time to give it a rest for at least a little while. The only problem with giving it a rest was the fact that I needed something new to step into its place!

Thank the good Lord above for the AMAZING book that is that book I got on kindle a week or so ago - Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists. The book is AMAZING and I am so glad I got it and on kindle at that! Perhaps I am not a physical book kind of person as much as I am a type that is more comfortable with digital media but I don't know. Having it in ebook form on Kindle allows me to have it with me whether I have my laptop, phone, or tablet via the app for each! And if I have it on my laptop? I can actually project some of the pages up on the screen for the students to see!!! I might just try and get all of my art instruction books on kindle from here on out for that reason alone. All of this raving aside, I bring the book up to begin with just to say that this project/lesson idea is not my original idea and it originated from the book called "Imaginary Creatures."

The objective of the project/lesson is basically this: Take something abstract and then translate it into something that is a lot more easy to decipher/make sense of when you look at it so that it looks like a creature of some sort. The creature can be something that is imaginary or something that already exists but ultimately, the goal is to look at the abstract forms and coming together of the colors and see something there amidst the "mess" that might appear to be there at first glance. Another way to understand this lesson? it's kind of like an artistic take on the Rorschach test except you aren't given an inkblot/painted form of an abstract type to make sense of and rather, you make it yourself and you also make sense of it. (Although having the kids make the shapes and then trade could be a really good idea and I might try that tomorrow as we round out the exploration and experimentation portion of this project.)

Anyway, the students are LOVING the fact that we are jumping right into painting. I bet I could even safely say that they are way more excited to do this than scratch art. Perhaps this is the key to what should be done for every first project of the semester for 2D Design? I started off the work today but doing a demo by way of the document camera but I also allowed them to have materials so that they could follow along with me while I showed them what to do.

Do you "demo" things? How do you do it? I really like using the document camera to do mine. 

A view from where the students sit so you can see them working as informed by what they see in the demo up front.

I am super happy to report that today's "follow me" while I was doing the demo was very successful. In the past I have done demos without them having materials in front of them so they couldn't follow and now I realize how misdirected I was. I am very blessed to work with really REALLY talented student artists who have both the heart to listen when you would hope they would as well as the minds and hands to stay in control when they ought to be. For these reasons I am convinced that that is why they really handled the "follow me" demo instead of the "look at me" demo. Point taken, lesson learned. I will be doing more "follow me" demos from here on out.

Overall I am pretty pleased with what the two classes today did. The objective was that they let the paints/color drop and bleed and blend as they would without manipulating the paintbrushes to paint something specific. They used drawing paper but they will eventually be using watercolor paper and finally  small aquabord panels. I intentionally gave each individual student feedback by stopping by to see them at their tables and also to point out (to the whole class) when certain pieces were successful or not so that they had ongoing dialogue to inform their brushwork and paint application. Here are some examples that I used specifically:

I called this SUCCESSFUL because it used big marks and application of color which ultimately created abstract shapes that could more easily be translatable to any number of things. I helped them to "read" what was here by telling them that I saw a fish jumping out of the water (like what you might see in a fishing magazine) and then I asked them to try and find it as well. Some didn't see it right off but then I gave them more explicit direction by giving them clues like: Find just the orange and try and see where that is specifically in the overall image. 

I called this UNSUCCESSFUL because while it is interesting to look at with the way the brush strokes were applied to show a defined pattern and rhythm, it didn't adhere to the specific directions given in order to achieve the learning objective. Oh well. That's why we spend a few classes on experimentation and exploration alone! They'll learn.

This was called SUCCESSFUL because despite the fact that it looks very specifically like a giraffe or a llama, the student didn't intentionally mark the paper to make it that. They made their marks, let the colors go, and then ended up with this exactly. Serendipitous? Perhaps. It works though for what we set forth to do. I mean it's a little bit limiting in the end but it just happened like this so I don't hold that against it. 

My preference with any of the art classes I do is almost always to start in the abstract and non-objective realms because it immediately puts the students outside of their comfort zone and requires them to start doing things that they have not previously had experience dealing with. I really really like this project and so far it has worked so well with a first project I definitely am thinking I want to keep it around for next year (at least but I always get tired of things so I will probably end up ditching it for a while after one rerun). *shrug*

We have two weeks that I expect we will spend on this project and I will certainly share it in the stages it in each stage it passes through. In the meanwhile, here's something fun that ended up occurring during today's exploration and experimentation painting process!! Look what one of my brilliant freshman artists did...

While he did not intend for this result and he was just "messing around" and being silly with his friends at a table by making a quick and otherwise unintended portrait, this portrait actually looks very much like him!!! It might as well be a self-portrait!!! (I would show you a picture but I don't like to show pictures of my students so directly - sorry!) Anyway, I really like this piece of student work. I feel like the marks have great integrity and the speed of the lines are beautifully apparent.

And that's it for me for now! Like I said, I will be checking back in with progress and if you keep an eye on my instagram feed? You might get some previews of what might end up here on the blog.

Lesson Idea: The Illustrated Recipe (Round 2)

This is the second year I've done this lesson idea and since it's continued to go over well and be a favorite, it's likely going to be kept as a mainstay. Right now I'm trying to take the images and put them in a hardcover bound book (like last year) and I'm excited to get it printed up and have it delivered! Here are some of the best pieces turned out this round...

RoyGBiv day still on my mind

Technically this is day-old news here on the blog but this is a great shot (not taken by me) that is currently parked front and center on my school's homepage...

*sigh*

What a wonderful day and opportunity for fellowship it was!!!

I have been able to speak with a number of folks (administration, faculty, and students alike) about what they took away from it and I have gotten nothing but super positive feedback. Administration has even said that they would fully support (meaning funding and all) for this to be a recurring event at the end of every single year!!!! *SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRE!!!!!!!*

You must realize something: This idea originate from my own "crazy" imagination in the midst of winter when I was also working on getting the ombre experience lesson idea together while also juggling everything needed to do the sound of music set design and fabrication. I casually mentioned it to the one senior student who spearheaded this with me with (sort of) the expectation that he was absolutely "crazy" enough to want to do it. (He's just that kind of awesome and so I kind of wasn't surprised that he wanted to do it.)

Here are some more shots and things to note of how we got from start to finish on the whole thing.

We did a number of trial runs with inflated balloons to see how long they would maintain their ability to self-levitate. We determined that we had a max of 8-10 hours before they would lose their ability so in order to fully utilize that ability, we determined we would have to inflate the balloons the morning/day of the release. Our preferred time frame would have been mid-morning but we ended up being given the tail-end of the school day in the way of the last two periods - so about 1:30-2pm was when we would do the release.

In order to accommodate both the inflating of the balloons, storage until the release, etc. etc. etc., we used our school's performance arts center/venue and gathered over 20 students to help inflate, tie off, and attach balloon clips (with strings pre-attached) to the balloons. We estimated it might take us as long as five hours with two tanks of helium based on some balloon inflating that had been done weeks before for another event for around 300 balloons. We ordered 600 (100 of each color from Oriental Trading) but ended up with less than 550 because of shoddy balloon quality, balloons that burst from being overinflated ("pilot" error, if you will), and ones that just got away from us and floated up to the ceiling while we were trying to inflate them. We had the students come in at 5:15am to do the inflating and we were done and cleaned up by 8am when school started. (Note: EVERY student that came in said it was "totally worth it" and other students that missed out were disappointed that they didn't take the opportunity to join in!!!)

We stored the balloons in this venue until they students would all gather together for the presentation and instructions about how this whole event would go down...

We did provide lots of coffee and other yummy breakfast food as extra incentive for those who got themselves up and into school so early. 

 At the last period of the day, all of the students were gathered in the venue for the presentation about color theory (done by my senior student partner-in-crime) and he capped off the presentation with specific instructions about how each student was to get their balloon off the balloon clips/strings and out to the school quad in formation in order to release them. There were diagrams/maps that showed the path they were to walk and volunteers on-hand to facilitate traffic control and flow. Volunteers were wearing rainbow tie-dyed shirts so though would be easy to pick out from the crowd.

 Once the students got out to the quad, there were more volunteers (donning the requisite tie-dyed shirts) who were holding large poster board signs corresponding with all six colors of the balloons we had.

Students stood in their color group (away from other groups) until they were given the "OK" that every single student had exited the building with a balloon and was ready for the release.

 

 The center of the color "wheel" formation was marked with a duo of balloons (in black and white) where my senior student stood with an electronic megaphone and I was with my camera to document the action.

 When all was clear and everyone was confirmed to be outside with a balloon in hand, the volunteers were given the "yes" to bring their groups toward the center and we all bunch together as closed as we could. A countdown was given from 20 and then the balloons were finally released.

Again, I'm sorry I don't have any video of the actually release but it was truly (for lack of better words) MAGICAL to experience. Even now just looking at the stills of the event above with all of those colorful balloons floating up to the sun, I can hardly put into words how it felt to be there. And that, my friends, was/is the whole point of such a thing as RoyGBiv day in the first place!!!

It's about not just telling but SHOWING the students the gift that is an experience, that gift that is visual art, the gift that is being a part of the creation of visual art, and the gift that is being a part of something so much larger than itself.

A lovely blog reader (Hi, Cynthia S!) left a wonderfully supportive comment on my original posting about this event saying that she was going to "copy" this for her school next year. Friends, folks, blog readers, WORLD - PLEASE COPY THIS IDEA!!!!! Like I said before, to my knowledge (and per Google) no single day like RoyGBiv day exists at all AND IT SHOULD.

My own personal thoughts about this are to maybe not make it one single day that is the same day every year (though the last day of school is a good one for it to be) but perhaps making it a "surprise" experience - so you never know when RoyGBiv day will be - is better since that type of thing better adheres to the whole way that rainbows happen to begin with. Rainbows are kind of surprise to come upon, right? But they are always welcome. Now, for something like a balloon release? Well, that takes some planning so you would certainly require a select group of folks that would have to be "in the know" about it but my thoughts are that it could happen in other ways too. Like, perhaps, one day at lunch rainbow cupcakes could be made and served to surprise all of the students. (BTW - this is also another significant undertaking to make happen. I know from experience!) or you could figure out a way to get a sno-cone truck to come in and serve up those pre-fab rainbow sno-cones (I know, whatever, it would definitely cut down on the labor to make RoyGBiv happen in the first place).

Whatever the case, I'm actually leaning towards making RoyGBiv day a regular occurrence at my school. My reasoning also harkens back to the fact that I teach and live by an establishment of faith and the rainbow is SO sacred as it is featured in scripture. I love being able to draw students back to scripture to remind them of how much of this present-day world still contains the makings of scripture from way back when because it helps them to see how timeless the words of the Bible truly are. For purposes not of faith though? Well, RoyGBiv day is just awesome and that's all there is to it.

So all of this is to say that if it can be done at my school? It can be done at YOURS too and I encourage you to help make this happen because you just have no idea the enormity of the gift that you will be giving your school/students/self/colleagues/administration/community when they witness it. :)

Lesson idea: Triple Inspiration Egg Carton Paintings

This project is from a while back - as in, MARCH. (I know. Cut me some slack.) It was very fun but VERY challenging since it required the students to paint on a heavily textured/sculpted surface. The idea originated from an artist spotlight done on my blogroll of Dutch artist Enno de Kroon. The spin I did on the project was to make it a triple inspiration idea...

1. Be inspired by Enno de Kroon
2. Be inspired by a masterful artist (they could pick one from the resource library we have)
3. Be inspired by the greatest creator of all - our wonderful Lord above!!

I saw the idea and loved it almost immediately because it really opened the door for a lot of different learning opportunities. It touched upon non-objective subject matter, allowed for some "free" painting (if you will), fully utilized most of the elements of art and principles of design, and also allowed me to not have to spend money for expensive supports like masonite or canvas panels since it called upon the idea of upcycling. (I happen to have some good friends who own a local cupcakery so amassing egg cartons for my students was pretty easy.)

I required the students to pick just about any artist and artwork and while some students went the literal route, plenty more took a lot more liberties and created things that were truly unique. One of the major challenges overall were the following:

• The egg carton surface wasn't only heavily textured (which challenged beginning painting skills) but the support actually soaked up a TON of paint which required the students to do copious amounts of underpainting.
• Since the texture was so heavily textured, the view of the painting (as it was being worked on) was constantly changing depending upon the angle you looked at the piece. For this reason? Students were constantly feeling "disrupted" while they were working since they would see it in one way and then see it in another almost immediately after and feel like they were off course.
• There are so many great pieces of artwork and artists to choose from!!! Many could not pick a good one to be inspired by and this set them behind on the total hours they were able to work on them in class. (I really encourage them to learn how to self-pace and I try not to intervene unless the results will be truly detrimental to the overall finishing of the projects.

Anyway, without further adieu, here is some of the student work turned out. The first one is one of the best overall (to be fair, she is a VERY advanced artist) and there is also a closer picture of the surface of the piece.

Here are a number of other really terrific examples and "spins" of inspiration taken by the many brilliantly talented student artists I am blessed to work with on a daily basis...

This one was another one of my personal favorites.

He "popped out" the eyes by putting them on the parts of the carton that were raised.

I loved the illustrated vibe this one had!

Something interesting to note about the 3D Design students/classes on the whole:

Many of the students in this class are those who struggle with learning disabilities/challenges but the ones who are the most severely afflicted are always the ones who seem to do the best. The reason why? Their brains process, synthesize, and handle the information/ideas in ways that are three-dimensional in nature so they are often most able to do what they want to do before they do it easier than the other students who 1) Don't suffer from learning challenges and 2) have to work harder to "think" three dimensionally. On a more personal note, I am currently enduring the exhaustive process that is learning disabilities testing and I have always done better with three dimensional artwork over two dimensional.

Lesson idea: Name Tangles in Scratchart

This lesson is not my original idea and I found it HERE. The difference in the original lesson plans and what I did is the medium. The original idea utilized pen/marker and ink and I reinterpreted the idea in scratch art. It teaches a number of different elements and principles of art and design (contrast, space, emphasis, variety, balance) and it also introduces the students to a medium that might have always seemed novel and/or fun in the past but a medium that can be used to make a more serious piece of artwork.

I must admit that as the first project for the semester, this was very ambitious for them. It required the understanding and utilization of negative space on top of requiring them to think in reverse - since scratch art essentially reverses whatever design/image you are creating. (So in hindsight, I could almost call this the "Double-negative Name Tangle project"). Additionally, the end result of the work is non-objective in subject matter making it even more challenging for the students since the metric for whether they've done something well enough or not is definitely not concrete or clearly defined. Still, I feel like forcing them to focus on their lines and the way they come together to make patterns and shapes offers them a different perspective as well as a new respective for the creative process of design and the fabrication of a well-thought out piece of work.

Ultimately, the students did very well AND created pieces that are impressive with regard to their reasonably limited experience in art (this is a foundational course).

In the future, I am considering having a stock of matte black ink markers for corrections - I used Sharpie with wedge tips and it worked well but resulted in a glossy finish against the matte look of the scratch art paper we were using.