What to do now and next

Hi! Sorry for not being around for a long while. I don't have any good excuse of how/why it happened like this other than to just note that I really really needed a break from this blog.

I have been blogging on and off (but mostly on) for over a decade now and (if you've never tried to before) it can be quite a lot of work getting in the habit, staying in the habit, and delivering fresh content. This is especially true for content specific or niche blogging (which is what I do here). After I finished my masters degree (about October/November time) I found that I really and truly needed a mental break from writing papers and doing research and trying to get back on the metaphorical horse after doing such an amazing amount of blogging last year was only harder because of the break that I needed. So? I took the break and that's why it's been so radio silent here.

So I'm back here today to post this but honestly? I don't know when I will be back again and I am still trying to pray about what to keep doing beyond me just feeling like I need to be still and focus on other things (than this blog). I find that by not blogging here, I am much more connected and present with my 5.5 year old daughter and husband and students. I am thinking a lot less about how to churn the life and art teaching on my everyday into blog content and more about just being fully present and focused. This year for the One Little Word campaign I decided on the word "treasure" and I think it's going to work much better than last year's word of "joy" because it's been a focus of mine most recently in what I do, how I do things, and how I regard things before me. I've become so much more aware of the need for me to have less of a life virtually and more of a life actually.

I have loved this blog so much but I really and truly feel like I will probably not return to the posting schedule I had last year because it made it really difficult for me to have the time and energy I now know I want to have for my family and my students and to serve my school community. Blogging so much also makes it difficult for me to create artwork for my own professional development. I haven't painted in months and having realized this I decided that I needed to change that by trying to do something of my own art creation because I was starting to feel stagnant.

I have never kept up with a sketchbook OR done watercolor painting in all of my life but I recently started to do both in an effort to get beyond my own prejudices and learn something new that I had previously been so staunchly against. I got a visual sketchbook for both myself and my daughter and we have been trying to do a page a night in our books with either ink and watercolor or just plain watercolor. We both have less than a half dozen finished pages but it's been amazing so far and I am amazed that I was ever so against daily art creation (like in a sketchbook or visual journaling) OR watercolor. I have been "doing it wrong" the whole time. Thankfully, I have seen the light.

A page I finished last evening in my journal after everyone in the house was sound asleep.

I know I don't want to abandon this blog but I also know that how I have done it in the past is not a way that I can keep doing it in the present or in the future. I have a lot of content on here and I am regularly getting unique hits because of people finding things I have archived in the way of art lesson project ideas. (I'm so glad that what I have shared continues to be so useful to others!) Still, well... maybe it's time for me to deliver less that ends up being much more because it has greater substance at least as it applies to what I originally create - either in my painted sketchbook or with my own explorations of the creative process, creative callings, or what I am learning about the art of teaching art.

In any case, I hope you all are doing well in your classrooms and with your own artwork. I have previously "preached" the importance of being an artist as being actively creating art pushing yourself to do better design and stretching your creativity. I think perhaps it's time for me to do that sort of thing rather than giving myself endlessly to the efforts of others, the development and understandings of their creative processes, and enabling them to create beautiful works of art. That's what I do every day and when I leave work, I need to do a better job of allowing myself the same sort of gift.

So, I'm not quitting this blog or even taking it offline in any way. It'll keep being here. I just might be here less often but perhaps at the same time with a more worthwhile presence.

Maybe I do like Watercolor Painting Afterall :: Prang Ticonderoga Product Review

Let me just preface this by saying that watercolor painting is my least favorite medium to use and so I rarely use it in my classroom. The way you should take this is to know that I already come from a place of not liking watercolor paint/painting and that means it would take A LOT to "sell" me on the idea that it's worth my time to even try out or even consider. Does this all say that I am stubborn? Probably. That's the truth though. I am. OR... it means that I have very sharp abilities to discern what is worth both your time and mine. All of this said, here is my review of the Prang Watercolor set sent to me for review.

Disclosure: Compensation was provided Dixon Ticonderoga company. 

Opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative 

of the opinions or positions of Dixon Ticonderoga.

Dixon Ticonderoga sent me the Prang Watercolor paint set alongside a competing set by Rose Art.

 

Here Comes the "Good Stuff" you didn't even know you were waiting for...

 Over the summer, I was contacted by Dixon Ticonderoga to review some of their products for their "Get the Good Stuff" campaign. I happily agreed to review some of their products because I am already quite a fan of their pencils so the rest of the stuff? It's gotta be pretty good too, right? And I'm always open to changing my mind if it means that my student artists will have better tools to use for their amazing works of art.

Dixon Ticonderoga very kindly and swiftly delivered a lovely selection of their products along with some that were of competing brands. Because I was finishing out graduate school though? I had to take that lovely selection and put it aside until I finished my last two classes that included some of what I have already shown you as well as some major curriculum development work that was a whole year's worth of scope and 18 weeks of sequence. *sigh*

I'm happy to report that I am finally done with my graduate degree work and while I don't have my degree in-hand just yet, in a month or so it will be conferred and I WILL have it. And this means? I can finally do the reviews I have been wanting to do rather than sitting the box of all of the "good stuff" in my home studio (also where I was finishing all of my graduate coursework) and looking at it longingly for the day when my degree would finally be done.

So... this is the official announcement that next week will be a FULL WEEK of not only product reviews of what the Prang Dixon Ticonderoga company sent me but also an opportunity to a sampling of what I have been trying out and loving since they sent everything to me over the summer. Sorry it's taken me so long to get this going but, well... "good stuff" comes to those who wait. Thankfully you don't have to wait too much longer.

See you Monday when all of the reviews are kicked off!

Disclosure: Compensation was provided Dixon Ticonderoga company. 

Opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative 

of the opinions or positions of Dixon Ticonderoga.

Lesson Idea: The OneLiner | 2D Design

One of my favorite things to do with the students is continuous line blind contour drawing. It almost always yields works of art that are interesting and intriguing. The element of surprise and leaving the act of creation up to a little bit of chance helps the students to let go of themselves and learn to trust themselves as well. It also proves to them that successful pieces of artwork don't always come in moments of highly-controlled planning and preparing and some of their best (and most favorite) works sometimes come organically and spontaneously.

This project was called the "One-liner Modern Art" drawing but I decided to just call it "The OneLiner" because I felt like for my purposes? That just makes more sense. The idea of taking the continuous line drawing and melding it with the technique of blind contour drawing aimed to teach them to learn to do mastercopy type work as well as drawing from still-life observations. They were also able to experiment with mixed media and they used crayon, watercolor, graphite, charcoal, ink, and marker for the coloring of their line drawings.

I adhered to the same framework I started with and introduced to you all last week with the Drawing from the Abstract lesson idea and this project idea (like the aforementioned) was inspired by something that I found in the Drawing Lab book that I love so much. I tried to preserve the essence of the drawing exercise but I expanded upon what it suggested and then fit all of that into the framework I am continuing to use for the creative process the students are learning to follow:

1. Explore & Experiment - The students did speed drawing exercises both from still-life set ups as well as masterworks (I used this one from Picasso that is so popular - yes, the students did this upside down)
2. Figure Out & Focus - The students did multiple peer reviews in order to help them consider techniques that they might have tried OR identify which technique they have used so that they can use it again and then intentionally create a work of art using that technique. They also did trials of either mastercopy works and/or working from a still-life set-up. They also tried out color palette ideas and different mediums.
3. Stick or Scrap - The students looked critically at their own work and they decided whether they liked what they had been doing or if they wanted to go back to step #1 or #2 in order to create something that they felt was a little bit more successful and adhering to their goal with the work of art. Some of the students decided to abandon their mastercopy efforts and decided to go with one of the still-life set-ups and vice versa. They used intentionally decided upon color palettes and applied the color in specific ways.
4. Know & Go - This is when the students got their final support to work on (watercolor paper) and they went confidently in the direction using specifically decided upon techniques and color palettes. 

I differentiated instruction with this project by offering them four different drawing examples for them to choose from if they did mastercopy works and two different still-life set-ups if they wanted to work from observation. I also allowed them to use whatever medium they wanted to work with as informed by their creative processing. Here are the two still-life set-ups that I gave them to work from...

I encouraged the students to get up from their seats and position themselves as they decided would output the best and most interesting perspective of the still life they selected. They had large drawing boards and I also allowed them (on some days) to listen to "personal music" in order to help them stay focused on their task at hand.

Some of the final works the students created are here! I am SO proud of them for what they both learned, figured out on their own, and created INTENTIONALLY vs. just making for the sake of making something. They worked very hard and it definitely shows (I think)...

Mastercopy work

Still life

Mastercopy work

Mastercopy work

Still-life

Still-life

Still-life

Still-life

Many of the students initially thought that they wanted to do a mastercopy but then they changed their minds because they realized the creative liberties they could take by creating something completely original (and in their unique styles) by working from observation. It was very exciting to see this discover this and also watch their technique and individual works develop from trial to trial and then make it to the final work that they turned in. I am having an especially difficult time picking pieces to go into the student gallery and that makes me so excited!! Now if only I could have the wall space to be able to show them all.

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Don't forget to enter the contest 

of this blog's first ever giveaway of my "favorite things!!!"

REMEMBER: You have to leave your comments on the blog post that announced the contest found HERE VIA THIS LINK in order to be officially entered and considered in the final count to be randomly chosen for the prize package. Don't forget that there are TWO ways to be entered in the giveaway and the cut off time/date is Tuesday, Sept. 25th at midnight EST!!

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Lesson Idea: Drawing from the Abstract

This lesson idea originated from that one book I love so much Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun.

I believe (in the book) this one was called Imaginary Creatures or something of the sort but I decided to call it drawing from the abstract because that is exactly what it instructs to do!

What students do is they watercolor paint abstract forms in three colors - the book suggests limiting the palette to the primary triad, waiting for it to dry and then turning the finished painting around and about until you (the artist) can see forms within the painted abstraction.

The book suggests this as an exercise and not necessarily a full project but I adapted it's instructions so that it is something of a much longer running project endeavor. I did this by taking the general idea of it and adapting it into an inquiry-based learning experience. This is because I am learning that the best practices for the art classroom I am teaching in is when it is 1) inquiry-based and 2) allows for the following stages of learning to occur in order for them to understand what their own individual creative process so that they can ultimately become more independent and autonomous in their visual art idea cultivation and creation. I came up with this framework just this year and it is working so well even with their second project that I am going to use it the whole year in the studio classroom at least with the plans to come up with something for the digital classroom ASAP. The names are just what I like to call them though there might be a formal name for them that I am unaware of...

1. Explore & Experiment - When the student artists get their hands immediately on and into art mediums and can try them out with little interference of direction from me other than, "I don't know. What do YOU think it does? Maybe you should try it?"
2. Figure Out & Focus - When the students are starting to have a better of what the medium does (or doesn't do) and they take that and align the project objective with it in order to make informed decisions about what they may (or may not) want to do in order to achieve the results they are striving for. This process involves peer review and critique of work that has been done in different stages, me doing demonstrations of possible best practices, and answering questions they may have formulated based on the Explore & Experience stage.
3. Stick or Scrap - This is basically the single defining stage that either forces them to go back to Explore & Experiment a little bit so they can go through the Figure Out & Focus at least one more time (that's usually all it takes) OR for them to know and believe with confidence that they want to go in one direction with their project or another. It is usually known (by them individually) subtleties as much as how they should be holding their paintbrush to achieve a certain effect on the support they are working on, what exact color palette they will use, etc.
4. Know & Go - This is the final stage of their creative process where they are confident to step up to using finally and high-quality/grade art materials in order to create something intentionally that will be complex in it's presentation and also show evidence of good technique that is obviously apparent, the subject matter will say something as much as show something (meaning they are being a visual communicator instead of making something because "it looked cool"), and, finally, they will be completely confident to stand by their work and defend it as a successful work even if someone challenges it and calls it unsuccessful.

Definitely, this approach to teaching/instruction/learning is student-centered and requires a LOT of time for it to happen as it does. I have the time to do it though (or rather I am permitted that sort of luxury) because I work in private school education and I teach high school student artists (who are incredibly high level in their abilities and understandings already). I have found that doing long-term projects is better and teaches them more than shorter ones. It allows me plenty of time to do demonstrations (as I did for this project already) without leaving out opportunities for them to do speed painting that forces students to let go of themselves a little especially when I know they are having a hard time doing it.

The students worked through all of the above stages and this is what they came out with. This project is considered mixed media since the bottom most layer (that informed the top layers) was water color painted freely and then the top layers of ink, marker, charcoal and wax/crayon were applied because of what the watercolor layer looked like initially. The supports I used were the following and in this order - white drawing paper, watercolor paper, and then aquabord.

None of the student artists knew what their pieces would look like in the end and that was the point because I wanted to kick off with a project that would require them to throw a little caution to the wind and TRUST both me for asking them to do "outlandish" things as well as themselves that they could create and not just make. Enough of all of my verbosity - Want to see their finished works?

Overall I believe this project was successful and I would definitely use it again. The final pieces were only 5x7 but I would love to try it on a larger scale and adapt it to be less about just living creatures and more about their environments as well. A larger scale would make this creative endeavor even more like the long-term project I was going for initially and it would certainly demand a lot of investment of each student artist both in the way of thinking very creatively as well as demonstrating solid technique to make sense of the "mess" that they might see before them.

Worth the wait

How do you feel about paintbrushes? Are they a big deal to you? While I am not solely a painting teacher, I do plenty of painting with my classes - most of which are foundational in nature. Because they aren't super advanced artists (yet!) I insist upon using top-of-the-line brushes and I mostly just want to focus on ones that are solidly built without sacrificing key things I want my students to learn - like which brush type/size is most appropriate for specific tasks of painting - meaning I want to be able to have a wide array of brush types for them to be able to choice from for their individual purposes.

All of that said? I have found that the best brushes to use with my classes are the Big Kids Choice Paintbrush sets (with the classroom caddy if you can get them like this!!) by Royal & Langnickel. They are short-handled craft style brushes (vs. being long handled artist length for painting on an easel) with synthetic bristles and both flat and round tips in three different sizes each...

They are very popular among art teachers (as I have come to find out) and around this time of the year they are almost always sold out because they are so highly sought after. Years ago when I first discovered them on accident, I got them for a STEAL by buying them in bulk (I bought more than 3 of them) and they were only $55 a piece!!! Amazing! Nowadays it is much more likely that you see them for at least $75 a piece and if you are lucky you MIGHT score some for just a little less than $70. I have ordered them every time from Dick Blick and if you search for them you will find that there are two listings that appear to be for the exact same thing with the exception of the price. One is listed as $2 more than the other. Why? Because one of them has a blue handled teeny-tiny brush perfect for details and then a red handled one with a nice wide flat one perfect for painting reasonably large areas and the other one has six sizes - three of round, three of flat that I would guess are in sizes that are the most popular overall for artists of any ability or age. That being said? If I were you I would spring for the set that has the teeny-tiny blue handled brush because if you are buying them in bulk, the price difference is only 9 cents. I made the mistake of not ordering that set and though I wish I hadn't I have enough of them on hand that I am not bothering with sending them back and exchanging them.  Below is a picture of three baskets of the cheaper set.

Better than bouquets of flowers in my book!!

Now, while I have made it pretty obvious that I work at a school with great means (read: budget) as it pertains to supplies ordering or just resources in general? I actually don't always just get whatever I want, whenever I want it. I Do have a budget that I adhere and it doesn't allow for me to just order my favorite things all the time/every year. The way I manage that is staggering the ordering of the the frequently used/favorite supplies that might also happen to be more on the pricey side of things like these brushes. I feel like even if we did have the money to buy these brushes though, I might not do that because then I feel like the students wouldn't understand the importance of taking care of your materials so they last. Afterall, art materials (and nice art materials at that!) are not meant to be used once and discarded forever. To be an artist also means learning how to take care of your materials and that includes maintaining them so you can keep using them if they work so well to begin with.

Something else about the Big Kids Choice Classroom brushes with the caddy? They come in these really great plastic cylinder packages that are so useful to use as storage in the studio classroom! I like using them for every day materials because it's easy to chuck things into them without them looking messy - similar to the way a glass cookie jar might look! Currently I have some of these from my last order that are storing/organizing markers and other coloring materials and it is so nice to put these in a cabinet and be able to SEE what is in them so I can pick and choose what will be taken out for use.

These brushes were back-ordered so I only just got them shipped and despite the fact that I received a heads up email that they were coming, I forgot about them and it felt like Christmas unpacking them, setting them up, and preparing them for use. I completely agree that "Good things absolutely come to those who wait" even if that wait means waiting every 3-4 years to be able to get these brushes.

That being said? I also am the proud owner (FINALLY AFTER 1.5 YEARS OF DILIGENT PRAYER AND ASKING AROUND!!!) of something pictured here...

If you watch my instagram feed, you might recognize this as a picture I posted a couple of weeks back when I was in the throes of attempting to acquire some of what is pictured without success. Am I being annoyingly elusive? Don't get what I'm talking about? I don't expect you too because I wanted to share the fact that I have been working on something VERY special (and I guess secret as it has been) for my school to enjoy - both current art students and not AND faculty as well - that seeks to make art appreciation stretch far beyond the confines of it happening in the studio classroom alone. This "idea" of mine is one I have been carrying around for a seriously long time and this year I finally got it in me that I had to make it happen - no ifs, ands, or buts. And that is ALL I will tell you for now until it's good and ready to go for me to present it as something for you to do in your classes too. ;)

How to clean up a wet mess

While I don't hang up awesome visuals around and about the studio classroom to encourage and instruct how to clean up I very much expect EVERY SINGLE STUDENT to have working knowledge and ability to be able to clean up a "wet mess" that might be that of paint, glue, water, etc. etc. etc. Here is a demonstration I do to help them learn how to do it in the most efficient way I have found to do it...

Our motto for how to take care of a wet mess?

Dry to Wet,

Damp to clean-up!

We repeat it so much it is hard to forget and if ever there is a question of what to do when a mess happens, I always ask the following...

1. Is it Wet? Then it needs something DRY to make it less wet.
2. Is it Dry? Then use something DAMP to clean it up!

Easy-peasy! I hope you can use it in your classroom too. *high five*

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: Gratitudes in Color [Color Study and Silhouette painting]

This project comes from the curriculum of my 2D Design classes. It's one I've done every year and I'm hesitant to abandon as it allows for so many things even with the course being of the foundational level. It addresses/examines/encourages all of the following:

• Color study
• Value study
• Brushwork practice and perfecting
• Space and composition
• Creating visual balance
• Watercolor painting - both pencil and paste/liquid
• Using the amazing surface that is the Aquabord
• Proper care and clean up of art supplies and tools
• Long term project planning
• Visual communication of a specific idea
• Process of originating and developing one idea in multiple ways
• Using the foreground to emphasize the background and vice versa
• Creating correct proportions when drawing living being (animals, people)

As you might be able to guess, I could easily go on and on with this project. Thus, I keep it in every year despite my general rule to either skip a year with projects OR scrap it after doing it multiple times.

Because I work in faith-based education, my curriculum encourages expressions or examinations of faith. This project is one I called "Gratitude in Color" because all subject matter was selected in order to illustrate and provide a visual expression of gratitude for something that brings the artist of the piece great joy. (I defined joy to the students as something that makes them so happy that they return to it as often as possible and the happiness that is inspired because of long outlasts the moment of which the happiness originated.) They were encouraged to do a lot of brainstorming and then really dissect their ideas for as many elements as they could come up with that could be depicted effectively and correctly in silhouette fashion. This was challenging for them since many of their ideas were scrapped based solely on the fact that the would create an unrecognizable silhouette.

Color study was another huge element of the project and I took them through an intensive powerpoint with class discussion about different color groupings in addition to visual effects/impacts of certain colors, the physiological effects they can have, and also what they can mean symbolically. They were tasked with picking a color palette that would help to enhance their silhouetted subject matter and communicate a message as much as the silhouette itself would.

For inspiration, I showed them images of early 19th century art as well as Apple ads for iPod so they could see that however antiquated silhouette art might seem, a contemporary twist on an old idea can always revitalize it and so past forms of art should never be completely written off.

I required them to do a minimum of (3) thumbnails and also color studies with watercolor pencil on watercolor paper and also have a 1:1 conversation with me where they fully explained their visual prayer of gratitude. Once they jumped through all of the "hoops," I gave each them a 6x6 square of Aquabord and opened up the Reeves brand classpack of Watercolor tube paints.  They had a solid week and a half of class time to do their color background first and then lay in their silhouettes with black paint and/or ink (for touch-ups). Here is a sample of a completed background.

Here are some fully finished projects...

All in all? I'd say they did a great job with their limited experience coming into this. Many of them had struggles in creating correctly proportioned silhouettes. All of them were intimidated by the new medium and serious nature of the Aquabord itself. The major investment of time combined with the definite challenges presented really encouraged them to be as invested as possible though. Here are some of their pieces.

Their grade/evaluation will be based on two areas - Brushwork and Color usage/application. I purposefully pulled back on my feedback a third of the way through the portion of time when they were all at the Aquabord stage because I wanted them to learn to evaluate their own work and determine what needs to be done, what is well done and should be left alone, and what should be reconsidered. It was frustrating for them at times for me to answer their questions with questions but they ended up having much more confidence in their own incredible skills that they had already build up. I don't have evidence to show you how far these have come compared to last years go 'round with them but this round is a great improvement mostly because I re-evaluated what and how I was teaching this lesson.