Lesson Idea :: Mehndi Hand Sculpture - World Art study

This lesson idea originated from two different sources that I combined into one workable one for the high school art classroom. They are the following...

Dick Blick's very intriguing Mehndi Art Gloves lesson plan for multicultural art studies

A pin from Pinterest that makes the Dick Blick idea three-dimensional and, in turn, more interesting I think. 

I have been wanting to do this project for a good while after initially seeing it on Dick Blick but I couldn't bring myself to do it because I didn't like how the design work was on gloves which would essential leave the finished project flat and deflated. I don't remember when I stumbled upon the possible solution from pinterest (see above) but I was really excited about it because it really seemed to combined Dick Blick's idea with something ensured a (literally) solid product in the end.

Doing some backwards planning and visual deconstruction, I figured that plaster of paris would work very well to fill the glove. The question remained of how I would end up doing it because, based on my experience of working with plaster, I knew it wouldn't just be so easy to just pour wet plaster in and be able to call it done. I did about two trial runs very quickly by myself before I did it in class and took lots of mental notes and then I did an abbreviated demo for the Interactive Art History class. They previously worked with plaster of paris for the cave art project idea so that really helped them to know what to expect with the process required for this project.

Below is a video of the sculpting stage of this project where I was working with the plaster after it was poured into the glove and was starting to set and after the video (scroll down), you can see some picture of the students doing it themselves. Ideally you want to pair them up because four hands work best in order to make one finished sculpted hand. Kind of not totally efficient but... well.... I haven't figured out a better way than this so far.

 

And here is a picture of a sculpted hand that is finished that a student is now applying their mehndi line design onto the glove with Sharpie Ultra-Fine pen...

Because the students are all still working on this project, I don't have any finished work to show you but based on the time schedule that we are keeping, I suspect I can show you some finished work some time next week, so keep checking back to see some finished work!

Tomorrow I will show you the quick follow-up video to the above where I show you how to clean up dried plaster. [Updated: Finished student work can be accessed HERE via this link!]

Pin(ch) me because I must be dreaming!

Three or so years ago when I started this blog it was largely because I wanted to fill a niche that didn't even seem as if it existed in the first place. While there was an abundance of elementary and middle school art education blogs, it seemed like there were few (if any at all) blogs that specifically focused on high school art education! This sort of things made it very difficult for me - a just starting out high school art teacher - because, well... I felt like I was venturing into unknown territory with no metric or wisdom to draw from in order to be able to tell if/what I was doing right or terribly wrong.

Times have so changed though because this blog has been established and reasonably maintained (save for a few brief sabbaticals and interludes) to the point where my blog analytics regularly indicate that I average well over 100 hits per day for some of what I have shared here. One of the biggest drivers of hits is coming from pinterest. Check out this screenshot of all of the things that have been pinned from my blog...

I cannot tell you all how much it delights me to see that the things that I do in my classroom and then share online are things that are being carried out and about in order to serve as inspiration and instruction not only on the high school level but in other ways as well - at community art centers, in other grade levels, at the college level for beginning teachers. My blog analytics have regularly reflect that not only do my site visitors come from international locations but also places such as universities and board of education servers. I KNOW this means that I am connecting with other visual art professionals and that is just amazing to me.

From the beginning my goal has never been to be a professional blogger and have this be the way that it would happen. I don't blog to get rich or to be noteworthy and I have only wanted to share and be an active member of the art education and professional visual artist communities.  While I know I still have a long ways to go with this blog, I am feeling so encouraged every day as I tangible evidence that the blog is growing and reaching more people every single day.

Thank you ALL OF YOU who visit and give me hits to this site because it really affirms me and what I have sought to do from the very beginning. While I believe that I probably won't win any huge awards or be majorly recognized in any way because of how and what I do here, it's enough for me to see my blog stats reflect how the blog is growing exponentially.

Lesson Idea :: And so they prayed - Illustrations :: 2D Design

This lesson idea is not my own and was inspired by the book I so love called Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists. The book suggests a creative exercise that challenges you to draw something silly or funny that someone says. I have seen this sort of thing elsewhere on the web (but I can't seem to find it to connect it here) and I have always loved the idea of this but I have never done it. This year and this semester's 2D Design class seemed to be the perfect time to take the idea for a spin.

One of the biggest challenges for me were collecting silly quotations said by kids that could be colorful and interesting enough to yield super imaginative drawings. You would think such a thing as this would be easy but actually it wasn't. A lot of the collective I found online featured "kids say the darnedest things"-type items that included bad language or otherwise very suggestive things that is just inappropriate for my high schoolers to attempt to take a part and then reassemble. After struggling to find maybe a handful of appropriate things I considered using my almost five year old daughter for fodder and consulting this small book that I keep with silly/funny things she has said or done. Surprisingly, only a few of them fit the bill for what I was looking for. Many of them were darn near impossible to try and imagine much less visually interpret in mixed-media works. The ultimate winner for me was when I stumbled upon a collective of cute and silly prayers that kids have said and people have submitted to online collectives. It was totally appropriate for my purposes because 1) it was faith-based and I teach at a Christian school and 2) none of the prayers had anything inappropriate but all would definitely guarantee some colorful and imaginative depictions.

Below are some of what the 2D Design students came up with along with the prayer snippets that they randomly picked from a bag. The goal was for them to be as literal as possible with their visuals in order to properly illuminate their prayer snippets. They used watercolor and ultra fine sharpie ink pen on aquabords.

"Dear God, thank You for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy."

"Dear God, did you mean for giraffes to look like that or was it an accident?"

"Dear God, did the unicorns miss the ark? Too bad the skunks didn't miss."

"Dear God, I heard the moon was made of cheese. Tonight half of it is missing. Did you get hungry?"

"Dear God, I heard the moon was made of cheese. Tonight half of it is missing. Did you get hungry?"

"Dear God, I know you see everything. Please don't tell my mom about my bad test grade!"

I don't know that I will attempt this project idea again but if I do I might likely do it as one of the first project endeavors for the 2D Design or Graphic Design class. It seems to have great potential to serve as a bit of a pre-assessment sort of tool for the purposes of gauging skill/technique in beginning artists and it also is fun without sacrificing the opportunity for the students to really gain something important from it which is to force themselves to think in the most colorful and imaginative ways possible.

The perfect match? Hmmm...

Not sure if any of you all caught wind of this last week but I did and was wondering what (if anything) it meant to you...

The above popped up in my email inbox from Dick Blick along with a 20% off to celebrate Blick's official announcement of the acquisition of Utrecht.

I don't know that I actually think this is a good thing or not. I mean... I like Dick Blick and I really REALLY like Utrecht but if it comes down to picking a brand that I would be fiercely loyal to I would actually pick Utrecht all the way because from my experience they have a higher quality than Blick does for artist grade materials and at a very reasonable price point. Don't get me wrong, Blick brand is pretty solid and reasonable for my school's supply budget but when it comes down to it I have time and time again been able to really trust Utrecht to deliver some very high quality products.

Does this new acquisition mean that Utrecht brand will end up going away because Blick brand is the bigger brother now? That makes me sad because Utrecht brand is REALLY solid for brushes and oil paints and all sorts of other things that I use beyond just for my own art education and instruction purposes.

I guess time will tell how this will work itself out. It would be nice if some of the Blick brand bowed to the Utrecht brand and then phased out the Blick stuff over the Utrecht stuff even if the Utrecht stuff ends up being called Blick brand. (That was a mouth full but hopefully you get what I was trying to say!)

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!