Modigliani Inspired Self Portraits

My middle school students worked hard on their oral presentations right before finals, so I wanted to give them art project that was engaging and fun, but also not "super challenge" as my 5-year-old would say. We looked at portraits by Modigliani and found that his style had particular traits: necks are elongated, faces are oval, eyes are almond-shaped, and noses are sometimes twisted. We used Photo Booth on my Mac to take a picture of each student which I then printed out in black and white. Students used these pictures for reference and crossed them with Modigliani's style for their final projects. They had a great time using oil pastel and exaggerating their features!

Aram

Danila

Middle School Surrealist "Handscapes"

For this project I showed my students videos about Dalí. They learned how he was influenced by his dreams and subconscious. They learned that many of the anthropomorphic forms in his paintings that resemble large rocks are based on rocks he actually saw in the landscape where he spent much of his childhood.

For the assignment they used their hands in a similar way that Dalí used the rocks - they drew them and then changed them into something else while still allowing them to be hand like.

Here are the terrific results:

Our board!

Afrem

Aram

Danila

Andy Warhol Inspired Contour and Color Studies Project

My middle school artists learned about Andy Warhol's life and artwork. They found him to be fascinating, especially how he was so shy but became so famous. They were interested in his strange illness, how he stayed in bed for a long time as a child, and how he at one time owned 26 cats all named "Sam". They did have a hard time understanding how drawing a picture of a soup can constitutes "art", but then they did their own drawing of packaged and manmade objects, and I think related a little better to his work.

For their projects they had to choose 4 objects that they owned or used, divide their drawing paper into 4 rectangles, and then draw one object in each rectangle using the contour drawing skills they had just learned. Once they finished drawing they outlined with Sharpie.

I talked to them about color schemes, and they were to apply the following 4 schemes to their drawing, one in each of the rectangles, but in any order they desired: 1) primary colors, 2) secondary colors, 3) complementary colors, and 4) analogous colors. They used colored pencils to complete them. I think they turned out fantastic!

Mason

Jason

Juian

Danila

Afrem

Peter

Nicole

Piya

Solaris

Taylor

Izzie

Our beautiful board!

Water Safety Poster Contest

All my elementary and middle school students are participating this year in California's annual Water Safety Poster contest (see details here). After a lesson on some important things to know about water safety, here are the results! I hope at least one of my students gets their artwork in the annual calendar.

Middle School:

Drawing With Scissors - Matisse Name Collages

For our first project this year I taught my middle school art class about Henri Matisse and his collages. Matisse was a prolific painter whose work is well known. Later in his life he was confined to a wheelchair and was unable to stand and paint. He started to "draw with scissors", making beautiful collages with the help of assistants.

My students made their own collages combining their names with three or more objects that describe them using construction paper. When they were finished we mounted them on a colored background frame and then on black foam core. Thanks to incredibleart.org for the inspiring lesson plan - They turned out great!

One-Point Perspective in the Hallways

One of the concepts we want our middle and high school art students to learn in the beginning classes is perspective. This can be a tough one for even the best artist to master. For this concept I had them take their art pads into the hallways and draw what they saw in one-point perspective. To prepare them I talked about the horizon line (always at eye-level), the vanishing point (where you are on the horizon line), and how all lines moving away from you in space converge on the vanishing point. They also had to keep in mind that any line that is perpendicular to the viewer will not be effected by perspective.

I had them start by drawing the far wall in the hallway (usually with the doorway to the staircase), then find their vanishing point. After that they could draw in the information on the ceiling, floor and side walls. I did end up helping with some of the drawing until they got the idea, but many of them came out pretty well!

Here are some great examples:

The Joys of Painting Fruit

In a color scale exercise, my middle and high school students learned the value of using a color's complement (red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple) instead of black to create different values and neutralize a color. To practice this, I gave each one of them a handout with photos of 3 fruits, each with a good light source and shadow:

I instructed them to divide their paper into 4 sections, and paint a fruit in each one. They would start with using just black and white (and mixing to make gray) for the first one, choosing any fruit they would like. The next three squares they would use each of the fruit one time, and the following paints in any arrangement they liked on the paper. 1) blue and orange (and white), 2) red and green (and white), and 3) yellow and purple (and white). Here are some of the best ones. I am really impressed with how well they did!

High School student Ashley

High School student Beam

Color Theory for Everyone!

So I've started teaching my middle and high school students about color and paint. Their first task was to paint in a color wheel with tints and shades. They have a full range of colors in their art packets but I only allowed them to use red, yellow, blue, black, and white for their color wheels.

Once they figured out how to mix the paint, I wanted them to create an artwork utilizing warm and cool color palettes. I looked around online for ideas and I loved this one posted by Arte a Scuola (thank you!!). I had them choose 5 items from a bunch of containers I set up in the classroom and they could arrange them any way they wanted to on the page.

The next step was to break up the page with lines going through the objects. Each shape would need to be next to a different color than itself. They could choose warm colors for the background and cool colors for the objects, or vice versa. After they finished painting they went over their lines with black sharpie.

Even with such specific rules I still think there is beautiful diversity in the results:

High School student Marcus - this one is exceptional!!

High School student Katie 

Middle and High School Students Work with Line

A while back, at the beginning of the semester, I wanted to focus on the element of Line with my HS and MS students. The assignment was to make a collage out of two colors using only lines. They were allowed to use any two colors they chose. Here are some of the best ones.

High School Student Ashley - she used 3 colors and I think it was a good choice!

High School Student Murat

Middle School Crazy Portraits a Big Success

For the final project Fall Semester I wanted the kids to do something fun while also demonstrating their acquired drawing skills. I let them use Photo Booth on my MacBook and choose a filter that distorted their face. I printed these out in black and white and then they drew them on large drawing paper. Many of them came out really well, and I think it's because the faces were distorted already so it wasn't so important that their drawing looked exactly like them. Its interesting to see the different styles inherent in these students even after only one semester of drawing. Here are some of my favorites: