So much art, so little time. 

Here's a project my Drawing 1 students finished over two weeks ago, entitled "The Hand Book."  For this artistic endeavor, my students had to approach the same subject (their own hand) from 8 different stylistic standpoints: breaking down their hand into the four basic forms (cone, cylinder, sphere and cube); drawing the contour lines with two pencils taped together; Cubist-inspired; Surrealist-inspired; less-dominant blind-contour drawing; stippled; regular old drawing; and of course, a cover for their books.  A grand total of 8 drawings on four pieces of paper, bound in a corner with a brad. 

This is a good exercise in finding freedom in restrictions, but some students weren't comfortable with that.  Lots of them said that they got really tired of drawing their hands, and funnily enough, these were the students that obviously needed the most practice.  Lots of them also just traced their hands, thinking I wouldn't notice.  Oh, hand turkeys...

Most students churned out some good stuff.  Check it out:

I think I'll do this project again next trimester, maybe throwing some more or different prompts.  It turned out pretty well, overall.

I can't wait to show you what they're up to now!

Hello!

Yes, I know it has been a while.  But I come to my keyboard bearing gifts of the visual variety, in the form of student artwork from my Painting I class.  Admittedly, we haven't created a huge quantity of masterpieces, given that I've been drilling color theory into their heads. 

Below are some photos of my Fabric Translation Squares Project, where students had to select a piece of patterned fabric, and then match the colors, desaturate the colors, and paint the color complements.  I loved the effect when I hung them all together - it looked like a quilt!

Here are some exemplary pieces from my Fraktur Hex Sign Project. Students focused on symmetry & balance for their designs, and then had to select a specific color scheme to execute their paintings.  If you're interested, you can view the presentation I made to introduce the project here.

I find myself continually surprised by my students' skill and thoughtfulness.  Sometimes it takes lighting a huge fire under their butts, but when they can let go and just give themselves over to the process, I think they surprise even themselves.

Enough bragging.  Now it's time to get to work on another round of concept sketches for my upcoming hospital project (I'll tell you all about it in another post, soon... promise).

Happy Friday!

I'll tell you what, I am one proud mama bear.  Look at what my little art cubs can do!!!!!

My Drawing I students are in the midst of the apparent torture that is value studies.  I put a lot of emphasis on value studies, because frankly, aside from line, it is the most fundamental element of drawing well. 

The photo above shows a simple still-life, where students had to study a single kernel of popcorn, and render it on both white paper and black paper.  The challenges were to blow it up to touch all four sides of the paper, and also to invert their thinking when they had to switch to black paper.  They HATED that exercise.

But they LOVED my Mystery Portrait Project, where they created grids to blow up a photo of a "mystery celebrity" from 8x10 to 16x20.  The photos were cut up into 1x1 squares, numbered and coded, so the students didn't know who they were drawing until almost the end.  And sometimes they still didn't know who they got after they finished (but I'll forgive them).  The point of the exercise was to pay attention to the values in each individual square, without getting caught up in trying to make the drawing "look right."  When they were able to trust the values they saw, the drawings turned out, well, amazing.  See for yourself:

As we continue our adventures in drawing, I hope to post more work.  I love my job.  It's hella fun.

Til next time,