Animal Printmaking

Fifth grade girls had fun creating these colorful animal prints! They first created a stylized drawing of the animal of their choice which took up most of the space on their paper. Then, they transferred their drawing to a special rubber material and carved away areas of the design. They were challenged to create a balance of positive and negative space within the image, as well leaving texture or patterned areas within the animal or background. The printing plates were covered with colorful block printing ink and printed on various colored papers. Three coordinating prints were chosen for display in a series!

Still Life Fruit Drawings

Sixth graders did their first developed drawing from observation as their last project of second quarter.   After creating their accurate line drawings of a fruit still life arrangement, we turned off the overhead lights and turned on the spotlights to create strong highlights and shadows, which the students rendered with various drawing pencils. 

Here are the lovely final drawings:

Dinner Party

I am always hesitant repeating projects from year to year. Thinking of new ways to teach similar skills is the part about my job I love, and keeping things fresh and exciting is more interesting for the people looking at the artwork in the building too. But, the response last year to this project was so positive, and the kids enjoyed making the work so much that I decided to do it again. I think this round of ceramic plates of food really set the bar high too... don't they truly look good enough to eat?!

Chuck Close Inspired Self Portraits

Last year at the NAEA Convention, I had the very exciting opportunity to see contemporary American artist Chuck Close speak. His lecture inspired me to spice up my usual 7th grade portrait project and attempt a painted piece like his. Close has been a leading figure in contemporary art since the early 1970s. He is best known for the monumental faces he has painted in thousands of tiny airbrush bursts, thumbprints, or looping multi-color brushstrokes using an abstract, highly illusionistic and systematical means of creating portraiture. Viewed at a distance, these large-scale pieces are still highly realistic in nature. Close starts with a photo, covers it with a grid, transfers the grid, enlarged to scale, onto the big blank canvas, and then starts in one corner, applying paint to the squares, repeating the process in pass after pass from different angles. He makes no underlying sketch to guide him– just the grid. The ears and eyes and locks of hair appear only as the regions of hue and dark and light incrementally coalesce into shapes. Form and line, too, are discovered.

Seventh graders used a similar process to create their portraits (but on a much smaller scale!). 

First, digital photos of the students were manipulated in Photoshop to reduce the portrait to six values/tones and photos were covered with a grid. Students used the photograph to transfer the outlines of their image onto their canvas, using their grids as a map. Once transferred, students focused solely on the values and subtle shapes present within each individual square, not fretting about the details of facial features. For each value, they mixed three paint colors (18 colors in total) ranging from very light to almost black. Then, the piece was painted square by square until the forms of their faces began to take shape amid the rainbow of colors! Students added the Chuck Close signature circles and shapes within each grid square to add to the abstract feel and to reinforce the values. Though time consuming, these portraits are fanciful and striking, and art students did a fantastic job creating them!

Finished Paintings: