#Selfie

In this project, students used the "grid method" on a photograph in order to correctly draw their facial features and head/hair shapes. Then they erased the grid lines and shaded their drawings using a variety of drawing pencils. By employing a wide range of values, students were able to achieve the look of three dimensions on a 2D surface.

I have been teaching 7th graders how to create fully rendered self-portraits from a photograph for the past eight years (some examples include split portraits for which students drew half the face and the other half was a photo, these portraits with backgrounds inspired by Kehinde Wiley, and these "Shades of Summer" portraits which included a reflection in sunglasses). In the past, I have taken their pictures myself, but this year, I thought it would be fun to have the students take their own photos ("selfies") and I am so excited with the results! Equipped with an ipad, each student chose their pose, the crop of their photo and the amount of light/dark present on their face (there was a spotlight in the room where they took their photo). The completed portraits were mounted to an iPhone screen template, to make them appear even more like a real selfie!

Paper Relief Sculpture

Relief sculpture is an art form that is midway between painting and sculpture in the round. It is a process in which the subject stands out or projects a surface from the background. The surface can be several levels including high relief (deep or almost in the round) or low relief (shallow) or anywhere in between.

 To create their relief sculptures, seventh graders first learned about the difference between shape and form. A shape is two-dimensional (it has height and width) whereas a form is three-dimensional (it not only has height and width but also depth). Students experimented creating forms out of basic paper shapes by rolling, bending, folding and gluing them. After trying a variety of forms, students chose their favorite and created sixty variations of that form. Students then considered space and balance to position their forms into their final sculptural arrangement. These look awesome on display as they protrude from the wall- it's hard to really see the depth in these individual photos, but the shadows and dimension are super cool up close! 

Some photos of the students folding, rolling, arranging and gluing: 

A few finished works:

* The idea for this lesson came from a March 2005 article in School Arts Magazine 

Up Close Animals

In this project, students were asked to find an animal with visual interest (color, patterns, etc). After printing a photo from the internet, they used a viewfinder to crop the picture in order to create an interesting composition. They were encouraged to incorporate just enough of the animal for it to be recognizable, without including too much within the frame. They used acrylic paint on 12" x 16" stretched canvas to bring their animals to life!