Clay Pieces
For this project, I told students that if they do not take a ceramics class in high school or college, that this could very well be the last time that they make a clay artwork. The assignment was to make whatever they wanted in consideration of that fact. Students were very creative and made some really nice pieces!!
Menchies!
Awesome Job 8th grade!
Worry Dolls- Service Project
For this project, our class made "Worry Dolls" for children at Children's Hospital in the Oncology Unit. First, the students did research and learned a lot about different types of cancer. We also had some fantastic guest speakers who have/have had cancer that spoke to the students about their experiences. Their stories and outlook on life were inspirational!
Dolls that remove worries, or "worry dolls", are very small and colorful dolls traditionally made in Guatemala. The idea is that a person who cannot sleep due to worrying can express their worries to the doll and place them under their pillow before going to sleep. The doll is thought to worry in the person's place, thereby permitting the person to sleep peacefully. The person will wake up without their worries, which have been taken away by the dolls during the night.
Students made worry dolls for children at Children's Hospital in the Oncology Unit. They also gave the children supplies and instructions on how to make their own worry dolls for a loved one. They wrote a note of encouragement and made these awesome fabric envelopes to hold it all together!
AWESOME JOB 8TH GRADE! You made a positive difference in someone else's life!
Cancer Research and PSA's
Before we started making the "Worry Dolls" (above) for children in the Oncology Unit at Children's Hospital, students research different types of cancer and taught the class about the type of cancer. Along with their presentation, students created a Public Service Announcement:
Video and slideshow
Poster about Pancreatic Cancer and a bottle with a label of facts about Pancreatic Cancer designed to inform those who's diagnosis correlates with Alcoholism
Stop Motion Video about Leukemia
Very creative! Awesome job 8th graders
Tree Artworks
For this project, students went outside and got inspired by nature! They selected a tree to make an artwork around that could be about anything they wanted with any 2D supply they wanted. There was a Lot of freedom for this project and they did a great job coming up with ideas and making beautiful original artworks!
chalk pastel background with india ink trees
chalk pastels
paint- Love this quote!
Colored pencils- Love these quotes!
Chalk Pastels and ink- Great original writing
Paint
Chalk Pastels
Paint and paint pen- Love the torn edges
Great work 8th grade!
The 5 Skills of Drawing
"Drawing is not really very difficult. Seeing is the problem. And the secret to seeing, I mean really seeing, is quieting the bossy know-it-all left-brain so the mellower right-brain can do it’s magic.” -Betty Edwards
1. The Perception of Edges: EX: Upside-Down Drawings, Line and Contour Drawings
Tip for Drawing Edges: Lightly draw the basic shapes first, then go back and trace the lines of the object with your eye and simultaneously draw the detailed lines to make up the subject, using the basic shapes as guidelines to ensure you have the correct proportion.
Tip for Drawing Edges: Lightly draw the basic shapes first, then go back and trace the lines of the object with your eye and simultaneously draw the detailed lines to make up the subject, using the basic shapes as guidelines to ensure you have the correct proportion.
Drawing things upside-down is a great exercise for training the eye. You take a picture, put it upside-down and draw what you see upside-down also. This helps you stop thinking about the object you are trying to draw and instead helps you to look more at line, scale, and proportion. Instead of thinking "I'm drawing a horse", you should think "I'm drawing lines," and you'll end up with a really nice drawing!
Blind Contour Drawing/Semi-Blind Contour Drawing
Blind-Contour drawing is where you look only at the 3D object you are drawing and not at all at your paper. You slowly trace the edges of the object with your eye and simultaneously draw with your pencil using one continuous line. These drawings are quick- 30 seconds-2 minutes- and are a great drawing warm-up! It helps you to really see the object you are drawing, improves hand-eye coordination, and will help you draw what you see!
2. The Perception of Spaces: EX: Positive and Negative Spaces and distances between lines
Tips for drawing Positive and Negative Spaces: Examine the Negative Space (space around the drawing subject) just as much as you examine the Positive Space (the drawing subject). "Size" both the positive and negative shapes to help ensure correct proportion.
What do you see? A vase (black) or 2 facial profiles looking at each other (white)?
Examining Positive Space (the subject) and Negative Space (the space around the subject) can help you draw accurate lines, shapes, and have correct proportion and perspective of an object.
3. The Perception of Relationships: EX: Proportion (sizes) & Perspective (angles)
Tips for Proportion: Use your pencil to "size" the objects you are drawing. Hold your arm out straight and measure form the top of your pencil with your thumb. Then check the size of your drawing to make sure everything drawn is the correct size.
These are students Pre-Instructional and Post-Instructional Drawings of the hallway. Students learned how to "size" with their pencils (which helps with drawing things in proportion) and how to draw in One-Point Perspective (which helps with drawing angles and showing depth in a drawing). Huge improvement, huh?
4. The Perception of Lights and Shadows: EX: Shading
Tips for Shading:
- Shade the object in the same direction as the outside line of the form to help make the object look more 3D.
- Squint your eyes at the object and your drawing, make sure your drawing shows about 5 values and your shading is gradual and blends well.
- Squint your eyes at the object and your paper to make sure the location of the shadows and highlights are correct.
- Black and white should be used sparingly only for the darkest values and the smallest brightest highlights.
Students did value scales where they practiced gradual shading from black to white. They learned how to use a light source in their drawings and practiced shading using a light source.
5. The Perception of Gestalt (or Wholeness): EX: 3D object to a 2D drawing
Gestalt involves bringing all your drawing skills together. To practice this, I acted as a model for the students and they drew me for exercise in gesture drawing and body proportion. Students drew mannequin heads as an exercise in facial proportion and gestalt.
Body Proportion:
Facial Proportion
Excellent job 8th Graders!! We are going to use our drawing skills for one more drawing project in drawing a landscape. Students will select a tree as the main focus and draw the tree and surrounding landscape, stay tuned!
Stop Motion Animation Videos
For this project, students worked in groups to create a Stop Motion Video, which is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Students came up with their own original ideas for the videos, created props, took hundreds of pictures, put them into Keynote and edited the videos, adding music and sound effects. They did an amazing job with this, check them out!!
"Human Skateboard"
"Somewhere Under The Rainbow"
"Gummy Bear Space"
"Anger Management Chorus"
"Doing It Wrong"
AWESOME JOB 8TH GRADE!!
Alternative "Sketchbook" Assignments: PHOTOGRAPHY!
Each student got this list and took photos for each prompt
Close up
Faceless self-portrait
In motion
Sunset
close-up
Someone I love
Trees
Beautiful photos, great work 8th grade!
Street Art- Stencils
For this project, students created a stencil of an original design about something they care about. They learned about positive and negative space and creating bridges in their drawings to alter them in order to create a strong stencil.
Students also stenciled their designs on t-shirts!
The Dublin City Schools "DCS" shamrock surrounding the newly designed Sells Middle School "SMS" shamrock
They also made stencils on transparent paper and put them around the school in a location that enhanced the meaning of their piece.
Two students put their pieces together to create this display in the cafeteria!
This student made a stencil of people she knows that have been diagnosed with cancer
Very Nice 8th grade!
Street Art- Graffiti Tags
For this project, students chose a tag which is a graffiti signature for themselves. Some students derived the name from their real names and others chose words to represent themselves. They learned how to write in a graffiti style and used chalk pastels to color these in and give the appearance of a spray painted graffiti tag. Click on the "8th Grade Art" tab to see more!
"HA"
"Peace" with bullet holes and flames
Great job 8th grade!
Street Art- Tape Casting
For this project, students learned about Street art and the artist Mark Jenkins who makes tape sculptures. Students first selected places they wanted their sculptures to be, then worked in groups to create their own tape sculptures of a person in a position that interacts with the places they chose. After students finished their tape casts, they stuffed them with newspaper and put clothes on them to make them look real!
Notice the 1 shoe on the ground
Ninja
Planking
Awesome job 8th grade!
Tree Paintings
Students went outside and photographed deciduous trees (scroll down to see their beautiful photos), then combined their favorite elements of their photographs to create landscape paintings! Students carefully considered composition, mixed their own colors, and painted using a background, middle ground, and foreground to create these beautiful artworks.
Beautiful Work 8th grade!
Creative Clay Mugs
For this project, students used the pinch pot method to create a creative mug! Totally spooktacular.
"Witch's Brew" creepy mug
Creepy cauldron mug with eyes, bones, green slime, and octopus tentacles
Multi-tasking Squid Mug
Broom Mug
Creepy detached retina mug!
Awesome Job 8th grade!!
Tree Photography
Students explored Indian Run Falls Park behind our school and took photos of the beautiful fall leaves and trees! They will assemble several photos to create their own compositions for a landscape painting.
Gorgeous, can't wait to see the paintings!
Focus Painting
For this painting project, students looked at an out of focus upside-down artwork and painted what they saw. Each day the painting got more in focus and at the end of the week, the students saw the source painting clear and right side-up for the first time!
Students did an amazing job mixing colors, as they were only given Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, and White to create all the vivid colors in this painting.
Which one was painted by famous French painter Andre Derain in 1906?
Vote for your choice on the right side of the screen!
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Hello and thank you for watching my Curriculum Night Video! In this 3 minute video, you will see the art room and hear about some of the projects your student will be doing in my class.
Thanks for Watching!
Typography Self-Portraits- A picture is worth a 1,000 words
Typography is the art or process of using text or fonts to help create or enhance meaning of words. Students used typography and value (shading) to create a self-portrait. Double click on the pictures to enlarge the photo so you can read some of the text!
Awesome work 8th graders!!
8th Grade Tiles
For our first project, each student glazed a recycled tile. I want a whole wall like this.
They look great together!
