Cross Contour Animals

Cross contour animals are a great way to introduce volume to middle school students. After a lesson on contour line, we discussed how cross contour lines convey volume. Students selected an animal they wanted to draw. After drawing was complete, cross contours were applied with sharpie. The backgrounds are done in a student generated pattern colored in prismacolor. Shout out to Ms. Power for coming up with this awesome lesson.

Social issue Silhouette

Kara Walker is an amazing artist, unfortunately, not very appropriate for Middle School students.  My colleague and I have wanted to try a K. Walker project for some time but were always too scarred. We decided to show some examples of Bansky and one 2 PG rated Kara Walker projects. Students had to express a point of view relating to a social issue (They chose from a PG list of social issues, some of the heavy ones were edited out). They were only allowed to use silhouette. We also discussed classical composition strategies leading up to this project. Students had to generate their own imagery although the last painting is done from the child's head. These were painted on watercolor paper with flat tempera paint.  

Environmental destruction

Video game violence 

homelessness 

Racism 

6th grade 1 point perspective museums

This project was a big hit with the kids. They created a one point room using a ruler, following along with me on the document camera. Leading up to the project, we had done lots of practice. Students then created their own museum. We talked about the job of a curator and how they would curate their own museum. I limited imagery on the walls to 60% from our art text book and 40% from their imagination. 

smash face

I pinned this lesson (not an active link, please post original source if you have it!)  and just had to have my kids try it! we used my classroom scanner to "smash" their faces on the glass. Students gridded their photos and added value with charcoal. I think they are fantastic!

7th grade owl drawings

I gave students 4 pictures of owls printed on a single sheet of paper in black and white. We made 3x3 inch view finders with construction paper and cropped in to one view of an owl eye. They made 3 thumbnail sketches and the students chose their favorite one. Drawing were scaled up on 9X9 brown bogus paper and shaded with black and white colored pencil and a pop of eye color.

Fairy Tale Mash Up 8th grade Pre AP

For this Project, 8 grade Art 1 Pre Ap Students had to Remix a classic Fairy tale or two! Students were responsible for taking their own reference photographs and arranging the compositions in a pleasing way. These were colored with Prisma colors, but some also have graphite or charcoal.  

Fairy tale Saga

Group Norms: Stay on topic, don’t play around, respect everyone in your group, work as a team but strive to be an individual.

Grading: you will receive several daily grades and  two test grades based on Criteria met (25) Creativity (25)  Craftsmanship (25)  Composition (25)

Step 1: Divide into groups and choose a fairy tale/ fable/ or nursery rhyme to interpret. Use books provided or go to http://www.ivyjoy.com/fables/ and choose one there. Every group must choose a different story.	Step 2: Read the story. Take notes and discuss story themes, plots, and symbolism. Discuss how the story is different from what you thought the story was from watching Disney. Brainstorm photography and drawing ideas.	Step 3: After discussion, go to the drawing board. Each member of the group must produce 3 ideas/ sketches of their interpretation of the fairy tale in modern time. Don’t be cliche here. I down want to see Snow White waiting on her kiss. Dig deep into the story and create one-of-a-kind  interpretations.
Step 4: Photography time! each member of your group will stage the scene from your sketch. Each student will set up their own photo with the help of the group. Consider lighting, props, and facial expressions. Use phones to take several photos from different angles to choose from later	Step 5: Prepare photographs for gid. You may collage in elements. Grid your photo/ photo collage and prepare your drawing surface.	Step 6: transfer your photograph into a beautiful  and interesting drawing using pencil, prismas, or charcoal.

Pinocchio meets Humpty Dumpty 

Beauty and the Beast

Ring around the Rosies

Ring around the Rosies

Little Red Riding hood

7th grade two point perspective cities

Students created these imaginary cities using only rulers, and pencils.  I showed them how to construct buildings in two point perspective. There are a lot of great youtube tutorials if you need a refresher on this technique.

Mechanical Animals inspired by the movie Hugo

Due to one teacher being out sick a few weeks ago, we ended up starting the movie Hugo. Turns out, it's an amazing movie packed full of themes and history. We used the movie as a spring board for these steampunk inspired projects. 

Graffiti name designs

Kids love graffiti! In this lesson I combined a YouTube brick drawing tutorial, graffiti lettering, and stenciling in one project. 

Supplies:

Paper

Colored pencil

Sharpie

Pencil

Watered down acrylic paint in a spray bottle

Stencils or die cuts 

YouTube "how to draw a brick wall"

Puppy shading

This is a simple shading exercise and the kids loved it!

Supplies:

A cute puppy picture in black and white :)

Glue

Scissors

Pencils

What you do:

Cut an image down the center and glue on half to a sheet of drawing paper. With the other half of the photo, turn it over and rub graphite on the back covering the image. Line the graphite backed image back up with the original and using a pencil, trace the outline of the puppy. This will give students a outline of the other half and allow them to focus more on the shading rather than the "drawing" aspect. It took the pressure off and allowed them to really perfect the shading. 

Black white grid portraits

These gorgeous portraits dreamed by Ms. Power are simple and effective. Students manipulated their photo in the PS Touch app for iPad by adjusting the threshhold which reduces it to the black and white image. Students then printed out the picture and using a grid, enlarged the portrait to a 16x22. Students then used black acrylic paint to paint the black values. 

Supplies:

16x22 watercolor paper

Black acrylic paint and brushes

Pencil

Ruler ( we cut poster board strips in 1 inch and 2 inch stripes)

Print out of manipulated picture

Student spotlight

Love this amazing work created by our very own Carissa (8th grade)

Tunnel books after famous works

Students loved turning a 2d master work into a 3d tunnel book in this hands on activity. 

Supplies needed per student:

Art books to look for master works

5 5x5 inch sheets of watercolor paper or card stock

Glue

Colored pencil

 These books can have as many layers as students want, but I focused on three layers, foreground, middle ground, background. This helped students understand how space is divided.