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!

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. 

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. 

Sea shell contour line 6th grade

After all that practice drawing shells, it seemed a shame not to squeeze one more project out of it! I bought a giant bag of shells at Michaels for about $10 and had the student choose their own shells and arrange them into a personal still life. At this point my student had already been introduced to contour drawing. I reminded the often to, "draw what you see, not what you think a shell looks like."

Kids had the most problems with the simple shells, like the one in the Shell Gasoline logo. I also encouraged students to draw the shell from the side with the opening. This made the drawings a little more dynamic.

The backgrounds of these are done with tissue paper pieces wet down with a spray of water. After the water dries, remove the tissue paper and you are left with the wonderful "bleeds" the paper left behind. Students cut a matching blue shadow to give the work some depth.

Supplies: pencil, thin black sharpies, a variety of matte tissue paper cut or torn in 1-2 inch pieces, drawing paper, blue construction paper, glue, sea shells for observation

Pastel sea shell Georgia O'Keeffe 6th grade

We explored abstract drawing for this Georgia O'Keeffe inspired project. I was sort of puzzled to find out that hardly any of my 6th graders had a working understanding of abstraction, and to add insult to injury, had never heard of O'Keeffe! Needless to say, we hit both subjects pretty hard!

For this project I wanted students to learn the difference between drawing an abstracted view and a "whole view". We did several thumbnail sketches. Somehow, even after 3 demos, I still had students drawing whole view and not comprehending the concept of cropping in and altering the image. It took some work, but I checked thumbnails and insisted students "abstract the shells!" before we went any further.

I always like to read stories or show videos about artist we are going over. I found a book called My Name is Georgia to read the kids. It bored them to tears. Literally, their eyes were watering from trying to keep their lids open. I do think its a sweet story that tells about her process and what inspires her so it was worth it.

Students took their two favorite abstracted thumbnails and drew them large in chalk pastel. This gave me the opportunity to teach shade, tint, and blending techniques. They were forbidden from using black pastels! This is important to keep the colors bright and non muddled.

I gave the kids freedom to use unrealistic colors like O'Keeffe. They had a blast blending the colors and creating their own compositions. I told them that the most successful abstractions used neutrals as well as bright colors. The results were fabulous.

Supplies: sea shells for observation, pastel paper (I used really cheap watercolor paper), chalk pastels, newsprint ( to create a protective jacket)

Anthony Heywood inspired animal junk drawings

Here was another lesson the kids enjoyed last year: Animal Junk Drawings!


In an effort to incorporate a lesson about "green art," I came across an artist named Anthony Heywood who makes huge elephants out of garbage.

Anthony Heywood

My 6th graders absolutely loved looking at Heywood's work and we played a little game of "I see..." They got super focused and those hands shot up when they found something a classmate had not yet!

I always like to include many expamplars during a lesson. I shared some videos of other green artist. These two on Wyland were a huge hit:

Wyland is amazing. He is a huge inspiration to young kids. His mission is to help children fall in love with the ocean and preserve it for the future. 

The last artist I chose was Treiops Treyfid. He is a contemporary artist who makes works from recycled material. His "Animals of the Furture" series is about how unless drastic changes are made, exotic animals will die out and the future animals of earth will be animals like pigeons and rats who easily adapt to human life. This video was a little deep for a 6th grader, but they enjoyed it. Also, it allowed them to see what gallery life is like. 

So here was the project: First I gave students a hand out of a sheet of various animal silhouettes (google: animal silhouettes). 

The challenge for them was to enlarge a small drawing to a large drawing. I showed them how to break the silhouette into quadrants and to draw one quadrant at a time.

Then I had students make a list of 50 items of junk. They moaned a little about this part, but it is essential if you want to avoid students whining that they can think of anymore junk to add to the drawing. I let students share ideas at their table to cut down on time.

Now the fun part! Students added all 50 items of junk inside their drawings (like Anthony Heywood sculpts). This was a great start of the year project because I got to assess their individual drawing skills. The kids loved it because it was creative and allowed them to basically doodle!

Both examples by C.M.