State-Wide Student Show

Students create a tiger hiding behind leaves in the jungle (inspired by the artist Henri Rousseau).

This was a lesson in color mixing, and the students simply created a non-objective work of art while practicing mixing on both their watercolor tray and on the paper. They were also practicing wet in wet painting. Not very elaborate, but very fun.

Symmetrical Tiger Drawing – the students practiced symmetry and then used their knowledge to create a symmetrical drawing of a tiger.

Hexagon Honey Bees – After watching videos about bees and why a hexagon is the best shape for their hive, we discussed some of the ways bees are an important part of our environment and how they influence our lives. The students then used their new knowledge to create art that represented both the bees and their hive. The students were able to choose how each element was shown and what materials were used to create their artwork.

The third-grade students created robots using the app pic collage on their iPad. They found images of objects and combined them to create a robot.
Cr
VA:Cr1.1.3a Elaborate on an imaginative idea.

This lesson was inspired by Elizabeth Anderson and Tara Starling. Students use a variety of paper cutting, folding and gluing techniques to make their own unique animal mask. They consider color scheme, symmetry, pattern and other elements when designing their mask.

This drawing was created during November and features a turkey that is on the run. Lydia titled this artwork “Doodle Attack” and used a pencil, sharpie pen, and crayons. She was inspired by artists online that draw cartoon characters in an overlapping design. She describes this artwork as an angel ninja turkey who is running from the doodles that are chasing him down.

Students choose an action for their figurine, then using paper and other mixed media supplies they build their figure and the background (setting) for their character.

Students explored the ways that a graphic artist communicates their ideas using imagery, color typography and form. They then created a composition of a chosen word in the style and material of their choice.

For this lesson, students created a portrait of a person of importance to them. Students used the drawing technique, pointillism, to create values and lighting using small dots in order to create their portrait.

Description: This “Creative Cryptid” art experience exposed the students to the study of Cryptozoology (the study of undiscovered/mythical creatures). The students examined several contemporary artists including Vladimir Stankovic’s invented creatures and Drew Berry’s animations of unseen organisms. White-colored pencil on black paper was used to create form and depth. The work was then carefully enhanced with detail using additional colored pencil blending techniques.

Student Artist Statement: This creature, the Winged Rattle-Seahorse, is a hybrid of a seahorse, a tiger swallowtail butterfly, and a rattlesnake. It comes in a variety of different colors, but the most prominent color is a burnt yellow or a golden sheen. This creature lives in warm and shallow waters and can be found in coral reefs or on the shores of a Southern beach. It’s born without wings, and the wingless young depend on their parents to get food from the shore. Once they grow their wings, they can fly and drink nectar from flowers and use their wings to propel it through the water and eat tiny crustaceans. Its wings are hardier than a normal butterfly’s and act almost like fins or bird wings. However, they are still moderately delicate, and tearing one will result in an almost guaranteed death. From the rough, scale-like hide of its tail, to the bumpy ridges of its body, to the powdery hair-like surface of its wings, this creature has a variety of different textures, and the diversity creates a startling contrast. Its unusual and almost ethereal beauty, coupled with its friendly demeanor, makes it an approachable and likable creature; but, approaching one is highly discouraged. They are painfully shy and can rip their wings in their panic to flee. Also, they’re moderately small, smaller than a hand, and are difficult to find since they’re popular prey to sea turtles and seagulls.

Students discovered colored pencil techniques by creating a color wheel, learning how to shade a sphere using complementary colors to create form shadows. They completed a guided drawing of a donut to demonstrate their understanding of layering, texture, complementary colors to create form shadows, and how to create texture. For this final horse piece students where allowed to choose whatever animal they wanted and apply all the colored pencils concepts into their final composition.

Students researched animals from local and national zoo websites. They used specific tools in Google Drawing to create shapes & original colors/values for a digital mosaic.

This lesson is a part of our Graphic Design Unit. We focus on how art is a form of communication among many people. Students must write a word using objects manipulated into letter shapes. We discuss symbols, typography, and pictograms.

Students research a reference photo, then using a grid they enlarge the image with white charcoal pencil. Once the image is transferred, they work from the top to the bottom – background to foreground – filling in the drawing. The emphasis is on blending and layering colors to create highlights, shadow, and texture.

Students create their own theme and concentration for a body of work. They then decide what media best illustrates the theme they choose to work with.

The sunflower painting was inspired by looking at a still-life of sun flowers. The flowers were drawn first with pencil then painted.

The lesson this project comes from has students use free stock image sites to find images of birds or fish to test out the skills we have practiced in class related to color pencil use like complementary color shading, layering, burnishing, and solvent color blending.

The assignment is to create a cool texture using a background texture, an object photo (3x), and an overlay texture. They use different blend modes to alter the way the image looks. They are to experiment and move things around to get interesting effects!

In this lesson, students were asked to research a contemporary artist that they found inspiring, and create a personal work of art inspired by this artist. They were given the challenge to create a conceptual connection to the artist’s work with their personal work, but maintain their own unique style and subject matter preferences that they had demonstrated a tendency to work with in earlier work.

Abstract sculpture mastery exam assignment that demonstrates multiple hand-building techniques in addition to several elements and principles of art.

This was a photo assignment for students to take multiple points of views of their hands. Exploring points of view and then looking at how they could use Adobe Photoshop Mix or Adobe Photoshop Sketch to edit the final images.

The goal of this project was to combine two unlikely things in the same digital space. This could have been a “scientific discovery,” an “oxymoron” or a comparison of “polar opposites. Students had the choice of creating a design with purpose such as an event poster, infographic, brochure, flyer, product design etc. or a digital illustration such as Nailyn did. http://graphicdesisn2lessons.weebly.com/opposites-attract.html

Students had to draw human emotions by studying the muscles in the human face.

4″x5″ AP Art Boot Camp. Students create six 4″x5″ projects with various media and subject matter.

for AP 2D Art and Design Sustained Investigation.

Callie took independent studies sculpture where she experimented with cement and resin in most of her pieces. For this project she wanted to try to do a life casting with silicone.

This portraiture unit began with students discussing the questions “what is a portrait” and “why do artists create portraits”. Students then created a visual plan of who they wanted to create a portrait of and what the meaning/emotion they were going to express about the person they chose. As a class we talked about choosing someone in our lives who we wanted to honor. Students had many options for the materials to choose from (drawing/painting, digital painting, vector illustration, photography series and photo collage).
Course: Graphic Arts 1

The students explored Impressionism and the techniques used within. Each student then chose a landscape photo to replicate using those techniques.

This piece was part of Grace’s sustained investigation for her AP Art and Design portfolio. Grace was specifically interested in manipulating shape, line and layers to create a dynamic composition. Her interest in architecture comes from growing up in Chicago and its diverse neighbors. First she deconstructs the architecture and then reconstructs it into an abstracted collage. Her work incorporates acrylic glaze, watercolor, ink pence, crinkled paper, acetate.

In this unit, the student expanded on their painting skills by working in Oil and chose a complex area that they could depict in Oil Paint.

Beginning Painting students are taught various techniques to layer acrylic paints and to paint freely. We photograph the paintings after each layer to compare in the end and see the depth that is created through this process.

The student researched the ideas and concepts of the human form and how far one can push the human form until it is no longer human. It was a collaboration between the student and teacher to try and experiment with new materials, as well as, three-dimensional composition.