To a New Year

Welcome back to Tri-Valley High School art.  I am not only welcoming back my followers, but also myself.  I always enjoy the beginning of my year, even if it is my busiest.

I have new Art 1 students that need to be taught some of the basics of line and shading before we can get into some serious projects.  I have new advanced students that are eager to jump into the "fun" projects that they saw being created last year, but they even have to have some training before that can happen.

Anyways, this year I am going to be trying some new things.  Thanks to Art in the Apex (a great HS blog) I am going to be trying a more hands on approach to note taking with my Art 1 class.  I am not sure how to do this yet, but I think we will learn it together.

I am also going to have all of my advanced students create a blog.  They will each need to post all of their assignments to that blog for grading.  If you want to check out any of their blogs their web addresses are on the right side of my blog.  Please feel free to check them out and leave comments about their work.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask me.

Otherwise I wish all of you a great year.

summer work

Most people think teachers work for only nine months out of a year, but those of us in education know that we are always working.  My summer days might be as little slower, but I am still following a ton of blogs and thinking ahead to what I will do for this next school year.  I want tho find a way to make my art history curriculum more interesting.  I of course think it is really fun, but I need to find a easy to make it teenage fun.  I don't want them just memorizing info and spitting it back to me.  If anyone has some great suggestions I ask all ears.

Also I am working on fundraisers for my art club trip that is next year.  If anyone has great fundraising ideas let me know.

Spray away

I have been having my advanced art class create a stencil and then use spray paint to paint in the details.  They wre very excited to get to use spray paint, but then lately the weather has not been cooperating and we have been have a heck of a time to go outside and paint when it wasn't windy, raining or snowing.

A few of them are now done and I wanted to show them off. I also need to thank Art at the Apex for the idea.  They did a similar project earlier and I thought it looked like a fun one.

Cody S.

Chad V.

Maggie H.

Ryan S.

Just had to show

I have a couple of late arrivals, but they were done really well and I wanted to show them off.

Kenzie S.  - foreshortening

Connor F.  -  Foreshortening

Joslynne S.  -double canvas

Sammy K.  - Plaster hands

pixel -it

I saw a quilt project on pinterest where the quilter created a bird by making small square pixels and then just arranging them so that you could see the image.  I really liked the idea and so I had my painting class try the project.  They had to create a picture using pixels of color.  Some of them have gotten really frustrated by the amount of time that it takes to paint each square, especially when they made them so small in the first place.  However, we learned that the smaller you do the squares the better the overall picture looks.

A couple of these are not done yet, but they are close.

Maggie H.

Emma J.

Kenzie M.

Joslynne S.

Sammy K.

Ink Wash

I had my drawing class create ink washes.  I think that they turned out really good.

Cody H.

Brooklyn K.

Zack K.

Jozlynn P.

Kenzie S.

Artistic Mini Golf

Last year I saw on Art with the Apex, an artistic mini golf course at the end of the school year.  I thought that looked like a lot of fun and I wanted to try it out.  So I replaced my Claus Oldenberg project with a cardboard artist golf course.

First I got them in groups and then had them draw an artist out of a can.  I did that mostly because I didn't want 20 holes of Van Gogh.  I did let thme choose two out of the bucket and then they could pick which one they wanted so at least they got some choice.  Then they had to research about that artist.  They were required to make a sign at the beginning of the hole, they needed a border which they could bring in (like a hose or rope), they needed to make two clubs,  then three obstacles and some way to collect the ball at the end.  All items had to be made out of cardboard and then had to be painted.

Overall the project was a lot of fun.  Next year I need to give more time and a few more specific details, but otherwise the kids enjoyed the project.  It was fun to do something different especially when they are getting worn out at this time of year.  Some classes had more fun then others, but I guess that is what you expect at the end of the year.

The biggest problem was space issues in the art room.  I was happy that it was only one week, I don't know if I could have survived with that mess for longer than that.

One group decided to use the stairs for their hole.  It was pretty much a one shot and done or start over.