Middle School Tessellations

Never having delved into the work of MC Escher as a source of inspiration for my art classes, I decided  it was high time. We viewed a video about his life and art over the course of two days. I learned a lot about him that I had never had the opportunity to find out.

Afterward the I gave the students coloring pages I found in this book of Escher's tessellations and the students each got to color one in to try to understand how the back and forth of the tessellations work.

Next they learned three different techniques for making tessellations: reflections, rotations, and …

Once they figured out what tessellations were all about and what made them tick, they made their own tessellations and then had to make them look like something - an object or person or animal, etc.

The kids seemed to struggle but enjoy the challenge. I loved so many of these!

Modigliani Inspired Self Portraits

My middle school students worked hard on their oral presentations right before finals, so I wanted to give them art project that was engaging and fun, but also not "super challenge" as my 5-year-old would say. We looked at portraits by Modigliani and found that his style had particular traits: necks are elongated, faces are oval, eyes are almond-shaped, and noses are sometimes twisted. We used Photo Booth on my Mac to take a picture of each student which I then printed out in black and white. Students used these pictures for reference and crossed them with Modigliani's style for their final projects. They had a great time using oil pastel and exaggerating their features!

Aram

Middle School Surrealist "Handscapes"

For this project I showed my students videos about Dalí. They learned how he was influenced by his dreams and subconscious. They learned that many of the anthropomorphic forms in his paintings that resemble large rocks are based on rocks he actually saw in the landscape where he spent much of his childhood.

For the assignment they used their hands in a similar way that Dalí used the rocks - they drew them and then changed them into something else while still allowing them to be hand like.

Danila

Drawing With Scissors - Matisse Name Collages

For our first project this year I taught my middle school art class about Henri Matisse and his collages. Matisse was a prolific painter whose work is well known. Later in his life he was confined to a wheelchair and was unable to stand and paint. He started to "draw with scissors", making beautiful collages with the help of assistants.

My students made their own collages combining their names with three or more objects that describe them using construction paper. When they were finished we mounted them on a colored background frame and then on black foam core. Thanks to incredibleart.org for the inspiring lesson plan - They turned out great!

One-Point Perspective in the Hallways

One of the concepts we want our middle and high school art students to learn in the beginning classes is perspective. This can be a tough one for even the best artist to master. For this concept I had them take their art pads into the hallways and draw what they saw in one-point perspective. To prepare them I talked about the horizon line (always at eye-level), the vanishing point (where you are on the horizon line), and how all lines moving away from you in space converge on the vanishing point. They also had to keep in mind that any line that is perpendicular to the viewer will not be effected by perspective.

I had them start by drawing the far wall in the hallway (usually with the doorway to the staircase), then find their vanishing point. After that they could draw in the information on the ceiling, floor and side walls. I did end up helping with some of the drawing until they got the idea, but many of them came out pretty well!

Here are some great examples:

The Joys of Painting Fruit

In a color scale exercise, my middle and high school students learned the value of using a color's complement (red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple) instead of black to create different values and neutralize a color. To practice this, I gave each one of them a handout with photos of 3 fruits, each with a good light source and shadow:

Color Theory for Everyone!

So I've started teaching my middle and high school students about color and paint. Their first task was to paint in a color wheel with tints and shades. They have a full range of colors in their art packets but I only allowed them to use red, yellow, blue, black, and white for their color wheels.

Middle and High School Students Work with Line

A while back, at the beginning of the semester, I wanted to focus on the element of Line with my HS and MS students. The assignment was to make a collage out of two colors using only lines. They were allowed to use any two colors they chose. Here are some of the best ones.

High School Student Ashley - she used 3 colors and I think it was a good choice!

Middle School Computers Students Work With Scratch

For this second semester of middle school computers my goal is to get the kids both comfortable and excited about the process of programming. They each did a web page last semester so learned HTML and CSS coding. That process was fun for them (albeit a little frustrating) in that they got to see how coding can give immediate results. I think they also enjoyed getting creative with images and gifs.

Middle School Crazy Portraits a Big Success

For the final project Fall Semester I wanted the kids to do something fun while also demonstrating their acquired drawing skills. I let them use Photo Booth on my MacBook and choose a filter that distorted their face. I printed these out in black and white and then they drew them on large drawing paper. Many of them came out really well, and I think it's because the faces were distorted already so it wasn't so important that their drawing looked exactly like them. Its interesting to see the different styles inherent in these students even after only one semester of drawing. Here are some of my favorites:

First Semester Middle School Computers Sum-Up

Last semester in middle school computers we learned some keyboarding skills, how to format in and work with Microsoft Word, and do a little Microsoft Excel. The best part, however (at least for me!), was teaching the kids how to work with HTML/CSS and code their own web pages. Even though it was frustrating at times, as HTML is so sensitive to errors, they seemed to really enjoy it and loved the immediacy of making something happen in front of their eyes! Here are some of the webpages they created:

The Best Kid Shows of 2000 to 2008
IceCream.org
NBA Basketball Teams 2013-2014
Top Five Crossovers of the 2012-2013 NBA Seasons
Top five NBA Dunks
Mr. Woofless' Pet Shop