Name Design Project

This week the students started the Name Design Project. This also uses their name but is much more uniform then the first name project. This is a great use of line, shape, and color. 

Materials:
9x12 drawing paper
pencil
ruler
color pencils

Instructions: The paper should be in landscape (horizontal). 
1. Start by drawing a 6x6 inch box in the lower right hand corner of your paper. 
2. Then fill the rest of the paper with 2x2 inch grid. Since the paper is 9inches, you will have one row of 1x2 boxes. 
3. Fill the 2 inch squares with your name. You should try to have all or most of the letters touching at least one side of the box and they should overlap each other. 
4. Color each square using a different color scheme. Try shading with color to show value. 
5. Choose your best square and recreate it in the larger 6x6 inch square. 

That's it! Here's an example in progress: 

Due Tuesday 9/17/13

Finished examples from last years students: 

2013-2014 School Year

Well Hello! Welcome back!

We are wrapping up our first full week back at school!

I am trying to learn Evernote the app so I can keep an e-portfolio for all my students this year. I think it will be a good way to have a record of everything we have done and whether or not assignments have been turned in.

Just like last year we started off with Name Creatures- these were due today (8/30/13).
 (here's last years post for instructions- name creatures )

I'll post some of this years examples soon.

We also started Sketchbook Fridays today. The assignment is to draw anything you want that relates to the given word. Any style, any media. The first word for this year is Rescue. This will be due next friday (9/6/13).

DADA!

From Wikipedia:

Dada (pron.: /ˈdɑːdɑː/) or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. It began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916, spreading to Berlin shortly thereafter.^[1] To quote Dona Budd's The Language of Art Knowledge,

Dada was born out of negative reaction to the horrors of World War I. This international movement was begun by a group of artists and poets associated with the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. Dada rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition. The origin of the name Dada is unclear; some believe that it is a nonsensical word. Others maintain that it originates from the Romanian artists Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco's frequent use of the words da, da, meaning yes, yes in the Romanian language. Another theory says that the name "Dada" came during a meeting of the group when a paper knife stuck into a French-German dictionary happened to point to 'dada', a French word for 'hobbyhorse'.^[2]

The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre, andgraphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards inart through anti-art cultural works. In addition to being anti-war, Dada was also anti-bourgeois and had political affinities with the radical left.

Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, 1919, collage of pasted papers, 90x144 cm, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

This week students are creating their own Dada-style collages. 

Caricatures

Caricatures: 
 A caricature is a picture, description, etc., ludicrously exaggerating the peculiarities or defects of persons or things. Students were asked to bring in a photo or magazine clipping of the person they would like to draw. If they did not bring their own they were given a magazine clipping. The requirements for this drawing are:

• realistic portrayal of person you are drawing
• BUT with exaggerated features (have big eyes? draw them even bigger!)
• Add a background that describes the person you drew
• The ENTIRE thing must be in color! 

 I can't get this to rotate :(

Comic Strips

Students created their very own comic strip. The requirements were as follows:

• Must be at least 4 frames long
• It should be themed "A day in the life of..." (anyone- real or made up)
• No sticks figures
• Fully colored
• Voice bubbles

A few examples: 

Drawing Hands

Jan. 22: We started learning how to draw hands by doing blind contour drawings. 

Then from there, we began the Expressive Hands Project. 

Expressive Hands Project

Draw at least 3 realistic hands in an expressive position (school appropriate) and/or holding something of significance to you. They should be life size or larger but NOT TRACED. They must be shaded in black and white. The background is to be a pattern/design that helps portray your expressive message and will be colored using (color pencil) a color scheme that will also emphasize the message of your expressive hands.

*Remember the color schemes are:

Monochromatic (different shades of one color)

Analogous (colors next to each other on the color wheel)

Complementary (opposites on the color wheel)

***You must also complete the self evaluation with this assignment.

Still Life Drawings

1/7-1/9: Students practiced the shading techniques by drawing a still life including a variety of objects (flowers, baskets, glass vases, plastic water bottles, books, manikins)