Overview

Students learn to create an abstract composition from their observational drawings of leaves for an abstracting from nature project.

Timing

One 50 minute class session

Vocabulary

Abstraction, observation, focal points, composition, variety, line, shape, texture, positive space, negative space

Goals & Objectives

Introduce abstract art, the elements and process of composition and how to enlarge a drawing using a grid. Students will learn how to enter, choose and draw a composition.

Art Materials & Equipment

Viewfinders, tape, pencils, black paper

Instructional Materials & Equipment

Leaf Drawing Warm Up handout, butcher paper, colored markers

Preparation

Gather materials, ask a student if we can use their drawing as an example during the demonstration

Introduction

On the handout, you don't have to use full sentences. You can just use key descriptive words. When you are finished answering the questions, come to the center table and write your key words of your description on the paper. When everyone is gathered at the center table, we will discuss finding possible compositions and then how to draw them.

Activities

Direct students to look for several possible compositions in their own drawings before making a final choice. They are welcome to discuss their options with the teacher and/or table-mates.

Closure

Before asking students to clean up, let them know what will be coming up next in the abstracting from nature assignment.

Assessment

Check individual student progress on choosing a composition and enlarging their composition onto the black paper.

Overview

Students experiment with various watercolor techniques, transfer a drawing onto an abstract painting and black out the negative space with tempera.

Timing

2-3 weeks, 50-minute sessions per weekday

Vocabulary

Wash, wet-on-wet, dry brush, pigment, surface tension, backwash, lift off, resist, glaze, transparent

Goals

Introduce students to the vocabulary of the watercolor medium in a way that is fun and accessible.

Objectives

Student will gain a basic familiarity with watercolor, and continue to apply their knowledge about color relationship.

Art Materials & Equipment:

Watercolor paint, watercolor brushes, toothbrushes, water containers, palettes, rags, Elmer's glue, sponges, plastic wrap, crayons, color pencils, rubber cement, salt, waxed paper, colored markers, Stanford vis-à-vis wet-erase fine point pen, oil pastels, chalk pastels, razors, India ink

Instructional Materials & Equipment

Samples of watercolor experiment, newsprint drawing and final painting, materials necessary to demonstrate techniques

Preparation

Order supplies, cut paper, create samples

Introduction

Introduce watercolor experiments, abstract painting and observational drawing without giving away the surprise of how the final project will take form.

Activities

1. Watercolor experiments (See notes for detailed directions.)
2. Watercolor abstract painting
3. Observational Drawing- Have students draw flowers, toys, faces, etc. on newsprint. The composition should go to the edge of the page on at least three sides.
4. Transfer Drawing- Use black chalk on the back of the newsprint to transfer drawing onto the abstract painting.

Black out negative space with tempera paint

Closure

Assessment

Students fill out self-evaluation forms. Assign grades considering creativity, craftsmanship, time management and self-evaluations.

Overview

Phase One: Students choose either a realistic or surrealist approach to create a landscape composition. They render it with lines of water-soluble ink and washes of various values from a single color and black. Phase Two: Students choose a landscape photo from home. They render it with a range of values from two complimentary colors and black.

Timing

Two weeks for each phase, with classes meeting 50 minutes each weekday.

Vocabulary

Realistic, surrealistic, line quality, value, monochromatic, complimentary, photo reference, composition, washes, pigment

Goals & Objectives

Students will become aware of how line quality and contrast can be used to indicate emphasis, distance, light and a sense of place. Realistic and surrealistic images will become a more conscious part of their visual literacy.

Art Materials & Equipment

Sketchbooks, pencils, photo reference, watercolor paper, drawing boards, masking tape, water containers, watercolor paints, watercolor brushes, rubber cement, sponges, salt, black wet-erase pens

Instructional Materials & Equipment

Plants, sample photos, sample project, slides of traditional and surrealist landscapes, slides of student work

Preparation

Order supplies, bring in plants, gather samples, cut paper

Introduction

Demonstrate the following activities at the beginning of each stage. Show slide examples of student work and master paintings of traditional and surrealistic landscapes.

Activities

Demonstrate the above points as necessary. Review mixing complimentary colors for blacks, greys and browns.

Closure

Assessment

Students fill out self-evaluation forms. Assign grades considering creativity, craftsmanship, time management and self-evaluations.

Extension

In phase two, more experienced students can opt for an open palette.

Overview

Students will design and create a mask based on one of the following functions: disguise, ritual, storytelling or protection.

Timing

Three or four weeks, with classes meeting 50 minutes each weekday.

Vocabulary

Disguise, ritual, storytelling, protection, armature, additive, subtractive, Papier-Mâché, sculptamold, pariscraft

Goals & Objectives

According to many cultures around the world, masks have the power to inspire, comfort, protect and transform us, and to generate prosperity. Show examples from the rich maskmaking traditions of Africa, Mexico and Bali.

Compare the various aesthetic approaches to maskmaking in the samples provided. The mask examples from Africa are elegant, abstract and symbolic. Those from Mexico are vibrant, colorful, and narrative. Those from Bali are ornate, polished and theatrical. What meanings do the students intend in their own masks and perceive in the masks of their classmates?

Art Materials & Equipment

Note: Students will be responsible for providing their own unusual finishes and supplies, such as beads and feathers.

Instructional Materials & Equipment

Slides, projector, lecture outline, maskmaking procedural handout, life mask procedural handout, sample postcard, sample mask(s)

Preparation

Order supplies, prepare slide lecture, handouts and samples, organize materials for various demonstrations

Introduction

Protection- Make a scary, fierce, tough mask to protect you from a real or imaginary foe.

Activities

2. Building the Form

Start the structure of your mask by using a pre-cast paper mask. Use the following methods to transform the shape:

Shape with water (sculpting)

Cut away (subtractive)

Sculptamold, Pariscraft (additive)

Newspaper, scored matt board, tape (additive)

Wire Armature (additive)

Papier-Mâché (additive)

Spackle (joint compound) (additive)

 

Optional: Life mask with pariscraft.

 

3. Sealing

Sealing (also called priming) prevents the paint from being absorbed by porous paper and minimizes the number of coats of paint required. Use gesso and/or white glue to seal, and tempera for underpainting colors.

 

4. Designing the Surface

Use varnishes, acrylic resins or polyurethanes for outdoor use to finish and protect your mask.

Closure

Assessment

Assign grades considering creativity, craftsmanship, time management and peer evaluation.

Extension

Include modular lessons on drawing faces. Start with general facial proportions, including how we recognize gender and racial differences. Students draw self-portraits and partner portraits in contour. As a segue to the fantastical qualities of maskmaking, students use knowledge of general facial proportions to exaggerate and distort their portraits.

Overview

Students will create a class mural describing their diversity and culture through a collaborative and democratic process. They will build on the free-form mural collaboration process to develop a pre-meditated design satisfying to every member of the class. Today's lesson will focus on generating ideas through the brainstorming process.

Unit Sequence

Timing

One or two 50-minute class sessions

Vocabulary

Multi-cultural, pluralism, collaboration, cooperation, communication, democracy, brainstorming, planning, responsibility, public art, exterior paint

Goals

Help students understand and celebrate diversity through introspection and collaboration.

Objectives

Students will work together to create a mural that speaks to both unifying commonalties and celebrated differences within their culture in the classroom and at the school.

Standards

Students will become familiar with the richness and challenges inherent in working collaboratively and cooperatively. As the mural emerges, they will also become familiar with the outcome of such a process relative to that of the individual artist.

Students will be learning to balance their own interests in expression with that of the common goals of the class. Their use of paint will be expanded to a large scale. The exterior paint and surface may possess different qualities in comparison to the materials and surfaces students are accustomed to using.

Art Materials & Equipment

N/A

Instructional Materials & Equipment

Assignment handout, Suggested Interview Questions handout, blackboard, chalk

Preparation

Prepare and copy handouts, clear blackboard, divide it into four equal sections

Introduction

Introduce students to good principals for collaboration. Collaboration is any interaction between individuals that produces a product. When collaboration is cooperative, it involves getting to know one another, participating, sharing (time), active listening, confirming understanding, reserving judgement and working towards common goals. Ask students to contribute examples of cooperation that define these behaviors.

Activities

Students pair up and spend 10 minutes interviewing one another (5 minutes each). Suggested questions will draw out aspects of themselves that they feel are unique or unusual relative to the class and/or the school.

Ask students what images emerge as they review and absorb the range of examples and emerging themes in the earlier phases of the brainstorm.

Closure

Call student’s attention to the power of thinking collectively in brainstorming. Coming up next, students will form teams to explore and develop the ideas present in the emerging themes and images sections. Each group will make a proposal to the class for the mural. A final design will be chosen, planned, painted and celebrated!

Assessment

Give students recognition for their use of cooperation and for the headway achieved towards the monumental goal of creating a multicultural mural.

Extension

1. Get a space on school grounds for the mural, which could be redeveloped each year by art students. The mural evolves and changes with the changes in the community.
2. Students document their work with a panoramic photograph and a class portrait in front of the mural.
3. An evolving book on the history of the mural(s) will preserve the contributions of each class and create a history of the times and dynamics of the community.
4. Students can make a documentary video about the making of their mural.
5. A dedication ceremony could include the entire and extended school community.

Overview

Students learn to see and render the volume of a sphere using transitions in value.

Timing

One 50-minute lesson.

Vocabulary

Sphere, illusion, simplified forms, chalk, thumb compass, light source, highlight, shadow, mid-tones

Goals

Show students the power of using simple forms to draw complicated subjects and create the illusion of 3 dimensionality.

Objectives

The students will find examples of spheres in art, study how light falling on a sphere describes its shape and draw samples from observation and/or imagination.

Standards

With this information, students have access to an artist’s behind-the-scenes tools for creating masterful works of 3 dimensional illusion. They will also begin to be aware of how formal themes can underscore the content of an image.

Students will be learning to see and create the sphere, a fundamental artistic element, and ponder its uses in their future artistic endeavors.

Art Materials & Equipment

grey paper, white and black chalk

Instructional Materials & Equipment

sample images from Tooker and Pontormo, styrofoam sphere(s), flashlight

Preparation

Cut paper, order supplies

(from lesson by Randall Oelerich- http://mindquest.net/art/

sphere/sphere.html)

The construction of basic geometrical shapes in drawing and painting is academic (i.e. b-o-r-i-n-g?), yet vital to mastering forms seen in real life, or in creating abstract art. For example, creating the illusion of a 3D sphere in 2D space (paper or canvas) allows the artist to pursue the illusion of drawing or painting such 3D shapes such as the eye, the head (basically a sphere), [rounded] shoulders and knees, apples and oranges in still lifes, and more. In this lesson, you will create the illusion of a three dimensional sphere- so grab some paper and a stick of charcoal (or a charcoal pencil) or a pencil (soft lead such as B, 2B, 4B, 6B) and start drawing!

Activities

Draw a sphere with a clear light source and smooth value transitions. If you have extra time, draw a sphere with a light source coming from a different direction.

Closure

Invite students to imagine how they can use the sphere in images they would like to create. Preview upcoming activities. Call for clean up.

Assessment

Look for clarity of the value wrapping around the image in comparison to the students uninstructed drawing of sphere from earlier still-life.

Extension

With additional exposure to cylinders and cones, this lesson would lead students naturally to units on figure, still life or abstract drawing.

Integration

This lesson would integrate with any science unit dealing with the sphere in nature (i.e., cells, atoms, drops of water, planets, suns, etc).