Art 7 Graffiti Sketch Assignment...and a little R&R!

Not wanting to chance our luck, hubby and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weekend we had this past weekend and take the pooches out for a walk at one of the local state parks.  Probably one of the last "mini" hikes I'll be able to do in the next month and a half...I was exhausted by the time we were done (and so were the dogs, which was good!).

Since I spent a majority of my weekend being lazy, I'm spending this rainy Columbus Day getting all of this week's schoolwork done.  Tomorrow I have my first observation, which I anticipate should be no big deal.  Even though I received tenure last year, I happen to have a formal observation this year again because my number happens to fall in this APPR year to have it done...my other two observations will end up be unannounced walk-throughs.

I wanted to also touch on my Art 7 graffiti unit in this post.  In typical fashion with this particular group, it is taking them FOREVER to complete projects!  In my opinion, it should have taken them two days to get their practice tag completed, but some of them are onto day 4!!!  I really don't know what to do to push these guys along...I had been hoping to be onto our next unit by now, but we haven't even started their sketchbook cover tag yet!  This group is probably the toughest group I am encountering this year.  I'm not sure if it's because their comfortable with me (from having me as an elementary art teacher the last three years) or if it's because they still treat art class like it's a special, but we have spent many a class periods being lectured about behavior, showing up on time, being prepared with notes, sketchbook and folders, being respectful to each other, etc. etc. etc.

I ended up giving them a pop quiz one class period about graffiti because I just couldn't deal with trying to make them work!  For some it was an eye opener because I took their quiz grade and put it in for their 5 week grades and I think they finally started to take my class seriously.

The only good thing I can say about them taking this long is that they have absorbed all of the historic information about graffiti like a sponge!  We talked in depth about Scape Martinez, Bansky, Keith Haring and Taki183, comparing each person's individual start in graffiti, and I'd say about 85% of the students have it down!

One of the homework sketch assignments I gave students was to design a shoe with graffiti influence.  This was an extremely successful sketch assignment, for the most part.  I had the highest number of students take it seriously and spend a decent amount of time on the sketch, which made me extremely happy!  I took this sketch assignment straight out of the Graff Workbook I had bought by Scape Martinez.  I photocopied the sneaker from the book and handed it out.  Students were allowed to trace the shoe in their sketchbook or draw a different kind of shoe.  I had hoped more people would draw a different shoe, but I'm at least happy with amount of effort that was put into these, despite the tracing.  Quite a few used their tag designs in their sneakers, but others really got creative...

By Wednesday this week, they need to have their practice tag finished (which is going up on a fake brick wall in the hallway) and they also need to gesso their sketchbook cover.  So, hopefully by Wednesday, I'll be able to share our graffiti brick wall!  Their homework assignment this week will be to take the feedback they receive from their graded rubric on the practice tag and draw their finalized tag on their sketchbook cover. I'm really going to push that they only take two days to finish their sketchbook cover tag so we can move on.  Our next unit will be about perspective, which connects with 7th grade Common Core math (more specifically when talking about proportion).

Studio Art: Unit 2 Begins...2-D Media

My first unit lasted about as long as I had hoped it would, and on Friday we began our second unit.  Our second unit is all about 2-D media...drawing, painting and printmaking.  I am also combining art criticism with this unit.  The textbook I am using has art criticism as its own unit, but there is no way I'm going to spend an entire week or two just on art criticism...that's something we can work on over the school year to perfect, a little at a time.  The students have also been antsy to get started on a "real" art project.

The cover of my unit 2 note packet...stay tuned to the SmARTteacher website...my unit is posted there now!

On Friday, I introduced/reviewed value and the four common shading techniques with the students: hatching, cross-hatching, stippling and blending.  They had to practice in their notes and then for their second sketchbook assignment, I asked them to set up a 3-object still life at home, shine a light on it, and draw it using value.

This is the generic sketchbook assignment rubric I have created for the weekly sketch assignments.  Each student has now seen this and will have their Friday sketch assignments graded according to this rubric every Monday.  So far, I think I'm happy with it...but we'll see if I feel like I need to make any changes to it.

On Monday, we started off the unit by discussing the different drawing media that can be used (oil pastels, pencil, chalk, etc.) and we spoke briefly about art styles.  Again, this is something we will work on throughout the school year, but the projects we do for this unit are all going to fall under the realm of pop art, so I want students to have a basic knowledge of what pop art is compared to the other styles of art.

In the back of my packet, I put colored copies of these paintings.  We cut them out, and then one at a time, we talked about which style they thought these fell under.  Quite a few students new some of the more popular artworks here and knew the styles (although when I had them in 6th grade, they had to do a group research project on an artist...I found it quite wonderful that a lot of them retained the information!).

 Now, as I graded those sketch assignments on Monday, I realized that the students (a) didn't have a good idea of what I meant by set up a still life and (b) didn't know how to properly utilize value with observation skills.  Thus the reason why it's important to give sketch assignments as homework (a good way to assess prior knowledge!).  I threw out my original plans for the next few days and pulled out the mannequins I bought for the elementary room with past SmARTteacher winnings.  I set them up in the middle of the tables, let the students arrange them, turned the lights off and put a spot light on the figures.  I gave a brief demonstration of how they should quickly do a contour drawing of the figures and then demonstrated the proper way to observe value.

The students REALLY enjoyed doing this and asked if we could work on it again tomorrow...heck yes!

I found that they did okay observing the shadows and high lights, but they had a tendency to just give a dark and light value.  I went around to each student and asked if I could show them on their drawing how I wanted them to exaggerate what they saw and make more of a range of values, from black to white and everything in between.  Once they saw how much their drawings started to pop, they were really excited!

Tomorrow, I am going to give each student a large piece of drawing paper and an ebony pencil.  I envision having them do multiple drawings of the figures on one sheet of paper...a super huge close up of a figure that goes from top of the page to bottom...smaller figures that go off the page, etc.  Just a montage of mannequins!

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Once we move on from practicing the value (probably by Thursday or Friday this week), students will have to bring in a wrapped food item, such as a candy bar, and do a large, up-close black and white drawing of it.
As we move onto the painting aspect, students will learn about how paint is made and we will then use our candy bars and acrylic paint to do a pop art painting...I'm thinking more in the style of Claes Oldenburg.  I want them to incorporate some acrylic mediums that I bought to give their paintings texture.  This project will be a way for students to utilize the elements and principles to create an interesting composition.

For the final 2-D project, printmaking, students will do some reduction printing ala Andy Warhol.   I did this with my printmaking class when I did my student teaching, and I have my example hanging on a bulletin board in the high school art room that students were admiring and mentioned they wanted to do (I hung up some of my artwork from the past, both high school and college, so that students could see what I am capable of).  So, I'll have students bring in a popular object to turn into a multi-colored print.

This unit will also introduce art criticism to the students.  That was originally what I was going to start with, but I was tired of doing the note thing, and so were the students.  I prefer getting the boring stuff out of the way in the beginning, but I need to remember that the students don't think that way!

Art Elective: Zentangle Unit

So I decided to start out my first unit with my art elective as Zentangles.  Originally I had planned to incorporate the zentangles with the graffiti unit for 7th graders, but as I dove into planning that unit, I realized I already had a lot of content to cover with the graffiti techniques and styles.  I gave the art elective students (10th and 11th graders) a survey to fill out on the first day, and unfortunately the students really did not give me much to go off of.  I received a lot of requests for photography (which is not my strong suit, especially film photography), so I'm going to stay away from that request just a little bit until I get my three computers in my classroom to do digital photography.

I think the zentangles are a great way to start out because (1) it's nearly impossible to mess them up and they can be confidence boosters and (2) it's a good way for me to assess what these students already know about the elements and principles.  At first, they seemed a little hesitant and not enthused by the idea of zentangles...but after their sketchbook assignment over the weekend, I think the ladies in the class really got into them!  Right now we are three days into the zentangle unit and here is what we have done so far.

The first thing I did was make a packet with some vocabulary and all of the information students would need about zentangles.  Unfortunately, I did not write down my sources (eek, bad teacher!) but if you're interested in seeing the packet, feel free to let me know and I can send it to you and the original documents I saved (some of the documents have links to websites and such).  I picked and pulled my packet pieces from three different sources.  (Vocabulary included the elements and principles, shading vocabulary and the zentangle vocab, including the four steps to zentangle: (1) Draw a border, (2) Draw the string, (3) Fill with patterns, (4) Add value).

For the first "mini project", we created a zentangle tile.

The first one here is mine, and the group picture are the tiles made by the seven students in the class.

Following the zentangle tiles, I assigned the students the following sketchbook assignment last Friday:  Draw a contour drawing of an unusual object and fill it with zentangles.  This one is mine (it's my goal to always try and do any sketch assignment I assign any class...it's been so long since I've done drawing just for myself, I figure this is a good way to get back into it!):

And even though I only asked them to do one drawing, a few of the girls got into and did multiple drawings.  This student didn't quite understand the contour part of the assignment, but she experimented a lot with color.

The top two are done by two different students...I love the lamp one!  I'd say she was one of the more creative ones when it came to picking an unusual object to draw.  The bottom two were done by the same student.

These four were done by the same student.  She REALLY got into the zentangles...and did a really nice job!  Everyone thought her apple was the best one during critique.

So, our first zentangle project is to design an alphabet.   This is the handout students received for the project.  They must choose 9 consecutive alphabet letters.  Some decided to free-hand their letters and other printed off their favorite font to use.  I allowed them to use the light box to trace the letters onto the heavy vellum paper we are using.

These are my starting letters...(Ravie is my favorite font!)

And to my surprise, one of the students took her letters home and FINISHED them all!!!  Love it!

 We are going to mat these professional.  Since one student was finished, I was going to help her mat them, but when I pulled out the mat cutter that was in the high school room, I discovered it was horribly sliced up and beat up!  Luckily for me, I bought a brand new mat board cutter last year for the elementary room using the extended day grant money, so I sent to girls down to the other room and the finished student helped me put it together.  Next class I anticipate that we will be ready to mat a bunch of these...the ladies seemed eager to get them done at home!

For the final project in the zentangle unit, I want students to bring in a random object.  We'll prime it with gesso and zentangle it.  Well, I was thinking of having them bring in an object or I might bring in bowling pins for each one to zentangle, as I have 10 boxes of 10 pins in my garage at home!  Having them bring in an object would be pretty cool to do...but I think the bowling pins would look awesome zentangled too!

What's your thoughts?