The Design 1 student is typically new to the visual art program. This is an introductory course where basic academic language is taught and mediums are explored through various projects. Students come with various backgrounds in arts. Some are quick to understand processes and their creativeness, while others require more attention in preparing and building their confidence to Envision, Refine, and Execute.
The greatest challenge for any art student, or artist, is to over come their analytical thoughts of “I can’t draw” and allow their creativity to develop from piece to piece, experience to experience. A majority of the first quarter focuses on training the left and right hemispheres of the brain through scaffolded, guided practice.
The unit objective is for students to experience that they can learn to control/refine their cognitive skills to overcome a challenging situation. Practicing to master the ability to consciously shift between right brained (Creative/Whole) or left brained (Analytical/Parts) thinking through visual art prepares the student learner to comprehend and find creative solutions to complex problems in life. It is important for them to know this because challenges can be overcome with the same process in project based art – envisioning, refining, executing.
The standards and learning targets are congruent with the central focus of this unit - teaching the skill of using graphite and paper to create photo-realistic, three dimensional compositions. The learning sequence will support students in developing their abilities to create and respond to visual art concepts incorporating: form and structure (expressive features, organizational principles), production (tools, techniques, processes), art context (personal, social, cultural, historical).
The content addresses students’ abilities to work toward the central focus in that it teaches students representational drawing using a variety of concepts, exercises and creating contrast in value, creating dimension in form, pencil technique and control. These are core concepts and skills for subsequent art classes.
The unit opens with the question, “Was the invention of the camera helpful or harmful to artist who specialized in realism?” The content guides students through the process of creating a photo-realistic drawing after exploring contemporary artist and their art.
The essential concepts, skills, or real world connections include: Creating an original pencil drawing in the style of photorealism. Demonstrating how their drawing is affected by their use of art elements of line, form, value, space. Evaluating the level of success they achieved in the use of the design principles of contrast, proportion, and emphasis. These are also important core concepts and skills for subsequent art classes.
This unit will take students through their first formal critique and will begin the emphasis on utilizing the academic language of, and following the social conventions of, critiques. Preceding this unit, students were eased into the vocabulary terms through constructed response exercises. The first focused on how art is created – “A. Identify the two main hemispheres of the brain we have been discussing in class. B. Describe 2 functions/characteristics of each hemisphere.” The second constructed response focuses on art characteristics – “A. Identify 2 main characteristics of contour drawings. B. Describe one way that practicing contour drawings can improve your ability to draw.”
In building student connection to the central focus, prior units focused on developing understanding and eye-hand coordination skills to perform contour drawings and shading basic shapes (square, rectangle, circle, triangle) to create forms (cube, cylinder, sphere, cone). For this topic, they are given the choice of their own photograph to recreate in a photo-realistic style.
The unit is started with an introduction to what is Photorealism and who were a few artists that exemplified the movement. We discuss each artist’s style and how they prepared and presented their work. Following the introductory lesson, we do a few practice assignments to continue develop eye-hand coordination. The emphasis is on transferring accurate proportions, using the grid system, while practicing the use of line, form, value, space. The next lesson focuses on selecting an image (that matches their skill set) to reproduce in a photorealistic style. After creating the grids, they block out the forms of the image as they prepare for shading in the values next. Each student’s work is assessed to check if they are successfully shading the values they see — is there a variety of lights and darks to create the illusion of dimension? The midpoint critique provides students a chance before the deadline to revisit the scoring rubric [provided the first lesson and assess where they are in the creation process. Classmates learn to comment objectively on each other’s pieces. From this point until the final deadline, the focus shifts to design principles of contrast, proportion, and emphasis. For the final lesson, students explain, in writing, how their drawing is affected by the use of the art elements of line, form, value, space. Students evaluate their level of success in the use of the design principles of contrast, proportion, and emphasis.
The connection between the students' lives and the photo-realism unit is that it links a physical skill to an industry they may have never considered. Demographically, families surrounding the Baldwin-Iao Complex are laborers, service industry, or professionals. With the presence of digital media, the Central Maui student need not travel afar to make a name for themselves and their skill set.
The connection to an illustrator is made and the example of Norman Rockwell drawing over 500 covers for the Saturday Evening Post. The connection to fine art is made through the mechanically geometric cityscapes of Richard Estes. Finally, the example of fine artist Chuck Close, who was a producing artist till an accident forced him to relearn the skill of drawing, with a new set of challenges and circumstances. These examples are set to show there are various levels and arenas where illustration skills are valuable in possibly making a living one day.
The first formative assessment is a personal observation of students focus on the task, as well as their execution of their concept. Questioning would be the next assessment in having students think deeply about their application and technique. The final formative assessment is the “WIP” or “Work in Progress” grade. At the halfway point, students are assessed on whether they are on task and on target to complete their piece in time. Their envisioning, planning, and execution are critiqued by their peers and by themselves through self-assessments.
The summative assessment is project based and includes creating an original pencil drawing in the style of photorealism. The summative also includes a written reflection on how the students felt they: demonstrated how their drawing is affected by their use of art elements of line, form, value, space; and evaluating the level of success achieved in use of the design principles of contrast, proportion, and emphasis.
Students with special needs are afforded more time to complete the project and written critique. Along with underperforming students, it is important to build upon their individual interests and strengths in class and tap their creative energies. These students may not follow the path exactly however it is their path and it is our responsibility as educators to help guide them to the finish, one project at a time.