In Art 2, these students thoroughly enjoyed a couple diffeet printmaking techniques. I felt that they were going to be highly capable of doing a reduction print. They did not disappoint at all. Reduction prints are a challenge. These designs were carved into a 4"X6" or 6"X6" piece of linoleum board. Student started by planning their own designs and transferring them to the board. Their first cuts were the ones that were to stay the color of the paper (white in most cases). They printed the lightest color first. After this first print, students had to cut any parts he/she wants to remain that first color. They must print the color from lightest to darkest, laying each color on top of each other. It's a challenge to think it through at times, along with the actual printing and lining the block up correctly. These kids stuck with it and turned out awesome work. 

The students were expected to create a symmetrical, full color mandala. Some students created a theme while others worked hard to create different sizes of geometric and organic shapes. Some students only created one line of symmetry while others created elaborate radial symmetry designs. Students got to choose between colored pencils, tempera paint, Sharpies or a combination of mediums. It's great to see students put a little of themselves in their art as well. 

Art 3 is more of the same from Art 2. Again they love to see their own growth from one year to another. 

The students did a portrait along with the class focusing on each facial feature one day at a time. The students really seem to enjoy drawing eyes and lips. Putting all of the facial features together into a portrait is overwhelming to some students. They do their own personal best. If the students put a good effort into the practice activities, they get to choose other options such as tracing and painting a self portrait or doing a collage of their favorite musician or actor. A lot of them love the challenge and just go ahead and try the portrait by choice. We try to have fun with each project. I don't want the students to hate art. I want them to give it a try in hopes that they grow an appreciation for those who design their favorite gaming characters, animated characters, fashion blueprints models, develop movie character, and even come up with unique cartoon creatures. Who knows, some may find interest in these types of art. 

Students work from a photograph that we take in class. They use a light board to trace out the important lines of their own face. Then, in this case, they paint and use colored pencils to color in the style of Favism. They can pick any color that strikes them. 

In Art 3, I let the students pick the type of project they would like to do. The students got to choose between trying a 2 point house again (as they did in Art 2), drawing a one point interior room or creating a block lettering perspective. They work with students who are doing the same project and use what they collectively know about linear perspective to complete the project. Of course, I guide each group through the process of their particular project. 

This is probably the most challenging project we do during the year. Angles, parallels, depth and value are tough when trying to draw a house. We draw one together before starting this project, but it's still just a lot to think about. 

We did two one point projects. This one was created as we looked at Renaissance art. Perspective and particularly linear perspective was discovered by the great artists of the Renaissance. After talking about all the hats of Renaissance artists and their persuit of perfection, we moved on to Impressionism. Those who fought for the right to do art their own way. We did beautiful one point landscapes for this, but I somehow sent them home without taking photographs of them. 

During this project, the students are comparing the Medieval art with the Renaissance. The Medievel scribes job was an important one in the time before the invention of the printing press. Scribes took their jobs seriously having to be rather precise, but also getting creative at times. We look at the changes happening that created great conditions for the rebirth of learning that was the Renaissance. Of course, some students have already played around with block lettering on their own, but others have not.

When students come to Art 3, they enjoy being the ones to put the still life set ups together. I hear from so many of the students that they are so excited that they do so much better on the Art 3 still life than they did in Art 2. Having a couple projects like this that repeat from year to year encourages the students to improve on these basic drawing and value skills. Truth be told, I love to see their learning from year to year so that I collect a variety of objects that might keep the students' interest. 

Students chose between about five seperate still life set up on each of the art tables. The set ups were put together by the Art 3 students and Mrs. McLarty. Students were expected to draw three objects using proper spacing and overlapping on the picture plane. This is the beginning of perspective drawing. It isn't an easy task to show that an object takes up a particular place allowing the viewer to see between objects and imaginatively walk around the objects to the other side. A good amount of the students accomplished this and shaded well on top of that. 

Art 1 students were looking at the work of ancient China. While doing so they created these pond watercolors. The students were expected to create multiple layers to the water scene. in the forground, the viewer should see things that fly above or skip over the top of a pond. In the middle ground, there are two or more koi fish. The fish should overlap rocks and other objects found in the bottom of a pond. This would be considered the background of this piece. 

The students enjoyed practicing block lettering and getting to cut/build with this paper sculpture. Students were supposed to create a sculpture of their name with at least ten personal attributes drawn into the design. They also had their first value (shading) practice with the creation of the base. 

The Art 3 students had a choice between creating a Notan symmetry piece or a creating a positive and negative silhouette. The latter was rather challenging and the negative didn't turn out well enough to glue down for a few students. They learned a lot about planning ahead and carefully cutting out their pieces during this project.

This project had the students creating a composition with a foreground, middle ground and background. The composition should also have overlapping and allow objects to get smaller the closer to the horizon line the objects get. Students were given a few reference photos they could choose from to get started. When the drawing was complete, students used a couple watercolor techniques. Wet on wet and layering techniques were encouraged. 

Before doing these works, Art 1 did created Greek vases that had them cutting out geometric and organic shapes. They used symmetry really well when creating the vases. (I totally forgot to take the pictures.) Then, we moved into Pre-Columbian works. We talked about how the art influenced modern Hispanic artists and artists of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. We looked into the similarities and differences between the major civilizations of Aztec, Olmec, Mayan, and Inca. 

After the stresses of creating the first big project, Line Patterns, the student spent about three days on these pieces. It was intended to be a more spontaneous piece. The black glue drawing was done in one day, then the colored pastel was added in two days.  Of course, some students were capable of being more spontaneous and abstract, while others stuck with planning and more representational work. Either way, these pieces made the McNiel hallways so colorful. 

Here are just a couple Greek pieces I found lying around after the students took home the assignment.

After the challenges of the Bird Watercolor,  we took only a couple days to experiment further with watercolor. This time they were creating an abstract work with line and shape. We were heading into the 2nd six weeks so we needed to lean our focus toward shape. 

Before starting this project, students went through a variety of contour line drawings. These included drawing using one continuous line, drawing using shapes as the base of the drawing, using negative space to draw, and using thumbnail drawings to design the composition. We looked briefly into the life of John James Audubon, his artistic endeavors and his scientific studies of birds. We debated the ideas of artistic license and scientific illustration. With this project the students were supposed to create a detailed contour line drawing of a bird and make the drawing the focal point by painting creative color around the drawing. Some were just too tempted to paint the actual bird. Either way, this project turned out great works.

With this project, Art 1 looked into why people come together into communities and great civilizations, mostly to share ideas and resources. They learned to irrigate their farms and had many innovative technologies that started us on a tread to gradually produce larger and larger crops like the ones we see today. We talked about what type of art the Egyptians left behind and why they were buried with this arts. They were the first to mass produce art in an assembly line type fashion, though the true assembly line would not be developed until the Industrial Revolution.

Like the Emphasized Line project, this project was getting the students more comfortable with drawing circles. Circles don't have to be perfect in most drawings. The more we practice drawing circles, the better we will be at it. This was also about building composition using something as basic as a bunch of circle and patterns between them. 

This was an exciting way of experimenting with patterns. The students created one dramatic line across the long part of their paper. They brought attention to that line using color. Around this line they were supposed to break up the space to create numerous line patterns. We tried to create muscle memory by  drawing lines without a ruler. This will help students be in control of their pencils. 

Art 3 students started with line patterns. They too used line patterns to create movement and rythm. When they found a pattern that they loved, they used it in and around their subject. The patterns drew attention to the focal point. Some students struggle with adding abstract elements to their work, so not all of them embraced using the abstract patterns on their subject. It's okay though. The students were exposed to lots of new composition experiments. 

Art 2 started their year of art using line to show rhythm and movement. We talked about numerous things when doing this piece such as how abstract art represents nature.  Also discussed was how to get and keep a viewer's attention when creating a composition. Artists bring the viewer into their work by letting line go off the paper. Artists use movement to move the viewer's eye around their work. Rhythm is used to add energy to a piece which will keep the viewer's attention. 

Art 1 started the school year looking at the very first artists of all time, the prehistoric people. These artists used a variety of natural materials to draw on any hard surface they could find. The drawings that have lasted without being washed away or given in to erosive winds, are found these days in caves. Scientists and historians have done their best to preserve these art works to look into the lives of ancient people. These artists were important because they developed the first communication that was written down.