One of my favorite all-time units to teach is printmaking. Printmaking is fun way to connect to the physical side of art making plus its’ relevant and oozes cool. I teach and let students experiment with various ways of printmaking, but the “project” that I always know is going to challenge my students thinking and create great artworks is a tw0-color, reductive RELIEF print. The idea for this post really came from needing some better quality process photos to share with my students. I mentioned this project offers up a challenge, but through precise examples and steps, this project is a really fun one to pull off in your art room.
painting in Photoshop.
The inspiration for this project came from my coworker, graphic design teacher, Ms. Fertgus (@DeaGraphics)! She was working with the idea of painting in layers in photoshop, a skill that I’m teaching myself, and knew that my students would love and also need.
The amazing thing about living and working in Denver is how collaborative the communities are with partnering and developing ART! I reached out to Connor at Concrete Coast, a longboard company and community in Denver, after I had recently entered one of their art submission contests (I took third!). Really loving the idea of creating monthly artist challenges for their designs, I pitched the idea to him of having a contest with my studio students. He loved the idea, and we both love the ideas students came up with!
plein and simple watercolor landscapes.
This Saturday – February 18th – My video on plein air painting exercises will be shown at the Art of Education’s online winter conference. AOE is an awesome resource for art educators & if you haven’t checked them out yet or registered for the conference I highly recommend you get on it. Registration closes today.
Okay – done with the plug.
Plein air painting is the act of painting outdoors. Using natural light and capturing your surroundings, something I certainly hold dear living, creating and adventuring in Colorado. When it comes time for the watercolor + landscapes unit in my intro painting courses, I especially light up – because I’m sharing with students my own personal art practice and love for art. [PODCAST: Do Art Teachers Have to Be Artists?]
Now, ideally, the perfect teacher version of me is out hiking with my students and their watercolor sets on a perfect Colorado day. We’re singing, smiling and all behaving – like I’ve become the Julie Andrews of teaching art. What a dream. Unfortunately, that is a little tricky to pull off in public school – so, I’ve adopted some of the plein air painting mantras to bring into my classroom to help students understand their watercolor painting techniques even more. This is a big unit, so be prepared for some info!
lessons: artist boxes (final project ideas)
So, I’m a bad art teacher sometimes. I admit that I hardly include loads of art history lessons for my students, and I’m not proud of it. It’s not because I don’t want too or don’t think they couldn’t handle them – I’ve always just worked famous artworks into lesson introductions, very minimal. That way, I’ve given them some exposure to art history/examples and continued onto the art making — the part that doesn’t bore my students. Slap in the face though – follow my own advice – and make it fun! This artist box lesson surprised the hell of of me this past semester, let’s check it out!
Lessons: Drawing Boot Camp
Being a total art nerd here, but I love teaching Intro Drawing. It has been a few semesters since I last taught it at my school, however, coming back to start the second semester, I’ve been able to add one more section of beginning drawing students. Reason I love it – students grow SO MUCH in this course. It is such a joy being able to break down drawing and help my new students realize they CAN draw. This “boot camp” lesson I always spend the first few weeks of any intro drawing course completing – check it out!
Studio Art: Line Lessons
This is a little late on the posting – but catching up on my projects! My studio art class is a super unique and fun class to teach. At my school, we don’t have an AP program – so, I’ve created Studio Art. Students “apply” to be in this class in their Jr/Sr year. I go through an “application” process only because I want to get my students ready for preparing their portfolios and being interviewed about their art. Technically, they are not required to do this, but it really sets up the tone for Studio Art. These students WANT to be here and they are prepared to work.
To start off the 2016/17 school year – I decided to really break students into the school year technically. To shake off the summer drawing dust, the first two projects were focused on composition and line techniques. Continue reading
Denver Art Museum 11.17.16
Denver is such an amazing place for Art. This city absolutely LOVES the very vibrant and unique art culture that makes Denver the city that it is. One great example of this was the recent passing of the SCFD Fund . This awesome initiative “supports cultural facilities whose primary purpose is to enlighten and entertain the public through the production, presentation, exhibition, advancement and preservation of art, music, theatre, dance, zoology, botany, natural history and cultural history.” One huge benefit is that every student (18 years and younger) has FREE admission to local museums. This made it all possible for me to take 70 students to the Denver Art Museum for a fun day of exploration and wonder. Now I can talk forever about how much value I have for exposing students to museums and giving them opportunities to actually experience art outside of the classroom, but I’m going to leave it up to one of the free-writes I received today from a student. . .
“Relaxing is the word that comes to mind when thinking about today. Being able to use educational school time to admire work in a museum is a gift and a real treat at the end of my week. I have seen so many inspiring pieces and been around my classmates in our “habitats” that the good energy and inspiration was flowing nonstop. It was an adventure I can’t wait to do again.”
– Jade, Senior Gateway High School
Huge thanks to Jade for the awesome reflection, my coworkers who helped chaperone & the entire staff at the Denver Art Museum for their warm welcome. Happy Friday vibes everyone – Yay Art!
Studio Art: Imitation Challenge
This wasn’t so much of a ‘project’ – but more of a skill booster-experiment. Many of my studio artists are very talented drawers with years of being in my art classroom. However, we are always looking at ways to gain some more techniques to apply to future projects.
DP: Self Portrait Unit
I’ve always struggled with teaching the “intro” units; self-portraits, landscapes, perspective – you know the ones that are super beneficial to students, but you can’t possibly look at a boring self-portrait project again. So in combat of that, I’m always searching for a way to spice up these units. This way students can both be creative with their work and accomplish the skills/knowledge that comes with creating such a project.
DP Art: Sea Shell Study
This school year I have started teaching our IB Diploma Programme Junior Art class here at Gateway. Over the summer, I’ll admit, I was a little nervous about it over the summer. Teaching DP requires lots of skill building (most of the students have never even taken an art course before) plus theory/history/thinking around art. It’s basically a marathon going at a 100meter dash rate. However, after finishing up the first quarter this last week – I am happy to reflect, that it’s going pretty well!
Quarter One was all about getting these students on the same “language” of art. Now, I normally don’t like to focus on teaching an “elements & principles” lesson – however, this was my best shot at getting these students out of the gates quickly.
the #nerdy art teacher 