Paper Relief Sculptures (9th-11th Grade)
In this lesson the class created three dimensional paper relief sculptures using white and cream card stock. They took inspiration from artists Richard Sweeney, Matt Schlian and Louise Nevelson as well as the art mandala. The lesson covered various paper manipulation techniques as well of a focus on balance, pattern-making, symmetry and the use of space to develop heights and depths.
Control Drawing (9th-11th Grade)
This lesson was all about control. The class began by creating small, detailed drawings of images from the book “Art Forms in Nature”, using black and white charcoal pencil. After this they recreated these same drawings on a much larger scale, using white chalk on black paper. The chalk was be attached to the end of a three foot wooden dowels. This challenged the class to let go of perfection and control, and be open to new approaches to drawing. This outcome was quite astonishing.
Limited Palette Painting (9th-11th Grade)
To begin their paintings, the class looked through a selection of comic books in search of a page that had various colors they found appealing (at least 6 colors, both warm and cool). After studying these colors I asked the class to figure out what percentage each color represented on the page they had chosen. They then attempted to match each color as closely as possible through color-mixing with primary and white acrylic paints, while taking detailed notes. Once mixed they created a color swatch scale of each color in their image.
After mixing their color palettes, each student created a 6x6 painting of the same image they drew in the first class (Ernst Haeckel). Given an enlarged photocopy of their drawings, they cropped out a 6x6 area of their drawing to paint, starting with an underpainting. The colors that they mixed in the second class were be their palettes to work with, and they had the option to tint and shade those colors to add variety. As a class we discussed the journey of these works, beginning with their drawing and ending with their painting.
Still-Life Drawing Exercises
At the request of this class, the students learned traditional drawing exercises. They created gesture, blind contour, continuous line and negative space drawings of a still life of plants and driftwood. We discussed how these are methods of practice for more traditional long-form drawing, but each drawings can stand alone as works of art. Each student focused on perspective and shifted to different spaces around the still life for each drawing to test there ability to capture any given perspective.