LE: Wire Sculptures

Cooper

Max

Miles

Stefy

Zac R.

LE students learned about Alexander Calder's sculptures. We compared them to his contour drawings and discussed how contour drawings were similar to wire in line quality. After my demo, I had them choose a reference of an animal, draw the contour and trace their drawing with wire. Several students had difficulty with the wire so in the next class, I had them follow each of my steps in sculpting a bird and then finish their previous sculpture.

Meshon Maps part 2

David

Hannah

Jordan

FloraMitch

I couldn't help but post these up too. I love how each student really personalized their map and added so many quirky details that keep you looking.

MS: Shoe Designs

Daniel

Julian

Katherine

Jack

As their last project, MS students designed shoes inspired by places they like to go. We first discussed the purpose of shoes and what they tell us about the person wearing them, such as what they do and where they go. Students then sketched or traced a basic shoe outline and drew a design based on their favorite place. The entire surface had to be activated and saturated with color using colored pencils. I got this idea from Hope Chella, a fellow teacher and friend, and modified it for middle school.

UE: Meshon Maps

Charlotte

Kyle

Emma

I got this idea from an illustrator named Aaron Meshon who designs amazing maps, along with children products and editorial illustrations. I love that his maps aren't only informative but really fun to look at. I had students analyze Meshon's maps and the design choices he made to make it quirky and welcoming, like his bright colors, imaginary creatures, and banners. I asked students how Meshon interacted all the space while not making it too busy and they said that he balanced it with a giant person to draw the eyes, which I totally agreed with. After our discussion, students designed a map with all of their favorite places taking design cues from Meshon.

LE: Planet Prints

Zac R

John

Xavier

LE's theme this year is space. As a way to make their planet reports more visually exciting, they incorporated illustrations of all the planets into their reports using various media. For these prints, students carved their planet on a styrofoam sheet using visual references to inform the surface design, and stamped it on black paper. As an option, they flicked white paint to add a starry effect. When students were done, they glued their illustrations and text in an accordion fold book and designed covers out of poster board. The top photo shows the finished products, which Jennie displayed beautifully for their space presentation.

MS: Word Portraits

Tommy

Daniel

Amelia

Robbie

Middle school students drew their self-portraits made of words that reflected their identity. We first looked at how different artists used symbols, color, or mark making to communicate a message about themselves. Then we focused on John Sokol, an artist who draws famous people out of their own words. We discussed how text, whether it's a book we read, a poem we write, or lyrics we listen to, can reflect who we are. Students laid tracing paper on top of their photographs and gave their portraits form with carefully chosen text (a brilliant idea from Megan Ellis who did this project with Hope high school students!). To give the portraits dimension, students divided a strip of paper into thirds and practiced going from the darkest value to the lightest value, layering text for the darks and using little to no text for the lightest. They really didn't need my help after this point. I am so impressed by their drawing skills and personal investment in their work. I heart all of them!

LE: Impression of Light

Stefy

Nathan

Miles

Max

Last week, students learned how to draw light from the Impressionists. It was good timing for this lesson because many of them were involved in building a kayak with Margery and were excited about drawing Renoir's boats. They looked at paintings by Renoir and Monet and identified how the artists showed sunlight through layered colors and thick dabs of paint for the reflection. After, we drew the image together as a class. Techniques that they learned were layering colors to show depth and applying strokes in one direction to show the light from the sun.