What's Going on in the Classroom: Drawing and Shading Practice

Our first unit in Concepts and Materials is all about drawing realistically through the use of value, proportion, shape, line, perspective etc... The kiddos are working hard to learn these different skills that will help them to draw more accurately. Some whine, but I know all of them will appreciate it at the end of the quarter when they see how much they've grown! Check out their work so far:

What's Going on in the Classroom: Elements and Principles with Photography

A couple of entries ago, I promised I'd post some examples of the Elements and Principles images that my Photo 1 students have taken. There were a lot of good ones to pick from, let me tell you! The assignment was for each student to go out and take new pictures! Each picture should illustrate one of the fifteen Elements and Principles of Art that we had spent some time talking about. After they took them all, we voted on which ones best represented each category and those students received some extra credit! 

What's Going on in the Classroom: Elements and Principles of Art

Of course all you art teacher folks know that the Elements and Principles of Art are the building blocks and making successful artwork. Since I teach the foundations art course, we spend a lot of time on this subject!
On top of taking notes about them and using some good old VTS to explore artwork using them, students also created 'name tags' for each element and principle and illustrated them. Check out these amazing examples:

Also, update on our showcase of Cheeming Boey cups and our History of Photography Timeline!

What's Going on in the Classroom: First Days of School!

So we're almost to the end of the first week of school. This was the first time in 6 years that I've taught the same classes in the same building. So you better believe I was on top of my game. Check out the classrooms!

Learning Targets, a big push in our district right now.

First day materials, class lists etc... all done!

Awesome Concepts and Materials classroom ready for art making!

Our Elements and Principles, and the felted tapestry kids made last year.

Photo Room!

All copies made and ready to go!

I have to say, being all ready to go for the first day, by the Friday before, really made for more confidence and excitement during the first week! So here's a little about what we did in class with our first days.

In Concepts and Materials, (foundations art class) we did a really cool first day assignment based on the art of Cheeming Boey, click on his name to check out a cool video! Inspired by his work, we doodled on Styrofoam cups. I plan on stacking them in the display case as an amazing installation piece for Back to School Night. Here are a couple examples of what the kids did:

In Photography, we started off the year with the History of Photography and discussion of the Elements and Principles of Design. Students are still taking photos for the E and P assignment, I'll post them when they're done. But check out the cool History of Photography Timeline we are starting! The class was divided into groups and each group researched a certain era of photographic history. Then they recorded the info on a large piece of paper along with decorations and pictures. When they're done, we'll put them all together to make our own History of Photography Timeline! Here some in-progress shots, the final image I'll post later!