DIY- New Home Makeover!

So we moved into a house! Woohoo! And the unpacking/decorating has gone slowly. However, I think a couple of rooms are ready for before and after pictures. Not to say they're completely done, but they are looking more or less how I'd like them. First of all, I apologize for the before pictures, my husband took them with a phone when we were signing the final papers, so they might be a touch blurry.

Here's the front of our cute little red-doored house!

This is the main floor living room with me!

And after....

Now for the main bedroom before...

And after...

This dresser has it's own before picture as well!

Last room to share, pardon the picture-heavy post! The downstairs family room before...

And after...

Thank you for taking a look see! Hopefully the bathroom, kitchen and office will be ready for viewing soon!

What's Going on in the Classroom: Pen and Ink

I believe this project is pretty run of the mill for a foundations course, but I wanted to share the work my students accomplished. They took the skills they had learned in graphite and charcoal and ran with them in pen and ink. I also had a couple of them talk me into letting them use color in the background (or negative space) which I think was an excellent addition! I limited their reference pictures to animals, plants, or insects and of course we used copy-right free images, but other than that anything was fair game. I do have to admit that I think most of them will be happy to move on to metals and three-dimensional art work for awhile! We need a break from drawing!

What's Going on in the Classroom: Darkroom Developing

I have spent a lot of my recent posts, talking about the projects we're working on in the foundations class that I teach. Today I wanted to show some images of the first film prints my Photo 1 students have developed. This was their first experience in the darkroom alone. Some turned out great and some have room to improve, but over all I think they did well. Check out some of their photographs:

We started of making contact sheets, like mini thumbnails of our work.

Some great images for the first time around. Also an update. Since we finished charcoal in the foundations class, we have moved on to pen and ink. Everyone loves stippling! Not! Here are the technique sheets we worked on today.

What's Going on in the Classroom: Charcoal, what a mess!

We have ventured into the messy world of charcoal! All our drawing projects so far have been using graphite. However to finish up our quarter on drawing we are using charcoal and also doing a pen and ink project (more on that later!)

Part of our curriculum asks us to deal with the idea that artists are always toeing the line between 2D and 3D. We either trying to create a 3D image on a 2D surface, or we are taking a 2D design and attempting to create a 3D piece of art. Sometimes the switch between these two ways of thinking is difficult for students. While working with charcoal, students also investigated the difference between 2D and 3D.

To start off, all students had to pick on object and do three realistic drawings of that object from different viewpoints. Realistic meaning making them look as 3D as possible. Then they had to translate those drawings into 2D designs using only shapes and positive and negative space. Here are images of those six drawings.

The next step was for students to choose their most successful 2D design of the three and draw it larger. Then the positive space was shaded in using white charcoal and the negative space was colored in using compressed black charcoal. This color scheme provides awesome contrast for a really graphic image. It was also very messy!