 There was a big fight in the art room. Luckily I caught it on camera. Ok, JK. Actually, this week we took a look at Proportions with a focus on using foreshortening. There were some questions about how the arm might look if held in a certain position so we posed and took the photos for a reference.  This piece, still in the works, is another example of a student trying out foreshortening. It's a tricky concept but can really enhance the figures our students are drawing. More dynamic posses result in more dynamic works.  Along with the basics of proportion, 71\2 heads tall and foreshortening, we also took a look at the muscles. Understanding the muscle in the human body and how they work can help a student to better understand how the body moves and bends which helps the student draw better figures. Here is a sketch a student decided to draw in order to better understand the muscles. Tuesday Table: Marbling Meanwhile, for those not at all interested in drawing the figure, our Tuesday table was Marbling. Marbling is fun but is also sort of messy. Half the fun comes from not really knowing what your final piece will look like.  The experimentation with different colors and different methods results in different results on the paper. Once you start, its sort of addictive. Needless to say, a lot of marbling happened this week. Other Things As always, the choice of what to accomplish is left up to the artists. So it goes without saying that there were students who wanted to go in a different direction. Like the drawing above. Its a sketch from observation of some paper clips. One of the AP students is working on it as part of her Breadth portfolio. (unfortunately, the glare from the light made for a poor photo)  He had never created a silk screen but was interested in learning how it worked.  They are working on a ginormous Tweety Bird using complimentary colors. This is actually a project they developed from last week's Concept, Appropriation.  This is funny ;)
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 We ended the last day of the 2018-2019 semester with a field trip to the Southport Woman's Day Art Festival. This year, due to the hurricane back in the fall, the festival just happened to fall on the last day of the semester. In fact, it wasn't even a regular school day. It was actually an exam make up day. This made everything a little tricky but we worked it out. So what's this Woman's Day Art Festival thingy all about? Well, its kind of exciting! Students who entered work into the exhibit are invited to the Southport Community Center for a luncheon. Yum, food! After the luncheon, winners of the art contest are announced. Winning students receive a certificate, prize money, a ribbon and if they one first place in their category, their work moves on to district and then state!  This is Pasty with her first place entry for charcoal. And look, her granddad showed up to the event. And she won. And its a portrait of him. So that's pretty cool. But even better, not only did Pasty's piece win best in charcoal, it won Best in Show! Congratulations!  We managed to get a photo of all the first place winners. All of these student's work will be going on to district and hopefully, if they win at district, on to state! Good luck! The Next Day Was Day One The next day was the first day of the new semester. This means all new class and all new students. Since it was a Thursday, I didn't want to start with a new Module. That can wait till Monday. So I decided for my Intermediate class to offer a fun two day challenge. Create the skeletal system for a cartoon character. This one day challenge actually will lead quiet nicely into our Monday Concept, Artists Steal. It also is a great way to introduce the Standard, I Create, along with the introducing the Learning Target, 'I combine an inspirational source with my own ideas'.   Time on Task is an interesting concept. Traditionally, students are expected to work on our schedule. The expectation is that students will begin working as soon as they enter class and end work when the bell rings to leave. As teachers, we often try to accommodate the time on task concept by assigning projects with due dates and other related methods. However, there is an issue. Artists don't always work this way.  KaitlynWhen Kaitlyn said she wanted to produce an abstract marbling painting I wasn't sure what to tell her. Creating marbleized paper using shaving cream was about the extent of my experience. So I said what any TAB leaning teacher would say..."OK, cool". I'm sure that wasn't as much help as I thought it was but it was fine by Kaitlyn. She had been reading up on different techniques, watching YouTube videos and collecting a plethora of pins on Pinterest. Now she was ready to experiment. Kaitlyn started small, working on 4"x 4" canvases. She experimented with different paint thicknesses and tried several different mediums including gel and white glue. The idea was to created different consistencies so the paint would flow together at different rates. I mean, I think that's what she was doing. Either way, it worked. Since then she has moved on to much larger works. Like the one in these photos. Time on Task: Kaitlyn does not work on a bell to bell schedule. This doesn't mean she isn't on task. It only means she works on her own schedule. Kaitlyn may go several days when she is not producing product. To someone not familiar with how Kaitlyn works, it may appear that she is time off task. This is not the case. Though she may not be in the act of physically creating, she is thinking, planning, researching, collecting information and preparing for a major project. She may go several days or even more than a week when she is not producing product. Then, when she is ready, on her time, she knocks it out of the park.  NaomiThe above image may look a lot like a digitally manipulated photograph. However, it's not. In fact, it's not a photo at all. Instead, it a traditional work of art that has been digitally altered. It's part of a series Naomi is creating by experimenting with Photoshop. Naomi starts by creating a drawing on newsprint paper. Sometimes she uses charcoal, other times she uses markers or other traditional media. Once she has created the drawing, she photographs it and imports the image to the computer. From there, Naomi begins the manipulation process in Photoshop. She will change modes, make adjustments, arrange and transform and apply filters until she has created something entirely different. For example, the image above is a manipulation of the drawing of the bird with the triangles below. She will also create between five and fifteen different versions before she settles on one she likes. Time on Task: Naomi's schedule is much different than Kaitlyn 's. Though she on occasion works on a larger scale project that may take several days, her preference is to create daily projects. Each day, Naomi creates a new drawing. She then imports the image into the computer and spends the rest of the class time manipulating that image. She will continue the process until the end of class. The next day, she starts the process over all again.  PatsyPatsy is currently working on a series of portraits of children she has interacted with through mission trips to Guatemala. The drawing are completed in charcoal which gives Patsy the ability to create rich contrast in her work. In her early drawings, Patsy created the portraits without backgrounds, allowing the focus to fall solely on the subject. recently, Patsy has been experimenting with background imagery. By uploading photographs to the computer, Patsy has been able to print these images directly on charcoal paper allowing her to draw with charcoal directly on top of the photos. More recently Patsy has been collecting flyers, maps and other images associated with her mission trips to Guatemala. She plans to incorporate these images into the backgrounds, similarly to how she did with the photos. for example, he middle image below is a pattern Patsy created in Photoshop of Guatemala's national flower the White Nun Orchid. Time on Task: Patsy takes time to complete each one of her drawings. Similarly to Kaitlyn, Patsy does take time to plan. However, her planning schedule is much shorter. She may only need a day or two to collect her thoughts. Similarly to Naomi, Patsy works every day. However, she doesn't finish a project each day. Instead, she may work four or five days on her charcoal portraits. Making ArtistsIn an Open Art Room, students are allowed to pursue the artwork they wish to pursue. Each student is an individual that produces individual work. Since they all work differently, they require different schedules. Time on task shouldn't be an across the board scheduling routine. Time on task is individual too.
 Jo Jo was at it again, creating a new, interactive bulletin board. He incorporated his STEAM skills by wiring Christmas lights to run off of batteries so the fire marshal would approve his sign. The concept is simple. There are sticky notes and a pen on a string. Take a sticky note and write your New Year's resolution! Below are some examples of the sticky notes that students wrote. Learning TargetsNext semester we plan to fully implement the Learning Target concept. What's that you ask? Well, let me explain. Previously, we have asked students to consider what they accomplished by selecting a writing prompt based on the Standards. While this is very beneficial in regards to reflecting on the work the student has accomplished, it doesn't capture the student's initial intent. That's where Learning Targets work! Learning Targets ask the student to consider what they intend to accomplish before they start working. Furthermore, the Learning Targets, like the coordinating reflection prompts, align with the Standards.  Since we were only introducing the concept, we decided to start with only a few select Learning Targets. Students were asked to select one Learning Target from the list that would align with their next student-directed project. Here is a look at the limited list we provided, followed by several examples of students work and the targets they selected. Standards Learning Targets
For this project you will design a work of art that presents a message. If you feel strongly about a particular topic, this is your opportunity to express your thoughts through your art. Check out artists like Banksy, Shepard Fairey or Kristen Visbal.
Appropriation is taking two objects and combining them to create an original piece. For this project you will combine different things that inspire you in order to create a new, unique work of art. Check out artists like Jamian Juliano-Villani.
This project is all about improving on something you already are good at. For this project you should consider a material or a skill or technique that you are good at and seek out ways to get even better. You might consider following a YouTube tutorial.
This project is all about trying something completely new. For this project you should consider a material or a skill or technique that you have no experience with and learn how to do it. You might consider following a YouTube tutorial.
For this project you will work with other students to create a work of art. It’s all about learning how to work together which can be both challenging and rewarding. Student Examples "We Collaborate: This project allowed us to come together to create one piece. We each had our own ideas that we all did, so the four of us represent the four seasons. ."  "Take Risks: This piece was an enormous challenge because I haven’t used colored pencils in forever..."  "I Create: this piece was inspired by an artist on social media. I’ve drawn one of their characters in my personal style..." More TablesWe offered two new Tables in the New Year, Candle Making and Rock Painting. Though we looked at several different candle making techniques, the students selected to try the string dipping method. They each took a wick and dipped it into the hot wax. As soon as it dried, they dipped it again.. and repeat. After a while the wax forms a candle around the wick. Inspiration for the rock painting Table was based on The Kindness Rocks Project. The Kindness Rocks Project is all about paiting rocks and then leaving them in places for people to find. There is even a chapter of The Kindness Rocks Project on Oak Island. Ok, so it's sort of a year in review post. However, we developed a few ideas this year at South B we think are just about good enough to steal. So take a look and if you see something you might like to try, grab it. After all, artist steal! 10. Quirky Day Challenges Every teacher faces quirky days like the day before Thanksgiving or winter or spring break. Kids are hopped up on candy canes and anticipation. It's hard for them, and for us to stay focused. So what do we do? We plan a quirky day challenge! In the past, our students participated in Hand Turkey Tuesday and the 12 Days of Photoshop. This year, the day before spring break we thought it might be fun to have a little egg decorating contest. So we brought in a bunch of eggs, yes, real eggs, and gave each student and egg to decorate. We had three categories, zentangle design, character design, art history design. 9. Media Bootcamp How does one start a new semester when you want all the students to know how to retrieve, use and store work created in any media? Well maybe not all media but have a good foundation.... The Media Bootcamp. We kicked off day one of the second semester with our first day of the Media Bootcamp. For day one we entertained charcoal, color pencil and pen and ink. We set up the Chromebooks so students could run through some simple tutorials. The second day we tried a few different media. In particular, we did oil and chalk pastel. Day three we did a watercolor tutorials. We also did an acrylic tutorial but we didn't use a tutorial for that. I hand taught that lesson, teaching some basic tippy tappy trees, Bob Ross style. 8. Computer Art & Animation This year at the Art of South B we offered a brand new art class... Computer Art & Animation. We took a look at Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, as well the Adobe tools Animate program. We even tried to do a little 3D printing. If you already have a computer art class, feel free to steal our tutorials. Stealing this idea might be a little tricky to try if there isn't a computer lab or the apps to teach it. However, there are a lot of free apps like Pixlr and Tinkercad. Even if you only have a few Chromebooks, you might consider setting up a Computer Art center. 7. AP Studio Art This year was a 'big first' here at the Art of South B... in fact, it was a big first for SBHS, Brunswick County and for me, your humble art teacher. For the first time ever, in all three circumstances, we offered AP Studio Art. So what's AP Studio Art you ask? Well, let me explain. AP Studio Art is an advanced placement course offered by the College Board. Students enrolled in the course must produce 24 works of art to create three sections of a portfolio. If you're thinking about stealing this idea, make sure you sign up for an AP workshop. Next year the portfolios will be different so even if you've taken the workshop, it might be a good idea to take it again. 6. Write for SchoolArts Before we continue with our top five best ideas to steal, have you considered putting an idea out for others to steal? If you've got something interesting happening in your art room why not consider writing for SchoolArts Magazine? They are always looking for great articles to publish. This year, we published a few articles including: TAB Teaching is a Bag of Chips Artists Solve Problems How to Write an Artistic Behavior Unit Art Traps for Reluctant Students The Nine: Presenting Subject-Based Teaching Now for the Top Five Best Ideas of 2018 you should Steal! 5. The TablesOur Open Art Room is student directed. That means, students decide which direction they want to take the art they are creating. Many students come to class with ideas and are ready to jump in. However, some students are looking for new ideas, new opportunities, new techniques that they might not have known or thought about. That's where The Tables come in. Each week we present a new theme with a new project idea on our large, wooden table. These table projects come with a quick demo as well as all the supplies needed to create a work of art. The theme and the project materials are set up for one week. The following week, there will be a new theme and a new project idea. Here's a short list of some of the Tables we set up this year. Piñata, ugly dolls, plaster, tie dye, paper smache, candle making, and rock painting. 4. Art Journals Most teachers can appreciate having their students document the design phase. We already know the "what". Sure, we're going to present new artists, skill and techniques to our students. It also wouldn't hurt if they found a way to visually plan their ideas before they start development. The "how" on the other hand, can be a bit more tricky. Sketchbooks, notebooks and even altered books are all considered when trying to decide how students should keep track of this information. We took all this into consideration this year at the Art of South B and, with the help of the printshop, developed the Art Journal. The Art Journal, free to each student, is a spiral bond 40 page book with art history, skill development, and planning pages built in. We're even printing out thumbnail images of the art we show so the students have a visual reminder to go with the notes they scribe. 3. Aligning with the Standards My first impression of the Standards is how disjointed they appear. There are four Anchor Standards representing Creating, Presenting, Responding, Connecting. Creating and Presenting are rather obvious. Making art and presenting art at at the core of every art program. The other two anchor standards, Responding and Connecting seemed separated. Almost a throwback to the DBAE days. Looking at art, interpreting art, connecting at some level with art. However, I made one very importantly but seemly overlooked observation about the Standards.. they are out of order. One doesn't make art, present art and then look at art for inspiration and meaning. Rather, we look at art, are inspired by art, and then create and present art. instead of Creating, Presenting, Responding, Connecting consider this: Responding, Connecting, Creating, Presenting When we consider the standards in this order we notice how well they align with the artistic process for creating art. Through the artistic process we are first inspired by art, we then develop and idea to convey meaning, we then plan and create, and finally we reflect and present. Check out this link for more about aligning the standards. 2. Modular Teaching The intermediate class has gone into full Modular Mode. Each week, they are introduced to four modules to help intrigue and inspire. Module One: Each Monday, we introduce a new art Concept. For example, one week the concept was positive and negative space. Student's interested in working with this concept were challenged with creating a tessellation. Module Two: On Tuesdays we introduce the second module titled the Table. The Table provides an optional project for those students who might not be interested in Monday's concept. Module Three: The third module we introduce happens on Wednesdays. Each Wednesday we take a look at an Artist that is loosely associated with the Table. Module Four: The last module happens on Thursday. It's a look at Skills and Techniques that our artists might find helpful. If students couldn't relate to the Concept, didn't want to tie dye, and couldn't find any inspiration in the artist of the week, they certainly can find a video tutorial they want to follow. Here's a look at the Modules for an intermediate class for a full semester. And the Number One Best Idea of 2018 you should Steal... 1. Collaborate with your Coworker This year we were lucky enough to hire a new art teacher. Stacey Belter joined the team and jumped in with both feet, implementing TAB in the classroom. She adopted the Nine for her Beginner students, incorporated Table projects, implemented Seesaw, and was instrumental in the design of the Art Journals and the aligning of the Standards. If you steal no other ideas off this list, steal this one. And if you can't, that's ok too. Instead, you might try an online PLN. Twitter has some great #TABChat stuff going on. Facebook also has some great TAB groups including Teaching For Artistic Behavior TAB group and HS TAB. What about 2019??That's a pretty good list, don't you think? With all that cool stuff, what could be going on for 2019? Well, here's just a small list of things that are brewing:
The addition of AP 3D Art An upgraded Art Journal More SchoolArts articles A Complete Semesters worth of Modules for a Proficient class Learning Targets aligned with the Standards And more!  The 12 Days of Photoshop challenges our Computer Art & Animation students with a New Photoshop Project every day for the 12 days leading up to winter break. They only have one day to complete each task and it must be posted to Seesaw before the class is over. Here are examples from each of this year's 12 days!  On the first day of Photoshop my students gave to me Something Sliced.  On the second day of Photoshop my students gave to me Bad Mail.  On the third day of Photoshop my students gave to me A Funny Movie Poster Parody  On the fourth day of Photoshop my students gave to me an X-ray  On the fifth day of Photoshop my students gave to me A Screen Brought to Life.  On the sixth day of Photoshop my students gave to me A True Identity  On the seventh day of Photoshop my students gave to me A Critter Candy Cane  On the eighth day of Photoshop my students gave to me A Literal Interpretation  On the ninth day of Photoshop my students gave to me A Pop Icon Sculpture  On the tenth day of Photoshop my students gave to me An Animation  On the eleventh day of Photoshop my students gave to me Virtual Graffiti.  On the twelve day of Photoshop my students gave to me a Holiday Art History Mash Up!
Merry Photoshop to all! Another art teacher posted the question on Facebook, "What are your students working on?" Here at South B, it's sort of a long list. That's because in the open art room, students might be working on all sorts of stuff and things. Autumn for example has been designing her characters, working primarily in MARKERS. But Percy on the other hand, wanted to try out these WATERCOLORS to create this portrait. It's a present, so shsssss, don't tell. A few students selected to work with the NEEDLE & THREAD. This week's Table was ugly dolls.  Brea wanted to try out the new CRAYPEN we just got in. She is using the craypen to create the black outline of a stained glass window on plastic. She is also mixing the new colored inks in with glue to create the colored glass part. Lots of experimenting with this one.  Meanwhile, we found some SHAVING CREAM in the closet. Since nobody wanted to shave, we decided to learn how to marble with it.  Brooke has been working on her EYES.  Hope has been working on with MIXED MEDIA including colored pencil with pastel.  Ruby was working on a Mega Man Legacy collection which.... inspired Max to BECOME Mega Man.
Of course, that's just a small look at some of the things our student's are working on this week. We also worked with printing, etching, oil paints, cardboard, Photoshop, pencil, styrogami, collage, charcoal, candle making, and a few students drew all over my whiteboard...
Module One, The Concept: Each Monday, we introduce a new art Concept. This week's concept was positive and negative space. Student's interested in working with this concept were challenged with creating a tessellation.  Module Two, The Table: On Tuesdays we introduce the second module titled the Table. The Table provides an optional project for those students who might not be interested in Monday's concept. Last week's Table was pinatas! Here are some of the pinatas created at last week's Table. This week, was tie dye and next week will be ugly dolls. Module Three, The Artist: The third module we introduce happens on Wednesdays. Each Wednesday we take a look at an Artist that is loosely associated with the Table. This week's artist is Joana Vasconcelos. Module Four, the Technique: The last module happens on Thursday. It's a look at Skills and Techniques that our artists might find helpful. If students couldn't relate to the Concept, didn't want to tie dye, and couldn't find any inspiration in the artist of the week, they certainly can find a video tutorial they want to follow. But here is the best part. Even though all the modules are there to inform and inspire, students can still choose to design their own student-driven project. In fact, we encourage it! So here is some work that has nothing to do with the modules. Reagan created these two works. The one on the left was created on the 3D printer. This student was exploring ways to present a cityscape, experimenting with different methods for presenting the background. This student was interested in presenting the trees differently by angling the trunks.  "Mr Sands, I brought in a plush toy. Do you have any cement?"  This photo doesn't do justice to the color variation of the skin tones. You have to see it in real life. Feel Good FridayWe ended the week with a Feel Good Friday. What's that you ask? Well, any students wishing to participate, placed their art on the table. All students then walked around the table, viewing the artwork and leaving comments on the Feel Good Friday comment sheets.
This particular Feel Good Friday also counted as a cross-curricular activity. That's because the Culinary Arts class was selling brownies. We bought a tray so in my book, that's cross-curricular. Also, brownies are just another great way to feel good on Feel Good Friday ;)  This week in Computer Art & Animation we took a look at Adobe Illustrator; a vector based application with a bit of a learning curve. Overall, Illustrator is a powerful design and illustration app but transitioning from raster-based apps such as Photoshop to vector-based programs takes a little getting used to. To kick off the week, we ran a few tutorials to learn about tools this app offers and gain understanding about how they work and how the differ from Photoshop. We started with learning about shapes and gradients as can be seen in the above illustration of flowers.  Our second tutorial was perhaps the least fun but addresses the most obvious difference between raster and vector; working with the pen tool. At first, it can be a bit tricky to get the anchor points to go where you want them to go.  Building on the shape and gradient tools, our next step was to build layers. These 2D badges are composed of several layers of shapes. We also explored the type and pathfinder tools.  What comes after 2D? Going for 3D. This tutorial incorporated all the previous lessons but asked the student to apply a little creativity to create the illusion of depth. Now that we have an understanding of the app, we will see what we can do on our own. Next week we will have some time to explore the app further on our own and use or time to create our own Adobe illustrations. Stay tuned...     #HandTurkeyTuesday, that most special time right before Thanksgiving break. There is a buzz in the air, not because we are about to have a few days off to spend with our relatives while eating turkey and watching football... No! It's because everyone wants to draw a hand turkey. Have you never participated in #HandTurkeyTuesday? Well, then you might consider it for next year. We even put together a complete presentation that goes into depth about what #HandTurkeyTuesday is all about. Or, at least, it has some examples of hand turkeys. But you don't need to go to the presentation to see the best examples of hand turkeys. We have them right here! I present to you the 2018 #HandTurkeyTuesday hand turkeys!!!!    |
The Open Art Room provides a student-centered approach to art instruction that is inspirational, practical, and classroom-tested.
Click Here to Read This Month's SchoolArts Article, Build A Dynamic art Program with Modular Teaching!
Art of South BThis blog contains the work of Visual Artists, Computer Graphic Designers, Animators, and Street Artists from South Brunswick High School, NC Click Here to Read Last Month's SchoolArts Article, Tab Teaching is a Bag of Chips!
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