Watercolor and Ink Compositions

High school students worked for a couple of weeks using watercolor and India ink to complete a project.  The lesson was found HERE.  We followed the steps pretty much to the letter with the exception of applying the ink.  The kids used calligraphy pens instead of brushes to apply the ink. Most students did the project correctly; however, there were a few blunders.  My own example consisted of two different paintings put together as I kept painting outside of the lines! 

 Here are some up close finished products . . .

All of the projects are on display outside of the art room.

Thanks for stopping in!

JH Mixed Media Pieces

Borrowing a lesson from The Lost Sock, the junior high students completed a mixed media piece inspired by the artwork of Robin Mead.  Click HERE to be directed to her blog.  I think her work is simply beautiful!

No process pictures this time, just the final results.  

Some close ups . . . 

All of the pieces are on display outside of the art room.  Come out and see them if you get the chance!

High School Comic Strips

High school students worked with their table-mates to complete a comic strip.  We spent a little time exploring the career of a comic artist, and after learning some basic terminology, students began constructing their comic strips. 

Here's the process . . . 

Each group brainstormed a story they could easily develop along with some memorable characters. Students then began to roughly sketch out and plan how their story would move along in the nine panels they were allowed to use.  

When the sketch was complete, students transferred their drawing onto a larger sheet embellishing the panels with colored sharpies and markers.

 This group below utilized the light box (thanks Kjan) to save time drawing their main characters.

Here are the final products.  

The above comic is titled The Bad Teacher.  Guess who it is? Yup, me . . .all in FUN!

These aren't the best pictures, but I like the fact that one can see such clear differences in style, color, and design--no two are alike!

Thanks for stopping by!  Stay tuned for a junior high update soon!!

Avatar Portraits

Junior high students have finished working on their portraits!  After visiting the cartoonify website and creating an avatar of themselves, students began to draw and add value to their creations.  

 After printing two copies, students outlined one in sharpie.  Kids then turned the sharpie portrait over to expose the lines, placed clean drawing paper on top, and traced with pencil.  Using the second, clean avatar copy, students began to lay down color using a set of drawing pencils.  Their goal was to recreate as close to an exact replica of their avatar as possible--down to the highlights in the hair.  Here are the works in progress . . .

This is the avatar I used for my example

And here are the final results, including my example :0 ...

The kids did a fantastic job with this project.  Their skills at adding multiple values with just a couple of pencils, an eraser, and a blender have improved so much this year!  Very proud of these kiddos!  Good job!