Category: Portraits

Week Seven

10/23/2017

Finished Work

Students finished their work for the challenge "You, Me, Everybody" project. In this challenge students were asked to create a work that was either about someone else, themselves, or a larger community/culture. We looked at the work of Julian Opie, Frida Kahlo, and Do Ho Suh as examples of artists who use a variety of methods and media to tackle this prompt. Before students started their final works, they created a series of sketches to work out ideas and we also went through various materials and how they could be applied to their final works.

It was fun to see students work with different media, try new ideas, and change their pieces based on experience and feedback. I am always amazed when students are able to put feedback to good use and apply the concepts and ideas taught.

Application of ideas and methods to achieving those ideas is something I am striving to teach throughout the term. It always starts a little slow, but as you can see with the examples below, students are able to use the skills we have build to achieve their desired effects and create one-of-a-kind results that both meet the standards set as well as their own artistic vision.

Kalynn: In my piece I am representing the idea of everybody. I have showed everybody be drawing different hands gripping a rope. This shows that we are all holding onto the same thing and are doing so together. In my art I used color for the rope to try to make it the center of focus, and add depth. Overall I have learned several new techniques and enjoyed overcoming the challenges to create my piece of art.

Serenity: I wanted to make this clay piece because I am not very good at drawing faces so I thought that I could make a face better using clay. I focused on the you part of the theme you, me, everybody. I didn't completely base it on a specific person, but it is not a drawing of me so I consider it a you part of the theme. I used different clay tools to make different textures in the parts that have hair so that it would become more realistic and look like a person. I left the lips in a neutral face to make the face look like the person was having an average day. I chose to do red hair and purple eyes because when I was a little kid that was who I pictured my self to be in our house games.

Cheyenne: First, I drew my own portrait and then I traced it with a permanent marker and put printmaking all over it. Then when I was done with the printmaking which took me about 4 to 5 days, I traced my portrait with chalk pastels and then it made it look 3D like the image is popping out. This connects to the theme "me" because I like to do artwork based on me what I like and what I like to look like.

Dylan: i got the idea to do this when i thought about how different me and my family are, but how we are all the same. so i went for a broken mirror effect on the many photos that i have to show how differences between us, but how we are alike.

Mary: In this piece, I did something very similar to a self portrait.In the middle is an artist persona of myself, and around is some fictional characters from some of my favorite franchises, except the two at the bottom, which are two characters of my own with their own stories.

Sophia: I originally was going to do the backs of peoples heads for my project, and when I was coloring the hair, I just started to doodle in my sketch book. After trying my head pictures twice, I decided I wanted a different picture instead, and I decided this picture was the one I wanted to use. I had a lot of fun with this project, I went out of my comfort zone with picking my own project with a very broad outline. It took a while for me to pick my final project, but I think I picked a good one. I learned about a paint that is water color, but it starts as a liquid! I thought that was really amazing, so I used it on my background! I also leaned a new technique form my art teacher Mrs. Campbell called feathering. I personally love this technique, and hope to use it in the future!

Kennedy: For my project, "you, me, everybody" I did more than one piece of art and i seemed to like this one the most. The project is focused of everybody, and the eyes represent everyone's eyes. i used a piece of Gelli plate to put on the background colors and mix them together, the colors i had used were pink and blue and the colors mixed together to make a purple color too. I used a black sharpie marker to draw the eyes and i used chalk to help the eyes stand out.

The Problem with Due Dates

Due dates are necessary. They help hold students accountable and set pacing of content for the term. With that being said, I really find them to be hard to follow with students who decide to go above and beyond with assignments. I do not count this against the final grade if work is late because of this. I do not think it is fair to punish students who want to take more time on their work because they are doing something special.

I do have an issue with students who misuse their time and turn in work late or rush through projects without using their skills and understanding to show what they know. That is why I think due dates should be set, but be flexible. For the students who are unable to meet the deadline because their work is more complicated or in-depth, they have to find the time to finish outside of the set class time and that is usually not an issue. If you care about your work so much that you are willing to spend more time on it, chances are you want to see it to completion.

Here are some works I am excited to see come to completion soon:

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Week Seven

10/21/2016

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Finish Works

Students finished up their work for the Biography/Autobiography Challenge and uploaded them to Artsonia this week. It was fun to see the very different outcomes from each student. So many different materials and methods were employed to get the work done. Below are just a few of the works completed this week.

Andrew M.: This piece of artwork represents autobiography because I used a plaster mold of my face and put a clay bowl on the back is my thoughts. I it filled with things I love and cherish dear to my heart.

Leila D.: My artwork, "Vibrant Girl", represents a friend of mine who is always positive and uplifting to be around. I wanted to make a piece that had a combination of bold and bright colors. I also wanted to somehow incorporate collage media into my artwork. I did this by taking parts of magazines and arranging them to look like my friend. After I did that I realized that it needed something more. I then decided to add multiple layers of newspaper, colored paper and magazines to the collage. I think that because I did this, the artwork seems more joyful. I can compare my artwork to Patrick Bremer because he also used collage media. He takes magazines and uses them to create realism and abstraction in a piece. There is also a difference between Patrick Bremer's piece and mine. He uses a grid to create a more realistic piece. I enjoyed making "Vibrant Girl", and hope to continue to learn different ways to make great artwork!

Lindsey P.: My artwork is for the biography unit is a photography piece that I took on my camera. In this I used a longer shutter speed and exposure to slow the picture down and make it look like my hands are moving. Also I turned the contrast up to highlight and darken certain parts of my photo. For example, my freckles stand out more when I turned up the contrast. My work connects to me because I love trying new types of photography. My artwork was inspired by photographers I see on social media and Andy Warhol because he makes his artwork look like it is almost moving also.

Ashley W.: This assignment I used two different block prints. One print was a small print of a car. The other print was a a girl looking down at a tombstone. It has something to do with my life, because when I was very young, three people in my family died in a car crash. The cars show you it was a car crash, and the tombs show that people died in it. This artwork means so much to me! My artwork compares to Andy Warhol, because he did colors that people wouldn't do often to their artwork. While he did bright colors, I did bright red in the background. Then, I did a darker color in the front, to show sadness. I took part of Andy Warhol's idea with bright colors, and mixed it up a bit!

Colton S.: This piece is a biography of Sports legends, singing stars, iconic actors, and etc. These people have inspired me, and many many other people to do the things they do, or love the things they love. This work is most like that of Andy Warhol. This is because it deals with repetitive portraits, that depict celebrities or iconic images.

My T.: In my artwork I took pictures of family members of mine in different spots of their faces. When I was done with it I put it together like a puzzle and made a new face. I have personal connections with this artwork because I took pictures of the people in my family. I think my artwork could compare to Chuck Close because of the square/blocks in the picture because I took the pictures separately. Even though it is a picture instead of a painting or drawing I think my artwork compares most to Chuck Close because of the squares on my artwork.

Topher Z.: I used the idea "steal like an artist" and stole or used the old brick prints to make the random prints. This art reminds me on how creativity is every where and you just need to find it. I did myself and made a wierd back ground that makes me think that creativity is every where.

Carmen D.: I chose to draw an eye with a road bike and landscape in the middle to do with biography. This piece of art is showing the dedication, perseverance, and passion of a cyclist.I would compare my artwork to Andy Warhol because it is a realistic drawing with lots of color.

Damien A.: I made Christopher Columbus's Ship because I think it's cool that even though everyone told columbus that he was going to fall off the edge of the Earth, he sailed his ship forward anyways, and he found America. Because of him, we all live in america today. My artwork kind of connects with Chuck Close because he had dyslexia which was a problem for him, but he found a solution for it and it worked. At first when the paint on the boat started leaking out, I tried to hide it, but instead of that, I found a solution for it and I think it worked pretty well, I put them everywhere.

Abby B.: n the work of art I have presented, I created a piece with drawing pencils and magazine clips of outer space. I was inspired to create this piece, as I originally wanted to create something to do with Cherokee heritage. I always thought that their history was extremely interesting, so when I heard the theme of the project, that's what my mind immediately went to. While looking through my research, I found a group of people called the moon-eyed people. Apparently legend told that these people of Cherokee descent, could see during the day, but could see in the night. I thought this was extremely cool, and I choose that to be the model in my portrait. One artist that I think my artwork is similar to Patrick Bremer, as we both use some sort of college in our artwork, with his the actual portrait and mine the background. One thing different is that I also used drawing pencils, while he just used magazine cutouts.

Photoshop Frenzy

The last two days of the week were a frenzy of Photoshopping as students worked to complete one work (out of five possible challenges). It was fun to see students stretch their learning, even when they had to struggle through some technical issues along the way.

It was fun to see students work together to get their images and work through the challenge of their choice using Photoshop.

Mark Z.: For my Photoshop challenge I created a digital print of me. I used the technique that Andy Warhol used when he made Marylyn Monroe with bright colors that stand out. I used this technique because I liked how the colors complemented each other. Also I liked how the colors stood out more than usual. This describes me to because I love colors that are bright and complement each other’s.

Irieca W.: I chose to do the one with it looking like a cartoon person because i thought it would be fun and cool to do at first i tried it and it was kind of frustrating for me to do. but then when i did it was easy for me to do so next time i might do some thing that will give me a challenge. because this was easy of i might do i for the next project that i have.

Kristina B.: I chose to do a city for my photoshop challenge. I used the principals of design by using unity because this piece shows harmony but also variety because of the different buildings. This photoshop challenge also uses different shape and also color because of the different shapes and color on the buildings in the city.

Trever W.: I used the quick select tool to create my artwork because I used it to get rid of the background of the photos that I used. I used the basketball and baseball in my artwork because I love to play those sports. The bulldog is in there because they are my favorite dog. The hamburger is my favorite food. That is why I choose to do a couple of those things

Alayna A.: In my artwork I used the element of design color by using bright and vibrant colors in my piece. I also used the principle of design pattern by using a square pattern that all have a picture of my face in different colors and locations. This photoshop challenge was fun to create, and the end result was very fun and colorful.

This was a busy week, filled with new works and learning. I am excited to start something new next week (and to present at the MAEA conference in Traverse City)!

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Value and Portraits

1/6/2015

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7th grade students are exploring ways to show value in their work through the use of our different shading pencils or stippling with Sharpies. We used Chuck Close and Noli Novak as artists of inspiration for this work. Novak is also being used to inspired the collage portraits being done in class, like the one below. Using a variety of media at once is always fun in the art room and I look forward to seeing how the work turns out in a few days.

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Evolving Ideas

9/23/2014

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One of the best things about giving students choice, is the amount of variety I get to see in terms of material choice and execution. I am also amazed at the evolution of ideas over time. Whether it is through conferencing with me or their peers, students are adapting ideas and making changes where needed in order to achieve their best possible solution to the design problems they are addressing. You can check out evidence of that in the images below.

Olivia is using a gum eraser to carve a stamp of herself.

She experimented with overlapping the stamp and applying various amount of ink on it to get a variety of values.

She then worked on creating a series of patterns. She is still working on how she wants to use this little stamp in a larger image.

Claire is working on a series of prints. She has made several on paper towel and is in the process of cutting out the main figure and collaging paper behind it (as seen in the black and pink stripes).

Anna is working with stitching her profile. She was using this to explore ideas for a separate project background.

Emma is using rubber cement to act as a masking fluid for when she applies watercolor below.

Bre worked with block printing to explore positive and negative space, line, and pattern.

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While I was Away

3/15/2014

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One of the neatest things to come out of the 1:1 work with students is their ability to continue working on things when I am out of the classroom. I had the great honor and privilege to not only attend the MACUL (Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning) at the end of this week, but I also got to be a part of three presentations while there. Even though this meant spending time away from my students to get and share insight in best educational practices, my students did not miss a beat and here are some of the pieces students submitted while I was away:

7th grade Portraits

7th grade students finished their portraits this week using Chuck Close and Noli Novak as inspiration. After drawing their faces in a neutral value scheme, they selected a material for their background and filled it with color. They then experimented with collage as they cut and pasted a portrait using their reference photo as a guide. Using Artsonia classroom mode, I was able to see these works get done in real time as students turned them in on the computer Thursday and Friday.

For Emma's portrait, she decided to use pencil to show her values in the face and a water/chalk shred for the colorful background.

In Ava's work, she uses a stippling technique to explore value and in the background she overlaid tissue paper on a wet surface to get the tie-dyed look.

After students drew their portraits, they then created a collage from them with images cut from magazines. Here is Noah's collage.

8th grade Portraits

In addition to studying the artists mentioned in the 7th grade unit, 8th grade students also examine the work of Shepard Fairey and Rob Kelly before making decisions on how they want their portraits to look. Students have complete control over the pose, material, and execution of these works. After completing their portraits in real space, they went digital and (with the help of Ian Sands) created the pixelated versions of themselves.

Lauren decided to show the different levels of value in her face through both color and patterns.

Kayla used paint in this image to explore value. She then decided to add some different textures and shapes to activate the background.

Shane used marker in his image to show the values of his face.

After students completed their portraits in real space, they went digital and created these pixelated portraits. This one is created by Dillon.

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Monsters and Collages

11/11/2013

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8th grade students worked on Monsters last week, inspired by Japanese contemporary artist, Takashi Murakami. This year was especially fun because we got to use a new technique of felting wool on for extra details due to a Donors Choose project being funded! Here is a video from last year, explaining the process:

7th grade students worked on Collages last week using their previous portrait and cut up magazines. It was fun to see the creative solutions students came up with to create a face out of many other faces. you can see the full gallery on Artsonia or watch the video below.

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Posters to Profiles

11/1/2013

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Students worked on their profiles again, but in a new way. Inspired by my friend (and former Countryside Art teacher), Danielle (Sanregret) Hanna, I taught my students a drawing/Photoshop project where they used line and shape to create a pattern within their hair and clothing.

We first read an article from Scholastic Art Magazine about posters created from Toulouse-Lautrec and Glaser. Then we examined a variety of posters from the 1960s before creating and editing our works in Photoshop. Check out the full gallery here.

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Posterized Portraits

10/27/2013

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8th grade students finished up their portraits last week, using a material of their choice. From paint, to candy, to make-up, students selected a variety of tools to demonstrate the variety of values found on their face. You can see the full array on our Artsonia gallery.

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Dotting Away

10/22/2013

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7th grade students are working on their portraits this week. We learned about the work of Chuck Close and Noli Novak before getting started with our own expressive images. Students were able to select whether to add value with pencil or dots and how to fill in the background.

We will finish these works by tomorrow and post the result on our Artsonia gallery. Here are a few finished works so far.

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8th grade Portraits

10/18/2013

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8th grade students watched this Prezi before starting their own posterized portraits this week:

Students then edited expressive images of themselves in Photoshop and uploaded them to Moodle for me to print so they could begin the transfer process. Students are challenged in this project to use the material of their choice for the 5 value scale. Some stuck with more traditional methods, while others experimented and brought in unusual materials. This project is well under way and we shall see the results over the next week.