Week Eight

New Week, New Challenge

This week students started a new challenge entitled "Where are you going? Where have you been?" In doing so, we started brainstorming why places are important to us - both the places we have been and the ones we would like to visit before planning thumbnail sketches of possible solutions to the challenge. 

This week also marked the Annual Michigan Art Education Association Conference and I knew I was going to be gone for Thursday and Friday. I did not want students to get started on their work for this challenge without me being there, so I decided to take a process that another teacher uses in her classroom and breakout a Perspective Drawing Bootcamp Challenge. 

I used to teach perspective at the front of my classroom, step-by-step. Instead of doing it that way this year, I used a handful of videos from Circle Line Art School and posted them in various difficulty levels for students to complete on Schoology and submit when completed to Artsonia.

On Wednesday students were given the resources, along with a basic overview of how to give the illusion of space on a 2D surface using a variety of tricks (included color, which was also covered this week through a mixing demonstration/activity). Students were then encouraged to practice in their sketchbooks before applying it to their final paper. 

It was great because there were a lot of choices students could select and be self-directed on (I also included some hand outs for students in case the internet was quirky). I love going to conferences because I get a chance to share with other teachers and learn new techniques for making and teaching art. I also love it because it gives me a chance to see what my students can do when I am not in the room. 

​Here are some finished examples of the various levels students completed:

Avery H.: I would compare this art to my dot. I have improved from my skills and used more materials. My lines are straighter and there is more detail in my art. Even though the colors in my dot are more elaborate and different but there is more value in my name.

Zach L.: I chose to make my perspective drawing of a birds eye view of New York, because I have always wanted to visit there. I love the tall sky scrapers and people everywhere, so I decided to copy that image down that I had in my head, onto paper. Also, I filled in the white spaces with black, so it would make an illusion of the buildings becoming higher, and popping out from the page.

Damien A.: I used the principles of perspective in my art with the road and the house. My vanishing point is at the end of the road, and I made the porch, roof, windows, and door by connecting the lines to my vanishing point. This connects with some of my other art because in other art I use a lot of shading, and it was no different with this art. you can see the most of it on the back of the pine trees and the house.

MAEA

I will not be able to explain EVERYTHING I learned at the conference, so I will just list some highlights: 

Traverse City

The annual conference for Michigan Art Teachers was held in beautiful Traverse City this year. It was also peak color this weekend, which made our stay that much more scenic!

Trying New Techniques and Materials

I learned a bunch of new techniques and used some new products, too. My favorites were learning how to draw with copper point (as demonstrated by Carrie Jeruzal, this year's MI Middle Level TOY) and positive/negative ceramic prints.

Sharing Ideas

I had a great time sharing resources. I presented about STEAM with the STEM teacher at my school, Jamie Dennett. I also presented on my own about mono printing with Gelli Arts. 

Learning from Experts

The conference was filled with great speakers, including our keynotes. I enjoyed hearing about the future of Visual Arts education from Dennis Inhulsen, Wordless news from Maria Fabrizio, and TAB from Katherine Douglas.

Celebrating the Visual Arts

It was also fun to see so many of my colleagues and students from across the state be celebrated. I also enjoyed my time at the Dennos Museum, viewing and learning about various artists.

It was a great week, filled with a lot of learning for both students and me. Next week is the end of the marking period, which means we are a quarter of the way through!