Kusama Inspired Dot Sticker Artwork

Here is a throwback lesson to last school year when I taught my elementary classes via zoom from my classroom to theirs! I introduced each grade to a modern or contemporary artist and 3rd grade learned about Yayoi Kusama. I read them a book about her but for the life of me I can't remember which one! I will share this resource from the Tate about her- https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/who-is/who-yayoi-kusama because it would work really well.

I came across a big bunch of dot stickers like people use for garage sales when I was cleaning out a drawer so those became the special material for this lesson. I gave each student a sheet of orange, yellow, and green and a piece of drawing paper. Then they were allowed to use the dot stickers however they wanted with the school supplies they had in their bins! It was interesting to see the different solutions they came up with. Some students even used the stickers as masks and removed them after coloring.

Sometimes we find materials and ask each other what project could be done with it, but I'd encourage you to present them to your students and see what they think of!

Inner Voice

I follow the Art Prof and each month they post an Art Dare. The Art Dare is a technique or an idea that they are asking people to engage with and then share their work on social media. I especially liked the February Art Dare theme of "Inner Voice". It seemed perfect for my 7th graders first idea based assignment. I was hoping to challenge them to make art about an idea, and understand that art doesn't have to be just a pretty picture. The theme also worked well to tie in some social emotional learning.

We started with a slides presentation looking at different styles of art work that were focused on inner voice/what's on your mind/mental health and then the students did some journaling about THEIR inner voice, and both positive and negative things that were on their minds.

The next step was to brainstorm a plan. I gave a starting point of a silhouette style self-portrait to SHOW what's on your mind for students who needed a little more direction and let those who had their own idea go for it!

I was so proud of the students. Several were BRAVE. It's not easy to be vulnerable, especially in middle school, but several took a leap of faith and showed some vulnerability in the thoughts they shared.

I was so pumped that my 7th graders' Inner Voice projects were reviewed in the Art Prof February Art Dare recap! Our clip is here:

via ytCropper

We also got an Honorable Mention!
via ytCropper

Jewelry Boot Camp

Spring semester in my intro high school class is usually organized by a theme for each month. But what do you do with March when you miss a full week for spring break and at least a couple other days for in-service, state basketball, etc? A couple of years ago, my answer was to run another boot camp/workshop on jewelry, introducing students to materials and techniques they could use and giving them 2 weeks to explore and create something.

Here is the slides presentation I put together with examples and links to the artist's websites.

And here are some examples of the students' work! They really seemed to enjoy learning about jewelry and having the opportunity to make something to wear or share with loved ones. 

Many students brought their own found objects in to work with.

I have a wire coiling gizmo that I purchased years ago and it is handy for making coils that can be cut into links for chain work. Of course, you can also wrap a dowel rod.

The wire coiling gizmo was also used for this piece.

We have an awesome Ag program in our school. One of my students used the equipment in the Ag shop to cut out a metal cross.

None of the materials we used were expensive- they were pretty much all scraps! The only purchases I made were some wire, cord, bails, and a rivet gun.

Here are some of the items we used: 

(If you make a purchase from these links I may get a small commission at no extra charge to you)

Digital Paintings with ProCreate

In the last couple of years we were able to acquire some iPads and apple pencils for my art program. The first one was purchased with our Art Club account and the others were purchased with a grant. I currently have 3 that the students take turns using. ProCreate is one of our favorite apps. I've been trying to use it to create my own digital paintings so I understand it better and have examples to show the students. For about a month I completed a digital artwork for the IllustrationFriday.com prompt and I hope to do that again when school starts.

Here is a video of one of the first digital paintings I made. There is no sound but you can see a sped up version of the process I used.

Here are a few other illustrations I created.

I think this one was something fairytale-ish but I can't remember the exact word

flight

galaxy

I encouraged students who wanted to learn to start by drawing on top of one of their photographs. Here is the process:

1. Line Drawing

-create a new canvas in ProCreate

-import photo and resize/arrange in place

-create a new layer on top of the photo

-under the "inking" brushes, select technical pen or studio pen

-change color to white or something that will show up on top of the photo

-"trace" the image, creating a line drawing with important shapes and details

2. Begin to paint

-create a layer BEHIND your line drawing and ON TOP OF the photo

-select a brush and a color that match your image and begin to paint in the shapes

-you can either start with a more textured brush or something simple like the round brush- it just depends on the look you want

-adjust the brush size to something appropriate for the shape

-turning the opacity down can yield a more "painterly" effect

3. Layers

-it's a good idea to make different layers for different sections of your painting

-every once in a while, turn off the photo layer by clicking the checkmark on the right side of the layer so you can see what you have really created

-you can make layers of solid color behind layers of texture

-layers can be used to adjust the look of colors like an underpainting

4. Blending

-you can use the tool that looks like a finger to smudge or blend colors

5. Brushes

-there are a variety of brushes in different categories for different textures and patterns

-you can use brushes to achieve realistic textures that match your picture or you can use them to create a more illustrated style

-brushes can be created for special effects

-to create a brush hit the plus sign at the top of the brushes panel

-import a photo that has the texture you want as the "grain source" and select a brush shape

-adjust the settings on the brush you created (or any brush by tapping on it twice) to get the look you want

6. Background

-make a layer behind the others you have painted and work on the background

-it can match your photo, just be colors and textures, or whatever style you want

-hide the photo to check and if it looks good, delete the photo layer by sliding right and hitting delete

7. Share/Export

-decide if you want to keep your sketch layer visible or not then you are done!

-go back to gallery

-select your image and hit the share button

-choose the file type you need to export as- jpeg works fine

-save image to camera roll, email, etc.

-we turn in through email or classroom once the image is added to photos

After students felt comfortable with a photo as a guide they got more creative, using a photo as a guide for one element or just drawing directly on a blank canvas in the app.

The students really enjoyed learning ProCreate. Some utilized it for their tool of choice in themed projects in my intro class and the computer graphics students were required to create one project using the app. Thankfully it was a small class so they just took turns and worked on an alternate project while waiting.