Well here we are…wrapping up my first year of blogging.
As always, the school year flew by! It has been so gratifying to share ideas with other art education lovers and reflect on what works and doesn’t work with each of the projects I’ve posted. I truly feel it has made me a better educator. I find myself really thinking through each aspect of a project when writing about it and seeing if I can make it better for my students…and trying to create interesting and unique content in the process.
This final post of the year is dear to my heart because it is only due to my variety of age groups that I can even write about it!
As an experiment,
I presented the same project
(with variations) to 4th graders and Art 2 students (sophomores). It was really neat to see the growth (as there would obviously be in 6 years worth of development) in artistic sensibility that came through!!
The project itself is simple. I have a deep love for typography and a genuine respect for its place in our culture. Now more than ever, with our inundation from social media, websites, and computer culture…not to mention advertising, television, signage, etc. etc. etc...we are completely “fonted out!”
So I ask students to create their name (or names) or a word (or short phrase) in an overlapped, interesting composition. Older kids need to use lots of different letter styles, younger kids are shown how to draw a letter with a line and then draw around it to create the block letter style like their writing. Both groups are asked to incorporate a crazy amount of pattern and color to give these letter designs a lot of pop and energy. They are challenged to FILL the page with letters and patterns. We use 12x18 paper and layered colored pencils to complete the artwork.
This project was a success with both age levels. Its a great way to help them notice the lettering world around them and improve their skills at the same time. Its also one of those "everyone is successful" projects which are nice to have now and then.
That's it for the year!
Happy Summer!!!
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