A Mixed Media Process

Teaching students mixed media can be daunting.  There are so many processes and techniques that can be combined in endless ways!  Sometimes it is paralyzing for students who don’t know what to do next or if they like the layer they’ve created and don’t want to “mess it up.”  I have many good books, websites and Youtube videos that give students info and ideas, but getting them to try new things was like pulling teeth!  

So, inspired by the book “Paint Mojo” by Tracy Verdugo, 
I created this layered mixed media project that walks students through the thought process of creating by giving them instruction, but also some lateral movements within the work for their own self expression.

Here are the instructions given to students:  

LAYER 1:  Choose 3 acrylic colors and paint a canvas board in blended patches. Add pieces of newspaper, phone book pages, dictionary pages (or another paper of your choice) and using Mod Podge, add them to the piece.

LAYER 2:  Design five or more “personal icons” (personal symbols) and make notes on what they mean to you.  (Put in sketchbook.)  Icons are then painted on and stamped on using pieces of styrofoam with the icon drawn into them. You may repeat icons as needed.

LAYER 3:  Add lettering in some way. (Make stencils and paint, find larger magazine words and attach, or research other interesting ways to add.) Putting a positive spin on any wording you add is a nice touch!

LAYER 4:  Finish up by adding whatever it needs to look complete.  This may be several layers or just one more…  Be creative and try interesting processes to come to an interesting, textured, unique mixed media piece.

Happy Creating...and Happy Holidays!!

Paper Sculpture Options

There is nothing I love more than an open-ended project!  Students thrive when given just a few guiding rules or constraints (as illustrated in this blog post) and then set free to create!  I am a 2D artist, therefore…I am a better 2D art teacher (at least that’s how it works for me.)  Because of this, I’m always looking for ways to bring more three dimensional art experiences to my students. This assignment fits the bill!

This project is a favorite because it is 

a) inexpensive (newspaper!!) and 

  

b) open to a lot of creative interpretation.

  

I do this with my juniors (Art 3), but I feel like it could be adapted to just about any age level from middle school on up.

Simply put, students are asked to make a sculpture out of newspaper.  I give very little direction beyond this except to tell them to do a “paper sculpture” image search to get a little inspiration (no copying, obviously!), show a couple of examples of “relief” paper art pieces (with a mat board base),

and give them links to these videos: 

  

Six Amazing Pop Paper Sculptures

Paper Fish Sculpture

Great Paper Mache Dragon Trophy

Amazing Paper Sculptures

Newspaper Stick Jointing

but I make it clear that the options are wide open.  Most paper sculptures start out with newspaper, but other kinds of paper may be used also.

This year, because I was tackling paper mache with my 6th graders and the older students noticed, I opened up that possibility for this project also.  It was so fun to see students embrace that option.  We used the common flour/water/salt recipe and the Elmer's glue/water recipes to create the paper mache.

It is really neat each year to see what students come up with. This year most students were excited about paper mache so they worked in that direction.

No matter what, witnessing creative engagement and problem solving in action is priceless!!

  Happy creating!!

8 Projects in 8 Days Art Challenge

I have long been inspired by art projects that give you a daily challenge to live up to (hence my current “One new artwork every school day” challenge.)  I am fascinated with the Skull Challenge that Noah Scalin did starting June 4, 2007.  He made a skull a day for a year!  He made his 365th skull on June 2, 2008 (and even posted a bonus skull the day after, since it was a leap year!)  Since that time, many others have taken up the “skull a day” cause and done their own challenges.  See http://skulladay.blogspot.com/ for more information and inspiration.

I wanted to give my students a (very) small taste of a challenge like this by asking them to choose an object and create 8 artworks in 8 days.  This could obviously be done for longer periods of time, but due to some other schedule restrictions, the 8 day time frame worked perfectly for us (and the number wasn’t too overwhelming to them.) I did this project with high school students, but I really think it would work for almost any age.  

I gave them a few guidelines:

* No skulls - its been done! Be original!

* Use at least 6 different media.

* At least two of the creations must be 3 dimensional.

* At least one of the creations must involve other people.

* If a creation is temporary, take a photo of it.

* Choose sizes that work best for each individual idea.

After looking at some examples of artworks on Noah’s blog, we talked about how planning is essential to the success of this project.  Some works might only take a few minutes, but you would need to make sure you have your necessary supplies.  Others might take a while and need to be worked on for more than a day.  Creative ideas and uses of materials were highly encouraged.

I liked this project so much because it really pushed kids to get out of their box and also manage their time wisely. Also: even if their drawing skills were not terribly strong, they could still come up with interesting ideas and materials to be successful.

Who doesn’t love a good challenge!? 

Happy creating!

Creative Challenge: Illustrated Dictionary Pages

As I talked about last year, I like to start the year with a relatively simple and short Creative Challenge for my high school students to get the juices flowing and warm up all of the Art skills that may have been dormant during summer break.  Here’s the simple, yet fun idea we tried this year - as inspired by several versions of mixed media dictionary pages on the Internet.

I started by ripping random pages out of an old dictionary and handing them out.  I told them they should choose one word from either side to illustrate on their dictionary page.  The most fun part for the kids was seeing what page they were going to get!  Ahhh…don’t you love random inspiration?  

Students were welcome to use pencil, pen, colored pencil, markers and watercolors.  These four examples are from the freshman Art 1 class.

                                                                           

                                                                     

And now its time to dive into our curriculum!  Here we go!!

Happy new school year!

Social Issue Collage

Isn’t it great when art can not only express and entertain…but also inform?  There are artists all throughout history who have used their art to be educators (and as an Art Educator - isn’t that a cool thought??!)  My Art 2 sophomores recently studied the work of Romare Bearden, chose a social issue to study and then created a “teaching collage” about it.

In this project, we start out by watching this video which introduces them to African American artist Romare Bearden (1911-1988).   After watching the video, they read this short biography about “Uncle Romie” and his accomplished, interesting and varied life.  

They make a list of social issues that affect our society (from teen suicide to drug abuse to climate change and so on…) and then do some research before choosing which one they want to study more in creating their artwork.  

Once they have chosen and researched, I ask them to make a planning sketch and a list of material they will need.  They need to create handmade artworks for the collage, but they can also include publications, printed information, photos and three dimensional objects.

We create these on a mat board base.  Painted papers are cut into patterns and shapes for the first layer and then further layers are added.  Students are encouraged to think about educating the viewer as they create.  They also need to think about how the eye will move through the piece.

The success of these pieces from year to year honestly varies, but no matter how the artwork turns out, it is gratifying to see students opening their eyes and minds to issues that affect our world.

Happy Learning!

Mixed Media Collages Inspired by Wayne Thiebaud

Are you hungry??  Well, I was as I watched my students work on mixed media collages inspired by Wayne Thiebaud and his wonderful, delicious paintings! 

http://www.harding.edu/gclayton/2DDesign/Crits/Crit011_ThiebaudCakes.html

Mr. Thiebaud is inspired by the “joy of living” and so I tell students we are going to focus on the same thing...and what is better “joy of living” than dessert??

I introduce them to the “wonderful world of Wayne” with this video from CBS Sunday Morning (one of my FAVORITE arts-supporting shows!) 

After viewing several of his works online, we brainstorm a list of candy, muffins, cake, and other random desserts.  By the time we are done with this discussion, we are ALL hungry!

Students choose a dessert to create in collage and sketch ideas for the composition.  They find a real photo to use as inspiration and use tempera paint to paint some pieces of paper in the colors they will need.   These will be used to create the actual subject matter.  As they are painting, I ask them to blend colors and really play with the paint - no colors straight out of the bottle!  This makes the collages so much more interesting.

To begin the base of their collage, students choose a piece of matboard or cardboard that they then cover in an “interesting” background paper.  I provide old phone books, atlases and newspapers to do this job, but they are welcome to bring their own papers in, too, as long as they are not too colorful.  I ask them not to just cover the base in one flat piece, but to add a little texture by gluing the paper on in strips, squares, circles, etc.  

(p.s. We just use simple Elmer’s gluesticks for all gluing in this project and sometimes put something heavy on it, to make sure it sticks as it dries.  If you use enough glue, this works perfectly!)

After the base is complete and dry, students start cutting out shapes for their dessert subject matter.  We talk about layering details and best placement on the cardboard.

Students then turn to embellishments by using letter stamps, and other items of their choice to jazz up their piece and make it fun and finished!  If they choose to, they may finish the collage off with a layer of Mod Podge.

We all need a little more Wayne in our lives, don’t you think?  “Joy of life” indeed!  Excuse me while I go eat some cake! :-)  Happy snacking!

A Creative Challenge

I like to start the year with a Creative Challenge designed for all of my high school classes.  This is a small, simple, fun project that warms up their brains, gets their creative juices flowing and prepares them to dive into their individual curriculums.  

This year, we focused on Jasper Johns and the use of letters and numbers in his work. I had seen an interesting lesson plan in School Arts a couple of years ago, so I simplified, modified and shortened it for our needs.

1)  I asked students to choose one letter or number from a font that they found interesting. 

2)  They prepared a background by using pieces of phone book pages ripped, cut and glued to a piece of tagboard in whatever way they saw fit, giving their work some texture.  

3)  After drawing their letter large on a piece of sketch paper and cutting it out, students traced the letter on the background.  (We did it this way because the phone book page paper rips easily when trying to erase.)  

We looked at Jasper Johns' work and talked about the treatments he used:  layering of colors, textures and patterns that make the composition interesting.  

4)  I asked students to develop their own style based on this idea using watercolors, markers and colored pencils.  

This two day project was a great way to start the year, quickly get some new artwork on our display board in the hallway and rev their engines for the bigger projects to come.  It also has many options for developing it into a larger piece or using it for other grade levels.  I LOVE flexible projects like that!  I hope your year is off to a great start!

In My Back Pocket

If I have done my job right, junior and senior art students are much more independent creators than their younger counterparts, so I often like to give them an open-ended assignment and let them see where it takes them.  I had a large number of old jeans that were ripped and faded and in need of a new life.  I cut the back pockets out of each pair of jeans and gave each student a pocket.  Their job was to create an artwork that incorporated the pocket in whatever way they saw fit.  I also kept the scraps of jeans in the art room, in case someone needed other bits for their project.

Students were off and running with this artwork!  They had their choice of media so we had everything from oil pastels to paint to shaded pencil to collage being experimented with.  It is so gratifying when you see students creating their own expressions of an idea!