VOTE VOTE VOTE

STUDENTS worked very hard on incorporating the techniques they have learned in class into their pumpkin assignment. Impressively students used dip pens, shading, charcoal and innumerable other media to make their pumpkin unique. PLEASE help us out and vote on your favorites! Look at the shading, illustrations, dark and light lines and general SPOOKY way about them!!!

THANKS!

COMING ALONG!!!!

NEW PROJECT!

We are currently working on a project decorating a skateboard. There are lots of examples out there and lots of directions we could go!

The assignment is: You are a graphic designer. A skateboarding company has asked us to create a cartoon character and that character has to be involved with a skateboard in some way. This character can have a board, be on a board or somehow a skateboard must be part of that illustration.

Can't wait to see what the board looks like!

PEN & INK STROKES

Today in class we worked on Pen & Ink strokes. We reviewed the styles of drawing and then put them to work! The lines vary:

CONTOUR LINES: marks that follow curves and planes of an object

PARALLEL LINES: straight marks that extend in the same directions (free hand)

CROSSHATCHING: two or more sets of contour or parallel lines that are stroked in different directions and intersect (like the pound sign #)

STIPPLING: grouping of dots

SCRIBBLE: free flowing mark that loops and twists

WAVY LINES: lines drawn side by side in a repetitive pattern

CRISSCROSS LINES: flow with contour of object and arranged in staggered randomly crossing manner

LOOK for these styles in their work filling in the "Dia de Los Muertos" skull!

ALSO CHECK OUT THIS AMAZING IILLUSTRATOR: Randy Glass

Where the Wild Things Are

I AM AMAZED!!!! Students who had never worked with "dip pens" before were given a quick lesson and then sent off to work on drawing "MAX" from the story "Where the Wild Things Are". Maurice Sendak uses amazing cross hatchings to show shadows and depth in his illustrations throughout the book. Students were challenged to mimic this. Here is the genius that they came up with!

BE KIND

THE MOST IMPORTANT rule is BE KIND. We are working on Human Dignity and treating each other with kindness and respect. Art class is a safe, learning environment where all are welcome. Our project was coming up with words that describe Human Dignity. Students thought of: peace, love, power, kindness, courage to name a few... They then created 3D words out of paper. Here are some samples. The second part of the project was drawing the words with shading techniques. Students were encouraged to look at a light source and see how it was playing upon the paper created word and draw the shadows...

PATTERNS

We have worked on patterns and design. Students were given sheets with blank stars, alphabet patterns, squares etc... students were also encouraged to create their own patterns. Take a look at all the different patterns! The background for this blog was created from the star pattern sheet a student filled in! Awesome job!

SHADING, SHADOWS

Students worked on shading and light sources. We studied "light sources" where the light was coming from in the picture, and how the shadow was created. Students studied cross hatchings from childrens' books artists to see how they created shadows with simple cross hatchings. Then students did free draws with charcoal. They studied how charcoal made marks and how messy it can get...

Circle draw!

We worked on drawing characters and adding one part of the cartoon and passing it on to the next person. This way everyone was part of the drawing. One person would add a nose, another would add an eye and so on. When students felt that the drawing was finished they wrote "DONE" on it. Students then came up with names for the characters.

STUDENTS' CREATIONS

Students were given a variety of templates to help them create a character... This was one template to help them create their cartoons/comics.

COMIC STRIPS

So part one was telling the students about me. Then they had to come up with a character themselves. This character could resemble them or not.