Value/Op Art Hands

I’ve just returned from maternity leave and got my 8th graders started on a small VALUE assignment.  The goal of this assignment was to make their hands appear to be popping forward.  Students used their colored pencils to create dark and light tones--I think their work was pretty successful!

Line Portraits

8th graders worked with LINE as their focus for the month of February.  The images below represent some amazing examples of using lines to “complete” half of a portrait. 

Figure Drawings

My 8th graders are still working with the element of value, so I had them take a photograph of a  mannequin.  They had fun figuring out the composition and how to bend the arms and legs to make it an appealing image to draw from.  Below are some examples of how they turned out---overall I would say this was a very successful lesson.  

8th grade-MOSAIC

8th grade has been busy working on their CD mosaics.  I let them choose their subject matter this semester, and some did choose to do landscapes (like last semester did), but others took off and running and created some pretty amazing works of art!  With the Hunger Games movie coming out soon, my 3rd period class has created a lot of work based on the novels.  The “mockingjay” pin is represented below.  It is absolutely INCREDIBLE!

 

7th grade VALUE

It’s a new semester and a whole new group of students have entered the Art Room.  We are working through the same Elements as last semester, and my 7th grade has been busy working with VALUE.  Here is a view of last semesters work with a brief explanation of why/what we were doing. 

The images below are amazing examples of what is going on in the room!

A brief glimpse at the work done using oil pastels.  Just like last semester, I would say the two examples are a huge success!

Portraits/Self-Portraits

 

My 8th grade students worked for several weeks on drawing the human face.  We began with simple sketching, going over proportions of the face---and then I let them draw.  Then we had to back track :-)  It was very difficult to break them from the mold of creating eyes without eyelids---not putting the eyes in the forehead area, and not being afraid to really look at themselves.  Which for many 8th graders is very difficult.   I had students go through many magazines and find different noses, eyes and mouths and just draw them over and over again.  It seemed to really help—they weren’t focused on how they look or the overall picture---just the individual objects.  It was a great drawing exercise.

 

All the examples below are self-portraits with the exception of the last image which is a portrait of a famous actress from the show Revenge (Never watched the show, but the drawing turned out really great)

We made front page news!

Very happy to see this on the front page of our Junior High school newspaper.  Three students created an "Art Corner" and two works were featured.  So proud to see the art as a prominent feature (FRONT PAGE!) of the paper that both parents and students read.  Great job!!