Seminar: Sketchbooks

During the Seminar unit, 8th grade students learned about different sketchbook techniques, media usage, color schemes, and famous artist's usage of sketchbooks.  Students each chose a concept in which to focus their entire sketchbook.  Each entry in their sketchbook was then to reflect their chosen concept.  Each week students are given options on different techniques they would like to try, different media, color scheme usage, as well as different artists that they would like to research.  By the end of the 9 weeks, students will have experimented with and studied different techniques used for sketchbooks.  These techniques and media usage will then serve as a tool to help them in later projects or assignments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



"You are what you eat"

8th grade students were given the statement, "You Are What You Eat," and asked what they thought this might mean.  Students dissected the meaning of this statement and had a discussion on how this could be taken many different ways.  Some students thought of this in the literal sense, a person is what they eat.  So, some students researched the idea of consumerism in the American society.  Some students looked at different eating disorders, others looked at different society's in the world and how they might view food or lack there of.  It was very interesting to see how many different avenues students decided to take with this drawing assignment.  Here are some examples of what the 8th graders came up with.



Living Art Museum

For this Art Theory project, students were assigned to work in groups to accomplish the task of creating their own living museum.  Students were in groups of 3-5 members and each group was assigned an artist and a piece of artwork from that artist.  Students created life-size paintings of their chosen artist piece.  Each group member then had a role in the group.  One student acted as the artist themself, to talk about their life and their workings.  Another group member or two actually became part of the painting itself.  They were either camouflaged into the piece of art or they were the subject matter of the piece.  Their role was to discuss the artwork.  Lastly, one student was the docent who discussed in conclusion about the artist and the piece and how it was established.  Students then acted in a living museum day where all artwork was exhibited out in the hall.  The students in the school were then able to view it and interact with the artist, docent, and artwork itself.  This in return taught other students in the school about the art and artist that created it.  Here are some examples of what the 6th and 7th grader created for this project.

 

 



Winter Still Life

Students focused on value and composition for this still life of different winter time objects.  Students were required to draw at least five objects within the still life, and have at least two of those objects going off the page to create a more interesting composition.  Students were to have 5-7 value/tone changes using colored pencil.   This still life was to focus on their usage of colored pencil, and how to work with tints and shades when creating their piece. This is what 6th and 7th graders created.

 

 



Altered Books

8th grade students were given a conceptual challenge for the altered book design.  Students were to research and choose a concept that they would like to explore on a larger scale, and in return create a piece of art focusing on that concept.  Some of the concepts that were chosen by students included nature, identity, time, uncertainty, and relationships.  Students then each chose an old book that would relate well to their chosen concept.  Some students chose the books based upon their titles, others chose the books based upon of the look and shape of them.  Students then went to work producing thumbnail sketches of their ideas and how to incorporate their concept into their book sculpture.  Students wrote artistic statements to complete their piece and describe their thought processes behind their concept.  Below are some examples of what the 8th grade students created for this assignment.

 



Clay Storybook Goblets

During the Three-Dimensional Design unit of study, students in grades 6 and 7 were challenged to create a clay vessel that connected to some kind of storybook or fairytale.  Students studied the parts of a story and investigated different types of books that they could possibly use for their assignment.  After they had selected their story, students were asked to create a goblet that rendered information about that story in an interesting composition.  They were asked to use obvious facts of the story but to dig deep into the story's meaning and the way it was told.  Students learned about 3-D design as well as clay terminology and vocabulary to successfully speak and create artistic statements about their pieces.  Students first created drawings of their designs and then worked with clay to complete their piece.  After the clay was fired, students painted and added found objects to complete their design.  Here are some examples of what the students created.

"The Giving Tree"

 

 "Alice in Wonderland"

"Pinocchio"

"The Hungry Caterpillar"

"The Cat and the Hat"

"Treasure Island"

"Finding Nemo"