This is an introductory course to the visual arts. This class is designed to help builds students skills in problem solving, and creative thinking, which will help students all areas of life. In this class student will get an introduction to the elements and principles of design while working with both 2D and 3D mediums. Students are required to provide some simple materials and pay $10.00 per class Art Activity Fee.
Projects:
Acrylic Painting
For this project students learn some basic acrylic painting techniques. Students then select, a still life, landscape, or scene from everyday life to paint. Students need to consider the foreground, middle ground, and background making sure to add elements to each to create depth. Then starting the painting by working from the furthest back element and working in layers to the foreground.
Masks
For this project we learned how to hand sew face masks. We used a template and a rotary cutter to cut the pieces out of the fabric. We then sewed the pieces together using a ¼” seam allowance. I struggled a bit with the sewing and keeping the stitches even, but in the end I felt like the mask turned out better than expected and it fit my face well.
Alebrijes
For this projects students will learn about the Mexican folk artist Pedro Lenar and how he created the first Alebrijes. Alebrijes are silly mixed up creatures often made from paper mache or carved from wood. Students will be using clay to create their creatures mixing three or more animals to create one. You might be familiar with Alebrijes from the Disney movie Coco (middle image).
Closeup Value Drawings
For this project students learn about how to use value and shading by using different drawing pencil and varying the pressure. Students will work to improve in creating accurate proportions and textures as they scale their image to an enlarged close up.
Frank Lloyd Wright
For this project students learned about Frank Lloyd Wright. As an architect he would no only design the house but many of the elements that went into the homes as well such as windows, lamps, and furniture. Students then had to create their own floor plans for their dream homes. These floor plans were then used to teach students about scale and how to use perspective to draw the outside of the home.
Perspective
Using the floor plans students created the out side of their how using 1, 2, or 3 point perspective. Making sure to put widows, doors, stairs, and porches where they had them in their floor plans.
Collagraph Prints
For this project students learned about a printing process called Collagraph printing. Students found random objects to attach to a piece of cardboard that created a raised surface in which to print from. They then printed their plates using both a relief and intaglio style.
Self Portraits
For this project students learned about Frida Kahlo and how she would include symbols into her self-portraits to express her emotions. Students then learn the proper proportions of the face and then create their own self-portraits.
Book Binding
Students start the year with creating their own sketch books. Learning how to fully bind their own books, creating the cover, end pages, and sewing the signatures into the spine.