Cupcake Wars

I visited the art teacher at San Carlos Middle School and was inspired by this idea.  I wanted students to create an elaborate clay cupcake that demonstrated a theme for the icing.  The theme would be sculpted in clay and painted.  This project was a hit!  Students' themes ranged from islands, the ocean, the beach, London, desserts, vegetables, and the old West.  I created a template for the bottom of the cupcake which was traced over a flat slab on clay.  This was attached using the scratch and vinegar technique.  Students then created a removable lid and built it up to create their themes.  These were fired and painted and then painted again with a gloss.

Paper Shoes by 8th Graders

This was one of the first assignments I gave my 3D Art class this trimester: use a large piece of paper and tape to create a shoe.  In the past, we have done this project with paper bags, but this year, students could individualize color by choosing different colored paper for the project.  With some beginning tips on how to fold and cut the paper to make certain shapes, the students were off and running.

Many students had to problem solve in order to create the type of shoe they desired.  They were also quite inventive once they got the hang of it.  This project forced them to think about balance, color, design, form, and used their critical thinking skills.  Almost no one had used paper to sculpt with, so the medium was different and new.

8th Grade Portraits with a Twist

Instead of doing a straight self-portrait, I had my 8th graders use mirrors to sketch themselves on 9" x 11" paper.  Then, students projected their smaller drawings onto larger paper (18" x 24").  I find that when they need to enlarge drawings, using the projector is the best way unless given a grid, at least at this stage in their development.

Students then had to incorporate at least 4 pieces of tissue paper into a collage on their portrait and were given free reign to add paint, texture through printmaking, collage with newspaper and construction paper, and whatever they did, they needed to ink over the original portrait so their line drawing would show through.  The results are impressive and really shows individual personalities.  Giving my students a variety of media to choose from enabled them to make their portraits more expressive and unique.

6th Grade Relief Faces

Last year, I created this successful ceramic sculpture project for my 6th graders, for their exploratory art course (6 weeks of art, every day).  In this course, students create ceramic mugs, which they all drink out of on the last day of class, and relief faces in addition to a mixed media project focused on sign language, and one or two painting assignments, one of which is inspired by typical Mexican sculptures from Oaxaca.

The relief faces work well because I demonstrate different sculpting techniques for creating eyes, noses, mouths, ears, and hair.  Before we start, the majority of students do not believe they can sculpt a face, but we go through the process step-by-step so that it becomes manageable.  With this said, I do not encourage students to sculpt exactly as I do, but to find their own way.  I want them to learn new techniques and skills, but also to problem solve for themselves.  6th graders love working with clay and are usually very proud of the faces they sculpt.  After they are fired, students paint them using watercolors, which show up very well on clay.  As you can see, they are all unique and beautiful. 6th graders gain a lot of confidence in their art skills from ceramic projects and are usually highly motivated, which makes the process lots of fun.

8th grade Toy Sculptures

This was a great project where everyone worked at their own ability and created something that they were interested in and felt proud of.  Isn't that every art teacher's dream?  I took a "toy design" class at a gallery in SF that is known for alternative art like graffiti and small sculptures of creepy looking characters.  I have the toy I made in the art room and students are always asking me about it.  With their interest piqued, I took the creepy characters concept and turned it into a project for my 8th graders.  The premise was the students needed to create a character, animal, creature that they could envision being a "toy."  Many students thought about their concept for a couple of days and did several sketches until they were sure of what they wanted to do.  Others dove right in after one iteration.  Students sculpted their characters with clay and had to incorporate details and texture into the clay, along with color.  Then, students painted an environment for their sculptures by painting 2 boards that were glued together.  To my surprise, they were really "into" painting the backgrounds and many of them incorporated details and scenes into the painting, although I left this part somewhat open ended.  The students were proud of their sculptures in the end and loved seeing each others' creations.

Chess Anyone?

I thought it would be fun to sculpt in the context of making a game, so I had my 7th grade students create chess pieces and boards as part of a sculpture unit.  Most students worked with a partner for this assignment as each game needed 2 kings, 2 queens, 4 rooks, 4 bishops, 3 knights, and 16 pawns.  We discussed how to play chess, which only a handful of students knew, as well as what typical chess pieces look like.  Each group had to have a theme for their chess pieces, some of which include: fruit, the beach, old technology vs. new technology, tennis, music, people, animals, candy/Halloween, Christmas, buildings, and Harry Potter.

The biggest challenge in this project was making the pieces large enough to be understood and small enough to fit on a board.  It was also challenging to make multiple sculptures of the same thing.  Some groups created an assembly line, while others sculpted each individual piece.  The boards required focus and care as well since there needed to be a color scheme and careful application of color.  We will all play chess the last day of art class and test out the pieces.

6th grade exploratory

I meet with all of the 6th graders for 6 weeks at a time, every day for about 45 minutes.  It's not much time, but given other art programs, it's about the same as meeting once per week throughout the year.  Over the course of the 6 weeks, students explore drawing, painting, sculpting, and design projects.

So far this year, my two 6th grade classes have done a cartooning unit, concentrating on drawing facial features and inking their portraits like real cartoonists.  They drew themselves as well as each other and improved their observation skills in the process.  I'm finding more and more that as students use computers at a younger age, their fine motor skills need some practice.  Using pencils and working with clay really helps to exercise these muscles and improve patience and problem solving skills.  The sculpture projects the 6th graders worked on were "squeeze cups" and relief faces.  I took a sculpture class over the summer with Jill Getzan who taught a handful of handbuilding ceramics projects.  One of them was a "squeeze cup" which I thought was a good alternative to the mugs the 6th graders created last year.  To make a squeeze cup, students rolled out a slab of clay, incorporated different textures into the clay and then cut a rectangular shape to create the walls of the piece.  They then adhered the clay using the scoring and vinegar method (vinegar helps bond clay together) and formed a base to fit their cup.  The final step is to squeeze the cup with your hand so it will dry to fit nicely in your hand when you pick it up.

Sixth graders also created relief faces from clay.  I walked them through the steps to sculpt eyes, noses, mouths, ears, and hair.  Following our cartooning unit, students were already in tune with drawing facial features, so sculpting them was the next step.  Students were surprised about their accomplishments and focused well to create the features in their clay portraits.  These will be painted after they are fired in the kiln.

Currently, students are working on a mixed media project that focuses on sign language.  All students learned how to sign their names using American Sign Language and then of course, we drew our hands in each letter position.  We then explored a variety of mediums to add color, texture, and design to each hand drawing using watercolors, watercolor pencils, ink and calligraphy pens, salt sprinkled on top of the watercolors, and even markers with water color brushes to make the color run.  These paintings were collaged onto paper using magazine cut-outs and construction paper.

The final project of our exploratory unit is a Oaxacan inspired animal painting.  With our introduction to painting techniques with the sign language project, we will explore color further while painting animals that students choose to focus on.  This is a new project in our exploratory rotation and I'm very excited to see how it will turn out!