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.