Drawing from Life with High School Students

Beginning of School

After two weeks the High School Art Room is beginning to look more like my typical art room. Lots of projects are in progress, art supplies are out, students are beginning to relax a little. I've been trying to stay caught up with paperwork, but I am already sick of that! If I could just teach art and not do 'paperwork', I think this would be the 'ideal' job! So far, my classes have been great and I am looking forward to a wonderful year. 

Value Studies

Supplies Needed:
Drawing Pencils - 2B-6B
White Drawing Paper - 18x24
White Sheet or piece of fabric
Lamp to Shine on the Fabric

I usually start off my Art 2 and 3 with a value study drawing.  I hang a sheet and another piece of fabric (to give them a choice) and place a lamp to shine onto the fabrics to enhance the highlights and shadows. I also place samples of drawings that I have done or former student drawings on the wall for them to see how the drawing should fill the page and the range of values that is possible when drawing something that is only black and white. The goal is for the students to learn how to add values to add depth to their drawings and to give them more experience in drawing from life.  You can see some of my students' work from this project here: Value Studies

 Mrs. Macre♥Art    

First Things First...

...is what we call our First Day of School. That was today. I spent part of my weekend getting my classroom ready for today, but I finally got it done and today went smoothly. The first day is important because we invite parents of our students to go through our students schedules with them. It was a shortened schedule, but we are able to introduce ourselves to the parents and tell them what our expectations are for the year. We started this program several years ago to get more parents involved and informed about what the High School is all about. And it sure does help to get the parents involved and understand what we do!

In the future, I have to remember to take photos in my classroom. I was so busy today, I didn't take a photo, so I am including a photo of the lobby of our school with an art show from a couple of years ago. (I have to include a photo!)

So with the first day over...I'm exhausted and hope that the rest of the week goes smoothly.
Hope everyone had a great first day of school!

I Mrs. Macre♥Art    

Drawing/Painting Grid Portraits

Grid Self Portraits

Time to get ready...

...to go back to school....already? It seems like just a couple of weeks ago I was celebrating the beginning of summer! Classes do not start for 3 weeks, but there are supplies to order, workshops to attend, and my classroom has to be put back together.  The maintenance department came through sometime in the last 2 weeks and waxed my concrete floor (looks great!) but now I have to put everything back into place.  They move things out to wax and stack things on tables, so it takes a little time and muscle.  I want to get organized before school starts, so I have some work to do!

Grid Self Portraits - Chuck Close Style

I thought I would share a project that I have been doing with my Art 3 and 4 classes for a few years now. This pair decided to make their portraits connect, but they are 2 separate paintings. The photo above is the end project (2 canvases are being held together by the students).  Below is the photo that I took of them.  After they drew the grid on the 2 separate canvases they each drew their own portrait, using the grid method.  Then they painted their grid portraits using their own techniques. But the emphasis was using patterns like Chuck Close does on his grid portraits.  So in the bottom picture, you can see the two canvases that are in progress.  On the parts that are unpainted, you can see the grid that is drawn on the canvas.  (Click on the picture to see it larger to see the details.) I will post more grid portraits in the future. We do some type of grid portrait each year.  The students seem to really enjoy them because they can get a good likeness of the person that they are drawing.

Check back for more details and instructions on this project.

More to come...

Photo Reference

Work in progress

Have a great year!

Mrs. Macre♥Art