7TH - 8TH GRADE

January 2018

Wow! The month of January has flown by; I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching my new middle school class of 7th and 8th graders. Our students are incredibly hard working, respectful, and enthusiastic. What a great group! 

We have accomplished a lot this month, exercising our creativity by inventing original name designs and learning to fine tune our drawing skills, all while practicing art vocabulary and studying a few artists from the past. I can't wait to see what else these kids can do! 

Above, students are practicing observational drawing of a geometric still life; applying knowledge of the space techniques of overlapping, size, and placement. Great work, kids!

Here are a few practice drawings of organic still life arrangements by Jana and Abigail.

Above are some outstanding examples of more practice drawings; students viewed a time lapse video of a water drop drawing and then tried it themselves. They used a range of smooth values, from black to white. Then, we practiced more value gradations in an Op Art design of our hands. (These drawings are still in progress.) 

Finally, students began a final still life drawing by observing personal objects brought from home. They completed 4 thumbnail sketches for brainstorming composition and carefully drew the best design. When finishing these drawings next week, students will incorporate a 20th century art style in the piece; Op Art, Surrealism, or Cubism. Students will pay close attention to craftsmanship, shading techniques, and application of color when finishing up their "Personal Still Life" drawings. Op Art designs will incorporate specific line patterns and opposite colors, Cubist designs will be broken up with line to look like shattered glass, and Surrealist designs will be drawn in a realistic style except for subject matter. 

Motivational videos for January:

• A Fold Apart: Origamist Robert Lang's Incredible Paper Creations, YouTube
• Chuck Close, Note To Self, CBS Sunday Morning, YouTube
• The Elements of Art, an animated film by Kyle Busse, YouTube
• One Minute Art Lesson, a short history of painting, knowitall.org
• Drawing a Realistic Glass of Water , YouTube (anamorphic art)
• How To Draw Realistic Drops of Water, Tutodraw, YouTube

Art Vocabulary for January:
Craftsmanship
Basic Elements of Art; line, color, shape, form, texture, value, space
Line; types and quality (thick/thin/rough/smooth/etc.)
     vertical; communicates strength/stability
     horizontal; peaceful, can be boring and static, no energy
     diagonal; energetic
     zig-zag; most energetic but can communicate anger or danger
     curving; happy, joyful, feminine, energetic
Space; overlapping, size, placement
Value; gradation of value or color when shading
Tortillon
Visual Communication
Henri Matisse
Pablo Picasso
Cubism; George Braque and Picasso
Surrealism; Rene Magritte and Salvadore Dali
Op Art; Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley 
Realism
Vantablack

SCULPTURE UNIT

NOVEMBER 2017

PAINTING UNIT

OCTOBER 2017

Christian G., tempera on canvas board

Mackie, tempera on canvas board

Christian B., tempera on canvas board

Mabry, tempera on canvas board

Week Eight:

Students chose a favorite scripture and incorporated the words and idea into their portrait design. I am pretty impressed with the results! 

Week Seven:

Here are our "before instruction" (right) and "after instruction" (left) self portraits:

Week Six:

Students were presented with several drawing challenges this week along with learning more about visual art careers. Art, science, and math come together when Pixar Animation Studios makes a movie! We learned about advancements in digital technology; the makers of the movie "Monster's Inc." had to write a brand new computer program to animate fur convincingly! We experimented with drawing fur after making a "Fuzzoodle" sculpture. We also enjoyed some popcorn this week; trying our hand at drawing a piece and eating the rest! This was a great exercise in observing light on a form. 

Week Five:

Psalm 139:14

I will give thanks and praise to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.

Our 8th grade students have been working extremely hard to draw a realistic self-portrait! They watched Mrs. Nichols demonstrate the "Do's & Dont's" of drawing eyes mouths and noses, and then began using a mathematical grid to place each facial feature in its spot. I am so proud of them! 

Weeks Three and Four: We are practicing drawing skills, working on improving accuracy, proportion, and space. We did several drawing exercises based on the book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards. On Friday, we learned about drawing a realistic human eye along with facial proportions in preparation for a self-portrait. 

Below, Mabry, Mackie, Christian, and Christian are observing and drawing a geometric still life. 

Mackie slowly and methodically draws the organic still life; beautiful! 

Pre-Instruction Self-Portraits: these were done the second week of school as a diagnostic. Students will compare these drawings to finished portraits later this year to see how much they have learned!

8th Grade

This class is offered for one semester. Students will have the opportunity to experience many different media and techniques, including drawing, painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Please click on this link for more information about grading, etc.: Upper School