Opening Centers: Drawing

Between Monday and today I have opened our first art center of the year. The first center to be opened is the drawing center. In this center the students get to use various drawing materials from pencils to colored pastels to ink and calligraphy pens. 

I spent the first day of the drawing center opening explaining to the students what materials were there, what they can be used for and the rules for clean up. Since we are a 1:1 iPad 2 school, once the kids receive theirs there will be qr codes also on the board that will lead the students to various google docs and youtube videos that will help them or inspire them with their artwork.

Below are some of the posters that I have on display for the students in this particular center.

This poster I created to show the students what the materials look like on paper and I even blended some of them to show the students what the materials can do.

One thing my students love the create are 3D letters. Linear Perspective is something that my students have trouble with but they love the outcomes once they are finished with their artwork. 

This particular poster was created by the art teacher that was here before me but I really like it so I had to keep it. The students always want to draw people but tend to always draw stick figures and that is one of my NO NO Rules. 

This is my NO NO Board. These are all the drawing and painting techniques that the students tend to do however they are very elementary and since we are middle school art students, these are not allowed in my room. We spend about 10 minutes going over this so that the students really understand what I am expecting of them. This year I had to add the No Tracing rule to my board since students tend to do this more then anything. 

I hope you enjoyed our little journey through this years Drawing Center.

Free Draw Chaos

I normally would never give my students a blank piece of drawing paper with the assignment to just draw. Doing so is completely out of character for me -- the art teacher who hates chaos. Free draw time or assignments are always a time for students to do what they want and be creative. I just dont like the unstructured time of it all. 

Not having a lesson plan or even a planned idea of what the artwork should look like drives me nuts. Letting the students do their own creative thing is the scariest thing I know of. But having time to be creative is a good thing and can lead of amazing results. 

During Art Club one of my 7th grade students completed an amazing drawing of a flower and asked if we could have free draw time in class this week. Knowing how I felt about this I automatically said no. Then I thought about it. Maybe it wouldnt be so bad. And it wasnt. Giving the students time to just sit and be creative was a great experience for them and myself. So much so that I have decided to let Free Draw be apart of next years project schedule. 

Below are some of the free draw artworks completed by both my 7th and 8th grade students over the past week. 

Fantastic Castles

The first project of the school year is finally done and hanging! -- well at least the 6th grade one is. We spent an entire class mod (about 80minutes) looking at and discussing architecture from around the world and through out time. They really liked seeing all the different buildings and even commented on how even though they are from different cultures and times they all have similar features. 

I was really impressed with their ability to figure that out as well as articulate it.

After discussing everything they began to draw their castles out. Some students focused on castles, others were really interested in the catherdals. Especally St. Basil's in Moscow Russia. They kept calling the onion domes hersey kisses. It was really cute.

The level of discussion and talent in the 6th grade never ceases to amaze me. They are a constant surprise with their vocabulary and ideas.

After they had drawn out their castles we talked about and looked at different types of patterns. They had to decorate the facade of their castle with different patterns. 

Eventually the castles were cut out and glue to a piece of watercolor paper that had been given a colorful watercolor wash background. The contrast between the black and white buildings and the backgrounds are great! I just love how they came out.

I am extremely please with the way they all came out. I cant wait to see what else theses students have in store for the rest of the year. 6th grade is always exciting for me -- new kids coming from all different elementary schools -- it is just great! 

the only bad thing is --- this is the first time most of the have art. It is horrible that the kids have to suffer no art in elementary schools because of budget reasons.

But the end of a project is both a sad and a happy time. We are going to try to stay happy!