Newspaper Portraits Middle School painting

 It has been eight years since I last did this project and this will be the first time with my middle school students. The results are looking good so far.

 

 

 

Grade 7 & 8 Mixed Media project Middle School Art

If you are looking for a multi-learning objective project to satisfy all your power standards to appease your folks in the central office so they can check it off and send it to the state auditor, this might be your bag of tricks. 

You can hit drawing, printmaking, design, etc. with this project. I came up with this idea because a couple of teacher before me was really into linocuts and there are truckloads of battleship linoleum stashed in the closet. Also in the closet were trays of square tiles. I thought why not make a cocktail of the two. I asked the woodshop folks to cut me masonite pieces for our base of the project. 

Supplies: Masonite, erasers, battleship linoleum, markers, gouge, brayer, silicone (hot glue doesn't work well), paper, pencil, acrylic paint, brushes.

Step 1: Introduce contour drawing. The students spent one class making 4 drawings of various hand positions. See student outcomes:

Step 2: The student will choose one drawing and transfer it to the linoleum. Students tend to draw small, encourage them to draw larger. Once teacher and student are both satisfied, trace lines with a marker – this is to help them when they cut.


Step 3: Begin cutting with gouge. I would strongly encourage having the student draw the lines  (patterns) on the lino block before they cut. Also best if used a no. 2 cutter. 


Step 4: Paint masonite board.


Step 5: Create and carve a design on the face of an eraser. Use flat brush to apply acrylic paint to the eraser – make sure the paint doesn’t clog the lines. Stamp the dried masonite board.  


Step 6: Use the silicone to adhere the lino block to the masonite board. The use a brayer to ink/paint a color onto the lino block.  
    

Step 7: Add tiles. In total this project will take 4 x 50 minute sessions. 

Student outcomes: 

Contour hand drawings Middle School

We started with pencil contour hand drawings. We made a couple where students weren't allowed to lift up the pencil and attempted a blind one as well (that was amusing). 

For the final project we combined a contour drawing idea and interjected overlapping colors and explored texture and line for the background. You might want to think about NEG/POS space.

Below are a few student examples. 

Contour, Gesture, Spray Paint, Ink, High School Art Project

Continuing the process of having my students fill up their art tool boxes, we embarked on a new multi-media project that involved several steps.

1. Life drawing and drawing from photos students took of models (other students on campus, family members, etc.)The models had to preform some sort of gesture. 
2. Make a couple of small drawings then combine 2 images (people) onto a larger paper. Students were encouraged to explore proportion, cropping, and overlapping.
3. The images were then inked. 
4. We pulled out yarn and spray paint to mask lines and shapes. I suggest 2 colors and do light spray overs as not to get heavy coverage. 
5. The figures were then painted with a light-medium coat of oil paint so that the black ink lines would show through. 
6. The final step was to use acrylic ink to outline and/or all lines that could depict: expression, mood, movement, energy, unity, contrast in the figures. 

Below are the results.  

Step 2 and 3

Step 4-organized

Step 4-chaotic

Step 5

Step 6

Student project (Rana)

Student project (Alya)

Student project (Gloria)

Student project (Sofia)

Student project (Hana)

Student project (Nagham)

Student project (Mona)

Student project (Farida)

Student project (Sarah)

Student project (Zaina)

Student project (Zeina)

Student project (Alya)

Teacher example #2

Teacher example #1

Newspaper paintings high school art project

Painting and drawing on book pages, in books and on pages of a newspaper seems to be the rage the past couple of years if not decade. I tried not to give it but some art teachers out there have really done a nice job with their students. One art teacher, Miriam on her blog arteascuola has posted some fine examples. I asked myself what could I add to this trend, not much other than the effect of using Arabic newspapers as the canvas (note: some of the newspaper stories mention the recent protests and violence going on in the country at the moment.)

The students worked from photos they shot during our current photography unit. Photos coming soon.

adding lines

inking