Mola Project reprise 7th grade Art

It has been a year and some change since I last taught the paper mola project and seeing that I'm teaching 7th grade again it was time to bust out an oldie but goodie. For some reason several art teachers have pinned and re-pinned this project on pinterest.com. Thank you for liking the idea.

If you would like to see the original post from 2011 click here it describes the process and lists vocabulary for your students.

In this post I broke down the sheets so you can see the layers. Enjoy.

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

7th grade ink portraits

It was sad to see my grade 8 students rotate to their new elective. In return I have inherited a lovely group of grade 7 students who are willing to just about try anything...this is good news from any teacher perspective. In keeping with the Mr. Bob tradition, self-portraits are always a good opening project. This round we worked with ink using the concepts of line and gesture. Below are a few examples of finished projects. 

Background results

I will admit that I liked the backgrounds better than the final product. I had students experiment with contrasting and analogous colors when creating the faces. I felt that the faces for the most part were overly cartoonish and at times crowded or crammed in the space. There objectives for the project were minimal, I was more interested in seeing how the students interpreted my ideas, being this is my first attempt at this project. In the end I felt like the students had the opportunity to try out new concepts such as cropping and managing space with the faces.

Oil Pastel Dance scenes

I thought that I had lost these images after erasing a memory card, little did I know they were hidden in a folder at work. These projects were made at the beginning of the year when we studied the human figure and movement. My students did several life drawings in their sketchbooks and while some of that is reflected in the projects below, most of the ideas expressed here comes from a romanticized notions about dancing. Enjoy.  

High School Final Exam for Art etc.

New posts coming soon is the good news. The bad news is that my computer with everything apparently belongs to someone else in Spain. If you have any desire to teach elementary or middle/high school art (and Drama too) in Alexandria, Egypt, contact me. The kids, school, package, etc is a good deal. My wife (the ES art teacher) and I need change, so we accepted positions at a school in Ethiopia. 

We had semester finals last week and I tried something new (a usual). In the past I have made my finals a time to finish projects, have critiques, class celebrations, and I even gave a traditional test once! This year I made a different exam for each student where they had to write step-by-step instructions on how to make a a given project (they were to include vocabulary, concepts, and a list to tools/materials) and then make it. The results were good for the most part. Below is 2/3 of one student's written portion of the exam. Just to give you an idea. I am happy to report that most students retained and were able to demonstrate the info they learned.

Other good news is that Alice In Wonderland is in the history books. The show was a success. Sadly, I no longer have grade 8 for Drama and Art. Below are a few photos from the musical.

Hit of the show, The Girls of the Golden Afternoon.

I am the monarch of the sea...

Give me a zip-a-dee-doo-dah...yes, thanks to Disney somehow Song Of The South and Alice In Wonderland share the same song.

Off with her head!

There was a small Alice, a medium Alice and a boy Alice. Why, because we could. In the words of the Mad Hatter "rules can be so limiting."