Quarter 4 started off with the Make You Mark Challenge! Students were asked to represent something about themselves through the use of cut paper and using non-representational marks. Then we would hang their square up and it would mark their ownership on our classroom! Check our some samples below...
4/29/16: Starting our first project!
8th Graders are starting off the term with observational drawing - more specifically learning about the proportions of the human face and also drawing facial features. They started today practicing drawing features and facial proportions from a packet but are experimenting drawing these features on different kinds of surfaces (paint chips, newspaper, tissue paper, regular white drawing paper, etc.). Students will be creating several studies of facial features to then use for their first project which will be a mix media self portrait kind of piece. Throughout the term 8th graders will be working with the idea of layers, so these studies they are creating will act as individual layers that might get used in their actual project! Check out some in progress pictures of 8th graders working on their drawings...
5/3/16: Introducing our new project...
After experimenting with the face (proportions and features) we introduced the 8th graders to the actual project that they might use these studies in. Students will be creating a surrealist self portrait or a metaphorical self portrait using mixed media. This project is really open so that students can choose whether to work in 2D or 3D. We began by introducing the great art movement of surrealism - we talked about how in this 20th century movement, artists experimented with their imagination...they would put objects together that were not normally seen together, they were inspired by their dreams, memories and subconscious. We looked at the art of some of the most famous and well known surrealists - Salvador Dali, Vladimir Kush, Rene Magritte, M.C. Escher, and more! We also looked at our pinterest page which shows examples of more contemporary artworks that could be considered surrealist or metaphorical self portraits. After looking and talking about all of this, students began planning their project by creating a mind map - figuring out what are things about them that make them unique and that are important to them.
Since then, we have been showing them techniques that they might use in their project - so yesterday (5/4/16) we introduced them to india ink! Check out some images of our india ink experiments!
5/11/16: Making progress on our surrealist / metaphorical self portraits...
5/26/16: Some finished surrealist / metaphorical self portraits...
6/1/16: Moving on to our next project...
As students wrap up their surrealist / metaphorical self portraits, we are beginning our new project...Interior installations and Land Art! Students were introduced to installation art and more specifically land art, we talked about some artists who are major factors in the land art world as well as look at some inspiration on our pinterest page. We talked about artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude and looked at some of their work.
After talking about installation art and land art, we talked more specifically about the 8th graders new project - the last word project. Students will work in groups and brainstorm words that express their take away from their time at the middle school / their transition from a 6th grader to an 8th grader...once they have come up with a word, they will use this word to fuel or inspire their installation. Students will then choose a material to work with to create their installation which will symbolize or be a metaphor for their chosen word. In order to make sure groups could really work together and be productive, we had a challenge day - each group had to work together to make a tower out of paper, the winning group must have the tallest tower, have used the least amount of tape and also survive the wind test! If we felt like the groups were working well together, they could stay together for their installation project, if not, we would split them up into separate groups. Students got REALLY into this challenge, they were really excited and created some crazy towers out of paper...see some images below!