Charcoal Challenge

The next unit we got into was drawing with charcoal and chalk and using different materials to create different types of shading and texture. Mr. Angelis taught the first couple lessons to introduce the class to the new materials, the students started on some cylindrical drawing to practice shading. After they got in some practice, I came in early one day to make a sculpture out of cylinders for the class. I did that by suspending string and tying different sizes of cylinders in the middle of the classroom.

I did a couple demos to explain the challenge that came with drawing this sculpture. I had cut out pieces of paper to be shaped rather irregularly but I asked the students to disregard the negative space and continue their drawings as if there were no holes in the paper.

Then we let the students work independently on their drawings....

I think they enjoyed it

A Little Rest...

After the big project I taught, I had maybe two or three weeks that I didn't have much planned. Of course I help out where Mr. Angelis needs me with small demos, helping students and getting supplies ready. This meant that I had some time to reflect and think about what I can do to further the class. Communication was my key focus for my Senior Experience Project and that seemed to be going pretty well, although my class is quiet, I still get the feeling that they understand what I mean when I'm explaining certain concepts or ideas. I was intimidated by the chance that they had no idea what I was talking about and that my lessons would just be a complete bust, however they seem to work hard and listen to what I try to teach them. The students are very nice and I think the class is pretty fun, occasionally I'll bring in some goodies for them like munchkins or cookies just to get a head start to the day. However, my time of reflection soon came to an end when it got time to design their next project...

Results of the marker project

I'm very very happy with the outcome of the marker project, it feels good to see the results I was hoping for when I designed the project. Students seemed to enjoy it and their work showed dedication, thought and progress. The students had about a full week to a week and a half to work on their projects, once they were finished I asked them to self-grade their projects as well as fill out a couple short answer questions for my benefit. One of the questions was "do you think this project was taught effectively?" and the responses seemed to be good, student said they understood what we were looking for and that it was taught in a comprehensible manner. One of the things I worried about all semester was the way I could communicate what I meant so that the students understood me, and by the results of the questionnaire I think I did a pretty good job of showing and explaining what the project really entailed. Below are some examples of student work:

THE Marker Project

After a couple meetings and a lot of thinking, Mr. Angelis and I came up with an outline of the project, the students would be able to choose out of two options. This is the outline we came up with:
"For this project you will have two choices, you can either choose to create a piece of artwork with mainly design-like qualities, or you can choose an approach more focused on a realistic and abstract piece of art. You will have to choose one of these and will have to choose a focus or topic which corresponds with your choice.

Design-like Approach
If you choose that you’re more into the design-like techniques that markers are great for, you’ll also have different criteria that we will grade you on. You want to try and create a piece of artwork that looks neat and almost as if it was printed. Choose some topic that you’re interested in and has design-like qualities, you can always ask us for help.

Abstract Approach
If you’re one of those people that enjoys abstract and realistic pieces of work, you’ll most likely want to go with the Abstract Approach to the marker project. The point is to go with “loose” lines and to really take it in almost any way you’d like. You can pick a topic or you can go with whatever you’re feeling like doing, just be aware of the rubric we have for this approach."

With this outline and general idea as to what we expected of them, we showed them the pictures I posted earlier and took questions. They seemed to understand what we were looking for pretty well and they started to come up with ideas and started planning out their work.

Preparation for the Marker Project

Using the research I did over the summer, I started to analyze the differences in artist techniques and styles. It appeared that there were two different styles when it came to marker use, some artists prefer to create design-like artworks that are very tight with clean lines, something that would look like it could be computer generated because the artwork overall is very neat like the example below.

 

Other artists may choose to create a more realistic and abstract type of artwork, they have a different style and technique when they use markers. These types of artists often prefer "loose" strokes and blended colors. Of course there are many other styles but these two seem to be the two main styles. Mr. Angelis and I decided that these two were indeed the two most extreme styles. (Example of the realistic styles below.)

As soon as I knew that it'd be smart to give the students two options for the project, I started to think about what comes into a project in which students have a choice. I realized that not only did I have to try and communicate my thoughts and expectations of this project as well as create a rubric and outline so the students know exactly what I want and so that they have it on paper.

The First Weeks

It took a while for me to get into the classroom. It took 3 weeks of running around getting signatures, printing packets, writing letters of intent and other things that just delayed me from getting to what I really wanted to be exploring. I was honestly getting a little bit frustrated just because I really wanted to get to teaching the class and sharing my knowledge as well as trying to find a way to communicate the lessons and techniques successfully. However, I managed to get my paperwork revised and finally accepted by the Senior Experience committee and was able to start working and researching not too long after that.

Summer Preparation

For the first semester of my senior year at Joel Barlow, I'll be student teaching a drawing class along with my teacher, advisor and friend, Mr. Angelis. Over the summer I had researched a lot of possibilities for projects in the class so that me and Mr. Angelis could hit the ground running when it came to designing projects and lessons for the students. Before I had left for the summer, we had met a couple of times and he put me in charge of one of our projects, a marker project. What that entailed was creating a piece of art that uses only sharpie markers or colored markers so that it teaches students to dive right into a drawing without hesitation because that is often an artist's biggest downfall. So I looked for some images online just to get some inspiration for what I would like to do and where I'd like to take the project I got to design (pictures below.) Over the summer I pretty much just dipped my toes in the water as to what I'm getting myself into, I pretty much just spent some time exploring the techniques and materials included with the marker project.