GRID PATTERN

Media: Sharpie on white paper
Size: 8 x 8"
Students choose one letter or a number from 1-9 and the font they prefer and activate it (crop so it touches at least 3 sides) within a 2 x 2" format. Using this same format they can rotate it, flip it (mirror image), or use a negative (white on black) so that the darks are linked to the darks and the lights are linked to the lights. When they have the pattern created accordingly, they color it in with a sharpie for the blacks.

EARTH WORKS

After studying Andy Goldsworthy, students go out and use natural elements to create their own earth works piece. They photograph it and bring in a digital copy of their work for the class to critique.

TEXTURE STUDIES

Students do rubbings of many different textures using the side of a dark crayon on newsprint.

Students then create a 3 x 3 grid of 2 x 2" squares and use black (sharpie) and white to recreate their texture patterns.

MIXED MEDIA

Media: mixed- paint, collage.
Size: 17 x 10"
Students chose a complimentary color scheme and created a composition using collage and paint. Variety in sizes and shapes and also creating line direction. (collage pieces painted in this example: fingernails, ballerina's leotard, comb and green background).

GRID DISTORTION DRAWING

Medium: Graphite pencil

Size: 8.5 x 11"

Grid original with evenly spaced lines.

Grid drawing paper with the same number of lines, but unevenly spaced. 

Draw shapes from original into new shapes so that they fit into new sized box. Shade similar to original.

SELF-PORTRAIT POSTERIZATION

 Medium: Black and white acrylic paint on canvas or illustration board

Size: Approx. 14 x 17"

Take photo of student with spotlight lighting and turn to black and white on computer.

Posterize in photoshop using a 'stamp' or 'poster edges' filter. Adjust contrasts and crop image.

Make tracing of portrait, separating white, gray and black with line.

Transfer line drawing onto canvas using overhead projector. Paint according to plan.

ABIGUOUS SPACE

Medium: Sharpie, text collage

Size: 8.5 X 11"

Students choose a number between 1-9 and a font printed off in 7 or 8 different sizes. Trace the numbers in sharpie on different pieces of tracing paper. Layer the different sizes so that they create an interesting composition. Crop design into activated format (subject matter touching at least 3 sides of format). Color spaces in black (sharpie), white (paper), and gray (pencil). Trace final decision onto final paper. Color black in sharpie, use text collage to create implied grays and plain paper for whites.

BLIND CONTOUR PAINTING

Blind contour drawing

1.  Students draw 6-7 blind contour drawings of various objects, people or body parts.
2.  Various-sized boundaries are drawn around each drawing using cropping L's, activating the format (subject matter is touching at least 3 sides of the format), paying attention to the composition and focal point created in each image.
3. 1 or 2 favorite drawings are chosen by the student and shapes are colored in using black (sharpie), white (paper), and gray (pencil).
4. Line drawing is transferred onto larger canvas (proportional to format) for painting.
5. Image is painted in acrylic following plan from drawing.

Medium:  sketches- pencil, sharpie. painting- acrylic on canvas.

Drawing with format and black, white and gray.

Completed painting. Size: approx. 14 x 17"

     

CONTINUATION GRID

Medium: Black sharpie

Size: 8 x 8"

Students found 18 or 19 shapes from magazines within a 2 x 2" border and traced them onto tracing paper. One shape in the border was colored black, the other left white and then cut out each square. The squares were manipulated (turned, flipped, etc...) to connect blacks and whites in a visual path. When they worked out their pattern, they then taped down the images and traced it onto the final paper. Then each block was colored in according to their layout.