Fall Still Life Drawing For HS Students

Below is a lesson plan that my partner and I had written to teach in a basic studio course given by our mentor teacher.  We decided to help offer students some different drawing techniques that they hadn't used before. The power point presentation given was on George Seurat to cover stippling, and Rembrandt to show cross hatching techniques.

Fall  Still Life



Lesson Overview:  This lesson will take place over a forty minute class period.  After a 5-7 minute slide show reintroducing artists from the previous week , and showing new examples, students will begin work on a still life drawing.  Students will spend the remainder of the class period working on drawing their fall still life using the technique of choice (stippling, cross hatching), or a combination of the two.  Emphasis will be placed on not using lines to suggest the exterior of items in the still life, as well as creating a ground line to place objects in a feasible space.

Theme/Subject matter: Observational Drawings

Learning Objectives

Student will learn:
-how to suggest volume and mass in a still life, as well as areas of light, medium and dark through stippling and cross hatching techniques.
-how to draw from observation what they see, not what they know.
-how to use a ground line in a composition to suggest a setting for objects drawn.
-how to utilize dramatic light settings for shadows and bolder contrast in their work.


Rationale:  Through this drawing activity students will gain a better understanding of how to utilize stippling and/or cross hatching in a still life.  Students will see how famous artists and their instructor(s) use these techniques in their own work.  They will be able to understand and communicate about the various techniques they have learned.  Students will gain cognitive growth though experimentation and exploration of media.

Standards Addressed:

Standard 1:  Creating, Performing and Participating in the Arts
Performance Objective:  Students will create their own drawing from observation that suggests volume and mass.

Standard 2:  Knowing and Using Arts Materials and Resources
Performance Objective:  Students will use different types of markers to practice cross hatching and stippling, and will do so in a manner suggesting areas of light to dark.

Standard 3:  Responding to and Analyzing Works of Art
Performance Objective:  Students will view various drawings and paintings made by artists that utilized the techniques they will be working with.

Standard 4:  Understanding the Cultural Dimensions and Contributions of the Arts
Performance Objective:  Students will learn more about introduced artists, the works they produced and use of techniques.

Materials:  Bristol board 8x8, Bic Mark-it markers, Precise fine and extra fine point markers.
Still life set up materials: pumpkins, gourds, lights

Concepts and Vocabulary:
Overlap- to extend over or cover a part of something.
Stipple- to paint, engrave or draw by means of small dots.
Cross Hatching- to mark with two series of parallel lines that intersect.
Ground Line- line which marks the edge of a surface or area suggesting a definite space.

Instructional Procedures/ Strategies:
(Before class begins a still life will be set up at each table, and drawing materials put out.)

Motivation and exploration:  Class will begin with a slide show presentation and examples of instructor(s) work (approx 5-7 minutes).

Demonstration:  Done during previous class before warm up/ practice activity.

Implementation:  Students will begin working on their drawings.  Assistance and feedback will be offered to students during this time.  Students who finish early will be encouraged to produce a second still life study

Clean up:  About five minutes before the end of class students will be reminded of the time and to wrap up work on their drawings.  Students will place finished work and drawing materials at a table set up in the center of the room.

More About My Internship

The seven Wednesdays I spent this semester during Field Work III has to have been the best experience I have had to date being out in the field.  As mentioned in a previous blog my cooperating teacher was of great help in answering my questions and giving me advice for lesson planning and classroom management.  The experience I gained in giving a lesson plan to high school students has made me feel much more confident than I had before with talking in front of a class.  Of course, my favorite part of each day I spent in the school was talking to students about their artwork.  I love to hear when students get excited about what they are making, and much enjoy offering assistance when they are in need of it.  During my field work I was able to see a variety of lessons taught by my cooperating teacher.  For the basic drawing class students learned about making books.  The books were composed of recycled papers and were made to document works created through out the school year.  Many of the different observational drawings, including the stippling/ cross hatching ones from the lesson my partner and I taught were to be pasted inside.
Even though I am more of a drawing/painting person, I really enjoyed being part of the ceramics class my teacher had.  The projects I got to see during this time included animal sculptures, coil pots, thrown works on the wheel and nesting boxes.  In the beginning I thought I wouldn't be able to offer much assistance with such projects because of my limited experience with clay but I was wrong.  I forgot that I really had acquired at least a good base of knowledge working with it and was able to help a few students who were having issues keeping added portions of clay intact with the rest of their sculptures.

What also was nice about this experience is I was able to use the pugger and make clay for the students on days supplies were running low.  Using that machine was a first for me, but it was fun.  

Student Artwork: Cross Hatching & Stippling Warm Up Activity

Below are some examples of student artwork from a practice activity using stippling and cross hatching.  Although some students found stippling to be tedious work, most students preferred this method over cross hatching.  All of the drawings below were done from life using styrofoam spheres, cylinders and eggs.

This activity turned out not only to be a learning experience to students, but one for me as well.  In trying out this lesson I realized I needed to do something different with the lighting situation because in regular lighting the shadows on the objects drawn were hard to see and required some squinting.  This helped better prepare my partner and I for our bigger lesson in which we set up spot lights and turned off the regular over head ones in order to show stronger areas of dark and light for students to focus on in their drawings.

My field work partner and I thought it would be helpful to include a work sheet in the activity to help students remember the different terms and artists that had been introduced in the lesson.  Some students had taken this one step further by writing on their practice drawings what technique they had used.

Warm up activity: Drawing with cross hatching and stippling

Drawing with cross hatching and stippling

Sarah McDougal & Brette Higgins

Lesson Overview:  This lesson will take place over a forty minute class period.  After a five minute slide show introduction showing examples of drawings that utilize cross hatching and stippling a demo will be given.  Demos will be given in two separate groups of about nine students on the making of such marks and will take about seven minutes.  After the demo students will be given twenty minutes to produce two drawings, one for each of the techniques introduced.  Through this activity students will gain a better understanding of how to use these techniques in drawing.  Students will also learn to draw from observation what they see rather than what they know.

Theme/ Subject Matter:  Conveying mass and volume through drawing

Learning Objectives

Students will learn:

-how to use cross hatching and stippling in drawings to convey mass and volume

-how to draw from observation what they see and now what they know

Rationale:  Through this activity students will gain a better understanding of how to utilize cross hatching and stippling in their drawings.  Students will also learn how artists use similar techniques in their works.  They will be able to understand and communicate about the techniques they have learned. Students will gain cognitive growth through experimentation and exploration of media and will learn that there can be more than one solution to a problem.

Standards Addressed:

Standard 1:  Creating, Performing and Participating in the Arts

Performance Objective:  Students will create their own observational drawings.

Standard 2:  Knowing and Using Arts Materials and Resources

Performance Objective: Students will use different types of makers in order to practice cross hatching and stippling.

Standard 3:  Responding to and Analyzing Works of Art

Performance Objective:  Students will view various drawings made by artists that utilize the techniques they will be working with.

Standard 4:  Understanding the Cultural Dimensions and Contributions of the Arts

Performance Objective:  Students will learn about the artists whose work is viewed as well as materials and processes they use.

Materials: Bic Mark-it markers, Precise fine and extra fine point markers, bristol board 6x6, worksheet on artist info/ vocabulary

Concepts and Vocabulary:

Cross hatching- to mark with two series of parallel lines that intersect.

Stipple- to paint, engrave or draw by means of small dots.

Mass- a body of matter with shape.

Volume- the amount of space an object occupies.

Instructional Procedures/ Strategies:

(Before class begins drawing materials will be placed at each table)

Motivation and exploration:  Slide show of examples (approx. 5 minutes).

Demonstration:  In two small groups of approximately 9 students demonstrations will be given on how to utilize cross hatching and stippling to convey mass and volume.  Also students will be shown how to sign and date their works like artists. Students will then be instructed on where to place finished works (front of class) and drawing materials (table in back) when done.  Entire demo should take about seven minutes.

Implementation:  Students will begin working on their drawings, spending a total of twenty minutes working on them.  Assistance and feedback will be offered to students during this time.  During this time students will also complete a worksheet about information covered in the slide show introduction.

Clean up: About five minutes before the end of class students will be reminded of the time and to wrap up work on their drawings.  One student from each table who is closest to the front will hand in works.  One student from each table closest to the back will gather drawing materials and place them in their respective cans placed on a table in the back of the room.

 

Postmodern Principles Accordion Book

Postmodern Principles Accordion Books


Objective:

• to introduce students to postmodern principles
• to expand students' understanding of artistic elements
• to allow students to have individual  voice as an artist
• to practice craftsmanship with various materials

Materials:

• Handout on assembling accordion book
• Handout with defined postmodern principles and artist examples

• Cardboard covers
• Heavyweight paper strips (same height as covers), 2+ per student
• Small manila envelopes
• Colored construction paper
• Recycled papers and magazines
• Scissors
• Glue
• Drawing materials (pencils, markers, sharpies)

After looking at examples of artist work that uses the principles, and discussion on some of them students will create their own work using at least one of the principles.  Students will focus on a place they care about to create a collage using the principle(s) they chose to work with.  As part of the assignment students will incorporate a secret to their book that may better help readers understanding of it.  Students will also make an about the author page on the back cover of the book.  A sense of unity will be emphasized in order for students to create a book where all the pages can work together, holding a sculptural quality when the books are displayed in an open manner.

Internship: Recap on Class Discussion

I didn't know if we were supposed to write anything up before we had met, so I did anyway.  Here is my writing in response to the questions we were asked.

So far I am glad to say that I have been having a great experience during my internship.  The teacher I am working with is great!  She has been very helpful in aiding my partner and I  in planning our lessons, and has made us very comfortable with approaching her with questions, which she always answers very thoroughly for us.

The high school I have been placed in seems to be a great environment so far.  The school just received money for updates, and all the classrooms have a smart board in them.  The art rooms I have been in I think are set up well, with many areas for storage of materials, student artwork, and visual displays.  The computer lab has all new Mac computers in them, and one of the art rooms even has a pugger for clay.  Lighting is great in all of the rooms, and for convenience they even have outlets on extension cords that pull out of the ceilings.  Everything is very well organized in different storage areas, so the room isn't cluttered and supplies are easily accessible.

My cooperating teacher is very pro active in guiding students to their own solutions.  She has great control over her students, but does so with what seems to be little effort.  She is very positive and tries to motivate her students to do the best they can, and find solutions in their artwork that not only meet assignment standards, but make students proud to have created whatever it may be.  Her energy keeps the class moving forward.  I can see myself picking up many of her positive practices for when I am in my own classroom.

The kind of teacher presence that Janet has works very well, as mentioned in the beginning about how she keeps students in focus.  The way she moves her way around the room during work time, checking on student progress is very important, and she does so in a way that allows for each student to get the attention they need.  Her "teacher voice" definitely helps, not yelling but projecting far into the back of the classroom.  Most of the lessons I have seen her give keep students interested, which is very important to me.  I could not give a lesson to a class if I myself found it boring or not at all a challenge.  So far in my experience I am yet to find an occurrence or situation that makes me question my mentor teachers approaches.  The only questions I have had for the most part pertain to classroom management and keeping students in line and focused on the project at hand all of which she has addressed with me.

Postmodern Principles Book

I know this post is a little late but I figured better late than never.

For my postmodern principle book project I made a few before I was even close to content with my work.  Below is the best out of approximately 4 that I had made.  The idea was to make a collage of a physical place and represent it in a way using juxtaposition.  Since I have a love for the "greater outdoors" and nature in general I decided to first start by finding magazine clippings with lots of  mountains, trees, and beautiful blue skies.   Since juxtaposition deals with things being placed in a way they typically aren't I started to think about what doesn't belong out in nature.  The first thing that came to mind was stumbling upon a Starbucks in the middle of the woods.  It's common in many cities to see one just about every block, but it's not what one would expect to see in nature.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the image I had wanted of one, and so I decided to play off that type of idea and decided to paste highly recognisable commercial logos.   In this way I used juxtaposition to comment on how I feel these commercial things start to gain more importance than the land around us and how eventually our emphasis on "stuff" will destroy the natural beauty in our world.

At a later point I will post the actual lesson plan format once I get a hold of it.