2 Soul Sisters Art Ed is a blog dedicated to art teachers seeking innovative and practical art education ideas. We offer a variety of engaging lesson plans, complete with photos and examples to inspire your classroom activities. From creative projects to effective teaching strategies, our blog provides valuable resources to enhance art lessons and foster student creativity. Explore our site for fresh, easy-to-implement art projects and tips to make art education both enjoyable and educational.
I checked it out and thought this would be a great one day lesson on a day in middle school when we had over 25+ shadows visiting the school. I wanted the prospective students to be able to participate in a lesson. So, we put on hold our regular lessons and did a fun Layered Landscape of Lines. this was a fun lesson because everyone was able to participate. No fail and the results were super.
Check it out. We used 9 x 12 white drawing paper and assorted colored markers. I bet you can put your spin on this lesson to and have one heck of a finished product.
Some of the art I mounted on black paper. Some of the art I mounted on white paper. I think I sent the art back to one class before I had mounted the art of the other class. I guess I forgot what color that I had used on the first class. I think that I like black best. Spooky!
Jason Messinger has some really cool stuff. Do you know him? If not check him out. I decided to use his art with telephone poles and create and have the kids create a silhouette perspective.
We discussed Jason's Art, Silhouette and Perspective
I had the students create a perspective drawing of a telephone pole.
We used pencil to sketch, Sharpie to color in and watercolor for background. These are simple but powerful. Learn more about Jason Messinger below. He is all over the internet. This is just a snip-it of his work. Love his style.
Jason Messinger creates ceramic art that straddles the cool allure of
pure abstraction and the hot recognition of representation. His art
explores the fuzzy borders between representation and abstraction,
identity and design, meaning and beauty. Sculptures that are abstract in
shape but with a figurative sensibility, and tile murals with symbolic
imagery that tease the viewer into becoming complicit in their meaning.
The sculptures are solidly present while expressly fluid. They
change appearance with the viewers' perspective, transforming in shape
and direction. Each face of the work functions like movements of a
dance, with unexpected turns. Different perspectives on the work
converse with each other, creating a circular narrative of motion and
stillness, form and emotion.
The artist approaches ceramic tile with a painter's concerns and a
sculptor's experience. The idea of abstraction on the edge of
identification permeates the work. Images often hint at language,
symbol, map, comic strip, or hieroglyph; but only hint, as the symbols
remain undefined, transitional. His multi-tile works are modular,
allowing any configuration and sequence of the tiles. The murals exhibit
a circular narrative, open-ended to interpretation. The viewer becomes
complicit in constructing the meaning. Mounting systems allows one to
easily change the position of the tiles, and thus reset the 'narrative'.
The artist's paintings and drawings on paper in ink, pastel, and
watercolor, re-imagine the world into patterns and diagrams of movement
and color, light and gesture.
As most of you know, not all art projects end up being a success. The paper quilling below was an outright fail for my 6th graders. If I would have used smaller construction paper, I think we would have seen success. I allotted 5 days for the project, but the 6th graders were at the end of their grading period at the end of the 5th day. They had to leave my class for music enrichment for the next 9 weeks. I tell you, the project was a big fail!
Here is one that almost got finished.
Hopefully, you can tell it is Van Gogh's Starry Night.
First, give the kids a piece of 9 x 12 sheet of construction paper. I made the mistake of giving the kids a 12 x 18 sheet. This was way too big!
Then, I cut the strips too small. I had read to cut them 1cm by 6 cm. These were way too short. I suggest 1 cm by 12 cm. Also, I separated the colors into different crates. This organization method provided the kids with easy access to strips of their choice.
Next, I would suggest having a bowl of glue that kids can dip the strips in. We glued each strip with our bottle of Elmer's and this took forever. You would choose a strip and then roll it, and then, glue it. It was so much easier to dip the strip in glue and roll.
Here are a few good attempts.
Here is the stack of the unfinished project.
In hindsight, I would change up several things.
I would use smaller paper. (9x12)
I would use larger strips. (1cm x 12cm)
I would have small bowls of glue for each child to use to dip their strips in.
I would talk and stress the importance of rolling some paper tightly and rolling some paper loosely.
Putting an end to this project with a "Seven Nation Army" by Jack White.
