Calligraphy Workshop

Yesterday I took a 3 hour calligraphy workshop at the Syracuse CoWorks in the Tech Garden.  The class was put on by Christie from Bedsidesign and it was a lot of fun.  She's going to be doing more workshops, so be sure to check her website for more information if you're interested.

I have no experience with calligraphy, but I love the look of hand-lettering (I have a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to it), so I thought this would be a good opportunity to start learning some new skills.  Eventually, once I practice more and get better at it, I would like to bring more hand-lettering into my artwork and even do some lessons on it with my students in my classroom.

Christie had put together a nice little package of materials for us to use in the class.  For three hours, she walked us through how to make the proper upstrokes and downstrokes to form letters in the Copperplate script style.  We covered lowercase and uppercase letters, and the time just flew by!  It was a great workshop and left me eager to learn more.

I really enjoyed practicing the uppercase and lowercase letters.  My own handwriting is nothing phenomenal.  Even way back in grade school, ages ago, when there was actually a grade for handwriting on our report cards, I could never earn anything past a B.  My handwriting got worse in college when I had to take notes down quickly in classes and lectures (this was just before laptops started becoming more common among college students).

Now that I'm a teacher, I tend to notice a lot of things with my students' handwriting.  Cursive handwriting is largely being phased out at the elementary school level.  There's a good read here on PBS - "Is cursive handwriting slowly dying out in America?"  In general, today's students spend a lot more time using digital devices, both inside and outside of the classroom.  They no longer spend as much time writing as they used to.  I notice this lack of skill in the handwriting of a lot of my students, and even in their manual dexterity when it comes to drawing and painting.  This isn't an across the board truth, as every student is different, but in general I'm starting to notice that it takes students longer to make confident strokes on paper with their pens and pencils.  

I've had several students tell me that they can sign their name in cursive for their signature, but that's about as far as their cursive skills go.  A few weeks back, I had several 10th grade students asking me to write their first names in my own cursive handwriting, which I personally think is severely lacking in form and style, because they thought it was cool to look at.  I think it's sad that students are no longer learning traditional handwriting skills.

Eventually, once my own calligraphy skills get better with practice, I would like to bring some calligraphy and hand-lettering lessons into my classroom.  It's a beautiful skill to have, and I think it's great to expose students to letter shapes that are not made on the computer.

What I've been up to lately...

Hello everyone! I realize it's been a while since I last posted.  During the school year, my blogging can become less frequent while I am involved in teaching.  The school year has been busy, but wonderful.  My students have completed several great assignments this year.

Just to give you a little glimpse into some of what I do during the day, here's a look into a recent assignment from my classroom.  Studio Art students, which is mostly (but not all) 9th graders, and Advanced Studio students, which is the next level after Studio Art, recently completed artwork inspired by the pop art movement.  Classes looked at artwork by Andy Warhol, especially his Campbell's Soup Cans.  They also were introduced to Wayne Thiebaud's paintings of food.

Students in both class levels were asked to bring in non-perishable food items to paint pictures of, so that they could work from observation instead of photographs.  In today's digital age, students are all too familiar with just turning to Google for pictures, so it is always good to practice drawing and painting from observation.

Studio Art students painted on approximately 8"x10" pieces of scrap mat board, while Advanced Studio students worked much larger, with the option of painting on canvas if they brought one in.  The result was a variety of very colorful paintings of cans, boxes and tins of food.  Below you can see a few photos by some of my Advanced Studio students.  In total, between all of the classes, my students created 71 paintings of food items.

At the completion of the assignment, the classes then donated all of the food items that we collected to the local food pantry.  Not only did the students get to practice valuable art skills, but they were also able to contribute to their community.

Green Tiger - a gift for my school

School starts again next week, so I'll be back at work teaching in the art classroom soon.  Yesterday I decided to paint a little present for our school.  Our mascot is a tiger and our school colors are green and white, hence the subject matter.  The stripes of the tiger, and using the white of the paper to my advantage, were a lot of fun to paint.  I dropped the painting off at school today when I went in to do some classroom prep, and it looks like it will be finding a home in the main office. Go Tigers!

Prints of the Green Tiger are available through my Society6 shop.

Swimming Fish - new lino print

This reduction lino print was a piece that I did as a demonstration in the summer of 2011 for a workshop that I was teaching. I forgot that I had never scanned it and shared it online, so here it is!

For those who don't know what a reduction print is, here is a good description. I recently started lessons on reduction printing with two of my high school art classes.

Prints are available here in my print shop.

Ceramic Apple

I made this ceramic apple to use for a glaze demonstration with my 8th grade students. The apple is true to size, and I wanted to use it to experiment with layering subtle different colors of glaze to make it mimic the variety of colors that you can see in a real apple skin. I was really happy with how the colors turned out in this experiment.

You can also see part of my classroom desk in the photo below.

Ceramic Box inspired by Hokusai's Great Wave

This is a demo piece that I made for one of my 8th grade classes. For their assignment, they had to make a clay box using slab construction. The lid and any other designs that they put on their box had to be based on a famous piece of artwork. For my demonstration piece, I made a box that was inspired by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa".

The finished box measures 5 inches x 4 inches and is a little over 4 inches tall. The lid is layered with different levels of clay to add some dimension to the image. All of the students were encouraged to think about how they could add texture or depth to the painting that they were basing their box on, and how they could use the different glazes to try and re-create that painting.

Printmaking - Self-Portrait

This is the demo that I made for my 8th grade students' printmaking project. They learned about the pop art movement, with a focus on Andy Warhol's screen printed portraits. The students carved their own portraits, using photos for reference to do a transfer on to the rubber printing blocks. After doing a series of test prints, the students then printed their portrait four times with their choice of colors. Below you can see the finished portraits by my students. The final portraits measure approximately 14" x 14".

Printmaking - Owl

I recently finished doing printmaking assignments with all of my classes. I had them use rubber printing blocks for carving. My 6th graders were making prints of the subject of their choice, so this owl print was my demo for their class. It's inspired by a vintage cast iron trivet that I own. Below you can see some of the work by my 6th grade students.

Roy Lichtenstein styled self-portrait

I painted this as a demonstration piece for my 8th grade students. They've been making self-portraits inspired by either Roy Lichtenstein or Shepard Fairey (a project inspired by one I saw in Todd Stahl's classroom when I was doing my student teaching). After learning about both artists and taking reference photos to work from, they selected the style they wanted to work in and then transferred their photo to a drawing on 14" x 18" illustration board using the grid method.


Here are some samples of my students' work in progress. For most of them, this was their first time attempting a self-portrait. They're just wrapping up this project now and we're starting a ceramics lesson.

A quick glimpse of my classroom

I can't believe that I'm starting my fifth week of the school year already! Time is flying by. As such, I thought I should capture a quick glimpse of my classroom during this time. My students have been working on drawing the still-life arrangements that are on the tables. The bulletin board in the back has a display on the Elements of Design. I started the display with just a couple of images for each element and then my students helped finish it by bring in their own examples found in magazines, newspapers, the internet, or even from their own drawings.

My Classroom - Part I - The Front Door

This week I've been working on setting up my classroom and getting things ready for the start of the school year. Getting the classroom exactly the way I want is going to be a constantly evolving process throughout the year, but I'm happy with the progress I've made so far. I've been documenting everything with photos as it goes along because I know I'm going to want to look back on it. I still have more to set up next week before classes start, but in the meantime you can check out the door to my classroom. I finished decorating it on Wednesday.

Gallery R Show

Last Thursday, on May 21, my class had the opening reception at Gallery R for our thesis show. The show exhibited work that was by our students from our twelve weeks of student teaching, in addition to a piece of work by each of our cooperating teachers and one piece of our own from the past year. The opening was packed with people and it was a great success. The show will be up at Gallery R until June 6. Here are some photos of the work by my students. My two student teaching placements involved high school and then first through fifth grade.









And just a reminder that prints of Pirate Queen are available right here.

Ceramic Rainforest Plaques - Toucan Example

I'm student teaching at an elementary school (1st through 5th grades) for six weeks. Next week I'll be starting my third week there. This is the project that I'm doing with my 3rd grade classes. I made this example to show them, trying to keep it as simple as possible. They're learning about the rainforest in their normal classrooms, so I thought it would be fine to tie their art project into that since they're all really interested in that subject right now.

My students are all making a rainforest animal of their choice on a clay plaque, using cookie cutters and stencils to cut out shapes and also using clay tools to cut out more free form or organic shapes. I showed them art by Charley Harper to give them examples of how you can build an animal out of shapes. We'll be using acrylic paint to add color, since I won't be there long enough to do a bisque firing and a glaze firing with the classes. The students will also be incorporating little pre-fired ceramic tiles into their animal plaques.

Abstract Painting - Studio Art Assignment

This was the abstract painting project example that I made to show my two Studio Art classes (mostly all 9th graders). The point of this assignment was for it to work as an introduction to using acrylic paint, mixing paint, and color theory. I also introduced the students to some contemporary abstract painters who use a lot of pattern in their work.

The students could only use the colors red, yellow, blue, white, and black and they had to choose to use either an analogous, complimentary, or monochromatic color scheme. Within their color scheme choice, they were then required to mix and use a certain amount of tints, shades, and intensities, as well as including a variety of textures (brushstrokes) and patterns. The students are working at approximately 12" x 18".

It was important to do a good introductory painting lesson because the students will be working on more painting assignments for at least a month after I finish my student teaching placement at the high school.

Sam Beam - for classroom demo, Part II

I've slowly been working on the watercolor painting portion of this piece while it's at the high school so that the students can watch it progress from an initial sketch to a finished piece. I did the majority of the inking in slow steps so that the students could see it progress as well. This kind of work is done during my free planning periods, or after school when the room is kept open for students who want extra time to work. Sometimes I'll bring it home to do work on it if the free periods were busy with other things, because I want there to be something new done on the piece each time the students come into the room. I've gotten into the habit of pinning it up on the board to make it easy for students to see it progressing towards a finished piece of art.

This is a photo of the illustration, so the colors aren't one hundred percent accurate, but you can get the general idea. When I finish this piece I'll eventually scan it to post online. It measures 10" x 16".

Audrey Hepburn portrait for classroom demo - Part II

This is simply another part of the digital painting demo that I've been using for the AP Drawing students.

Sam Beam, uncolored - for classroom demo

I drew this portrait of Sam Beam, from Iron and Wine, to use for a demo piece in the classroom. I'm going to be painting on it in class, but I want to try doing some digital coloring with it as well so I scanned in the line work. This was inked on illustration board with micron pens, and measures 10" x 16".

Audrey Hepburn portrait for classroom demo

I made this for a digital painting demo and tutorial that I was doing with the AP art class today. This measures 8" x 10" on watercolor paper, and was drawn and painted using dark brown pencil and black ink washes.

The Police

Here's another musician themed illustration, using pen and watercolor on Bristol Board. The final illustration measures 9" x 12".

From left to right that's Sting, Stewart Copeland, and Andy Summers. Yeah, I know that it kind of looks like Stewart is the lead singer in this picture, but I really liked the photo I found to use as reference. Plus, he's awesome anyhow, so front and center he stayed.

She & Him

I made this illustration of the musical duo She & Him for a high school lesson plan that I designed based around the work of illustrator Joe Ciardiello. This is meant to be an example to show to the class, so it's exhibiting certain requirements the students have to meet, like incorporating lyrics into their drawing. It was a fun illustration to make, but I think I'd actually like to try re-doing it at some point and try out a few different things with it, maybe with some digital painting.