Watercolor Quilting Lesson Description: This project began with a lesson on the color wheel, color mixing, and proper watercolor painting techniques. Students were then released to experiment with the paints and mix their own colors with the guidelines being they had to mix at least 20 different colors and none of them could be straight from the tray. Then the students started brainstorming and sketching their favorite things in nature and once they made their choice they began to draw it on a final paper nice and large with composition in mind. The students then drew a quilting like pattern overtop their work with overlapping squares and rectangles. Before they began with the watercolors they were given the guidelines that each color had to be mixed by them and that every time they hit a line they had to change colors.
A Brand New Face Lesson Description: This lesson started with a brief history on masks and the different artistic styles and uses associated with different cultures. The students were then shown images of mask examples and given three different mask styles to choose from. They could choose to create an animal or human mask, they could go completely abstract, or they could treat the face like a canvas and create whatever scene they wanted on it. The guidelines also included having a well balanced composition and having additive and subtractive features. Before any kind of clay work began, the students created sketches of possible ideas and created a final full size sketch with color. There was a demonstration on some clay building techniques including how to create additive and subtractive features and then clay was passed out and they set to work. A quick refresher on acrilic paints and color mixing was given before they set out on painting their fired piece.
Realistic Hands Lesson Description: This lesson began with the students trying to draw a hand holding a flower realistically to explain that often when we are trying to draw things that we are familial with we draw what we think we know rather than what we see, the whole goal of this lesson is to try to train our brains to break that and draw the hand holding something straight from observation. They were shown examples of realistic hands and then created a value scale. They were shown different ways to shade and they practiced each type, making sure to compare it to their value scale to check that they got full range of value. Before they started their final piece they had to show a completed sketch showing their hand doing/holding something personal to them.