Studio Art: Zentangles

First official Studio Art project of the year was zentangles.  Yes, zentangles.  I know this word is a cause of debate among a lot of art teachers, and this year, it even caused a bit of a debate among my students, which actually made me quite happy!  Whether you call it zentangling, or doodling, or drawing, or whatever, the idea behind it is to be relaxed, have fun, and draw about something that interests you.  I have done a few different versions of zentangle/doodle projects with my students over the last three years, but this year, I felt like they made it more their own.  In all honesty, I think my open-ended visual journal assignments have had a hand in this.  So, let me explain what I mean.

I use the zentangle unit as a confidence booster.  My Studio Art classes are primarily filled with students who HAVE to be there for the credit to get the Regents Diploma.  Aside from the few music students who ask to take my Studio Art classes, most of them think they have no artistic ability, nor do they really want to be there.  I'm happy to say that I'm already changing some of their minds about art!

Anyways, we begin the unit by looking at Kerby Rosanes and his doodle art.  We talk about how he turned something he enjoyed doing as a hobby into his job, how his creative process works, and how he organizes his artwork.  I use this unit as a way to review the elements and principles of art and to talk about composition.  Then, the students learn about zentangling.  I have tons of books about zentangling, as well as daily brain activity cards that teach a new zentangle pattern, step-by-step.  They really enjoyed using those cards.  These are a few of the zentangle tiles the students completed at the beginning of the unit.  (Mind you, at this point we have not dove into value, so anything you see here is what they remember from 7th grade.)

Next came the actual unit project.  In my effort to be more choice based this year, students were allowed to incorporate anything into their design that they wanted.  I encouraged them to send a message with their work or to use a subject that interested them.  Most of the time I hit resistance here because they don't know how to concentrate their ideas into something doable, but I think the open-ended visual journals that we started the year off jump-started their noggins, because every student managed to come up with a great idea!

I also mentioned that it caused a bit of a debate.  In past years, students embraced the zentangle name because it was an interesting word and many of them were very literal, enjoying the step-by-step process behind zentangles.  This year, I had quite a few challenge me.  "Why do we have to follow steps?  Can't we just draw?" "Seriously, I already do this kind of stuff in my notebook, see Mrs. Impey..."

And this, of course, led to discussions about marketing, branding, what makes something art, and so on!  It was great!  Aside from having an obvious subject and focal point in this work, I did require them to use patterns in a way to enhance their work, whether they called them zentangles or not, because it forced them to think about composition and those principles of art.  I didn't push the use of the zentangle cards or books (except for bell ringers, which I'll share in my next post), to get the artistic juices flowing.

She comes from a farming family. ;)

Sarge and Tahlia are his family's dogs.

This one and the next come from a couple of gamers.

This student incorporated some of her own poetry!

And this one is very religious.

She incorporated the first letter of her first name.

The one of the left came from a sports student, and on the right, another gamer.

Coming next will be a post about our bell ringers!

Studio Art: Unit 1 Projects with Zentangles

This year I decided to start off my Studio Art students with zentangles.  Yes, I know it's up for debate among art teachers because it's technically doodling, but I like the word!  And, I have quite a few high strung students this year, so using the term "zen" and getting them to relax a bit worked perfectly for them.  Whether you prefer to call it doodling, these zentangled alphabets turned out great.  I love using these kinds of projects at the beginning of the year because (1) it's an easy way to cover the elements and principles in a way that's easy for students to understand and (2) it's very easy for students to be successful!  

We started out by creating zentangled alphabets.  We spent a day in the computer lab finding a font to use that would be wide enough to doodle in.  Students were required to do at least 9 letters.  Some simply chose alphabet letters whereas some did their names.  I've done this project in the past and the students loved it as well...you can see our results here.

You can also find my zentangle alphabet rubric and a zentangle packet I like to use on the SmartTeacher website.

For the final project in the first unit of Studio Art, students had to incorporate zentangles into a bigger picture.  Now, I'm trying this year to really give students more choices.  I don't know a lot about TAB but I'm slowly trying to incorporate more and more TAB techniques.  Last year, I attempted a completely TAB assignment and it flopped big time in my Studio classes, so I came to the assumption that I can't just do TAB cold turkey, especially when a majority of the students in that class are there because they have to take it.  So, each unit I do this year will have a final project that incorporates more choices.

The final zentangle project allowed students to choose a subject matter of choice, and I was quite pleased with most of the results!

The student who did the zentangled Darth Vater did a lot of little composition thinking...he played around with the patterns he used on each side of the face.  I was quite impressed with the thought he put into it!  The student who did the flaming skull...well let me tell you he brought tears to my eyes with this project.  When he was in 7th grade, he did absolutely nothing.  He hated art.  He struggled a bit during the first week or two of school to get into the swing of things in Studio Art, but once he made the decision to remove himself from the negative Nancy's in the class, he began to excel!  He did such an awesome job blending and shading his colors, and he did it all on his own!

The portrait on the left was created by one of our exchange students from Denmark.  I find it fascinating that they don't get art in the upper grades (she hasn't had it since grade school), and yet she is so willing to learn and soak up the information I have to give! 

This is another artwork from an exchange student.  She is from South Korea.

This student is going to Boces for criminal justice.  She wishes to be a dispatcher.  Despite her nature to complain and be negative, we figured out something she could do for her final project that actually meant something to her and she somewhat enjoyed doing!  Score one for Mrs. Impey. ;)

Here is my rubric and project sheet from the final zentangle project.

More Zentangles: Zentangle Parodies (PICTURE HEAVY POST!)

Three weeks ago I had to take an entire week off of school to take my husband and help him through his first week of chemotherapy.  As of today, he has completed his first three-week cycle and on Monday, begins the second cycle of three...and so far he's doing well.  Students were finishing up their ceramic projects and would be finished while I was gone, so I had to come up with a project that would be easy for a non-art substitute to handle.  I decided on zentangles, so I pulled out my zentangle packet from my elective class and I edited it a little to include a project outline and rubric for this project...something I'd like to call Zentangled Masters Parodies.

Students started the brief unit in the note packet I had left for them by practicing value scales, taking the notes on what all of the parts of a zentangle were, and then had to look through art books to choose a famous artwork to recreate in zentangles.  Essentially, the frame of the zentangle came from the border of the drawing.  The "string" of the zentangle was the drawing of the famous painting itself.  For the most part, the students actually really liked this project.  I have to say that it's a good way to review the elements and principles of art, so I think that I may revamp my first unit packet and take out some of the "boring" "What is Art?" notes and replace them with the zentangle notes.  

In the future, I will use this project to help reiterate to students the principles of art...mostly unity/harmony, variety and movement in their drawings.  Many students noted in their reflections that the zentangles made the original paintings seem more alive and fun.  

This example is my zentangled parody.

  

 

 

I wish these two students would have incorporated a little more of the original colors into their zentangles.  I do think the one on the left, despite how simple, was pretty successful with their zentangle choices!

 

 

 

This one is amazing!  I really had almost no constructive criticism...and the few points that I was going to point out, the student had already reflected upon in her evaluation of her artwork! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two students both used Van Gogh's Bedroom as their inspiration.  I'm not sure why they didn't each use the entire painting in their drawing, but after I came back from being out of school for a week and realized what they had done, I tried to convince them to use similar zentangles and colors in their drawings...but they didn't go for it!

 

And of course, a Kandinsky recreation...

I wanted to also note that I have received a lot of e-mail requests for my zentangle packets and projects.  I have shared my original zentangle packet, the packet I used for this project, and the other two zentangle projects (the found object and the font project), together in one place on the SmARTteacher website.