Art History: Prehistoric Art

This year, I am excited to say that I have an Art History course that I am able to offer students college credit through SUNY Potsdam, the institution I attended and earned my degrees through.  While I originally had 3 students in it (which I thought was amazing, considering history is a tough sell at my district), a math class was moved during the summer and I lost two students, leaving me with one student.  Either way, it's still great, we are getting some bonding time, and I'm making art along with her!

We are using the Annotated Mona Lisa as a textbook for this class, and we began with Prehistoric Art.  In an attempt to make this class not just lecture (and I'm glad I decided on this because it would be really hard to lecture every day to ONE student), we are incorporating a historical art project every few cultures.  As part of the project requirements, my student can create whatever she wants, as long as she displays the characteristics of that culture AND uses an artistic technique by the culture, such as making her own brushes and paints, or using a paint technique or a material specific to that culture.

We started with prehistoric art, of course, and when we got to the project, she decided (and I thought it was a GREAT idea) to make a diorama for each culture!  So, as we progress through the year, she will have a pretty awesome, 3-D timeline made!  Along with each project, I ask her to write a two page essay that discusses her project in terms of the techniques and materials she used, how those might reflect the ancient culture, and how her project and decisions as a whole represents that culture.  In a college art history class, you usually have to write some sort of term paper, usually 10 pages minimum (at least I had to!).  The cooperating professor approved my plan of multiple 2 page essays, and as we progress through the year, I will teach her how to properly cite using the Chicago format of footnotes/end notes.

We used tissue paper, hot glue, and then Liquitex Spray Paint (which is INSANELY AWESOME!) to create the caves.  We also made our own egg yolk tempera, which we will utilize again for our Egyptian dioramas, except that we will have to make some gold paint!

My current student taking the class is a senior and is potentially going to college for art, whether she majors or minors in it.  She loves writing, so I've sort of tailored this class with her in mind.  Here is her first completed project and her first short essay, written completely by her without an edits from me:

          The Prehistoric Era dates back to about 35,000 BC and is one of the first eras known to create artwork. Artworks were created during this time mostly to adorn the body or to decorate.  The artwork created by people during this time period can be defined as cave paintings and small sculptures.  The artists, mostly female, would make all their own materials, such as the paint created from charcoal, clay, water, blood, and even urine.  The paintbrushes would also be handmade, from materials such as twigs, human hair, and grass.  Sculptures would be made of ivory, bone, stone and antlers.  This time period had a long lasting effect on artists and people around the world, as this was the beginning of the world of art.

         For this project, I chose to create a diorama to represent a cave filled with cave paintings, a fire, paints, and a cave woman.  I spray painted the diorama to look identical to a cave, and also built tissue paper up along the left side to give the cave a more realistic appearance.  I added texture to the inner part of the cave to show a rough, rock-like texture on the floor and walls.  Next, with the help of my teacher, I made my own paint from pigments, water and egg yolks.  This process was very interesting and I loved the experience.  I used these paints to decorate the inner walls of the cave, painting such things as wild animals, hunters, and hand prints. The idea for the wall paintings came from the notes I had taken in class, and are accurate depictions of what would have been present on cave walls.  I also added a human figure, a cave woman, to the diorama.  She is dressed in a leather "dress", which would have been created from an animal hide hunted, most likely, by the men.  I chose to add a woman over adding a man because most cave painters would be women, which we know because of the small hand prints visible on the walls.  The hand prints were used as a "signature" for the artwork, and can be found throughout many caves.  I created a fire displayed on the inside of the cave because the paintings were normally found deep inside the caves, where it would have been colder.  I also added some of the paint I made into small shells, since these were used to hold paint during this time period.

         Overall, I found this project to be a great experience and I really enjoyed it.  I believe my diorama accurately represents a cave woman and the wall paintings.  The overall process was unique because I've never made my own paint before, which I found to be interesting.  I also like that I added several identifiable factors into my diorama, which helped to show that it's based in the Paleolithic Era.

My diorama I made with my student.  :)  Not nearly as good as hers!

Photography: Pinhole Cameras & My First Experience Back in the Darkroom since 2006!

This year, I have TWO sections of Photography, and each section has 10 students in it.  Sooooo exciting!  Also exciting, is that the students are pumped to use the darkroom!  Needless to say, it's been about 10 years since I've actually worked in a darkroom at college, so I'm a bit rusty and the chemical mixing, developing times, and in general, the entire process.  The nice thing, is that it's coming back to me slowly, but even nicer, is that I'm feeling like it makes my students feel a bit better about now getting it right the first time, if I'm showing them that learning dark room photography tends to be a lot of trial and error in the beginning.

Lesson #1: Make sure you rinse out the photo chemical storage jugs BEFORE mixing new chemicals.  Any dry developer junks up in the bottle and turns it dark brown.  Lesson learned!

This is also the first class that I am really using a textbook in.  My district purchased me 25 of Davis Productions "Focus on Photography" textbooks, and I'm really loving them!  If you want a quality textbook that you'll actually use, this is it!  Over the end of the last school year, I was starting to plan my curriculum for the school year, knowing that I wanted to start more with digital and move into film photography as students learned more about composition and their photos became less "snap shot-y" and more artistic so as not to waste the dark room materials.  I asked my Davis representative that I met at a NYSATA Conference to send me a copy of their textbook so I could check it out, and I realized that much of my anticipated curriculum, aligned with what was in the textbook, and in the same order it was in the textbook.

Just as a disclosure, I am not being paid by Davis to add this to my blog...this is free advertising for them because I really am loving this textbook!

The first chapter in the textbook gives a little history behind the camera and talks about how a camera works.  Naturally, pin hole cameras come to mind, and so I made my FIRST pin hole camera!  Yep.  I've NEVER made one before. In the textbook, they give you directions to making a pinhole camera using a shoe box that is just for viewing images on a screen inside the camera.  I altered mine, and had the students alter theirs, to have a shutter over the pin hole lens as well as a cover over the viewfinder, to make the camera light tight for putting photo paper inside.

The directions in the textbook have you make a lens with a paper punch.  What I (and my students) discovered through trial and error is that outside, this size lens lets in way too much light for longer exposure times (thus the dark image on the lower right corner).  Inside, this lens size works relatively well.

Next, I made a different size lens, using a larger safety pin to poke a hole through the black paper.  Outside, this size pin hole was perfect when taking a photo in indirect sunlight on a pretty bright day.  Inside, however, in the fluorescent lighting, this size pin hole was not good at all, no matter how long I kept the pin hole open for.

I took a shot of the bench that I had my pin hole camera sitting on so that you can see the view myself and many students used for their cameras.

The Davis textbook also gives you rubrics for their projects, so I used it for this project, but altered it a bit since we technically changed the format of the pin hole camera.  I asked students to turn in 3 developed photographs with their pin hole camera with a brief reflection on the back of each image, telling me how long they kept their shutter open for, the size of their pin hole, and if there was too much or too little light.

We also used these images as a way to talk about the dark room chemicals.  I am currently in the process of trying to figure out a better way to store the chemicals when not in use.  As our chemicals stayed out over time, they didn't work as well, and the students noticed that.  They also got some weird drips and sticky parts on their images, which meant they didn't fully submerge the image in the chemicals fast enough, or they didn't keep them in the stop bath / fixer long enough.  Some have marks because they got stuck together while wet.  Here are some of the cameras and the images students captured, as well as what their cameras look like:

She got the hang of it by her third photo (the middle one).

The bottom image was her last one and it's awesome! Not quite sure how the tape mark got on her image though...I had the students put a tape curl on the back of the photo paper and had them tape it to the screen inside their camera to hold the paper up.  I think she may have taped it behind the screen (which was made out of tracing paper), but I'm not sure.

This student bought a picture box from Walmart.  It made it really easy to make a shutter for her lens using the little metal label holder! Her images turned out awesome, as well, and she learned that she needs to properly rinse the photo in each chemical so as not to get the chemical drips and such.

This student had AMAZING images!  They are literally perfect!  I love how she made her shutter, too.  She attached a popsicle stick to the shutter so she could slide it horizontally instead of vertically.  She is the only student who did that!

Another great turn out of images!

She lost her third image, and even though I asked them to hand in three image, I accepted two as long as they could explain to me why their image was black, white, had drip marks, etc.

This was from one of my exchange students.  We have a bit of a language barrier but he is doing great and understanding things quickly!

All in all, this experience was a really awesome one for learning the dark room through trial and error.  Students really learned how important it was to have a light-tight box and how the tiniest bit of light getting in through a crack could screw up their image.  I assessed students on if their camera was light tight, had a viewfinder with a cover, lens with a cover, and a screen inside, as well as their three images and if they were able to develop at least one good, clear image.  I had students write on the back of their images how long they exposed the camera lens for and then reflect on whether there was too much light, not enough, too small of a pin hole, too big, bad chemicals, etc.

Because of this simple project and experimentation, we have come up with a routine for the darkroom, figuring that we will have to alternate who gets to use the darkroom each class (five in, and five either developing film, taking photographs, or working on digital images on the computer).  I only have three enlargers (two of which work, and one I have to look at and fix), and a shoddy set-up for developing, so not many people can work in there at once.

Fashion Design: DIY Duct Tape Mannequins (What to do and what NOT to do!)

It has taken us almost four weeks, but I do believe we are in the home stretch and almost done making our DIY mannequins!

Needless to say, black is NOT a color of duct tape I would suggest using to make these.  Maybe it's just my mind going to the gutter, but the black mannequin form I made just looks like it could be more suggestive, I guess is the word, than the silver ones.  It also doesn't help that I'm a bit more busty than the rest of the girls in the class either...lol!

So, here is how we made our mannequin forms.  I did TONS of research on Pinterest on the best way to go about doing this.  There are tons of different suggestions out there...stuffing with pillow stuffing, newspaper, straight spray foam (and then peel the tape off and cover with fabric)...  I know Phyl over at There's a Dragon in My Art Room made one a while back and wasn't too thrilled with her outcome, so I was a bit nervous at doing this.  Just like I have the students do with the packaging tape sculptures in Studio Art, we wrapped their bodies, but this time in duct tape.  Three out of the four students brought in old t-shirts to wear, as it seemed easier to me to just cut through the t-shirt AND duct tape together at the end, rather than try to miss the shirt.  The fourth student elected to be wrapped in saran wrap first, which was fine.  Either way worked well in the end.

Just like Phyllis mentions in her post, I would HIGHLY recommend wearing a turtle neck underneath. The old shirts my girls brought in were tank tops and we still had to figure out a way to cover up their necks and shoulders, so we improvised with shopping bags.  When my hubby helped me make mine, even though my hair was up, he still managed to get it stuck in the tape and yanked quite a bit out at the roots.  :(

Once we cut everyone out of their tape casts, we taped up the back and stuffed them with newspaper.  It's really truly best if you can do the newspaper right after you are out of the form, otherwise it'll go flat.  In my form (in the top picture), I did spray foam first, filling from the neck and arms up to the chest.  It literally took me about 4 cans just to do that, and I knew it was going to cost us booko-bucks if we didn't do something else to fill the insides.  So, I had the girls stuff with newspaper.

One students made her own neck with newspaper, and attached it with tape.

Stuffed mannequins with newspaper!

 Next was the fun, but tricky part.  Spray foam is NOT fun if you get it on your hands!  I highly suggest wearing gloves.  Using an X-acto knfe, once all of the arms and necks were sealed up, students poked a hole in the arm pits and started filling around the newspaper, adjusting the nozzle to get a different angle every time some foam would start to leak out the hole.  Wipe the hole off and apply a piece of tape over it to cover it up once you're done working in a certain spot.  You've got to use one can all at once, so make sure you don't waste it by walking away for a minute or two.  Once that foam starts to harden inside the long nozzle, you're done for with that can.

Here is what I called Part 1 of my mannequin form.  In the torso, I did fill it with newspaper before filling around the outside with the spray foam.  I bought a broom handle for $4 at my local hardware store, stuck it up the middle of the newspaper, and then spray foamed around it, letting my mannequin sit upside down to harden.

Here's the funny part, and why I called this PART 1.  Notice the third boob?  Yeah, that's right.  When you are putting the duct tape on, be sure to make a nice, tight "X" in between your ladies, especially if you have bigger ones.  Use small pieces of tape to cover the boobies so that they aren't deformed or flat.  LOL  Also, on my back of my mannequin, I had a big "boil".  Literally, it was some spray foam that must not have had any aerosol in it because it just liquefied and didn't harden.  I poked a whole and literally squeezed a yellow, clear "puss" out of the back of my mannequin like Dr. Pimple Popper on Facebook! GROSS! (If you've never seen Dr. Pimple Popper, do NOT look her up if you don't like weird, gross, nasty, doctor videos...just don't.)

 I used a hand saw to shave off the bottom where my foam was uneven, and then taped it up.

Today, my very awesome shop teacher and one of his wood-working students helped me make the bases for our mannequins.  We measured out 2' wood planks and screwed them together in an "X".  Next, we added a little leg to the bottom of each side of the top board, so it would be even and not wobble.  We had to add a third layer to the boards so they would be thick enough to hold the mannequins without wobbling.  Next class we will get the mannequins all onto their posts and then finally get them onto the stands, using shims to make sure they are tight in the holes.

I've decided that Part 2 of my finished mannequin is going to have to suffice.  I decided to go at my mannequin with a hand saw to try and get rid of the third boob.  I also sawed off a bit of a "tumor" my mannequin seemed to have on one side.  Needless to say, I'm not the thinnest of people so I knew my mannequin wouldn't be either, but the added lumps didn't make me feel too great about myself.  I'm a bit happier with it now, and I know if I keep trying to "fix" it, I'll never get it right, so it's time to just leave it alone.

 So, here she is.  My finished mannequin.  My boobs are two different sizes, my stomach looks like it has an alien moving in it, but, that's all right.  I am debating about heading to JoAnn's to find some stretchy fabric that I could now cover it with to maybe hide some of the imperfections that the shininess of the duct tape shows off, but we will see. (The link I posted is a super extensive way to cover a mannequin form...I've seen a few other ones floating around that are a bit simpler, but I couldn't find them to link to them in this post...go figure!)  For now, she'll be good enough to hold my clothes for me while I pin the pieces together and sew!  My student's mannequins have turned out a bit better than my tester mannequin did, but they're also smaller and less curvy, so they were a bit easier to cover with the duct tape.

All in all, this mannequin cost ME about $40 to make.  The cans of spray foam were $3 each and I used a total of 7.  Now that I know that the newspaper is helpful to fill the inside, it wouldn't cost me as much if I were to make one again.  Also, when buying duct tape, do NOT buy the Duct Tape brand of colored tape.  It's SUPER expensive compared to the generic solid colored duct tape.  Being the size 14 that I am, I used two rolls of the duct tape brand (which is only 20 yards) and that only did my waist and half of my top half.  You need at least two solid layers of tape, and if you're curvy, you need more tape to get in the crevices of your girls and such.  Buy a big roll of 60 yard generic stuff.  It's the same price and you get more!