Visual Journals 5 Weeks: Name Design (Picture HEAVY Post)

Here is assignment #2 from the first batch of visual journals assignments due at the five week marking period.  The second assignment was a name design on the inside front cover and first page (that two-page spread requirement).  Like the cover, it was supposed to be mixed media, and the only other requirement was that the student had to somehow show themselves in the design (like a self-portrait...but it didn't have to be an actual picture or drawing of themselves).  Here is a variety of the student designs!

On many of these, I did blur out names so that first and last names weren't showing.  If you come across an image that looks weird and blurred in unexpected places, that is why. ;)

The student's last name, which is blurred out, really balanced this out well...blurring his name doesn't do it justice!

Collaged background with acrylic name.

An amazing 7th grader I have!  He has always admired the graffiti art when we do it as an elementary student...needless to say he is really excited to get to the graffiti unit!

This student used the acrylic spray paint I have, oil pastel, and then used some really cool fabric tape to make his name!

Acrylic paint...not mixed media, but this girl has amazing craftsmanship with paint!

Again, many students missed the boat with the mixed media aspect of this, but I know they are going to improve.  We have some pretty solid designs in terms of composition, we just need to work on experimenting and being opening to making mistakes and learning how to fix them.  You can see my name design (and cover design) on the first informational post I did about these assignments, with my rubric, here.

Post #1: Visual Journals 5 Weeks: Cover Design

Post #3: Visual Journals 5 Weeks: Mind Map

Visual Journals 5 Weeks: Cover Design (Picture HEAVY Post)

Time to dive into those visual journal assignments I was talking about a while back.  I am giving visual journal assignments to my Studio Art, Art 7, and Drawing & Painting classes.  (You can read with more detail the idea behind these, as well as check out the rubric I am currently using to grade them here.)  Basically, every five weeks, each class has a total of 3 assignments that are due to me.  I will not accept them late (they do receive automatic 0's if they are not handed in by the deadline).  Students in each class have the deadlines and the assignments for the entire school year all mapped out in a document available to them on the Google Classroom, so there are no excuses.  Plus, I have made Fridays "Visual Journal Friday", giving students the opportunity to work on these in class with the materials available.

Aside from the vague description given for each journal assignment, students must use mixed media and their assignments must be a two page spread.  I have my two studio art classes' assignments due on the Friday before the end of each marking period, and then I have the Art 7 and Drawing & Painting students' assignments due on the last Friday of each marking period (though I post that they are due on Thursday instead, just to give a little wiggle room).  These assignments are meant to be open-ended, allowing students to think creatively, problem solve, and experiment...basically many of the ideas from Choice Based Learning or TAB programs.

The first three assignments were a cover design, a name design on the inside cover (that somehow had to have a self-portrait of the student...and by that, I meant not a selfie, and not necessarily a drawing of their face), and something called Mind Map.  More on those in the next two posts.

Here are a whole bunch of the cover designs.  The covers were challenging because my students had two different types of sketchbooks...the black, hard cover ones and then spiral bound.  The black ones are notorious for becoming unglued at the binding, but unfortunately, all of the sketchbooks I ordered never came in and I had to fall back on the stash I had stocked up on in previous years.  (Yes, I supply sketchbooks to my students.  If I don't, they bring in Dollar Store sketchbooks that don't have enough pages and fall apart within weeks.)  Depending on the cover and depending on what they chose to do, some students had to gesso the covers, some glued drawing paper on so they had a surface to draw on, many painted, and some collaged materials together using acrylic gloss or matte medium.

Underneath each image, I'll give a brief description of what the student did to achieve their cover. :)

This student glued down some drawing paper, drew the geometric forms with pencil, and then use acrylic paint over the top paint negative space, creating his initials.

Acrylic gloss, newspaper, and tissue paper.  Then the student used washi tape to write "Art" and also dripped colored India ink onto her collage, blowing it with a straw.

Marker on drawing paper to get the black lines, and then she collaged tissue paper over the top with acrylic gloss.

More acrylic gloss and tissue paper.  A bit of glitter too.

Duct tape, green masking tape, and marker.

Tissue paper, acrylic gloss, and painters markers.

Newspaper, tissue paper, and letter stickers.

This student masked off the front cover with tiny strips of masking tape to paint the galaxy diamond with acrylic.  Then, the back cover, she mimicked the galaxy.

Acrylic paint...she used masking tape to mask off the chevron, and then painted the anchor and words.

Masking tape and marker.

Collage over the top of an acrylic background.

This student had an amazing marker design drawn out and taped to her cover.  She then took magazine clippings and taped them over the top.  Unfortunately, I think she went a bit overboard because she covered up her marker design a bit too much, but either way, it's still interesting to look at!

Baseball fan...obviously...tempera and Sharpie.

Gesso background, masked off trees / drawn stencil used for deer head, and then splattered painted with acrylic.

Spray paint, acrylic, oil pastel...

Spray paint and masking tape used to mask off the letters.

Another spray paint with masked off letters.  Also used oil pastels to write his name and "journal".

These two covers came from my Drawing & Painting class.  I guess I didn't make it very clear to them that it had to be front and back for their cover designs, so for this assignment, I let them do just the front cover.  On the left, she collaged together magazine clippings, and on the right, she did scrapbook paper and then created a dress for a croquis using tissue paper.  The girl on the right is also in my Fashion Design class, and since posting this, she has added to her cover to make it more mixed media.

A student who went overboard with the acrylic paint and texture rollers (the paint is super thick!!!), but ended up with a really cool feeling visual journal!

Another Drawing & Painting student...chalk, collage, marker...

Acrylic background and washi tape words.

One of my few Drawing & Painting students who did the front and back.  She laid down acrylic string gel for texture, painted with acrylic paint, and then splattered the white.  I believe she plans on doing more with this but ran out of time before the deadline.

Another Drawing & Painting student.  His design is really quite awesome.  He was trying to show how ideas look on paper versus how ideas look in his head.  We went round and round with each because I felt like he should have outlined the paper and books to make them stand out more.  Originally, it looked unfinished when he handed it in, especially with the beautiful bubble at the top.  It's hard to see from this picture, but he went back in and added pencil shading to the brain in order to connect the pencil book to the brain.

So, as you can probably tell from these, quite a few students didn't understand the concept of mixed media, nor did they seem to put a huge amount of effort in, but I can tell you that I am EXTREMELY happy with these!  Even the ones with seemingly little effort are more effort than sketchbook assignments from previous years.  The students are really enjoying these, they like that I give them Friday's in class, and with our next set due the first week of November, I've already seen some amazing ideas on paper!  Students were definitely having a hard time with the first batch of assignments because they were worried they would mess up, do something wrong, or it wouldn't be up to my expectations.  However, I think they are getting more comfortable already and feeling a bit more creative!

Post #2: Visual Journals 5 Weeks: Name Design

Post #3: Visual Journals 5 Weeks: Mind Map

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!