Gosh, it's amazing how time just flies by! I can't believe I haven't added any of the new work my students have done since December... Though I suppose the silver lining here is that they've created SO much!
In January I was given a whole new set of students for my art enrichment on Tuesday afternoons, 7G! While at first the thought of spending nearly 4 hours with 15 of the most hormonal girls in school was daunting (to say the least), they really surprised me. Our history classes this semester really led into some pretty fantastic art projects (I promise to share more of them!), but one of my all time favorites was this 2 point perspective lesson.
Teaching the Renaissance may just be the highlight of my World History class every year, but being able to combine it with an art enrichment really took it over the edge for me. My students were beyond thrilled to learn how Raphael so skillfully painted the "School of Athens", and apply this knowledge to their own paintings. I decided to teach 2 point perspective largely because I already had several 1 point perspective lessons and where's the fun in doing something old? Kidding. I perhaps should have done 1 point perspective, but it's the same number of lines in the end, so why not add another dimension (literally!)!
I've never seen a class of 7th grade girls more engaged at 4pm on a Tuesday. Seriously. They were AMAZING. I had each student tape two pieces of paper horizontally to the back of their vertical drawing paper. At the edges of the "wings", the girls drew their vanishing points. From a budget perspective, this was great because I could use more expensive paper for the actual artwork, and old sheets of paper for the "wings" that I had been using as placemats for painting. Once the drawings were done, these sheets were removed anyway, and no one noticed the extra lines on them in other classes. From there, the girls drew a single vertical line as the edge of their building, and used their vanishing points for all of the horizontal lines.
To help explain everything, I created an example that was always only one step ahead of the girls. This helped them follow along, and they passed my paper around to compare their drawings to where I was at throughout class, as a way to benchmark their progress. Students also helped each other as they problem solved. One became a window expert, another a stair making machine. it was fantastic to watch.
The final results have been amazing. I also love how it's brought a number of my students out of their shells. One student in particular commented that she always wondered how artists made their buildings look so perfect, and how glad she was to know how to do it too. She was even able to figure out 1 point perspective on her own, after learning how to do 2 point perspective- score! Her sketch book is now totally filled with pages of calculated linear perspective drawings.
Time wise, this lesson took forever. I'm not terribly strict with timing when it comes to my enrichment class. Since October, the girls have already done about 8 art projects with me (some done in my history class- I just can't help myself sometimes!), and I really relish the times I can enjoy myself with them and work on our student/teacher relationship. That said, if I was to do this project in a graded art class, I would have done things a little differently. First, I would have used a smaller paper. these are 9"x12", and I think that 7"x10" would have been sufficient. I also would have nixed words and letters, but provided them with a "must have list", like how many doors and windows, etc. As for the paint, I think that tempera cakes would have been much better. Tempera cakes + sharpies for details, always a winning combination. This time around, I spent nearly 6 classes (yikes!) on this assignment, but I think it could be shortened to 4.
In the end, my students loved this assignment and are generally really happy with their final pieces, and that's what counts, right?!?!
In January I was given a whole new set of students for my art enrichment on Tuesday afternoons, 7G! While at first the thought of spending nearly 4 hours with 15 of the most hormonal girls in school was daunting (to say the least), they really surprised me. Our history classes this semester really led into some pretty fantastic art projects (I promise to share more of them!), but one of my all time favorites was this 2 point perspective lesson.
Teaching the Renaissance may just be the highlight of my World History class every year, but being able to combine it with an art enrichment really took it over the edge for me. My students were beyond thrilled to learn how Raphael so skillfully painted the "School of Athens", and apply this knowledge to their own paintings. I decided to teach 2 point perspective largely because I already had several 1 point perspective lessons and where's the fun in doing something old? Kidding. I perhaps should have done 1 point perspective, but it's the same number of lines in the end, so why not add another dimension (literally!)!
I've never seen a class of 7th grade girls more engaged at 4pm on a Tuesday. Seriously. They were AMAZING. I had each student tape two pieces of paper horizontally to the back of their vertical drawing paper. At the edges of the "wings", the girls drew their vanishing points. From a budget perspective, this was great because I could use more expensive paper for the actual artwork, and old sheets of paper for the "wings" that I had been using as placemats for painting. Once the drawings were done, these sheets were removed anyway, and no one noticed the extra lines on them in other classes. From there, the girls drew a single vertical line as the edge of their building, and used their vanishing points for all of the horizontal lines.
To help explain everything, I created an example that was always only one step ahead of the girls. This helped them follow along, and they passed my paper around to compare their drawings to where I was at throughout class, as a way to benchmark their progress. Students also helped each other as they problem solved. One became a window expert, another a stair making machine. it was fantastic to watch.
The final results have been amazing. I also love how it's brought a number of my students out of their shells. One student in particular commented that she always wondered how artists made their buildings look so perfect, and how glad she was to know how to do it too. She was even able to figure out 1 point perspective on her own, after learning how to do 2 point perspective- score! Her sketch book is now totally filled with pages of calculated linear perspective drawings.
Time wise, this lesson took forever. I'm not terribly strict with timing when it comes to my enrichment class. Since October, the girls have already done about 8 art projects with me (some done in my history class- I just can't help myself sometimes!), and I really relish the times I can enjoy myself with them and work on our student/teacher relationship. That said, if I was to do this project in a graded art class, I would have done things a little differently. First, I would have used a smaller paper. these are 9"x12", and I think that 7"x10" would have been sufficient. I also would have nixed words and letters, but provided them with a "must have list", like how many doors and windows, etc. As for the paint, I think that tempera cakes would have been much better. Tempera cakes + sharpies for details, always a winning combination. This time around, I spent nearly 6 classes (yikes!) on this assignment, but I think it could be shortened to 4.
In the end, my students loved this assignment and are generally really happy with their final pieces, and that's what counts, right?!?!