EXPLORING ART AND SKETCHBOOKS

Class #1
9-14-18

Project:

Today students will be commissioned as artists! Students will be exploring what interests them and the things around them that are exciting. Today students will be making sketchbooks their own by exploring materials and communicating to their peers who they are with visual representation. This will be the students' own personal tool to use to create art, list ideas, list questions, and plan for artwork.

Key Concepts:

Observation, Exploration, and Language of Art.

Essential Understandings:

Artists observe and explore the world around them to communicate their ideas using art materials and the language of art.

Outcomes/ Learning:

Provided works of art, students will be able to discuss their ideas and responses to the art using personal interpretation. (Bloom’s: Understand/Standard: Comprehend/GLE: Investigate how language of visual art and design can enhance artistic intent and communicate specific points of view/Art Learning: Expressive features and characteristics of art/Literacy: Art culture and language)

After viewing sketchbook examples, students will be able to discuss and express what a sketchbook can be using personal interpretation. (Bloom’s: Analyzing/ Standard: Comprehend/ GLE: Investigate how language of visual art and design can enhance artistic intent and communicate specific points of view/Art Learning: Critical reflection/Literacy: Art language, compare and contrast)

Using sketchbooks, students will be able to create a cover for their sketchbooks by applying personalized imagery using a variety of art media/materials. (Bloom’s: Create/Standard: Create/GLE: Utilize different media, processes, and studio skills to create works of art and design/Art Learning: Materials and techniques/Literacy: Create, design, develop)

Upon completion of their sketchbook covers, students will be able to explain and discuss the choices they made during their creative process by describing personal meaning and using artistic language. (Bloom’s: Evaluate & analyze/Standard: Reflect/GLE: Evaluate personal and peer artwork using the language of visual art and design/Art Learning: Critical reflection & assessment/Literacy: Art language, critique)

Skills: Observe, Compare and Contrast

Art Focus: On the first day of class students will be exploring Daniel and Melissa's artwork and sketchbooks. When exploring art and sketchbooks students will observe and talk to each other in a group, we are hoping this will motivate students when creating their own sketchbook covers.

Literacy Focus:

Language of art
Sketchbooks

Students will be discussing with each other their responses to a variety of artwork (teacher examples and their own) using their own interpretation.
Use of art vocabulary will be encouraged when appropriate.

Today's art experience began with teachers introducing themselves and some of their artwork. The students gathered around the teachers and examined some of the work that they brought in for everyone to see! Students were asked to consider:

What do you see?
What does this work of art say?
What would you name this artwork?

In the process of our mock critique, the students declared many insightful observations. One student stated, "I see a flower, but it's a little bit strange." When asked to explain their reasoning behind that statement, the student explained "There is a lot of textures, like it is almost coming off the page. I don't think I have ever seen a painting quite like this!"

The students continued the critique with an example of Daniel's photograph. When the students were asked how this artwork was made, most of the students knew that this was an example of photography. One student exclaimed, "I love photography! I hope we do some of that in art this year." Daniel then asked the students, "Why do you think that I decided to take a photograph here?" Another student responded with, "I recognize this building from my drive to school, I think you took this picture because it's kind of like a city landmark."

To wrap up this critique, Daniel asked the students "How are Melissa and I's artwork similar?" A student replied with,"You both created an image of something! The way you did it was different, but each of you made a picture to represent something." Overall, the class observed the artwork very carefully and made shared some very keen observations with the class for their peers and teachers to hear.

The next activity in today's art lesson was introducing the students to their sketchbooks. It was explained to the students that they will be commissioned as professional artists every Friday for the rest of the semester! Sketchbooks are tools that artists use to document thoughts, emotions, ideas, or just to try new out new things for art. Teachers provided examples of their own personal sketchbooks for students to flip through and explore the possibilities of what can go in a sketchbook. The question posed to the students was, "What do you think a skecthbook can look like?" One student declared, "I think that pretty much anything can go in a sketchbook!" The student explained further that "One sketchbook has a whole lot of writing while the other one has some writing and a lot of drawings."

The teachers explained to the students that they would be designing their own sketchbook covers! Students were encouraged to consider things that interest them, such as favorite foods, sports, animals, video games, etc. Materials were passed out to students, and the class went to work on their creations. See what the students created in the images below!

This student began her cover by experimenting with different colors. The student declared that they wanted to use the best colors for their cover. "I love bright colors! They are my favorite so I want to make sure that the best ones are on my cover." This student demonstrated planning and experimentation in their artwork.Check out the video above of the student working!

This student exclaimed, "I love monsters! I made each letter of my name into a monster for my sketchbook." The student extended his ideas onto another page of his sketchbook. "This one is a gulper fish. I saw one on TV once and I thought they were really cool!" The student connected his personal interests into his artwork.

For their artwork this student explained, "I really like drawing patterns. I didn't really have a plan, I just started drawing lines and connecting them to make little shapes." The student did an excellent job experimenting to create their sketchbook covers today.

This student expressed their love of pineapples in this art experience. The student exclaimed, "I love pineapples, they are so good! I am drawing a pineapple god right now, I call this 'Pineappulus'!" This student demonstrated including personal interests into their artwork in this class period. Be sure to check out the video above of the student working!

In the process of creating this student declared his love for Minecraft. "I play this video game a lot, this is the most recent character I made. I liked how he turned out on the video game so I thought it would be fun to draw it today." This student also demonstrated connecting personal interests into their art today. Be sure to look at the video above of the student drawing!

This student continued his exploration of monsters and other creatures as the lesson continued. They stated,"I thought that it would be useful to imagine a predator for my gulper fish. This one came from my imagination, I like to make up new things. It doesn't have a name yet, but I will think of one later." The student included a narrative in their art making today.

This student elaborated on his designs as the class period progressed. They explained, "I felt inspired by making the first design, so I made a pattern using circles. I wanted to see what patterns with different shapes looked like." The student demonstrated further exploration with their artwork.

Our first class period conlcuded with teachers reflecting with students in small groups. Some of the questions that were asked to students included:

What did you put on your sketchbook cover? Why?

What does your cover reveal about yourself?

See what some of our students had to say below!

This student finalized the exploration of their Minecraft character. They stated "I think the hardest part was was doing all of the shading, it just took a long time. I like how this looks, it turned out pretty similar to the one I made at home."

This student concluded their art project by explaining, "I saw this tape holder and wondered how I could use it. So what I did was trace the outside and the inside. Then I put the marker in the center of that and traced that too. Finally, I just used lines to make a little design." Along with exploring and experimenting with patterns in their artwork, the student demonstrated innovative ways to use materials in the process.

This student continued to create monsters for the rest of the class period. The student explained, "I drew three more monsters to live alongside my gulperfish. The one in the middle lives on the ground while the one above it and below it can fly. All of these creatures live in the same cave. I am happy with how they turned out today." In today's art experience, this student did an excellent job incorporating personal interests into their artwork.