Personal Artwork

 Personal Artwork

Navigating the Ocean.

 As I look back on starting this blog over 10 years ago, I think about the why. I had just gotten a job as a new Art teacher at a small charter school in Dallas, and I was inspired by other blogs that I searched for content. I decided to share my content and spent countless hours building the site, linking pages, adding keywords and navigating the ocean of knowledge out there about how to do this or that. My ultimate goal was sharing my experiences as a new Art teacher and trying to add to the community of art teacher blogs. I didn't even think people were reading my content, commenting, or following. I did the blog because I enjoyed it. 
Fast forward 10 years and we are in the most accessible time with AI. It helps us get a new recipe, search the net for ideas, talk us through decisions and ultimately replace our imagination and critical thinking. We are having an even harder time coming up with ideas we don't run through AI. I would hate to be a college student right now. I find myself using AI even more than ever this year  in teaching, but with more workflow tasks like schedules for classes, project pacing, planning around student achievement. I think for those things, it works. When it comes to AI creating projects and lessons, I find something is missing. 
I could make an AI heavy blog, automate my posts and links, and set it and forget it, but that is too easy. That's not why I started this blog. I started it to post my struggles, accomplishments, things that worked, things that didn't work. Everything I wanted to share had a human element, my point of view. So as I write this post at 10pm on a weeknight, I have been wrestling with the idea of revitalizing this blog. I want to get it back to why I started in the first place, sharing my human perspective. I am in a different point in my life right now, and a lot has changed in 10 years, but I still want to share content even though someone may not read it. I want to do it for me, and I think that is the why that keeps me coming back. The world is grabbing for our attention in so many ways right now and I am constantly in fear as to what to do first that navigating the ocean seems impossible. I think I'll start with this blog and see where the current takes me. 

2nd Grade Color Blending - The Beach

I usually do this lesson during the beginning of the year, but I saved it for the end. With summer break fast approaching, I like to get the kids in the mindset of summer vacation. We did a blending project to make water look more deep, and full. Usually students color everything blue, and you can't really tell where the ocean ends and the sky begins. Here are some examples of this lesson on color blending.

Just a simple drawing with land, sea, and sky.

Art Club Stop Motion Set Design

I have an Art Club here at school, and for our final project, I thought we'd make a stop motion animation about a fire fighter saving someone from a burning building. We watched some stop motion films, wrote up a story, and laid out a story board about the movie. We practiced making sound effects, picking props, and shooting a couple of scenes. Here is a sneak peek of the set design we made out of cut caper glued to cardboard. Each member had a specific job that contributed to the overall building of the set. Next week, we begin filming!

I love the layering of the city in the background, it adds so much depth.

Some students just wanted to draw on the buildings instead of use cut paper.

Reunion Tower is a little small, eh?

The fire station is pretty close to the burning building.

5th Grade Birds Eye View Perspective

You always see the same perspective drawings from the street, or a hallway. I wanted my students to try something different. I found a video on Youtube about a Birds Eye View of a city. So I wrote up a lesson about it, and we had a good time doing this project. Things started to get out of hand when students got closer to the edges of the paper. To them, things just didn't look right. Here are some examples of some great works!

Just look at those tops of trees down there! 

Even though the building tops are exact, I still love the cartoon look of them.

Some kids used mechanical pencils, I love how precise the lines are.

Great first attempt!

The traffic flow on this one looks like a nightmare!

3rd Grade Beach Landscapes

Once again, with summer fast approaching, all I can think about is going to the beach. Some of my students have never seen the beach, So I thought I'd teach them hot to properly draw a landscape with space included. This was one of my favorites.

This student is really good at coloring. 

5th Grade 2-Point Perspective

For Spring break, I observed some other teachers for some PD. I saw one of their lessons on 2 point perspective and thought what a good idea. I came back to school, and showed my 6th grade students the lesson and some students got it, while others struggled. I think the hardest part of this lesson is remembering to always draw to the vanishing points. Here are some great examples. 

With so many kids playing Minecraft these days, the students were surprised with how close this art approach came to Minecraft. These students really got it!

Some students just kept going. Once they got it, they had so much fun just filling up the page.