Stop Motion Animation Lesson Plan Idea

One of the lesson ideas that I have been exposed to was the idea of making a stop motion animation. These are relatively accessible to all students even if they were not previously introduced to such media arts. The idea for my introductory art class would be that students would have this a section area of study at that the study would include a stop motion animation a website for their art, a blog for their art and a video that they make with a group.

I have not decided whether or not this would be a class in and of itself. Students would cut out paper and take pictures as they moved the paper and sequence the pictures to look as though there was movement this can also be done with clay for advanced students. They would use either iMovie, or app that are readily available on tablets which are become more and more used by students in schools. Here is a link to a few examples of a paper cut out stop motion animation.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijwy8XFC4wg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZ11Hh4LP4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOfWjEAImtY

Photojournalism

 This photograph taken at the chapel that is in the camp that I grew up at is important to me because it represents my faith and my childhood. I went to this camp as a child and the chapel there is the center of worship there. Also I worked for a sister ministry of this camp for the past two summers and this is the chapel where we are commissioned into working for God for the summer. This photo is a prime example of framing which is a photojournalism tool used by photographers to draw the eye to what it is important in the photo which in this case is the cross. Also in this photo I used the compositional technique of the golden triangle in this photograph because of all the angles the eye is drawn to following the lines of the photograph.

 This log was found at the camp I used to live in as well it is weathered over time because it has been at this camp for almost ten years as I remember the day I came tumbling over the waterfall below. It is also weathered through nature like my family has in the camping world, my family has worked for camping and retreat ministries for over 20 years and while it has been difficult with all the snakes I would not want it any other way. For this reason I chose to photograph this log using the photojournalism technique of proximity and the compositional technique of rule of thirds.

 This is the aforementioned waterfall. I grew up with this waterfall in my back yard almost literally and it has been a symbol for the camp where I worked and lived and also for the gathering of Christians all over the north Georgia conference. I used the the photojournalism technique of place. People may not know that this is more than an ordinary waterfall, they may think that it is just beautiful but it also has meaning to me. I also used the compositional technique of the golden triangle to make the eye follow the line of the waterfall up to the line of the viewing deck and trail and back down.

Ceramics is one of my favorite mediums as an artist and it is something I find pride and enjoyment in. This is one of the projects I have been working on, lidded jars. The photojournalism technique I used was vantage point, I leaned back and was sitting down to take this photograph and I used the compositional technique of the golden spiral to make the eye focus on the small lidded jar I was working on.

Photography is very important to teach students as it shows them new ways of expressing themselves if the school has the resources to have a large photography class that is great but if not almost all students have phones in this day and age and therefore can usually participate in class. If a student does not have a phone then they can borrow a camera that I personally have or one of the school's camera, if the school has a few cameras. The things that I would teach would definitely be centered on the importance of composition. Then I would have students focus on what it is important to them, more specifically not selfies or pictures of their friends but pictures of more meaningful things such as what has influenced the person that they have become. I would also have them work on a project that would specifically look for a topic that is important or ongoing in the media.

Here is a link to an artist I admire.
http://www.jacksonfineart.com/Walker-Evans-356.html

Syllabi

Dear Parents/Guardians:

My name is Elizabeth Davis and I will be your student's teacher for art! I graduated from the University of South Carolina with my BFA in Art Education in the spring of 2017. My concentration was three dimensional art and I am so glad for the opportunity to become more acquainted with this art form as I have gotten older. I grew up here in South Carolina and in Georgia and I'm glad for the opportunity to give back to the community! Here is a little more information about the classes that your student is enrolled in! 

I am so glad that you are joining us for the school year in art! I think of art as a means of expression and while that should be fun I also take art seriously as it can lead to learning great life skills. Art Education is important to students’ education because it teaches them critical thinking, and problem solving skills. It is a means for exploring the various mediums through which students can express themselves more effectively. Students should take pride in their work and have fun creating in a safe environment.

There are many opportunities for students to get involved here in our art classes such as Art 1, Art 2, Art 3, and Advanced Art. It is never too late to get a start in art. In each of these classes we will take a look into what it is to work in drawing, painting, print-making, ceramics, and many other fields of study!

Students will have opportunities to participate and compete in art competitions for the school, district and state. Through our school art competition, district competition, and State Fair. These are great opportunities as well as an end of the school year school exhibit in which students will have the opportunity to show off their hard work and have parents come see what every student has worked on throughout the year.

Thank you in advance for supporting and participating in his or her art education.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Davis

Can You Paint With All the Colors of the Wind?

One of the things that all teachers have to address at some point is color theory. The primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. The secondary colors: purple, orange, and green. The tertiary colors:  blue green, yellow green, red purple, blue purple, red orange, and yellow orange.

Then you have your complimentary colors which are red-green, purple-yellow, and blue-orange. This goes by whichever colors are directly across from each other on the color wheel. Next there are tints and shades, you can create a tint of any color by adding white to it and you can likewise create a shade of any color by adding black to it. Next we have color schemes which are a theme of colors that is in a composition. Analogous is a scheme of colors on the color wheel that incorporates three colors. Cool colors are the blue, greens and some purples, and warm colors are red, orange, and yellows. Triadic colors are colors on the wheel that make a perfect equilateral triangle on the color wheel such as blue, yellow, and red. Split complimentary colors are a little trickier so take red for example to find the split complimentary colors for red you go across the color wheel to green and the split complimentary colors for red are on either side of green so blue-green, and yellow-green.

 A good way for every study to get some basic practice is to create a color wheel and then paint out a gradation scale for a mono chromatic and so on. This will show them how colors mix and also let them prepare for the project we are about to do!

The project is a self-portrait! Now reverse to the beginning of class yesterday. As your students come in the door you are going to get them to make a funny face or smile and take their head shot! You are going to go onto photo shop and create one of these bad boys.

Then you’ll ask them to make a one inch grid on that picture that you printed for them and a two inch grid on the paper which you have cut to be 22 by 16 because you are prepared!

Next your students will draw out their portrait onto the grid; this might be confusing for some of them so be prepared for questions and help when and where it’s needed! Once they have drawn out their portrait and have labeled the areas 1-5 or 1-7 based on the number of tints and shades that are in the portrait. After this students will come to you and tell you what color scheme they want to use, be prepared to steer students away from yellow, as adding yellow and black creates brown. Along with telling the boys who want to use red for a monochromatic color scheme that there will be pink in their portrait then and making sure they are okay with that. 

Here are some examples of finished products and steps along the way!

Throw that Shade

Color Pencil Shading!

So get out your Prisma set, we are about to play with the age old favorite of colored pencils! First of all we are going to start out with a good ole’ gradation scale to make sure that we all are on the same page on how to use our utensils. Students should hold their pencils further away from the tip because this will enable them to have more control over the amount of pressure they put down on the paper. Move in small spaces coloring only as big as a quarter at a time. Make thin layers so that the color will blend well with other colors. And make sure that the student is putting the colored pencil to the page almost perpendicular so that the side of the pencil is what is putting pressure on the page. FUN FACT! Color pencils are a wax with pigment so to make thick layers of colored pencil marking would not be conducive to blending colors. The wax will only build up on the paper to a certain level, and then the paper can hold no more wax. This is not where students want to start a project, start a project with light and thin layers. The first exercise is the gradation scale the second exercise for exploring colored pencils is fruit!  The teacher should look up pictures of fruit on the internet and show them on the smart board or have pictures of fruit printed off for students to choose and use. Students will make a thumbnail drawing of one fruit to show blending techniques. The students should have a wide variety of fruit to choose from so that they feel as if they have some control. Then students will be able to do the main project! The main project will be a still life study that is made of fruit! They will get to show off their skills of shading with colored pencils and you will have a successful piece of art to add to all of your students’ beautiful portfolios! 

Ceramics Classes

Pinch Pot Spirit Rattle

Today we will be talking about my classroom and in my classroom; ideally, I would be teaching a ceramics class in which we would have five units of study. The first of these units of study would cover pinch pots, the second would be coil pots the third would be slab work, the forth would be throwing pots on the wheel and the last unit of study would be a combination that is sculptural. Today we are going to focus on the first unit of study, pinch pots.

The student will produce a pinch pot that has beads in its inner chamber to make the object into a rattle; the rattle will consist of six pinch pots. The student will produce a pinch pot that uses techniques to release trapped air.

On the first day of the class, I will give all the students a ball of clay to work with while I introduce the medium and some key terms such as green ware, bisque ware, leather hard, and bone dry. I will also introduce them to the first project. This will give them time to work with the clay if they have never had experience with it before while still enabling them to get comfortable with the class. The homework will be three designs for a pinch pot spirit rattle. I also will show students a PowerPoint with examples of the spirit rattle and different pinch pot art. I will play a fun game at the end of the class to make sure that students are grasping the concepts I present in class, this will be the formative assessment. On the second day students will be learning how to wedge clay so that they are taught a valuable lesson for when they are working with the clay on their projects. They will also view a PowerPoint that has example videos of slipping and scoring and other techniques. Wedging is essential to a ceramicist’s process. Also when I go around to see that they are wedging clay properly (which is the formative assessment for the day) I will check to see if they did their homework and approve of their project. Once I have done this they may begin. Realistically the project would take a minimum of ten classes. The first three classes would be working with clay before it is leather hard, the next three days would be working with leather hard clay and then there would be a miscellaneous day that would be for students who are struggling with the time or just need to really catch up with the work load as it will be a strenuous timeline. The last three days are for glazing in which students will have a rolling deadline as long as it is done before the critique.

Elements and Principles

Today's lesson is a focus on the elements and principles of art and applying those on a very basic level to clay! So what are the elements and principles of art?

Elements: Line, Shape, Color, Value, Form, Texture, and Space!

Principles: Balance, Contrast, Emphasis, Movement, Pattern, Rhythm, and Unity!

So how do we apply these to clay you might ask? Well simply by designing a FORM of a pot that uses the elements and principles. For our purposes we are going to use Form, Pattern (also known as repetition,) and Unity! 

First of all we will be using a technique of making a ton of tiny little clay balls to unify into one form of a clay pot! So you will need clay, I would suggest a clay body that has grog in it because this clay body did not and if you are going to build something that is larger than this small bowl then you are going to need the grog to make the form stronger. Also if you prefer you can utilize a potter’s thumb for the next few steps but one is not required. 

(The aforementioned potter’s thumb)

The first step is to make a bunch of tiny little balls. The use of repetition is very important in this step. You will need to make sure that the clay balls you make are similar in size because when you take the form out of the bowl you will see the size of the clay balls on the other side of the form. If you want that variation of the repetition in the size this is fine also but be aware of the size of the clay balls that you are making.You will need to line your bowl with a paper towel or with newspaper as the clay will stick to the walls of your bowl making removal hard. 

(ALSO ADD A NAPKIN UNDER THE CLAY[It will help release it from the bowl{obviously I did not do this}])

Then you will use either your fingers or your potter’s thumb to push the clay together causing the balls to join together. 

 Here are two examples of the clay being smoothed together by your thumbs.

 Here is the form I created through this technique of hand building! This form shows the unification of many repeated shapes to create what we see here. So that is one way of using the elements and principles of art in clay. Now, if you would like to make a second mold of the bowl or another form and then join the two you can make a sculptural piece similar to the piece shown below.

Still Lifes

When drawing still lifes with your class the first thing you want to do is set up an interesting arrangement. This means that the arrangement should be seen from multiple angles with different textures and layers. Make sure the objects overlap and the objects create a depth of field so that again the arrangement can be drawn from multiple places in your classroom. I have included an example from multiple angles.

There are some difficulties that students may come across when they are first learning to draw from life. One of those is actually drawing what the student sees and not just want they think is there. That is why this is a great lesson plan to put after the contour line drawing lesson. Another question or problem that may arise from this drawing lesson is the use of shading and so one warm up exercise that a lot of teachers use is to draw a shading scale for your graphite pencils to experiment with the material and to really get a handle on how to use a full variation of shades. Here is an example of the shading scale.

For first time still life drawers I would probably not start with a full scale project but work on using the techniques from the contour line project and apply them to the still life lesson. You can do this by doing a contour line still life lesson plan that will utilize both project skills and will not emphasize on shading. Then when students feel comfortable with drawing from life they can add in shading from the still life lesson plan.

There is always going to be frustration when drawing from life with kids off this age range, just because students often will want to get things “right” making sure that every student feels accomplished is going to be important especially on these projects.

(side note this last picture is a still life in charcoal)