Wednesday, April 27, 2011

AP Project - Cyanotype Mixed Media

For my AP students, I decided to have them make cyanotypes and then work back into them using whatever material they chose to.  As I was explaining the project, I noticed that some of them seemed confused so before the next class, I made a few examples using cyanotypes I made last spring and a different media that I liked.
Dr. Martins Liquid Watercolor diluted with water and applied with a spray bottle.

Pen and Ink

Colored Pencil

Acrylic and Pen & Ink


Stained the prints with coffee.  (I'm thinking of going back into these with pen & ink but they were still wet when I was at school so that didn't happen yet.)

I'm happy with all of them but the coffee and pen & ink ones are my favorites.  It was also nice to see the students really "get" the project when I showed them all of these.  I could see the wheels turning in their heads and a few of them instantly decided what they wanted to do.  I'm excited to see what they end up making.  They are all extremely talented and I know they'll make good work.




Mountain Goats Lyric Interpretation

For the Drawing II class, I am having them do visual interpretation of song lyrics that I chose for them.  I decided to pick lyrics from my favorite band, The Mountain Goats.  When selecting lyrics, I tried to make sure none of them would be "too easy" for students to interpret them.  The class is a sort-of a precursor to AP Art where they need to be independent and come up with interesting ideas on their own.  I think that most of the lyrics that I chose leave a lot of room for the students to apply their own meaning to them. 
Here's the handout I gave them when I introduced the project:

Finished It!

So, I finally finished the heart that I've been working on.  (I actually finished it a while ago, but it's been hanging in the classroom I'm teaching in.)  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  The paint pen I used liked to bleed a lot but once got the hang of it, it was no sweat.
"Untitled" (Math), 8.5x11 - found paper, acrylics, ink, and paint pen

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Update!...Finally

Whoops!  It's been a while. I was super busy student-teaching in Avon at their Middle/High Schools but this week I started at Webster-Thomas High School.  It's a big shift in a lot of ways but I love it there.  My cooperating teacher is awesome and full of good insight.  He also is a huge proponent of the teacher working in the classroom with their students; especially during work periods when the students don't need much input.  Today, during the AP class, was one of those days.  They were just working hard so I decided to get to work on the heart piece that I started back in  January.  I had brought in some of the materials to use but I'm also free to use anything in the room (which is amazing.)  It's an amazing feeling to be working alongside other artists again (even if they are in high-school, they're extremely talented) and I think that it brings an awesome energy to a classroom.  I'm excited to get a lot more work done in the room over the coming weeks!


8.5x11" in my sketchbook.  Found paper, paste, acrylic, ink