Illuminated letters 2012 version

For our newest installment of Illuminated letters we went back to paper and maker, colored pencil and or crayon. We viewed my illuminated letter powerpoint that we watch for each version of this lesson. New this year I had kids fill out a little, "about me" survey to help them brainstorm for the lesson. This proved very helpful for me later on when the kids had some artist block.

 These were done by 7th and 8th grade student's many who are repeats to my program.

 I asked each student to choose a letter that applied to them and then use 5-9 images that told the story of who they were.

The kids were to really focus on using their art materials correctly.

 I tried to leave this lesson a bit more open to see what the kids would do with it. Overall I was really happy with the end results.

none of these are really my strongest artists but they all worked hard to do their personal best

New to art this year, I think he has really neat ideas like his paintball splattered letter R

Love this tribute to the new and classic Dr. Who....do you see how she drew herself wearing the classic Dr. Who scarf?

Darn this photo doesn't capture the insane detail of the work this young man does. He blows my mind. Here is a close up picture of the detail doodling he did inside his letter B.

a bit creepy...but there is a maturity in his work that is way beyond what you would expect from a 8th grade boy.
I still need to take a photo of the very best one though done by one of my autistic students who can break out of his intense internal world through his art...I can't wait to share his worth with you.

french curves and watercolor flowers

Another old-ie but goodie from my year at Damascus. I got this from a lady that taught middle school in either Minnesota or Wisconsin. I got most of my first year lessons from her site, she was amazing. I could have sworn her last name was Max-Weber or something like that. Her site has sense disappeared and I've spent hours trying to find her/it with no avail. Sigh.
Anyway this project was done with my 8th grade students. I had them draw a rectangle in the middle of their paper and then do a close up drawing of a flower using watercolor pencils. Then around the flower I had them use french curves to create a design. They had to go in and color in parts of the french curve shapes. I'm going to do a spring advanced art class after school and this will be one of their projects.

Click on photos to see larger close up of the images.