Middle School Art

Tutorial Description

Middle school is one of the most exciting times for children to study art. Their creative minds help them to approach artisitic settings with a sense of adventure and a playful, enthusiastic attitude. At the same time, they have growing skills and the ability to grasp advanced concepts, making them ready for exploring new mediums and various artistic techniques.

Our students will combine these two strong facets as they spend the year using their imaginations and building brand-new skills. As they experiment, discovering a wide variety of styles and mediums, they will learn how to make their artwork more accurate as well as more creative. Keeping a sketchbook of weekly homework assignments, and taking part in group and individual critiques, will help our students learn the important habits of consistency and self-evaluation in their work.

Overview of Middle School Art projects:

Blind Contour and Contour Drawings
Use the concepts of blind contour drawing and contour drawing to give students a new way of looking at the world around them. Blind contour drawing involves looking only at the object that is being drawn and not at the paper. Blind contour drawing forces students to be more concerned with the process of looking and observing than with the way that the final drawing actually turns out.

This is an easy sketchbook activity to continue outside of class as it only requires a sketchbook and a pencil.

Shading
Students will learn how to create shading using pencils and/or charcoal. They will start by creating a value chart, blending a very light shade of pencil (close to white) into a very dark black at the end. Then, a simple still life will be set up and strong lighting will be placed on it to allow for shadows and bright areas. The students will draw the still life and then add shading.

Collage
Using magazines, scrapbooking papers, newspaper, and any other interesting papers and materials, create small representational and abstract collages by gluing papers into the sketchbook. Experiment with various color combinations, combining textures, creating monochromatic studies, and incorporating text.

Watercolor
Observe real objects from life (leaves, rocks, trees, etc…) and create a watercolor studies. Watercolor pencils can be used for this project as they are very portable and may be an easy way to for students to begin to learn how watercolors work. Watercolor studies may continue with other objects that are easily accessible: shoes, hands, glasses, etc.

Acrylic Painting
Create studies of animals (from photos) using acrylic paint. The students will be able to learn blending of the paint, as well as creating representational paintings. They could also use thinned-down acrylic paint to create quicker, gesture drawings of the animals (especially animal movement – a cat pouncing or a fish diving).

Portraits
Students will observe fellow classmates and create quick sketches of the face from various angles. After doing several of these studies in pencil, students can create a portrait using the medium of their choice: watercolor, acrylic, collage, pencil (in more detail with shading or as a contour or blind contour drawing). Students will also be able to experiment with more exaggerated portraits, in a caricature style.

Mixed Media
Students will be given the chance to combine two or more techniques learned through the year. For example, they may create an abstract collage and then add acrylic paint on top of the collaged paper. Or, they may create a watercolor painting, and then use contour line drawings to add detailing on the dry painting.

End of the year “Book Project”
Students will spend several class periods working on a book from start to finish. We will begin with observation, taking walks outside and/or observing the world around us. Students will also be encouraged to continue this observation away from class and document it in their sketchbooks. Drawings created during this time will then be used to shape the concept for a short book. The type of medium used will be decided on by the student.