It's that time of year when one can find frequent trails of dust tracked through the school, leading back to the art room.Myself and many students have traded in the usual contacts for glasses.Art students can be spotted with smudges of a gray substance on their clothing, hands and in special occasions even their faces. This can only mean one thing and one thing only. It is the greatest time of year again! No, it’s not that we are only a few days away from Christmas break; rather it's CLAY TIME!!! Art students are taking the last few days before break to finish their clay projects. The kiln is being loaded as we speak for the first of the year!!
After taking a few days practicing our gesture drawing skills we started in on our final projects. The project was to create one unified composition using three figures. Also this year I switched it up a bit and instead of using conte crayon I had them use charcoal pencils on toned paper. This switch was to allow students more control over their drawing.
I have many traditions on Thanksgiving. These traditions include watching the parade, watching the lions lose another heart breaking football game (hopefully this year they pull out a win), spending time with the family, and of course eating way too much amazing food. This year I would like us to start a new Thanksgiving tradition. This year take some time out of your busy day to take part of a tradition that dates back to the first thanksgiving (okay you got me, maybe it doesn’t go back that far). Lets all take a few minutes to be a kid again and draw ourselves a hand turkey. You may ask yourself what is a hand turkey? No worries ehow took care of that for us. As a high school art teacher the hand turkey has driven me crazy and plagued my nightmares for so many years. This year however the thanksgiving spirit has taken over and I have decided to turn over a new leaf or in this case “my hand” and embrace the hand turkey. Have yourself a hand turkey bonanza!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
Recently in Art 2 we dove into mixed media. This project was an introduction into different mixed media techniques. We spent some time talking about the ground in which we create our art on.
We then started out by creating a collage background of newspaper clippings onto cardboard.
After which we did some observational drawing of Jimmy the skeleton. Lastly taking those preliminary sketches and creating a final piece using charcoal pencils on top of our newspaper collage.
Be on the look out in and around St. Louis because here come the pumpkins. Year two of the community pumpkin project is underway. Here are a few teasers for you to wet your whistle till they make it out into the community.
We kicked off the year in Art 2 by learning the expressive nature of Line. Students had to chose four adjectives that describe themselves and then express those adjectives abstractly using line. What adjective describes you?
So many students asked the same question today. Did Mr. Puffpaff dress up for Benjamin Button day because those sort of look like his normal clothes? I will let you decide for yourself.
For the blogs:
1st: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ezk8sxls2hy270b/GxfxNwCSBB
Now that the first week is in the books and the craziness that accompanies that first week has subsided (well at least a bit). I have had a chance to reflect on the new school year. It is going to be a year to remember. I have several new and exciting things planned that are sure to be remembered. Check back soon and often as new work from the school year will be posted shortly. To wet your whistle while you wait for the new work to start showing up take a trip downtown and check out our students work on the banners hanging on the light poles. Here are some pictures of the banners in progress and up in the St. Louis Community.
I have decided that this summer will be the summer of RE. Here are a few things that I will be doing this summer.
1. REcharging the batteries. Taking a quick breath (emphasis on quick) and taking some much needed R and R.
2. REvamping the curriculum. I will be taking a look at ways to amp up the curriculum to help take the SLHS art program to the next level.
3. REfocusing on the blog. Creating more posts and spending more time on creating a top notch innovative blog.
4. REtooling my teaching arsenal. I will be presenting later in the summer with two fellow SLHS teachers Coach Kelly and Mr. Hemker. Both are educational leaders in their respective fields. Here is a short video of Coach Kelly from earlier in the year.
I am very fortunate to have such innovative educators that I can call colleagues, mentors, and friends.
Add all this with coaching the SLHS XC team and the summer is shaping up to be an exciting one!!!
Throwing it back to the old school process of creating animation. My art 1 students learned all about the history of animation and the use of hand painted cells in creating animation. We later did some character development and created a character for their cell. After drawing and painting their character on the cell, they finished it up by creating a background for their character.
It's that time of year when one can find frequent trails of dust tracked through the school, leading back to the art room. Myself and many students have traded in the usual contacts for glasses. Art students can be spotted with smudges of a gray substance on their clothing, hands and in special occasions even their faces. This can only mean one thing and one thing only. It is the greatest time of year again! No, it’s not that we are only a few days away from Christmas break; rather it's CLAY TIME!!! Art students are taking the last few days before break to finish their clay projects. The kiln is being loaded as we speak for the first of the year!! 
