Van Gogh Collage

In this project, we focused on the style of Vincent Van Gogh, who painted the famous "Starry Night" among many other pieces during his short career.  To create our collages, we first cut out small pieces of tissue paper, using various colors.  We used minimal amounts of glue to adhere these to our construction paper background before applying a gel medium over the top when we were completed applying the tissue paper.  Once this was dry, we had a clear, glossy finish over our work.  Using oil pastels and markers, lines were made throughout our picture to represent the style of Van Gogh.  Another piece of construction paper was used on top of all of this to create a landscape of our choosing.  Lines were again made on this piece to add style.

For my project, I chose to use a nighttime landscape of a lake, surrounded by trees.  To accomplish this, I used a black background with a piece of blue for the water.  To make the trees, I again used construction paper: green and brown.  Using oil pastels, I made small stars and lines in the sky.  Lines were also made on the lake, trees, and background using a silver and black marker.  

This project would be fun to do in my future classroom because it gives the students an opportunity to use tissue paper in a different way.  Also, the gel medium used to attach the tissue paper gives the project a nice shine that would stand out when hung in a hallway.  Along with this activity, students could work on finding some facts about Van Gogh, or even doing a research paper on him, depending on their age.  This research will give them more insight into his style of painting and his works of art.  Another extension of this activity is to have students write a story explaining their artwork.  This will allow students to explain what they have made while also giving them practice in creative writing.  

Art History in the Classroom:

Possibly the easiest way to incorporate art history into a normal general education classroom is to cover it in social studies.  As students learn about different cultures, societies, traditions and geographic places, art can be brought in to enhance the lesson.  For example, when studying about the Ancient Egyptians and their burial practices, art history can be taught by examining the tombs that were made to place the bodies of prominent individuals in.  

Elements and Principles of Design Scavenger Hunt

For this project, we needed to take pictures of various objects and items that demonstrated the twelve elements and principles of design that we learned about in class.  The twelve are: lines, shapes, space, texture, value, color, repetition, emphasis, contrast, balance, unity and rhythm/movement.  We then complied each of the photos using PowerPoint and included definitions on each slide.  This project was a fun way to familiarize ourselves with the basics of art by taking pictures of everyday objects that have various aspects of art in them.  It opened my eyes to view things in a different way; much like learning about music will make you listen to things differently.

The following pictures are ones that I used in my project showcasing five of the elements.

Space

•Volume that can be empty or filled with objects

•Composed of width, height, and depth

•Depth is achieved in three-dimensional works

•Objects that are farther away seem to look smaller, as with the trees across the lake

Color

•Most familiar element of art

•In order to see color, there must be light

•Three properties

•Hue (name)

•Value (light or dark)

•Intensity (purity)

•During fall, trees and shrubs turn many different colors, as shown here 

Value

•Refers to light and dark
•Describes form and defines space

•A tint is when white is added

•Black is added to make a shade

•The color is lighter as you move closer to a light source, such as a light bulb

Emphasis

•Used to create dominance or a focal point

•Emphasis can be placed on color, value or shapes

•Cloud formations can create focal points of their own, especially when the sun is shining through an opening

Contrast

•Differences in values, colors, textures, shapes, and other elements

•Makes art more exciting visually

•Some people choose to use several different colors to make walls more interesting

Welcome to my art page!

This first posting will be about the first project that we did for class, our foot autobiography.  This was a great project to do at the beginning of the semester because it allowed us as a class to get to know each other better and to feel more comfortable around each other.  As a future teacher, I think this would be a great project for the first week of school.  It will give your students the chance to be creative while telling you important things about them.  Another reason why I liked this activity was because it had a framework to guide us when we got lost, but also provided us with enough room so that everyone's footprint was different.  

To make our footprints, we first traced our foot onto construction paper and cut it out.  Then, we were told to find items that related to our life.  These could be nearly anything, and it was required that we use three different mediums, which pushed us to be more creative.  

This my final product for the foot autobiography project.  The photo on the right is of my sisters, brother, brother-in-law, parents, niece, and myself.  I included this picture because family is very important in my life and they have always been there to support me.  The photo on the left side is myself with my niece, Kira.  She was born when I was a junior in high school and lives in the same town as my parents.  After she was born, I became much closer with my sister, her mom, and have learned a lot about myself.  Now that I have moved out, I miss Kira quite a bit, which makes our time together even more special.  The drawings in the middle portray my love for the outdoors, which includes camping, bonfires, and fishing.  These are all activities that I enjoy doing during the summer and whenever it's warm enough.  The rose petals of either side of the foot represent the five summers I worked at a greenhouse/nursery throughout the last couple years of high school and the beginning of college.  While working there, I learned more about plants than I ever thought I would know and also learned the importance of hard work.

This activity would be great in nearly all ages and can be easily adapted to fit the age you are working with.  For younger students, you might want to consider limiting them to what they can include on the foot.  This way, you won't get any bugs or worms glued on that might be better represented by a drawing.  On the other hand, for older students, you could only let them draw one element and require that each element is a different medium.  

Another extension of this activity could include doing a hand biography of another student in the class.  This will allow the students to get to know each other even better and will also let the students work cooperatively.