Category Archives: Lesson Plans
Light-Capturing Cut Paper Designs
Students practiced cutting and folding pre-printed motif designs before coming up with interesting designs of their own. They worked on medium-weight white drawing paper which they divided into at least five 2-inch boxes. They left a border around the outer … Continue reading
Goblins, Creatures & Character Sculptures
Every few years, I would have my students watch the movie Labyrinth and the documentary about the making of this fun fantasy movie that starred David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly. A Jim Henson and George Lucas production in the mid 1980s, … Continue reading
Oldenburg-Inspired Sculptures
Students (middle school and later high school) were introduced to the monumental sculptural works of Claes Oldenburg. Excited by the prospect of “supersizing” an ordinary object, students brainstormed to come up with ideas. Once they’d made a decision on which object … Continue reading
Agam-Inspired “Kinetic” Art
Middle school students were introduced to “Agamographs”; the work of artist Yaacov Agam, Focusing on artwork which moves or appears to move, students were challenged to develop their own piece of “visually kinetic” artwork. Many students found it helpful to … Continue reading
Paper Pulp Painting
Denise Fleming, a children’s book author and illustrator, creates many of her illustrations by “painting” with colorful paper pulp. Her work was the inspiration for students who were eager to apply skills they’d learned in a previous unit on basic … Continue reading
Paper Making, Casting & Embossing
Paper Making: While papermaking “recipes” vary, we used 1-1/2 to 2 sheets of shredded 8.5 x 11 paper (added gradually) to 3-4 cups of water in a blender to produce one sheet of handmade paper. The paper and water were … Continue reading
Draw What You Feel – Drawing Game
Materials: Objective: Students will produce contour drawings of hidden objects that they feel with their fingers, but do not look at. This exercise helps them become more aware of contour lines and the edges of shapes. Procedure: Have each student … Continue reading
Edible Color Wheel
Materials Before class, use red, yellow, and blue food coloring to tint three bowls of frosting. (Tints of each color work fine; it’s not necessary to mix a dark blue or dark red for this to work well!) Cover the … Continue reading
Monochromatic Paintings with a Technological Twist
For this project, students use the cutout filter (Filter > Artistic > Cutout) in Adobe Photoshop to alter and abstract a reference photograph. While the cutout levels do not accurately correspond to the actual number of values in the altered … Continue reading
Complex Color Wheels
As part of a unit on Color Theory, students were challenged to create a color wheel in which their design, color mixing ability and craftsmanship were all important aspects of the piece. They could use only the primary colors (red, … Continue reading