My Artful Heart

I have always wanted to do an Artful Heart drawing project. This school year seemed like the perfect time to explore a bit about what is in my students' hearts. 

Students began by tracing or redrawing the below anatomical heart. We then went through the following questions to brainstorm ideas of how to create an artful heart that would represent their actual heart and what they may be feeling this school year.

What does your heart look like?

Where does your heart come from? 

Where does your heart live?

Has your heart ever been broken? 

Who or what has broken your heart? 

         What kind of treasures does your heart contain? 

What color is your heart?

What or who is taking up the most space in your heart?     

What words would your heart say or sing? 

Where does your heart want to go? 

What is your heart holding on to?

What does your heart’s future look like? 

What might be hurting your heart?

What or who is protecting your heart?

What images are tattooed on your heart?        

Would you or others consider your heart ugly or beautiful?

This is my Artful Heart that I shared with students to help them think of ideas of what to add to their drawing. We talked about adjusting the shape and parts of the heart to go with their ideas and to add sections if needed. Basic design ideas of drawing large to fill the space, and simplifying where needed were also discussed. Students were to draw a minimum of 3 ideas to represent them and could create a background if they wanted to complete their work. Students finished with shading with pencil and/or shading/blending with colored pencil to create dimension and interest. Some students also chose to add marker. 

A few awesome student samples:

I love how students really got into this project 

and showed what was really in their hearts!

Surrealist Perspective

Surrealism is creating a dream like image. Perspective is a drawing system used creating depth on a flat surface. This lesson is a bit of both! It is an oldie but a goodie that I have always wanted to try. It was also a good way to wrap up the fall semester combining several concepts we were learning, Op Art, shading forms, and creating depth in a picture plane.

We began previewing/reviewing basic one point perspective using this worksheet (source unknown).

We then added details to the forms, turning them into structures with entrances and exits.Students could then use this worksheet or a new page to add something that could be "stretched" through each of the structures. Several examples and ideas were looked at and listed to get their imaginations going!

This is my 16 year old cat Miracle with her fabulous tail traveling through the structures. I then shaded them and created a background. Students could use pencil, colored pencils or both to finish their work, showing the blending and shading techniques we have been working with.

Of course, I had to make an Among Us sample. Then I tried one without the worksheet and Dragon themed. It was quite a challenge, but several students gave it a try!

Awesome student work!

Artfulness Among Us!!!

Toward the end of 2020, interest in electives at my school was waning a bit. I decided to hop on the "Among Us Train" in an attempt to keep my artists working! Here are a few ideas we have explored using these little "sus" guys as inspiration!

After watching a few YouTube videos about the game and how to draw the characters, students followed the above steps from artprojectsforkids.org using a wide popsicle stick (No rulers being shared this year!) to keep their drawings at least 6 inches! Students first created a simple drawing and learned to shade it as shown above. Then they could add different "hats" and accessories to personalize or try following the steps of a video to create a more unique drawing.

We then tried a few Op Art ideas using this theme. The above is drawn on notebook paper coloring every other stripe, varying inside and out, and then shading a bit to create a simple illusion.

Students used gridded paper for a 2nd Op Art version using warm and cool colors.

For a beginning assignment for the new semester, students personalized an Among Us Character with at least 10 images of things they were interested in. 

Students then added to this project by learning to draw and color graffiti names and draw and shade a brick wall behind their character.

Overall, it was fun to use something that is trending with students to interest them in creating. If was awesome to see how different projects using this simple little drawing could be expanded upon to work with different ideas and media!

Color Wheel Op Art

 

As part of our Color Unit, we combined the idea of Optical Illusion and Colored Pencil Shading Skills to create this Color Wheel Op Art.

Before getting to the project, we reviewed Color Theory with the above worksheet learning how to blend a primary and a neighboring secondary to create an intermediate color. Students then walked through the steps on the worksheet below (sources unknown).

First, separate the page into 12 sections.

Then draw consecutive wavy lines alternating 

the curve as it meets the section lines.

Don't forget to lightly label the colors in color wheel order before coloring alternating light and dark area. Be sure to shade darker on the edges of each "cone" and lighter toward the middle blending the layers of color so each cone does not look too "stripey"!

It was interesting to see how unique the projects turned out, even though following the same steps, depending on students' blending and shading styles. These turned out fun and of course, colorful!

PROJECT SEEING 2020

In 2020 I committed to a plan of creating 10 page spreads in an art journal after taking a class taught by my friend Kayann Asherman of fromvictoryroad.com called Project Seeing 2020. Every month there was a list of daily prompts. I chose the word or words that inspired me to create during this strange year. Here are just a few of my page spreads.

A few of these pages were inspired by famous artists who inspire me. Others were inspired by all the things going on in 2020. These are just a few of the 120 finished page spreads. It was a great challenge to accomplish finishing 10 page spreads per month and as it turned out, the perfect year to do it in!