Back In Vogue

TABLE-TOP LOOM WEAVING

EXTRA CREDIT FOR 3-D ART

featuring Junior Bianca Tolentino

Weaving is making a resurgence in the Crafts World right now and we are so there.

I've pulled out my table top looms from the 1980's and I'm offering extra credit to my 3-d students if they'd like to try it out

Bianca was super interested in learning and this is her first piece.

A few close-ups of all the different yarns she choose to work with, 

and some beads she embellished with.

For her ending she did simple square knots which left her with a bit of fringe.

Great job kiddo!

My Little Ones

CHARCOAL CONES

4TH QUARTER 7TH GRADERS

charcoal

I'm really getting to know these 4th quarter young ones.

 They are enthusiastic and working really hard to please me so I wanted to show off 2 of their outstanding charcoal pieces.

Both Queena Hoang (above) and Liam Abalos (below) have the design and technical skills to go far in the arts.

Every piece they make in class stands out as some of the best, so I hope you two will be back for more next year! 

Illustrator and Mixed Media Art Carla Sonheim

I had a lot of positive responses from the post I did last week on the Junk Mail books.

Thought I'd share with you the original book that Carla did that inspired me to take her class and then to teach it to my students.

Going for a Bit of Realism in Tempera

PRELIMINARY PAINT IN TEMPERA

BEGINNING 2-D ART

tempera, cardstock

At the beginning of the school year my beginners were introduced to tempera in their color theory unit.

I asked them to paint their color wheel and schemes in a very flat, opaque and graphic style.

But during 4th quarter we re-visit it in a much more realistic way.

This first one was done by junior Sunny Kim.

She is easily one of my strongest beginners this year and I'm sure hoping to see her next year in the Intermediate class.

Her designs are always lovely and beautifully crafted.

Junior Michael Cantu, whose work we've seen this year several times is also doing an outstanding job with the very tricky tempera.  

It's a frustrating medium to work in because it dries so quickly.

And junior Nathan Chong gives us an equally wonderful work with this piece above.

Note:  I want all you young ones back next year, I still have so much to teach you!

Relief Printing

LINOLEUM PRINTMAKING

ADVANCED 2-D ART

rubber stamping pad, water based printmaking ink

Seniors Megan Yeu and Jarick Symbol just finished up a relief printing unit.

They had to print an edition of 5 along with an artist's proof.

Both made a couple extra as you can see below.

They also had to do at least a 3 color registration which is fairly complex and involves a lot of critical thinking and pre-planning. 

Megan went all out above and did a 6 color registration within her piece, highly difficult on this small a scale, which makes her work look very dimensional.

The kids were also required to mount their favorite print, that's why you see matt board and embellishments around the prints.

They were also required to try printing on different surfaces.

Jarick really liked printing on tissue paper above because it gives a slight crinkly texture.

Both kids really enjoyed the process so now I'm moving them into Monoprinting.

Who Wants 10 Points of Extra Credit??

EXTRA CREDIT

ALL ART STUDENTS

Click on Extra Credit Opportunities at the top of the Homepage for more details.

Recycling at it's Best

JUNK MAIL BOOKS

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

junk mail, watercolor, gesso, sharpie marker

This past summer I was able to take an online class with Illustrator and Mixed Media Artist Carla Sonheim, and with her permission, share the workshop info with my students.

The class was called Junk Mail Books, and I really enjoyed the recycling aspect of the project, along with learning to incorporate gesso and watercolor for some really cool effects. 

It was also fun to work the illustrations into an interactive style, so that no matter how you opened the book, one page flowed into another.

Senior Jasmine Zhao came up with a jungle theme and poured everything she had into this beautiful work of art.

Above is her cover page.

A peek inside Jasmine's book.

Jasmine also chose a primary color scheme to work her watercolors in which ties the book together visually along with her theme.

Senior Alex Lee started exploring Love and War in his book below...

and then moved to more of a nature theme to end.

Heather Warner, senior, had a lot of fun creating whimsical fish under the sea.

I love how she has that extra page above that pulls and extends outward.

I also really enjoy seeing some of the original junk mail colors as border/background.

And senior Cathy Luo also worked within a nature theme...

that included a few figures as well.

And lastly, senior Anne Allan made a statement about women in the work force thru her illustrations below.

I felt Anne's use of color and texture was especially effective on her cover page above.

I also love the way Anne ended her book below.

Even though this book took a lot of time and effort, the kids really enjoyed the process, and I loved all the junk mail I was able to recycle!

Cross/Point

PRELIMINARY EXERCISES IN CROSSHATCHING AND POINTILLISM

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

ink pen

These beauties where done as a prelude to Scratchboard because both crosshatching and pointillism are used in this medium.

Both techniques are tedious and time consuming, but the kids excelled nonetheless.  

In this first one by senior Cathy Luo, it was so outstanding that it went to the annual District Art Show.

She's got to have put down thousands of dots to have done this piece with.

Here are both senior Jasmine Zhao's crosshatch (above) and Point (below).

Remarkable, right? 

Senior Heather Warner drew this amazing water polo ball in point.

By the way Heather, I'm so very proud of how hard you've worked this year to get your skill level to this very advanced level!

Way to go woman!!!

And lastly senior Anne Allan brings a bit of both point and cross into her lovely illustration above. 

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

SLAB BOXES

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes, oxides & paper collage

Last school year we experimented with paper collage on the clay's surface, and we liked it so much that this year I required it on the glazed slab boxes.

Loved the results!

My favorite was done by junior Ju Eun Lee above.

Those kisses look so real, and the blue and white strips are the perfect compliment.

Senior Allison Trsn incorporated sheet music with her tissue paper for a beautiful look.

And junior Mindy Kim went all out giving special attention to her stamped and carved surfaces with ceramic watercolors and melted glass shards.  For her collaged area she gives us sweet puffy clouds and blue skies. 

This pretty piece above was inlayed with our artic white and cafe cinco clays from Aardvark in Santa Ana, Ca..  

Both fire to cone 5 (2150 degrees).

Senior Minette Tsang was the artist.

Jocelyn Kim, senior, built this stunning box above but chose not to paper collage.

Instead, she melted glass shards into her carve out areas.

Another favorite was this one by junior Erin Hsaio.

Love the combination of the newspaper text and pattern paper that she overlapped.

I was thrilled to see junior Tiffany Chu embellish her box with beads and stones along with her paper collage.

This gives me another great idea for next year.

Thanks Tiffany.

Senior Neha Jain also chose to inlay our white and red clays for a beautiful designed box.

And senior Megan Yeu came up with this super original design for her box.

If you are wondering where her paper collage is, it's in the eye area. 

Follow the Bouncing Ball

GRAPHITE SPHERES

4TH QUARTER 7TH GRADERS

graphite, colored pencil

I introduced you to these young ones last week with their value scale designs.

Their sphere ideas were just as wonderful as you will see.

Coming into the class with exceptional skills for one so young is Lina Kim with this remarkable piece above.

Sweet young Emma Centeno already has a signature style going on by finding a way to incorporate kittens into all her pieces.  She is another coming in with highly sophisticated skills. 

And I adore that Sahana Ramesh, little sis of senior Aditi (one of my ceramic super stars) was brave enough to show me great design with colored pencils around her sphere.

And lastly, very talented Queena Hoang gives us this whimsical composition full of fun.

Love my new batch of kids!

I feel blessed everyday to be teaching at Whitney High.  :)

And You Thought You Couldn't Draw

BEFORE & AFTERS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite

If you've been a follower for the last couple of years you might notice that this year many of my beginners came to me with high level drawing skills already (drawings on the left).

But by teaching with Dr. Betty Edwards "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" book I'm able to get my students to at least Junior Collage level techniques or higher.

Wherever they end up there is always a significant improvement, and they love seeing their results as well as the progress of their classmates.

Let me start with senior Yoo-Bin Han drawing 8th grader Nari Park.  

Very decent skill level coming in but just look at where she ended up!

Remarkable!!

Senior Jackie Manipon drawing senior Cole Mesa was another who came in with skills, but her line style and attention to detail came up ten-fold!

Senior Alex Arias probably came to me with some of the highest level techniques in place.  

In his before he was really able to do a nice job with senior Catherine Chiou.

But as you view his after you can see that his proportions are so much more true, and that he is feeling more confident using all the paper rather then a small portion.

Junior Smruthi Maganti who was paired up with senior Tim Creasy, came in with junior high level skills, and did a tremendous job capturing him in real life.  

Here Nari Park, who was drawn above by Yoo-Bin, was too timid to even try to make a stab at drawing her face, sensitively captures Yoo-Bin's sweet profile.

I try to partner up the kids hoping that they don't really know each other, or one shy kid with one social student.

It takes a lot of thought on my part so that means I really need to get to know their personalities before we begin this unit.

I don't have them start until the beginning of second quarter; fist quarter is filled with color theory and design assignments.

Above senior Akash Patel is drawing sophomore Abigail Kim, a very challenging subject, right Abby?  :)

He has done such a lovely job with her.  

Junior Michael Cantu was partnered with junior Zoe Lin, and he did a sensitive and highly realistic job with his after portrait of her.

His hair techniques were remarkable!

And in this last one sophomore Elias Rodriguez really shows a lot of growth in his portrait of 8th grader Kristina Dorsz.

Congrats to all my Beginners for your trust in me as I took you on this journey.