GRAPHITE SPHERES
7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2ND QUARTER - 2017-2018
graphite on white paper, colored pencils
One of our favorite veteran teachers asked me today if I had noticed a lack of creativity
in the kids coming up thru the ranks recently
because she has.
I told her no I hadn't,
but what I have noticed is a lot more procrastination and lack of effort.
And I blame this on the Internet and gaming devices.
Our children are addicted,
and are admitting to me that they spend way too much time on them
instead of limiting themselves so they can get their schoolwork done.
I believe that this is a huge problem worldwide.
But as you will see here,
there is no lack of creativity in these young ones.
We started with the most talented young 7th grader in the class,
Akarsh Suresh.
What you are seeing above is raw talent.
I hope so much he will come back to me this year so I can help him refine his technical skills.
Next we have Koa De Leon,
one of my favs of all the 120 7th graders I worked with last year.
The reason was because of her maturity and wisdom.
She was like an old soul,
very wise, attentive and intuitive.
Everytime I looked her way in her class of 31 kids,
she was the one who was the "most with me" as I spoke.
And man oh man,
did I love that!
She also has a very creative side for illustration.
Like we saw in the last post on this group,
her work could be used for a children's book.
This next one took my breath away.
Such a powerful piece because of the dynamic movement of the sphere
and the use of color.
And what a wonderful border Hanna Estrada!
These last 3 pieces I'm totally guessing who created them
because I can't find any paperwork on them.
So these are my best guesses.
Young ones,
send me a comment or e-mail and let me know if I'm wrong so I can make corrections.
I want to say that this one belongs to Matthew Bautista.
Love the diagonal that he used for horizon and placement of sphere.
And of course the colored pencil really helps this piece to pop!
I'm pretty sure this one belongs to Kayla Vicencio.
I love the beautifully done Zentangle border she put around her sphere.
Deb - I've been watching the sphere projects for several years now and this batch seems exceptional to me.
ReplyDeleteThe sphere on the left of Arkeshe's piece is so finely wrought and the hand so evocative ...
Zoe's sphere seems to sit on top of her background, so realistic it could be a photo of an actual ball sitting on a picture
The street scene with its strong blacks and brightly lit windows fading to grays and whites as the eye moves away, is well-imagined
The orbed scepter is an fascinating combination of dimensions, with some tricky shadow work well done
And the carefully worked Zentangle framing and one of the finest spheres I can recall left me hoping to see more from all of these students in their future artistic pursuits.
Now I get it ... how could one walk away knowing how much more magic there is to come?
Exactly Liz, how can I leave this?? So much magic here at this wonderful place.
DeleteI'm just discovering this site and appreciate the wealth of information and creativity displayed here! I teach middle school art and am particularly interested in the 7th grade graphite spheres and colored pencil spheres. Was all this work done in class? Can you give me an idea of your timeline, particularly how the students develop the rest of the drawing after creating their spheres? Any materials would be helpful.
ReplyDeleteSo very happy you found us. I gave the kids a demo and showed them some examples for about 15 mins. Then rest of period they worked on practicing in class just the spheres. Then they had 2 full class periods to create their composition. Colored pencil was not required. Pieces #1 and #3 were probably taken home one nite and worked on a bit more because they are more elaborate..
DeleteThe only requirements were one sphere shaded with pencil with as much value range as possible. A horizon and cast shadow also had to be put in.
DeleteClean craftsmanship and all their effort meaning they had to work entire class periods without goofing around with neighbor. All the extras you see were not required but depending on how much extra they did I awarded them a few extra credit points.