NO NEGATIVITY ALLOWED

NEGATIVE SPACE DRAWINGS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

india ink, felt markers & watercolor accents, silk flower & plant props

These are always a favorite assignment of the Beginners.

They take great pride in the outcome,

oftentimes getting their parents to frame them up.

And each year they seem to get more and more remarkable.

Like this creation by junior Esther Ahn.

What a complex, beautifully crafted and designed piece this is.

She planned this out before she began after lots of research into past pieces she viewed on the blog.

I use the blog as homework for whenever I start a new project with the kids.

They must access it at home and pull up the project 

and look thru all the others that have been done from years past for inspiration.

Of course they may not copy anyone else's work.

Here is a close up below of the intricate pen work Esther put into the text..

This next one was made by junior Manishka Ranjit.

She designs with this woman's silhouette in a lot of her artwork,

along with putting different hats on her,

flowers surrounding and running thru her and shades of lavender to color areas in with.

It worked out perfectly for this assignment.

Check out the tiny marking pen details below.

And lastly we have senior Jessica Mones.

Love how she has drawn the plant thru the ship and bird.

It feels really magical like I am in a Peter Pan adventure.

I miss you Jessica.

Hope you are continuing to do more in the art world.

SCALEY THE TURTLE

JUNK MAIL BOOK

INSPIRED BY ILLUSTRATOR CARLA SONHEIM

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

junk mail, gesso, watercolor, marking pens, charcoal

This is such a great assignment;

part bookmaking, part written story, part illustration and part interactive.

It requires huge critical thinking on the part of each student,

and is fairly difficult to finish on time.

It is their First Quarter Final and a bit of a challenge.

This year I'm only featuring one finished book.

It was done by former senior Sarah Oh.

She writes about a true story in her life,

a big life lesson for her and her younger brother.

And it's sad, poignant & funny all at once.

It's brilliant!

Take a gander.

And please enlarge to be able to read the text.

To build these books we start with recycled junk mail that I save all year long.

I ask the kids to pick out their favorite pieces visually and try to organize them within a color scheme.

I also have them pick out a couple of envelops.

They gesso lightly over all these pieces of junk (both sides)

so that you can just see thru to the visual/text underneath.

When the gesso is dry then they pick a color scheme 

and watercolor those colors over both sides of junk mail.

This whole time they are thinking and about and writing out a story to tell based on a theme.

I really enjoyed this glimpse into Sarah's childhood and her traumatic event with her turtle,

and the lesson learned.

Because this book is interactive where one page must flow into the next

 from top to bottom and side to side,

the kids must pick where to begin their drawing.

Most start with the front cover then work their way inside.

They use a marker for this.

Then they go back into each page's drawing and paint in additional gesso

to make part of each drawing pop.

I also ask them to bring some Zentangling into the drawings,

as well as a bit of charcoal for value and shading.

It's a heck of a lot of work, 

but usually the kids rise to it.

But there is always usually one child who doesn't quite finish on time.

Yet it's a valuable learning experience on so many levels.

As you can see in Sarah's book,

she is a gifted storyteller as well as illustrator.

I was laughing out loud reading her book for the first time.

We've reached the end.

Thank you Sarah for sharing your story with us!

DOODLE OR ZENTANGLE?

LINEAR, PATTERN & TEXTURE W/ WATERCOLOR

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2ND QUARTER - 2017-2018

watercolors, brushes & felt tip markers

So in my day we called it doodling.

We did it while we talked to our friends on the telephone with the cord wrapped around us, 

trying to get as far away from our parents as the cord would reach.

We did it all over our "Peachies" (note folders),

and I especially did it in all my boring classes 

along the edge of my notes in English, Math & Science.

These days it's been elevated into an art form and I see it everywhere I shop.

Books & magazines in the grocery stores, 

 coloring books for adults at the book & crafts stores,

and of course how-to books as well.

It's fun for the kids and teaches them so much about design, patterning & texture.

I like to throw in watercolor as well to give it a beautiful backdrop.

And the kids love the watercolor lesson.

We start with Kayla Vicencio.

I really like how she threw in text with the floral designs and paisleys.

These two were done by Zoe Hoksbergen & Ashlyn Wong.

Both girls used a warm Analogous color scheme.

They put in so much time and effort to craft them and draw in all the lines.

Then more time to fill in some of the shapes as well.

Fabulous work Zoe & Ashlyn!

Some of them are really subtle like Krystal Lin's above,

while others are bold and powerful like Matthew Bautistas.

Loved the color schemes that both Faith Osaji & Daniel Yorba picked (Primary).

Yet each looks so very different.

Both equally as wonderful and powerful.

We end with Salome Agbaroji.

She designed so much movement into her piece.

I almost feel that those spirals are dancing and leaping for joy under a warm Caribbean sun.

Fantastic job all of you.

I'm so proud to show you off to the whirled.

WHAT'S YOUR POINT?

POINTILLISM  WITH WATERCOLOR & FRAMING

ADVANCED 2-D ART

assorted colored felt tip markers w/ both large & small nibs, watercolor & brushes on mixed media paper or bristol, matt board & matt cutters

During the last several years,

a few of my 3rd year 2-D students have asked if they could bring in a bit of watercolor

 to their Pointillism piece.

Absolutely,

great idea!

So I believe it was last year that I changed up this assignment by adding watercolor 

as an additional requirement.

I asked then senior Samantha Tun to do several small samples before she began her original piece.

First she tried the markers all by themselves in Pointillism,

then she tried another by putting down her watercolor first,

letting it dry, 

then bringing the markers over top that.

But it was her third sample that she liked the most.  

She laid down the markers first then watercolored over them for a very cool effect.

Since the markers are water-based they smeared slightly as the watercolor went down 

which soften the pointillism look. 

And that's what we are seeing below in her finished original piece.

Her subject,

 a photograph she took of herself (self-portrait) amongst the leaves on the sidewalk.

I loved the composition the moment she showed me her photo. 

And with the watercolor skills already in place from 2nd level art class,

she was able to make a stunning piece.

In fact,

 I liked it so much, 

I bought it at Open House to teach with this year.

If you look closely below you can see several areas where the points of marker went down, 

then the water smeared them a bit into a value change.

So subtle and lovely Sam!

Also note how she framed it out.

That was an additional assignment,

her final actually for 1st Quarter.

She had to build and design a pleasing matt for her piece.

First she chose a piece of black poster board and flicked white paint on it.

Then she thought to place pieces of aluminum foil over several sections.

Unusual idea but it works.

I adore this piece, 

and it fits the season so well with all our falling leaves right now.

MIXING YOUR MEDIA

WATERCOLOR W/ COLORED POINTILLISM

ADVANCED 2-D ART

watercolor. water-based felt tip makers in various colors & pen & ink

This assignment for 3rd year 2-D student & senior Samantha Tun was part review of watercolor 

and part learning to work in color pointillism.

The pen & ink was brought in at the end to define & make edges pop a bit more.

Sam has always enjoyed and done well with watercolor in the first and second year class,

so this time I wanted her to pick her own subject matter (she chose herself),

and put in the foundation in watercolor but to up the values with colored pointillism.

I hope I was able to get close enough for you to see the dots.

You can see it in the green leaves...

and in the sand.

At the end she brought in a fine marking pen and used implied line to make everything pop.

For her final for 1st Quarter,

 Sam was required to take her favorite piece from this quarter,

and mount in in a creative, pleasing and crafty way.

Here is her final.

Super cool,

right??

"I WANT TO RUN THIS BY YOU"

JUNK BOOK MURAL

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

junk mail, gesso, watercolor,  & Sharpies

Famous last words, right?

Wanting to please our new Principal ,

John Briquelet,

I gladly told him I'd have my Intermediate 2-D art kids do a mural on one of the walls

 in the new student union building for him,

 the new idea he was hoping for.

I had to figure a spot large enough to put it into

inside my already tightly packed Tentative Schedule. 

1st Quarter Final,

which was to be their Junk Mail Book,

 was the only place I could work it into,

So I renamed it the Junk Mail Mural.

Personally,

 as an artist, 

I have never enjoyed working on assignments together with others.

There is always a slacker,

and then there are the procrastinators.

I used to get too anxious that we wouldn't finish on time.

Not for me.

But I had faith in this Intermediate group that they just might be able to pull it off.

To please the new Principal...

Let's see how it worked out.

We had six kids in this group,

5 seniors and 1 junior.

All of them wanting to be art majors of some sort.

Now we needed a thumb nail design to work from and I wanted it to be an original student design.

For homework I had them all draw up a couple of ideas then they voted on their favorite.

Senior Malaya Sithichai's was chosen of a sweet little astronaut floating in space.

Now the fun begins!

Above are the kids spreading out all my junk mail from the last year I had saved for them.

A ridiculous amount!

Each student picked one favorite visually pleasing piece first,

then auditioned it next to all the others they picked for Visual Flow

(color scheme, text, envelops).

Next they divided up the wall in 6 equal vertical sections,

then lotteried off each section to make it fair.

Can you see the pencil lines?

The wall we chose was small and narrow as you can see,

we didn't want to overextend ourselves.

Next each student had their own brayer that they used to roll on  "YES" glue

onto the back of each junk mail piece to attach to the wall

(we experimented with many glues,

and this one was the strongest to attach those thick mailers with).

Look at those cuties go!

Almost done with this portion.

Honestly I kinda like it just like that.

Could we have called it done at that point???????????

For me personally,

Yes!

Notice the visual flow thru each vertical section??

Kinda feels like a rainbow effect.

Next came the gesso over top the junk mail.

Two things were not quite working.

When we build the books 

they were required to have at least on piece of mail that opened up like a flap.

We tried it on the wall but it seemed a little too much.

Also,

the kids over applied the gesso too thickly and not enough of the mail parts were showing.

What to do?

We ripped off several of the flaps to calm down the distraction,

and I had them sand off some of the gesso.

Ahhh,

much better.

Up close.

Next came the watercolor.

Each student chose a color scheme to work in and lightly brushed watercolor over the gesso areas.

What I forgot to take a pix of was what that looked like before the Sharpie drawing was applied.

It didn't look good at first 

because the color schemes were so different and created a hard edge separation.

So then I made the kids go back and overlap their watercolored section edges

 and use a wet sponge to blend them.

Yes,

better. 

Next came using the overhead projector to enlarge Malaya's image,

and each kiddo had a Sharpie to draw over the design lines.

More gesso was then added into areas that needed popping

 like the astronaut and his safety line,

and all the little twinkling stars,

and of course the planets.

Pattern that reads as texture from a distance was added with a Sharpie as well.

Used to be called doodling now is called Zentangling.

You can see that better in the pix below.

Here is the gang standing in front of each of their sections.

From left to right we have Ayesha, Eileen, Kevin, Malaya, Jazzarie, and Samantha.

And sadly below we have the chairs back in place that belong in front of it.

Rats!

And it wouldn't be complete without their signatures.

We have Senior Ayesha Durrani,

Senior Eileen Lee,

Senior Kevin Ma,

Senior Malaya Sithichai,

Senior Jazzarie Lo,

and Junior Samantha Tun.

What I totally forgot to mention in the post 

is that it took almost the full school year to completely finish it.

Much of that extra time was taken away from their regular class assignments.  :(

So I really admire their sticktuative-ness in bringing this mural to fruition.

What a wonderful legacy these children are leaving behind

at a school they spent 6 years of their lives at,

their Alma Meter,

Whitney High School.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

LINE, TEXTURE, PATTERN W/ WATERCOLOR

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 3RD QUARTER - 2016-2017

watercolor with marking pens

These youngsters,

our future,

give me great hope when I see the joy they bring to their art pieces.

We begin with Nicholas Gonzalez and this super cool abstracted landscape.

Patrick Arboleda and all the words he was able to put together in such a pleasing way.

And then Sriya Kotta's take on the use of text in her piece.

And Holy Moly,

 Manasvi Mehta takes my breathe away with this bold & beautiful work.

And the effort involved,

oh my!

Brandon Torres Ngork created the most gorgeous Analogous watercolor background.

And Bhumika Kalaimalai goes all out in both design and craftsmanship.

Perfect ending.

Love them all!

USING EACH OTHER AS SUBJECT MATTER

3/4 VIEW WATERCOLOR

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

watercolor & felt tip 

This is the first large scale work these kids have done in watercolor 

on good quality paper (Arches 140 lb.)

 since learning to use this challenging medium in Beg. 2-D.

The assignment was to draw each other in 3/4 view,

then to watercolor their subject.

They could abstract the piece by changing up the color,

but they had to try to keep the drawn portrait as realistic as possible.

Let's see how a couple of them did.

We begin with senior Eileen Lee who created this portrait of junior Samantha Tun.

Eileen was inspired by several past works I had bought from alumni that were on display.

She gravitated to the ones that had used all the colors from the wheel.

This is an incredibly difficult way to proceed

but as I watched her work it just seemed to flow effortlessly from her. 

After the paint was dry she came over top of it with a thin felt tip marker,

not exactly outlining,

 but just letting the pen touch here and there with different pressures.

Lovely Eileen!

Senior Malaya Sithichai worked so delicately with her watercolor.

A big thing we talk about is keeping the paint transparent.

She also brought in a touch of felt tip.

I just wish my photo was better so you could see it more distinctly.

I really like how she abstracted senior Kevin Mao's hair 

by using blue to tie the piece together with the blue of the shirt.

Very nice likeness Mayala!

And we finish with senior Ayesha Durrani's watercolor of senior Jazzarie Lo.

Ayesha has such a wonderful imagination and enjoys building stories around her subjects. 

More work?

Yes.

Extra Credit?

Yes.

And so appreciated. 

All three of these seniors are off to study art this year in college.

I'm so very thankful that I had one more year with them before they flew away.