MISSING...

my students and my classroom.

Here are a bunch of adorable 8th graders working away on their 

Sun Motif Portfolios.

I believe this was from the school year 2017-2018.

I'm guessing these sweet little ones are seniors this year 

and will be graduating in June.

Damn,

the time goes by so very quickly.

I wonder if I'd recognize them anymore?

WHAT'S IN YOUR PORTFOLIO?

TISSUE PAPER PORTFOLIOS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

tissue paper, various other papers. cardboard, ribbons, duck tape, modge podge, glue

I've always had the kids make their own Portfolios to house their artwork in.

Over the years the design ideas have changed up quite a bit.

I think this current one that I've been using for about the last 10 years is my favorite of all.

Here we see 8th grader Sophia Matthews beginning her collage.

This is by far the most complex design process to try to explain, 

and the requirements were numerous,

so I'm not even going to attempt it.

Ha ha

Just know the students probably worked harder on this piece than any other work they did all year.

We start with junior Manishka Ranjit.

She pushed herself and went all out with her incredible design.

When she showed me her idea 

I told her it was going to be too difficult to do within the the time allowed.

So rather then give up,

she took her piece home almost every nite to work extra on it.

And I'm so glad she did because it is truly a work of art.

Here is a close-up of all the cutting and gluing she had to do to put both sides together.

For some reason, 

this next one by junior Ellya Gholmieh was not photographed completely open.

Sorry Ellya.

Her design was so very modern as well as non-objective.

So very unique.

Here is a close-up as well.

I love how she used the same tissue over top itself to get those fractures with a darker value range.

In this next one by 8th grader Madison Plotkin.

we see a fabulous contrast between light and dark which really showcases her design.

And another 8th grader,

Eric Ren,

created this wonderful landscape that contains so much movement.

He manages to move our eye across entire piece.

And check out this wild & exciting one by senior Jessica Mones,

another very complex design that took her extra time and effort as well.

Senior Esther Ahn created this very delicate under the sea design.

In this particular technique that we did,

it's very difficult to work with linear elements,

but Esther was able to pull it off with her precise craftsmanship skills.

I love the powerful colors and paper choices that 8th grader Ashley Lee brought to this portfolio.

And talk about movement,

8th grader Brandon Delgado worked with a snake as his subject,

and really pulled off a gorgeous piece below.

But it was senior David Tung that came up with this perfect, timely piece.

I love that he used a patriotic theme during this time in our lives with so much strife.

A true Patriot!

So proud of you David.

OUT OF THE CHAOS COME BEAUTY

TISSUE PAPER PORTFOLIOS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

tissue paper, Modge Podge, cardboard

Making portfolios to 18" by 24" with 35 kids requires a lot of room,

even more than I have.

So a lot of the young ones end up on the floor.

The actual requirements to pull off these designs are extremely complex,

and involves all that the kids have learned about the Design Elements and Principles.

Too many to list,

but the results were well worth the effort.

Enjoy!

We are seeing the tail end of the project here

 where the kids really have to spread themselves out.

Here is senior Helen Park assembling & gluing  her paper collage pieces on top of her cardboard. 

And junior Inna Sikar is applying clear mailing tape over top her entire portfolio 

to protect her design from lifting.

The students store these in a cupboard on top of each other so they take a lot of abuse.

They also go home in the rain and the tape protects them as well from the elements.

An extra expense but well worth it.

Tah Dah!!

Some of the finished pieces.

We start with the uplifting colors and design of junior Mary Kim,

a natural born artist I'm finding out,

and destined for greatness.

Next up is this adorable and complex design by junior Tiffany Chen,

another future Art Major.

And love those rich colors together.

They make this piece POP!

Woo Hoo!!!!

And check out this gorgeous peacock design made by junior Vaishalee Chaudhary,

I'm in love with how it reverses itself!

Next we have the gorgeousness that is senior Melissa Ongko.

Fantastic use of color young one!

And it's super cool how the hair morphs into the stark trees.

Future Art Major and senior Lauren Kennedy outdid herself 

with this extremely complicated design above.

She is the only student who has ever created this difficult of a design

 with this many pieces to cut and re-glue together.

And of course the message is terrific.

Wow,

way to go Lauren!!

What a fun and playful design senior Deborah Harris has pulled together here,

with great use of a monochromatic color scheme.

And not to be outdone is senior Jocelyn Chou below with her elegant birds & cage.

Jocelyn's craftsmanship in the cutting & gluing was impeccable.

Bravo!

And one of my personal favorites was this next one by junior Julie Guan.

If you look closely you will see some recycled tye-dye papers 

she incorporated into the yellow/greens,

and lots of recycled 7th grade stamped papers in the purples.

It all comes together as great looking texture,

and is extremely pleasing to the eye. 

And we've got to see how senior Helen Parks' portfolio turned out.

It's fabulous Helen,

as is everything you give your attention to.

A really dynamic design with a lot of movement, rhythm & texture.

Now if I could only get you to wake up in the morning and get yourself to school on time.

Ha ha!!

See ya at 8:00 a.m. sharp sweet woman.

Now I better make sure I get there on time  LOL

We end with super star junior Sarah Oh 

and another of her wonderful pieces.

Remember her from last Friday and the post about Pinch Pots?

Her pot was the first one featured with the lizard climbing into the bowl.

A special congrats to Sarah.

She has already sold her bowl to fellow mixed media artist Grace Forrest.

Thank you Grace for supporting this fine young artist!

She was thrilled to hear that you were interested in buying her pot. .

xoxoxo

TISSUE & PAPER COLLAGE PORTFOLIOS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

paper collage on cardboard, bookbinding tape and ribbon

Every year these portfolios just seem to get better and better

as the kids come up with more complex designs 

based on the Design Elements and Principles we've covered.

A great example is this piece by junior Eunice Shim.

First off she asked if she could design her portfolio on the vertical instead of the horizontal.

No one had ever done that before,

so I told her to go for it.

I love how it came out.

And it just makes so much sense with her design.

I adore the imagery she came up with and her use of color.

And how cool is this one by senior Rosenne Cho?

The students were required to make two 18" by 24" paper collages 

in two completely different color schemes.

The reason Rosenne's design pops so well is the contrast she has achieved

 by doing one of the collages in light neutrals and the other in dark analogous purples and blues.

This gives her incredible contrast for when she has to cut out and glue her papers side by side..

Senior Emily Allan has gone all out with both color and design

for an exceptional piece.

I love how she planned out her two contrasting papers by choosing both warm and cool.

And along with her phenomenal design she has created a super dynamic piece.

Another of my favorites because of color and design was this one by senior Jason Kim.

Every time I walked by as he was building it,

I had to stop and exclaim over his rich color choices.

Plus look closely at all those petals he had to cut out with an X-acto knife.

An incredible amount of time and effort was put into the construction of this one.

(I apologize for my camera picking up the shine from the tape we put over top to protect the work,

so distracting)

The kids were required to work to some kind of nature theme.

I love, love, love trees,

so I'm thrilled that senior Andrew Jun chose a tree and it's root system.

And what a soft and lovely colorway he did it in.

Junior Samantha Tun did this very fun Halloween composition.

We make these in October,

perhaps a bit of trick-o-treating was on her mind here.  :)

Again,

 great contrast between her two collage papers and beautifully crafted.

Senior Sriram Velmanikandanis

 the artist of this striking portfolio above,

has captured this big, bold bird gliding over the sun.

And our last one was done by senior Jay Olano.

Fabulous contrast between his papers,

and a strong design tying in his interest with sports surrounded by a sun motif  as his nature theme.

Tricky and cool!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing these glorious creations,

the critical thinking that went into their designs,

and the huge amount of effort they put into pulling them off.

Diligence and Hard Work Pays Off

 TISSUE COLLAGE PORTFOLIOS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

tissue paper, other assorted papers, mod podge, cardboard, ribbon, bookbinding tape, clear tape

After studying several of the design elements and principles,
my beginners worked their butts off building these gorgeous portfolios to house their artwork in.
They worked within color schemes,
line,
shapes & textures,
value, balance, emphasis,
variety & unity.
They also had to jump thru several hoops in the construction phase.

This first one by senior Karisma Dev was really well planned out,

 and as a result she has designed and executed a strikingly brilliant design.

I love how she has incorporated her zentangling that she learned to do in the 7th Grade Art Wheel Class. 

She has also used a wide variety of interesting papers in her collage work. 

And of course her morphing design is so very cool!

Here we have junior Kyla Balquin who has created this lovely tropical landscape.

The kids use my tissue paper to work with but I also have them bring in special papers from home to give the work more variety.

Then the overlapping of the papers brings in value and texture. 

I adore this next one by junior Katherine Ku.

She's managed to incorporate both a land and cityscape within her design.

I also really like the neutrals she's brought into her color scheme,

and the pops of bright white thru sheet music and text.

Extremely talented senior Cyrus Salvani has designed this very subtle, 

yet powerful piece with the floating masks.

And below,

 8th grader Rochelle Serrano,

who is an up and coming talent to our art department,

  has given her design a kick with the fun checkered bookbinding tape.  

And a new student to me this year,

 junior Charity Lizardo,

is showing off her innate design abilities in this uplifting,

and playful work above.

I was hoping that junior Jane Juan was going to return.

I worked with her in the 7th grade art class and realized that she was a natural talent.

She has designed this lovely portfolio above using koi fish as her inspiration.

Another returning 8th grader,

Sara Ryave

(we saw many of her pieces last year on my blog)

has come up with this highly unique design.

If you look at it one way (bottom side) it looks like a bunch of very tall abstract humans.

But when you look at the top side you are seeing really spiky mountains.

Really clever Sara!

I'm really looking forward to working with many of these kids in the next couple of years, 

hoping to take some of them thru 4th year art.