Lesson 1: Sweatshirt Design
- Technical Skills: There isn't a specific technical skill students are working on with this project. It's mainly used as a formative assessment to see where students' technical skills are. Students also get the opportunity to work with the materials they enjoy, excel in, or are comfortable with.
- Conceptual Skills: Students are tasked to create a sweatshirt that represents their artistic brand. They are challenged to creatively problem-solve the physical design of the sweatshirt and the details that go on it. While some students designed a more traditional sweatshirt, other students took on a more fantasy-based or couture design.
- History and Culture: Students learned about the American history of sweatshirts, specifically why they were invented and what their social significance was in various cultures. Students also learned about different styles of sweatshirts, ranging from commercial to high fashion designs.
- Learning Benefits: Personal branding is an important part of how artists promote themselves. It's also a great get-to-know you activity for building classroom community.
Lesson 2: One-Point Perspective Bedroom Drawing
- Technical and Conceptual Skills: Students learn how to draw a bedroom in one-point perspective. They have the option to draw their own bedroom or a bedroom from an online reference photo. Once finished, they color their bedroom with any material they want. Materials used in these students example include colored pencils, alcohol markers, and digital illustration.
- History and Culture: Students learned about what one-point perspective is, how to identify one-point perspective in real life, and how it is used in professional artwork (such as backgrounds for animated movies).
- Learning Benefits: At the high school level, students aren't comfortable with drawing backgrounds and environments. Students understand how to draw a room with "character" that also has correct linear perspective.
Lesson 3: Two-Point Perspective House Drawing
- Technical and Conceptual Skills: Students learn how to draw a house in two-point perspective. They have the option to draw their own house or a house from an online reference photo. Some students also chose to do city buildings to take on more of a challenge. Once finished, they color the drawings with any material they want. Materials used in these students example include colored pencils, alcohol markers, and digital illustration.
- History and Culture: Students learned about what two-point perspective is, how to identify two-point perspective in real life, and how it is used in professional artwork (such as backgrounds for animated movies).
- Learning Benefits: At the high school level, students aren't comfortable with drawing backgrounds and environments. Students understand how to draw a house with "character" that also has correct linear perspective.
Lesson 4: Expressive Hands
- Technical Skills: Students learn how to draw and shade six hands realistically using either pencil or charcoal.
- Conceptual Skills: Students can either spell out a six letter word in ASL hand poses, or they can create an emotional narrative using six hand gestures.
- History and Culture: Students learn about ASL.
- Learning Benefits: Students get a taste of how to draw realistic anatomy. They also understand how to capture highlights and shadows in high contrast to create a 3-D form.
Lesson 5: Cubist Portrait
- Technical Skills: Students learn how to draw a portrait facing front on, 3/4 view, and side profile. Students get to choose between side view and 3/4 view to do their final. Students can either draw themselves or another classmate.
- Conceptual Skills: After students finish drawing their portraits, they will cut up their drawing into triangle shapes and reassemble into a cubism image.
- History and Culture: Students learn about famous artists during the Cubism movement: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Fernand Leger, Jean Metzinger, and Albert Gleizes
- Learning Benefits: Students learn how to draw portraits in multiple perspectives, capturing correct proportions. They also learn how to shade realistically with good craftsmanship. Lastly, they learn how they can abstract a representational object.
Lesson 6: Environmentally Conscious Landscapes
- Technical Skills: Students learn how to paint with watercolors, specifically with layering from light to dark values. Students also learn about six different compositional rules for landscapes: rule of thirds, framing, focal points, vanishing point, diagonal lines, and reflection/symmetry. Students are required to use at least one compositional rule in their final paintings.
- Conceptual Skills: Students make two paintings based on an environmental issue (global warming, water/air pollution, trash islands, compost gardens, solar power, air quality in different countries, deforestation, industrialization, wildfires, etc.). They can either do a before/after illustration or a problem/solution illustration.
- History and Culture: Contemporary landscape artists (Hernan Bas, Etel Adnan, Amy Bennett, Enrique Martinez Celaya, Will Cotton, Pat De Groot, Andreas Eriksson, Inka Essenhigh). Environmental advocacy artists (Agnes Denes, Andy Goldsworthy, Chris Jordan, Benjamin Von Wong).
- Learning Benefits: Students learn how to create a visually engaging landscape composition that also advocates on an issue. This also trains students to get familiar with painting backgrounds rather than leaving them blank with a figure in the foreground.
Lesson 7: Zoom-In Acrylic Painting
- Technical Skills: Students learn how to mix colors and paint with acrylic paint.
- Conceptual Skills: Students paint a group of zoomed in things, be it food or objects.
- History and Culture: ???
- Learning Benefits: Students learn how to mix colors and apply acrylic paint. They also learn how to make an underpainting and gradually build up details with highlights and shadows.