Today and Friday students are taking their painting skills to a larger skill. They are designing posters and backdrops for the Spring Dance.

2nd period students working on their Spring Dance Poster.

Miranda and Sami priming the backdrops.
Christina and Michael priming the backdrops.

Destiny and Jessica priming the backdrops.

Today we are finishing our color theory project. Students also turned in their finished mandala, a geometric design that radiates from a center focal point. It has been great to see students improve their painting skills throughout the project.

Rebecca's finished mandala colored with cool colors (blue, purple, and green).

A 2nd period student's finished abstract paint project.Another 2nd period student's finished abstract paint project.

Third period students finishing their abstract paint project.

Today we continued working on our color theory projects. Students are really improving in their painting skills. I can see growth just from yesterday to today. Third period art students painting their abstract paint project with complementary colors.
Third period art students painting their project with complementary colors.

Today we learned how to mix paint. We created a color wheel out of paint. Next, we created a value scale out of blue paint. We added white to create the tints and black to create the shades. Finally, we created an abstract line drawing of organic and geometric shapes. We will be painting this line drawing with different color schemes. Tomorrow we will painting using a monochromatic color scheme.

Today we had a guest speaker after school for art. Her name is Joy Mosher and she currently has several works on display at the Waterworks Art Gallery in Salisbury. Joy spoke to the group about the various careers she has had in the arts world. She also shared about her creative process, color choices, and subject matter in the paintings she is currently displaying at the gallery.

Today we finished up our graphite still-life drawings. Students worked hard to make sure that forms looked like they were 3D by shading carefully.

First period students shading their still-life drawings.

A finished still-life drawing.

We started class this morning practicing our art critiquing skills. Students worked with their tablemates to critique a painting by Vincent van Gogh. Students are really improving their art critiquing skills.

After the art critique, students continued working on their still-life drawings. We will finish up our drawings in class tomorrow.

Second period students shading their still-life drawings.

Second period students shading their still-life drawings.

Today we started working on our first still-life drawing. We are applying the skills we learned in our perspective unit to create the illusion of space in our composition. We are also applying the shading skills that we developed in our warm-up excercises when we learning how to shade forms.

Josh working on his still-life drawing.
Blair, Jorey, Alex, and Alexis working on their still-life drawings.

One of the viewpoints for our still-life.

We continued working on our perspective project for most of the class period today. This is the last day in class to work on the project. The finished project is due on Thursday. Students can stay after school on Tuesday and Wednesday to work on the project if they want. Mrs. Highsmith helping first period art students.

Mrs. Highsmith helping second period art students.Third period art students working on their perspective projects.

Photos from our fieldtrip.

Ben Owens Pottery will be shown on Sunday morning on PBS from 3:30-5:30. Check him out on TV. We met a real TV star!

Mrs. Highsmith with Ben Owens III. Mr. Owens is a fourth generation Seagrove Potter.
My classes with Mr. Owens.

Ben throwing a vase on the manual wheel. Mr. Sid Luck, of Luck's Ware, is a fifth generation potter. He he is centering his clay.

Mr. Luck forming the sides of his jug.

Our classes with Mr. Luck.

Our Seagrove Pottery Fieldtrip Is Tomorrow. I'm so excited.

Don't forget to pack a bagged lunch!
Since we will be gone all day tomorrow on our fieldtrip to explore pottery in Seagrove, NC, we are working on our visual journal #4 today. This page is inspired by lyrics to our favorite songs. Our class likes a variety of music from Jewel to Matalica to Michael Jackson, so I am looking forward to seeing the diversity of their finished pages. The following images so the beginning stages of student's lyrical visual journal page.

Today, we spent the first half of class continuing to develop our art criticism skills. We analyzed a painting by Georgia O"Keeffe using the 4 step critical method. The students are definintely improving in their ability to critique. Then in the second half of class, we began a new project on perspective. This is an independent project that allows students to express their own creativity.

Morgan, Drew and Kendyl beginning our new project.Aaron, Jody, and Matt drawing their shapes in one-point perspective for the new project.

A finished example of the project we just started in class today.

Tomorrow we will be creating a visual journal page based on the lyrics to our favorite song. Also since we are going on our fieldtrip on Friday, this week's homework is due tomorrow.

Today we are finishing up our cityscape in 2 point perspective. Everyone's drawing looks basically the same as the student example below because we work on this drawing as a class. I know the students will be glad to not here me say, "Put your ruler flush against the side of your paper." Sorry for the glare, the graphite gets very reflective wehen there are multiple layers built up.

Art History Monday. Today we began class by working on shading a irregular form. We have really been focusing on gradually blending our values to erase all visible lines. Next, we watched the next DVD in our Great Artists series- Raphael. Then, we continued shading our cityscape in 2-point perspective. Our week is off to a great start!

On a side note, we had a great time this weekend at the North Carolina Association of Student Council's State Convention in Asheboro, NC. The students who attended represented MPHS well and are returning home today with lots of great ideas. A big congratulations goes out to my leadership class from last semester. Their hardwork on our leadership video won "Best Soundtrack" at the first-ever student film festival.

It's Friday at last. Thanks to all the students and parents who came out to Open House on Thursday night. While the students shaded another free-form form, I checked their weekly sketchbook drawings and their third visual journal- "My Family". Then we continued working on our 2-point perspective project- a graphite drawing of a cityscape.

Harrison measuring carefully while working on his cityscape.
Matt F. shading his cityscape.

Today we started our study of two-point perspective. We began shading an organic shape. Next, we practiced drawing a cube in 2-point perspective- above, on, and below the horizon line. Then we began working on our next project, a cityscape. This graphite drawing is a city block in two-point perspective. In the picture below, Camilla, Jessica, and Kayla are shading their organic forms.

With all the excitement of the possibility of snow, I completely forgot to blog yesterday! And all that excitement was for nothing. Oh well. We have been working on and hope to finish our RR in one-point perspective today. The students have been attentive and their drawing look great. This is the smoothest this lesson has ever gone.

How is it already Monday? Thanks to all the students and parents who came out to the Art Walk on Friday night. The next art event in downtown Concord is the Spring into the Arts Festival in April, more details to follow as we get closer to the event. But for today it was back to work in our art class. We started off continuing our warm-up of shading one geometric form a day. Today we shaded a cube. Then we watched the next video in our great artists series-Michelangelo. After the video we continued working on our railroad in one-point perspective.

Example of sphere in one point perspective shaded with lots of values.
Art history Monday: students watching the video about Michelangelo.