Younger art students love to make paper mache pumpkins or jack-o’-lanterns.  Starting with crumbled up newspaper, they shape it the size they want and wrap masking tape around it to hold the form.  After soaking orange construction paper in water for a couple of minutes, the paper can be torn into large sections.  Their little hands rub watered down elmer’s glue all over the orange paper and wrap it around the newspaper ball.  Depending on the thickness of the paper, it may need up to four layers.  

When the ”pumpkin” is dry, a stem, leaves or jack-o’-lantern face can be added.  Although I usually make these with younger students, many upper school students comment “I wanna make one!” when they pass by the pumpkin patch. 

The aluminum foil figure is a great addition to a figure studies unit.  After gesture and figure drawing, the art pupil can create a sculpture of the figure with wire, clay or simply aluminum foil.  After some experimentation by the student to create her own sculpture, the art tutor can guide the student with some helpful tips on keeping the figure’s body parts all in proportion.  The figure can be attached to some form of base such as cardboard in order for it to stand up.   

A collage is a two-dimensional work of art created with such items as paper, photographs, cloth or found objects.  The art pupil is given construction paper of red, blue, yellow (primary colors) and black.  She is asked to cut the primary colors into squares and rectangles.  The black is to be cut into strips.  After they are finished cutting she will glue them down on a white sheet of paper.  The art tutor will point different ways the composition can be set up.  When the art pupil is finished, she will compare and contrast her collage with the paintings of Piet Mondrian.

Gesture drawing is when one makes drawings of the movements or gestures of the body.  The student needs a model to make a series of poses for the student to draw.  The model will “freeze” in a pose to allow enough time for the student to capture the gestures.  The drawings are not meant to be realistic with details.  They can be loose like scribbles capturing what the body is doing.  The art tutor will remind the student that gesture drawings are supposed to be loose and expressive and  to move away from the habit of outlining the figure. 

Portraits are drawings or paintings of people.  Portrait artists are commissioned to create portraits of individuals and families.  The art student will be asked to put himself into the role of the portrait artist.  Instead of creating a portrait for a person though, he is to select an insect and pretend that the bug has hired him to make him look his best.  After sketching out some ideas for his bug, he draws and paints the bug.  A picture book such as Mr. Bumble by Kim Kennedy can be added to the lesson as an example of a bug with personality. 

Art students explore a variety of simple printmaking techniques such as stamping, vegetable printing, Styrofoam prints, monoprinting, aluminum foil imaging and digital prints. Monoprinting is the most basic which can be as simple as a handprint. One way of making a monoprint is tape off the paper size on a table, paint within the frame, place the paper on top, press and lift up. The student must work on pressing quickly and evenly for the paint to transfer to the paper without drying or sticking.

The student looked at and discussed images of the The Thinker by French sculptor Auguste Rodin. The student is asked to sit in a variety of poses that she sits in when she is deep in thought. While holding a pose she is asked to pay special attention to where her shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, knees and ankles are in relation to each other. A model is used for the student to create a series of gesture drawings. She then selects her favorite pose for a figure study drawing which will also be used as a blueprint for her sculpture. Next, she is given white earthenware clay to create a sculpture of her figure. She is taught the various methods and techniques with working with clay.

We looked at and discussed the Aboriginal art of Australia. We paid special attention to the use of dots in the aboriginal paintings by comparing and contrasting them to the paintings of the Pointillism painting style of Georges Seurat. The student selected an animal and drew it large and simplified. Then she outlined, added bold zigzag lines and used a variety of earth tones to color over the brown paper. Throughout the process the student is encouraged to continue outlining and adding dots by layering with tempera paint and oil pastels.