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An Art Trick That’s Really A Treat

October 31, 2012 //
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Especially for Halloween, I’m sharing a great little art trick, that turns out to be a pretty neat treat as well.

First of all, a basic understanding of colors is helpful. Generally, all colors can be divided into two broad categories known as “warm” or “cool”. Warm colors — red, yellow, orange — are those that you associate with warmth, or with warm things such as fire, the sun, or hot lava. Cool colors — blue, blue-green, aqua — are those that you associate with a feeling of cool and with cool things such as the ocean, sky, ice and snow. (A few colors can work in either category depending on their composition. Green and purple are good examples of this duality because each is made by mixing a warm color with a cool color.)

Children are fascinated not only by colors and color mixing, but also with the idea that colors can make us feel a certain way based on their perceived warmth or coolness. Advertisers and designers are particularly adept at using our innate feelings about color to their advantage. As it turns out, warm and cool colors can also be used to manipulate our visual perception as well.

Which brings me to the art trick I promised! When creating any type of artwork, if you’d like to enhance the illusion of depth in your piece, remember this simple trick: warm colors advance and cool colors recede. Even the lightest application of cool colors over an area of your work, be it a painting, a drawing, or whatever, will make it look like it has been pushed back and is farther away from you. The opposite is true for warm color application, making that area magically seem as if it is closer to you, advancing toward you. And if you apply both in the same piece — warm colors on foreground images, and cool colors on background images — Wow! The illusion is striking!

Try this little trick for yourself and teach it to your students. The results are a treat and will be sure to delight both artist and viewer!

Categories Art, art & science, Art Education, art lesson, artist, Autumn, background and foreground, color, color mixing, color theory, cool colors, creative process, critical thinking, drawing, illusion, lesson idea, treat, trick, trick or treat, warm colors

Professional Development vs. Lesson Ideas

October 4, 2012 //
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So I’m wondering how many of you out there might not need Professional Development, but would really love some fantastic field-tested lesson plans in art? How many of you don’t need or want any PD credits, but you would love the opportunity to learn how easy it can be to incorporate art into your classroom curriculum? How many of  you see the potential that well developed art experiences could have in supporting your efforts to teach the new Common Core State Standards, but you feel intimidated by the subject?

If any of these scenarios sounds like you, would you be interested in purchasing the content only of the Professional Development courses I teach? My course books would be offered at a reasonable price, giving you immediate access to all of the research and theory behind my art experiences, in addition to the lesson plans themselves. (The one thing you wouldn’t get are the Professional Development credits.) I think this might be of particular interest to those of you who homeschool your children and who don’t need any graduate level credit or units, but who would love some fresh, powerful art ideas that could be connected to the rest of your curriculum. These could even be fun for Sunday School teachers and for parents looking for meaningful and creative experiences for their own children!

I have written five different books — two are specifically related to drawing, one to the many interesting things that can be done using paper, another is geared toward the creation of exciting and unique bulletin boards, and one is devoted to the topic of using art as a tool to create and enhance self-esteem. Each of my books was specifically written for the person with little or no art background and/or experience, so do not be afraid of the subject matter! Also, none of my lessons require any “exotic” supplies, which makes them even easier to implement.

I imagine I’d make my books available for purchase right here on this website, probably using something like paypal. Books would be sent electronically as pdf files for you to print out, use on a device, or some combination of both.

So let me know what you think about this, I’d love to hear from you.

Categories Art, art & math, art & oral language, art & science, art and language arts, art and writing, Art Courses, Art Education, art lesson, art supplies, bulletin boards, Common Core, Common Core State Standards, drawing, fun, Homeschool, lesson idea, self esteem, Sunday School, Sunday School Lessons

Autumn Lesson: Leaf Rubbings

September 27, 2012 //
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Do you remember the simple joy of creating one of these? Consider sharing this wonderful experience with your students this autumn. It couldn’t be easier and the rewards are great!

For supplies, you will need only three things. Paper… nothing fancy… copy paper works great here. Crayons… broken into easy-to-hold chunks with the paper peeled off. An assortment of leaves and maybe even some small twigs and branches.

Your students will love exploring outside to find just the right leaves and twigs. If you have magnifying glasses — even the super inexpensive ones — give them to your students to use. (You won’t believe how focused they get!) Once back inside, explain the process of placing their leaves and twigs underneath their papers so they can rub over them using the sides of their crayons. A simple pantomime of how they will rub over their paper using the crayon is enough — you don’t have do actually do it — let them have the thrill of discovery themselves.

And they will be thrilled! When the rubbed images appear, it’s like magic and they love it! And don’t be fooled into thinking your kids are “too old” for this experience. As a high school art teacher for many years, I was consistently shocked by how many of my juniors and seniors had never done this. And the ones that had, had such fond memories of it, that they loved the opportunity to do it again.

So why devote time to an art experience such as this? Besides the obvious — it’s fun! — so many important things are going on here. Being outside. Exploring. Talking with each other about what they’re finding and doing. Analyzing and making decisions about their leaf selections… colors, shapes, textures, sizes. Using small muscle control to make the rubbings. Deciding on colors and placement of objects. Talking to others about what they’re making. And what if you incorporated writing? Depending on your approach, the curricular possibilities are virtually endless. And then, what if you incorporated science and scientific observation? What about math? The point here is that this simple, joyful activity suddenly becomes the catalyst for a profound level of learning and involvement. (And did I mention that it’s fun?!)

For other simple ideas about how you can easily incorporate art into your classroom and support the curriculum you are teaching everyday, please check out the affordable, convenient, self-paced Professional Development courses I teach through Fresno Pacific University.

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Categories 21st Century Skills, affordable professional development, Art, art & math, art & oral language, art & science, art and language arts, art and writing, Art Courses, Art Education, art lesson, Autumn, convenient professional development, creative process, critical thinking, effort and involvement, Fresno Pacific University, fun, independent thinking, lesson idea, process vs. product, Professional Development, self-paced professional developemnt

Back To School Lesson Idea

August 15, 2012 //
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Back to school… yes, it’s already that time of year again!

If you’re a teacher looking for an excellent, easy back to school lesson idea — and what teacher isn’t? — then you’ve come to the right place!

Lesson Idea: Create Personalized Calling Cards

For this little lesson, all you will need are some blank cards (index cards without lines will work just fine here and you won’t have to cut anything), some drawing tools (crayons, markers, pencils) and an ink pad with washable ink.

The idea here is to have every student in your class create a “calling card” that represents them. Talk for a moment about what things make each one of us unique. (Things we like to do, things we like to eat, music we like, pets we have, places and people we love, etc.) To reinforce language arts, consider making a list of some of these things as your students mention them.

Ask your students to create their special card and to include the following on one side: Their name (first and last or just first, it’s up to you), drawings and words of things that make them unique (you might want to give them a specific number of items here), and their thumb print (that’s where the washable ink comes in).

Depending on the age and ability levels of your students, modifications can be made to take this from a very simple art experience, to a much more sophisticated design problem that will challenge older students. Reading a story first about how we are all unique and special might be a wonderful introduction to this experience of card making. Asking students to reflect in a journal about their creative process while designing their cards can be a meaningful culmination to the project. Allowing students to select, cut, and glue magazine images on their cards in addition to their words and drawings can also be interesting if you choose to get that involved.

Once finished, these cards will look great displayed in the classroom, or on each child’s desk, or can even be used by the teacher to select students at random for special jobs or to answer questions.

If you’d like to be the kind of teacher who effortlessly brings meaningful art experiences into your classroom on a regular basis — check out the classes I offer through Fresno Pacific University. You won’t be disappointed and your students will love you for it!  🙂

 

Categories Art, art and language arts, art and writing, Art Courses, Art Education, Art Journals, art lesson, artist, back to school lesson, creative process, drawing, Fresno Pacific University, lesson idea, Professional Development
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