2008-2009 8th Grade Lincoln Hall Curriculum Overview for Art Venture

Projects can vary from quarter to quarter based on what is most appropriate for a particular class. Remember, art projects will be given back to students at the end of the quarter, except for a few that will be kept for additional displays such as the annual Village Hall Art Show.  

ART VENTURE

Review portfolio - which contains an Up Side Down drawing, figure drawing, self-portrait drawing, and a perspective drawing.  This is a review of the past two years, and these are sketches rather than finished works, and I will be looking at the concepts and guidelines rather than the finish quality of the works.

Acrylic painting - This project is based on an incident many years ago in which a newlywed couple in Milwaukee moved into their first house and discovered a painting in the attic of their new house which they liked and displayed –only finding out later that it was a Van Gogh. No one knows how or why, but the painting was authenticated as a Van Gogh, and the young couple eventually sold it for over 1 million dollars.  Students will pick a well-known artist and do research on the artist's style and life and times. After these are completed and displayed, students will create a large acrylic painting based on the artist they did their research on.  As with the Van Gogh found by the newlywed couple, students are not copying a painting by their artist, but creating a painting that they pretend to have found somewhere in their house that was lost by their artist and never seen before they discovered it!  I expect to see some great things…

Observational drawing - A drawing composition project that will be finished on scratch art paper.  The idea for this drawing is like a brainteaser for the eyes – students will zoom in on an everyday object and compose the picture so that someone will need to look closely at the drawing in order to figure out what it is.  We will talk about symmetry, composition, cropping, and drawing techniques such as crosshatching and stipple as we work on this project.

Wright perspective - A project where students learn about Frank Lloyd Wright and why he is a considered one of the most famous American architects.  Students refresh their perspective drawing skills from 6th and 7th grade, learn new ones and then apply these drawing skills to an imaginary city or an elevation of a vacation house they design.

O’Keefe watercolor - Georgia O'Keefe will be the artist we look at for inspiration on this next project. After learning some of the basics of watercolor technique, students will work from some faux flowers in the art room to create their own flower based watercolor painting.