Tonal Still Life
Students worked from observation and resource materials to create a still life on gray paper. Materials: Black and White China Markers.
Lesson on shading techniques and letting tonal shading hold a shape vs using line; Composition; shapes; recognizing ellipses, and how they change with viewpoint.

My Perfect Sneaker
This project takes the idiom of "putting someone or something up on a pedestal" in a literal sense. Students choose their favorite sneaker that they admire, and is perfect in everyway! The project includes drawing and painting their sneaker from observation and designing an architectural column cap in the style of the ancient Greek and Roman Corinthian or Ionic columns .  

Styrofoam Cups  
Students are asked to choose 5-7 Styrofoam cups of varying heights and create an interesting composition still life set up. Toothpicks are used to hold some in place. The goal of this project is to review the lesson on ellipses and how they change with viewing angle. Drawing a line of symmetry down the center of the cup helps the students find the angles of the ellipses and tapered outside lines of the cup when foreshortened. They finish with tonal shading. 

Landscape Painting
Students work in watercolor or acrylic paints to create landscapes with deep shadows and light. They learn about cast shadows and how their edges and shapes change depending on intensity of light, and surface changes in the landscape. Students are encouraged to develop their own style of painting. 

Reaching Into The Refrigerator
Foreshortening and illusion of space on a two dimensional surface. 
Students draw themselves reaching into the fridge with foreshortened hand. They choose which products they want to draw in the foreground. The suggestion of the kitchen in the background extends the illusion of space.  Colored pencils; watercolors; acrylic paints, Paint pens.

​Drawing From Observation- Collage
Students study the wooden art class mannequins, using their artists' eye to check proportion and negative space.
​They design their page and create an interesting composition with angles and cropping the figures. Two figures are drawn on gray paper. Two are drawn on black paper and collaged onto the gray. Tonal drawing with black and white China markers.

 Profile Self Portraits- (completed from March 2020 closing)
Students work from photos of themselves to paint powerful side-view portraits. They are encouraged to work and develop their own style of painting that best expresses who they are as artists. A side portrait can make the viewer wonder what the subject is thinking about.  Color; texture; proportion; Acrylic paints.

Dramatic Sky Paintings
For this project students treat the sky with great importance, conveying a mood. The horizon line is lower in the composition. Students are taught to have distinct areas and visible brush strokes with combination of soft and hard edges to keep the sky exciting. They are encouraged to work in a style that represents them as an artist. Acrylic Paint

​Balloon Animal Renderings
Inspired by the large stainless steel balloon animal sculptures of American artist Jeff Koons. Students create renderings of balloon animals using colored pencils and acrylic paints. They choose reflective shiny Mylar or non shiny balloon for their artworks. Attention to color theory, proportion, negative space, and design. Jeff Koons broke an auction record with his Rabbit sculpture selling for $91 million.  

​Reflective Puddle Paintings
For this challenging project, students study photos and paintings of puddles reflecting nature, or urban scenes. They pay close attention to puddle shape, rim edge, and the angles of the reflected objects.  Acrylic paint 

Mia age: 13

Metaphysical Still Life with Bird
Students create still life drawings influenced by the works of the Giorgio De Chirico in the style of the metaphysical painters. Their works have a sense of stepping out of reality into a dream. Statues, mannequins, birds, and geometric objects are some of the items included. Watercolor; colored pencils; acyclic paints.