Inspired by the Swedish Illustrator Rosalind Monks students for this unit focused on learning new materials while mastering some known materials such as scissors. Using gold scratchboard and a metal stylus students remade an image of an insect making sure to get detail and an enlarged etching. Using three values of black on an illustration of a Maine scene students painted in empty space to get the look of dark to medium to light. The results are quite beautiful. 

For this unit students drew from observation, and learned how to blend and color layer Prisma Color colored pencils. Each fish was created on black railroad board to have an effect on vibrancy. 

For this unit students learned about the world of Street Art and how it interacts with various environments. Several new art materials and tools were learned and mastered to create two different wings upon a brick background. 

Students learned about simple lines to create a landscape of their choosing with a foreground, middle ground and background. Framed in with a border students were put to the task of creating various line designs, patterns and for one section a Zentangle, which is a popular art form that both calms and puts one into a balanced state. One of the best coloring materials for construction paper is construction crayons, which produce the color you see and have magnificent blending opportunities. Students were challenged to color in one area switching colors each time they came to a line. 

For this unit students learned about Georgia O'Keeffe and were inspired by her stylistic paintings. Using a seashell to directly observe students were given the challenge of touching all four sides of a piece of paper to draw large such as O'Keeffe. Instead of paint students used oil pastels to achieve a smooth blended look. Working with complimentary colors students had to figure out their dark versus light areas and see past the realistic colors of the shell to a more abstract work. 

For this unit students had to create their own Tessellations to fill the space of their colored paper. Using their creativity and imagination they looked at their tessellations and had to find the shape of a creature within their work. Using various elements and vibrant construction crayons they then made each of their ten creatures unique. 

For this unit students learned the history of Silhouettes and color theory. Students let their imagination soar designing their own tree to fill the space of the paper cropping at edges. Deciding to use warm color values to depict a sun or cool colors to emulate a moon students took the choice of what was to be in the background of their work. Drawing a grid system using a ruler students had to make sure they were drawing 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch squares then filling them so no same color value shared a side. Their work is absolutely stunning. 

For this unit students learned about symmetry, design, pattern, texture, color blending, sectioning, and wax resists. Through this unit students applied these objectives into their own cactus creations showing off their own unique styles. The outcomes are quite different from one another with the same idea in mind. I can't help but notice students pulling inspiration from past learned projects, and building upon newly acquired skills. 

For this unit students jumped into the world of Optical Illusions and color theory. Following a challenging video on how to create the illusion of woven paper students then had to make seven different patterns, one for each piece of woven paper that continued even though overlapping occurred. Students then chose one color to work with which would be their Monochromatic color. One color, several values. This project involved problem solving, shading, and creativity.

For this unit students learned about the American artist Jasper Johns, who is still alive and creating to this day. Students got inspiration from a very specific Jasper Johns work that was an abstract work of a painting named 0-9. In this painting students got to play detective figuring out where the numbers were located. Finding their own path of numbers students chose only 5 to design from 0-9. Objectives included overlapping, block numbering, varying size and spacing, border outlining, watercolor techniques, colored pencil techniques and sectioning.