For this five week unit students learned about the very popular movement of Street Art. Seen in cities and towns across the world Street Art takes into account the outdoor environment making human interaction a novelty...and what is more photo worthy than a picture in front of wings to give you flight? Students learned about symmetry, sectioning, warm versus cool tones, staggering and so much more to create their own Street Art. 

For this unit students learned about Pablo Picasso and the art movement Cubism. Students were instructed to chose a creature and create their own cubist style while incorporating texture, vibrant colors and patterns. Students then had to cut out their creatures into four equal parts and reconfigure them into abstract pieces of art. 

For this unit students learned about the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos, which translates to the Day of the Dead. A long standing three day tradition that celebrates the deceased of loved ones. Students watched a video of the ofrendas (offerings) families make for loved ones that include food, photographs, flowers and skulls...or calaveras. Students were given the challenge to create their own Calavera taking into account design, proportions, symmetry, asymmetry, bordering and themes. 

For this unit students learned about Contour line and how to draw their own hand in the contour style. Students had to follow the lines of their hands in a chosen position making sure to create the form of their hand with one simple line. Inspired by the artist Sedef Yilmabasar, a woman born in Istanbul who finds art in textures, color, symbols and all her cats students created their own Yilmabasar patterns in the backgrounds and applied vibrant solid color to fill them in. On their hands they found the small spaces to work with while keeping the majority of the space of the hand white paper. 

For this unit students learned how the difference between shape and form creating their own form of cubes. Students also learned about the Design Element Value and how to apply it with the use of crayon and hand pressure. Pattern, a Design Principle was added to the background where students had to continue their pattern throughout with differing color patterns. 

During this unit students learned about reflections, transferring materials, and blending complementary colors to achieve richer colors and tones. Students were challenged to create their own landscape whether it be natural or more of a city scene on half a piece of paper. Transferring black crayon to the opposite side students saw how easily a symmetrical reflection could be made. Crayon color experimentation brought these landscapes to life which included texture. Students used either watercolor or crayon for their reflection side keeping in mind a consistency in color to keep symmetry throughout the process. 

In this unit students learned about tessellations, pattern design, setting up and drawing a still life, complementary colors, directional lighting and the interesting shading technique stippling. Students used multiple materials for this project and had to follow several objectives online. 

For this unit students learned about the tradition of Mandalas and their origin. After watching a video of Tibetan monks create a colored sand Mandala students got to design one of their own keeping in mind symmetry, shapes, variation of line design and finally color. Students learned about the design principle Balance and the design element line. 

For this unit students learned about Pop Art along with two artists most commonly associated with the movement, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Warhol stylized his work with vibrant colors and thick black outlines whereas Lichtenstein stylized his work more around comic book concepts. Students were instructed to draw a shoe of their own following objectives such as touching all four sides of the larger piece of paper with their shoe. When they cut their work in half with a ruler drawn line they got to work with both artist's styles of Pop Art. Can you guess which side belongs to which famous artist?

Students learned about one of the oldest traditions around the world of Henna. To this day Henna is still popular in our culture and many students had stories about siblings or parents who had gotten Henna before. Outlining their hand and fashioning a border students designed their own Henna tattoos using the Design Element Line. With mixed mediums students then colored in their design experimenting with various patterns.