​As part of a Project Based Learning exploration (PBL), I coordinated with the librarian for a list of major topics represented in our book collections. My idea was to have students create sculptures to go on top of the shelves and represent the genre of books housed there. This was going to be a large undertaking and took a lot of planning.
 
We began with a figure drawing unit. I provide props, and students took turns doing classical poses. We learned to do gesture drawings, and how to create figures to proper scale (8-heads high). 

​It is after this that I present our students with the sculpture project. Each student got a worksheet to select genres and sketch thumbnail ideas. They broke into partners and did larger drawings of their thumbnails, incorporating our figure drawing techniques. I kept a list of who was selecting what genre so we would be sure all topics could be represented. If not, every student would have a Sci-Fi or Fantasy figure and we'd have nothing for Biographies, History, or Nature.

​I then asked students to share their work with 3 others and select what they thought was their strongest idea. These were put out for judging. Each student got 2 post-it notes for 2 votes, and they were not allowed to vote for their own work. "Winners" would become group leaders of 4 to create these final designs. I ensured that we had a broad selection of work so that as many genres would be represented in the end, letting students know which topics were closed or still available. 

​We needed to do some re-designing of our winning figures so they would fit on their respective shelves. We took a trip to the library to photograph where figures would go and group leaders, with their team, considered any changes they would need to make. One was that no figure could be standing because it's height would break fire codes. So all had to kneel, lay down, or sit on the shelf.

​Using the work of Mark Jenkins as a jumping off point, and several videos from YouTube like this HERE and HERE, we started by wrapping just one lower arm in groups as practice. We found it was VERY helpful to use plastic wrap first before using tape. It allowed a small gap for cutting, and helped protect skin and clothing. (We saved all the practice arms and gave them to the Horror Fiction group.) Sometimes Mark Jenkins wraps 1 time sticky-side out and another time sticky-side in, so there's no use of plastic wrap. I experimented, and found it was way too tight, and the final sculpture was flimsy. Plastic wrap and about 4 to 5 layers of tape worked great! As for heads, we used foam heads, but you could use a balloon, or wrap 1/2 a head at a time and put them together. 

​Another important tip is not to wrap the body from the roll, but to cut one-foot strips and apply them to the figure. (Mark does this in his videos) Wrapping directly from the roll made the tape far too tight. Once a lot of tape strips were on, some careful wrapping from the roll could be done, but be careful and watchful.
 
I used safety envelope cutters that worked well, but if kids twisted them, they snapped, so I had extra. Scissors will do well also but need to be cleaned often with rubbing alcohol as they get gummy. By the end we found that on average, we used about 3 rolls of 100  yard packaging tape per adult-size figure. Naeir.org often sells cases of tape at very low prices. I got 4 cases of 24 rolls for $10 each. I got my plastic wrap from Nasco; they have small rolls and industrial rolls of 2000 ft. Just search for "Plastic Wrap" when you go there. (If you use my link, they'll know I referred you.) Nasco also has foam heads if you want them.

​As you might suspect, students should wrap body parts one-at-a-time. We did arms, body trunk, legs, then heads and props. Legs should go high up on the hips, and arms should be done almost all the way up to the neck so you have some overlap for strength when re-attaching. When wrapping the trunk, we asked the model to smooth the tape for themselves on the front. (Always smooth the tape before you begin cutting. once it's off, it's hard to compress again. We used tape to seal the figure back up, attach parts, and even added some pieces of thick but clear plastic to strengthen our figures as needed. The clear acetate we use for framing art worked well for this, sometimes rolled into little tubes for support inside the figure if hips collapsed.
 
Students also had to make a little plaque explaining their sculptures, and how they represented the genre. Once the work was on display, I had planned to send out a note to my administrators and colleagues, but they all barged in my room within minutes talking about about how awesome the work was! Though this was a huge undertaking, it was well worth it.

Supplies and a budget are big items on the art teacher's To-Do list. I have a whole blog post on where to go if you have no budget HERE. 

I have another blog post HERE for starting up an art room or creating a wish-list should some money come your way.

I have been an art educator for nearly 30 years. I have ordered from Blick, Crystal, Sax, Molly Hawkins, Michaels, Amazon, and many others over the years. I have cross checked prices, and looked for deals, and I have found that NASCO (known as eNasco online) has done the best for me for several reasons, but sometimes I need to "work" the order to ensure I get the best prices.

#1. Call them and ask for a discount code. This will get you 20% off and free shipping on your orders.
#2. Once you calculate your order, send it out for bids to competitors, and send it to Nasco as well to see if they can shave a little more off the price. (They always have for me.)
#2. Request ALL their catalogs. You will find art resources in the Science, Healthcare, Farm & Ranch catalogs as well. (I used their farm feed rubber buckets for plaster work, they are awesome!) 

I have, overall, found less damage, better quality, and easier handling with Nasco, and more headaches with others. I also like that Nasco directly advocates for art educators. You can contact them for outreach, and programs. If you know Kris Bakke, or met her at a convention, you'll see, as a rep, she's tops and has a real understanding of the needs of art educators.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know I don't "plug" businesses, but as I am pulling my own order together for the upcoming year, I thought to share this tidbit with you.

​Though tessellations can be fun, with great connections to math and geometry, they can become tedious and mechanical. By expanding the techniques beyond the basic square and rudimentary techniques, life can be breathed back into the work and even offer opportunities for expression.
 
Most people work with just squares, but did you know many of the same techniques work just as well with rectangles? We have been told to "line up the corners," but in actuality, for many techniques, you don't have to. Experimentation is something we can do more of in our classes. It's this trial and error that fuels STEAM education in art.
 
For example, the Translation method is the most common for tessellations. Cut a square from one corner to an adjacent corner, pull it across and tape it down. Do we really have to match up those corners? Try it, trace it, and see what happens. You'll be amazed that the "conservation of shape" we are demonstrating also means that the shapes do continue to tessellate! Try it on a scrap of copy paper.

​The issue is that so often we fall back on a grid to regularly tessellate our figures. This forces constraints on the shapes that are unnecessary and result in a narrow range of potential figures of butteflies, elephant heads, sting rays, and face profiles.
 
If we can pull back from the "corner-to-corner" restrictions, we end up with many more Escher-like possibilities! Let go of the grid with these new figures, and trace one shape in the middle of the page, and continue to surround it with more figures. In this way we end up with a more organic composition that looks a lot like art and less like wrapping paper.
 
The reflection technique (where you flip your cut shape before re-attaching it) results in more dynamic figures too. Again, corners do not need to match up for it to work. Ones does need to flip the shape to make the tessellation work, and it's a bit like a challenging puzzle at first, but it will work and be less stagnant.

You can go further with parallelograms, hexagons, triangles of all kinds. The rotation technique produces a broad array of delightful organic shapes. I have created a series of tutorial videos to show to many more possibilities to tessellations. You can see them all HERE.
 
If in the past, you have limited your students to making one, or a small handful of tessellations, I'd encourage you to have them make 10 in each technique, so when they are done, they truly know how to make tessellations, and they will have a large pile to sort through. They should look at all their shapes against a contrasting background so the contours really pop. Turn the shape, look at it from the front and back, share their shapes with peers for ideas and come up with several possibilities. Draw right on the shapes, and focus on whole figures as opposed to partial objects. 

When a larger selection has been created, weed out the weaker figures for stronger ones. When a choice has to be made, ask, "which figure can you say has a personal connection to who you are?" If it is a choice between a bird and a turtle; a bird might be considered more adventurous, while a turtle is more of an introvert. Which one is better suited to the artist who made it? This should be the final decision maker.
 
In my examples, I used very heavy water color paper, watercolors, and ink. Students worked in pencil first, then pen, and finished with watercolor in three steps.
 
1. Give everything a light color.
2. Add shadows and highlights to each.
3. Add textures and patterns where appropriate.
 
You can see that by letting go of the grid, we have a very dynamic selection of artwork.

More lessons and published resources can be found at http://www.FirehousePublications.com