​For those seeking an art related career, sketchbooks are a great way to keep your skills honed and ideas flowing. For those who are not, it can become a bore like homework. Sometimes though it's a matter of perception. When you wear a suit, people treat you with more respect than if you were in sweatpants and a stained shirt. You might even treat yourself differently as well in both cases... however, it's the same "you."
 
The same can be said for a sketchbook. Is it a pile of copy paper stapled with a cover and a name slapped on top? Is it a wire bound blank tablet or a store-bought hard cover? In all these cases, it's not personal, expressive, inviting, nor treasured. Latvian artist, Aniko Kolesnikova, creates magical sketchbooks from polymer clay. You can see her website by clicking the image above, and an article about her work HERE. 

​For my students, ages 7 through about 16, we created our sketchbooks with nice quality drawing paper, ripped along a ruler for deckled edges.
I based the size on what I had available for covers -- canvas board -- but you could use almost anything. The papers were stacked and stapled with a heavy duty stapler I found online, like THIS one. We wrapped the end with a little canvas and hot glue. To finish we added my canvas boards for the front and back covers.
 
Though Aniko Kolesnikova uses polymer clay, I found that the Model Magic I had on hand worked just fine. I am all about using up what I already have without buying more "stuff." I would imagine even a salt clay would do well too. We took a week to make, paint, and create our book covers. Student made covers of their favorite and inspirational images. I had them sketch before getting any clay, to take time and think about what their cover was going to be. Some even looked up imagery and referenced that in their own work.

As an alternative, you might be able to get some discarded hard-cover books from a library, remove the inner pages and add in blank pages with hot glue. Hard cover books can make for a good base for clay work. If the cover is glossy, sanding it will help glued objects stick better.
 
Now when students work in their sketchbooks, they are treasured. They know to take their time and be thoughtful about their work. In some cases, "judging a book by its cover" can be a great motivator.

If you are looking for sketchbook prompts, I have many listed HERE.

"Let's shade some forms!" (YaWn!)
 
We've seen it before, the age old exercise of shading cones, cylinders, spheres, and cubes, and boring the artistic spirit out of our students. My twist is to have students chat and write about their favorite cartoons they lived as younger kids. We laughed at how creepy Teletubbies were, or how funny SpongeBob and Patrick were, or the game characters they loved. Each student printed out an image of their favorite about the size of their open hand. 

​These were glued to the back of form templates I found on Google Images and had printed onto card-stock paper. We used markers and colored pencils to give them basic colors before cutting out the forms and gluing them. It was very helpful to have students pre-fold their templates with the edge of a ruler. We spoke about how folding a 2D image onto a 3D surface fractured the images in a way that Cubism also did in art history, but also how the Pop Artists of the 1960s would use cartoon images. This meant our project was a kind of modern mash-up. 

Each student was to make one form, and to work in groups of 3 or 4 to draw a collection of forms as a kind of still-life drawing. (Those who finished quickly were told to sketch their individual form as practice in the back of their workbooks, like above.) The forms were placed on a white sheet of paper so that their shadows would be more evident. We started with the light on, then when we got to shadows, I turned off the lights and used the windows as out light source so that shadows would be more pronounced.
 
I created a video to help students through the process.

• Draw the forms and the paper they were sitting on
• Draw the cartoon so it looked like it was on a 3D surface
• Add shadows to the forms and then the cast shadows.

​The cartoons helped personalize their work. By working with friends, they learned something about each other. They saw that forms change as the surface bends or turns. They learned how to shade fairly well with a project that was not too overwhelming. And they learned their teacher is pretty old and liked cartoons they never heard of.
 
The whole exploration took about 5 class days from printing images to final shading. We worked on 12 x 18 inch paper, but any size will do. We used cartoons, but any image on the surface would be fine, maybe even patterned paper. I just found that cartoons were a great motivator, made the lesson a bit more fun, and resulted in some fun conversations. I always try to connect student work back to their interests. 

Full Disclosure: I hate color wheels, so much so I have two posts on the topic HERE and HERE. So being the rebel I am, I try to find ways to do the expected in an unexpected way. In my experience, if you give students limited colors, like primaries, tell them to experiment, they will naturally learn that yellow and blue make green.
 
My framework for this lessons starts with a list. Students write nine things they feel are truly important to them. (Think tic-tac-toe) Then they draw symbols for each item. I have them look at icons and emojis, so they get the idea that these symbols should be simple, bold, and direct.
 
We then do a sketch on paper that is the same size as the canvas board I want them to use. Though this project can be done in nearly any medium that can mix, I use this as an introduction to acrylics and color mixing. Students were directed to trace their hand and add one of four symbols so it looked like it was held or interacted with the hand. It was important that the hands overlap to create many shapes and spaces.
 
Each hand was designated a different primary color base plus one hand as black. (This could have been white instead though too). I had considered just 3 hands but it is a bit challenging for students to divide a rectangular surface with triangular proportions.
 
When the sketch was complete, we transferred it to canvas. I have students rub pencil on the back of their drawing, essentially turning it into carbon paper. They tape it to the canvas of the same size, and trace their lines. Once done, they re-traced in permanent marker, like Sharpie. We erased our original pencil lines and began the painting process. The videos I made to help are below.

• Step 1: Each hand's largest space was colored with a primary color, plus the 4th in black.
• Step 2: The next larger spaces between colors where there was overlap was colored the appropriate secondary color, or the hue mixed with black. The center area was reserved for the two colors that did not overlap, so that all secondary colors would be represented.
• Step 3: This is where we had a lot of options. I told students to mix colors by hand on scrap paper then add it to the hands. To always mix a slightly new color variation for each area. They knew that black and white were their "Wild-Cards" to mix where they needed to. I directed students to mix colors that were nearby and to consider the addition of black and/or white.
• Step 4: Chromatic Mixtures. Each day I would review little painting and mixing tips as an introduction. After projects were about half-complete I showed students how they could make an unbalanced chromatic gray as an additional option. For example, they could make a puddle of blue and add a tiny amount of red and yellow to it, and the color would be changed.

 
If all 4 steps are a bit much for your own students, just doing primary, secondary, and arbitrary color mixtures as experiments to fill in the spaces will be fine. They can also repeat colors in spaces that are not adjacent. How specific you are is really up to you. I have done similar lessons with watercolor on paper, as well as oil pastel successfully. Use your own base of knowledge to tool this lesson for your own population. For example, I could imagine that an elementary teacher could prepare an image of 3 or 4 overlapping hands copied onto cardstock and have students add their symbols. Even the choice of subject could change, why not just the symbols overlapping, or just hands? It's really up to you.
 
Color vocabulary they learned through the process were: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Tint, Shade, Tone, and Chromatic Gray. They needed to include these in their final work for full credit on my rubric.

​As with all projects, some students finish quicker than others. Those who were slower, I encouraged them to repeat colors. Those who were fast, I told them to make sure each space was a unique color. The last formal step was to re-outline the image with Sharpie marker or black paint pens. My early finishers were directed to add small patterns to their spaces to enhance their image. I find that paint pens work well for this, but it can also be done with a fine pointed brush. Large patterns however are distracting and can turn a good work into a mess.
 
Though all my projects allow for a student to earn an "A," (90%) I let them know that this additional work, like patterns, helps differentiate grades. Those who have time to do so earn a grading bonus. (It also keep them "meaningfully occupied.")
 
At the end, student wrote down the color vocabulary on the back of their paintings and noted the number of spaces with Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Tint, Shade, Tone, and Chromatic Gray color mixtures. By the end, everyone knew how to mix colors through the experience, and we didn't waste any time making an impersonal color wheel they might only throw away.

To put this project into historical perspective, I showed students a video on Pop Art. We wrote a few facts about each artist, and then had a discussion. "Which artist's work was most similar to our project?" Though many noted our flat colors were rather Warhol-ish, most agreed that the use of outline, bold color, and pattern was very similar to the work of Roy Lichtenstein.

This is my sample above showing no pattern, some pattern, and a lot of pattern. You can see that the small patterns help visually. It's important to warn those who like to rush that large patterns can be very distracting and ultimately hurt their work visually. Video tutorial below.

​Art classes use problem solving on a daily basis for deeper understanding and the internalization of subject matter. When we build sculptural works, these connections become a bit more obvious. From time to time some art explorations finish a bit earlier than expected, or there's an odd day where you do not want one class to get further ahead than the others. This is sometimes when I inject these engineering explorations into my classes. These are usually one-day explorations the most simple of supplies like tape and paper.

Strength Pillar: With 50 sheets of copy paper, 6ft of tape, and 1 scissor, groups of 4 to 6 create a stand that is taller than 8 inches that will hold a school textbook. As groups finish, we also test to see which pillar holds the most books, or even the weight of a student. (Below)

The Plank: With 4 sheets of 18 x 24 inch paper (or 20 sheets of copy paper) 1 scissor, and 6 ft. of tape, students (groups of 4 to 6) create the longest possible free standing plank that extends out from a pillar or wall. I have also done this as a silent project, cutting off 2 inches for every verbalization I record. (Below and top image)

Bridge: With 50 sheets of copy paper, 6ft of tape, and 1 scissor, groups of 4 to 6 create a bridge that spans the distance between 2 tables a set distance. I usually choose 12 inches because it is slightly longer than the sheet of paper but not unreasonable. Weight is added to the bridge little by little and weighed when the bridge collapses. Showing students how to roll tubes from copy paper around a pencil may be helpful.

​Paper Towers: With 4 sheets of 18 x 24 inch paper (or 20 sheets of copy paper) 1 scissor, and 6 ft. of tape, students (groups of 4 to 6) create the tallest possible free standing tower. I have also done this as a silent project, cutting off 2 inches for every verbalization I record.

Performance based benchmarks should be a snap in the art room. We're all about performance based education. This is one I give for my introductory classes. Students had to draw their hand (Some chose to trace) and show off their use of the art elements. The rubric addresses the elements and their depth of use.
 
Line for instance, can be either traced or freely drawn. Those who DID NOT trace their hand generally scored much higher because tracing is a lower-level skill. As students progress through the year, they gain more confidence in their skills. By the time they take their last benchmark, none are tracing so scores inevitably increase. They learn other skills as well; to shade with color, create shadows that change in tone, to add organic textures, add unique details, and make more careful observations.
 
My more advanced classes do a similar assessment but they incorporate surrealism into their images. Some regress and trace, but many have moved past that. My adjusting your assessment for the skill level of your students, a similar exam can be given for many different levels making grading easier.
 
If you are in need of more examples of assessments for art, please visit my "Assessments Tab" to the left for some free examples.

My book Art Assessments, is available on Amazon.com or HERE with 30 % off.