The Christmas Monsters
After seeing a video about Dave DeVries, founder of The Monster Engine, I was inspired to have my high school students collaborate with lower elementary students. I connected with fellow art teacher Judy Maida who had her students do monster drawings for Halloween. They were to be black and white line drawings on 8 x 10 inch paper, or about that size for ease of shipping. Her students did their initial drawings in pencil, and then traced them in sharpie.
When I received them, I had every work photocopied so we would retain an image of what the original looked like. These were paired for students as a reference to be photographed with their finished work. Before working though, my students completed several exercises to explore the basics of color theory, tonal value, gradations of color, and color transitions. They learned to make monochromatic color transitions as well as analogous and complimentary ones. They experimented with shading effects on drawn spheres and forms. When those exercises were complete and graded, they were allowed to choose a work from the monster pile.
Organization was an issue, so every student had a folder to keep ALL their work in. These were passed out and collected daily. I had several visuals up for students to see the process. Once they had an image they had to clean it up: erase the pencil lines, and finish any sharpie the child may have left incomplete. Sometimes it was a guess. We used no sharpie after that so that the original work would stand out with its original sharpie lines. Students worked right on the original, keeping the photocopy as a reference.
In hindsight, it would have been nice for the little kids to note on the back of their work their favorite colors and say if they wanted a scary or cute monster ala the "Monster's Inc." movies.
Knowing these would be holiday gifts, my high school students, many "rusher's," slowed down. I may have laid on a little guilt when some got lazy... "I hope that kindergartner won't feel sad if her drawing is the only one that didn't get done..." or high praise about how the kids will surely "treasure your gift." I shared stories of how I was influenced by my uncle's drawings, and wanted to be like him when I was a small child. It seemed to resonate for them, and they did really try their best. Only one student added some insensitive gore that I turned into "tar" with a black pen later.
They were graded on evidence of all the coloring techniques I had discussed with them. Their rubric was a check list; either the evidence was there or not. I wanted to see all of the following: everything colored, monochromatic transitions, analogous transitions, complimentary color use in shadows, use of texture, backgrounds, smooth coloring with small pencil strokes. I think you can see, the results were quite spectacular.
Posters Available Here.
Similar idea in 3-D HERE.
When I received them, I had every work photocopied so we would retain an image of what the original looked like. These were paired for students as a reference to be photographed with their finished work. Before working though, my students completed several exercises to explore the basics of color theory, tonal value, gradations of color, and color transitions. They learned to make monochromatic color transitions as well as analogous and complimentary ones. They experimented with shading effects on drawn spheres and forms. When those exercises were complete and graded, they were allowed to choose a work from the monster pile.
Organization was an issue, so every student had a folder to keep ALL their work in. These were passed out and collected daily. I had several visuals up for students to see the process. Once they had an image they had to clean it up: erase the pencil lines, and finish any sharpie the child may have left incomplete. Sometimes it was a guess. We used no sharpie after that so that the original work would stand out with its original sharpie lines. Students worked right on the original, keeping the photocopy as a reference.
In hindsight, it would have been nice for the little kids to note on the back of their work their favorite colors and say if they wanted a scary or cute monster ala the "Monster's Inc." movies.
Knowing these would be holiday gifts, my high school students, many "rusher's," slowed down. I may have laid on a little guilt when some got lazy... "I hope that kindergartner won't feel sad if her drawing is the only one that didn't get done..." or high praise about how the kids will surely "treasure your gift." I shared stories of how I was influenced by my uncle's drawings, and wanted to be like him when I was a small child. It seemed to resonate for them, and they did really try their best. Only one student added some insensitive gore that I turned into "tar" with a black pen later.
They were graded on evidence of all the coloring techniques I had discussed with them. Their rubric was a check list; either the evidence was there or not. I wanted to see all of the following: everything colored, monochromatic transitions, analogous transitions, complimentary color use in shadows, use of texture, backgrounds, smooth coloring with small pencil strokes. I think you can see, the results were quite spectacular.
Posters Available Here.
Similar idea in 3-D HERE.
2018 Update: Here a father and son collaborate on a project together. This would be fun to do with a lower level class and an AP art class.
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