"Find a wheel, and it goes round, round, round..."

"Confidence is the most important single factor in this game,
 and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one
 way to obtain and sustain it: work."

Jack (William) Nicklaus

The title of today's post is a phrase from an old 50's song by Perry Como.  It refers to the fact that today my classes began working on part of their academic portion of this cycle's lesson, which is on COLOR.  Since they have two text books for reference, I have required that THEIR color wheel must NOT be in the shape of a circle.  I DID however, point out that it must be circular in concept so that various relationships could be established, i.e. ANALAGOUS, COMPLEMENTARY, and TRIAD color schemes.  I pointed out that referring to the unit on balance would help because I was basically talking about a RADIAL BALANCE DESIGN. . With each class period there was something I must have either not said, said loud enough, or completely enough for them to just proceed on this seemingly "mindless" activity.  I use that term because, after all, they ARE just basically copying information out of the book.  The only real creative endeavor comes in the the designing of the "wheel" on which the colors are to be placed.  I gave them the "idea" paper with the 6 squares for trying out designs, had them choose their favorite (your ONLY idea is NEVER you BEST idea) blow it up on a piece of copy paper, and then transfer that over to the good paper BEFORE beginning the watercolor process.  Does anyone have any idea how many students went directly back to get bowls of water to begin painting?  As the horse said, raising its tail when asked if he wanted more oats, "justafew".  

So we are now underway of this cycle's lesson.  I have cut 12 x 18 watercolor paper for the students to use on their major work of art in case they want to use watercolor or tempera.  I was able to get the money loosened up for the purchase of some gallons of tempera paint and some masking tape so I can make the Silk Screen unit available to all students, not just those who would bring in the needed supplies.  I'm looking forward to that experience with this program.  Once some of the students finish their original color wheel designs I will post some of them on the blog.  I'll also create some more footage of them working in this medium and of course as they create in the Silk Screen process as well.

I'll post a couple pictures from last Spring of abstract paintings after we studied Kandinsky for a little while.  He will be one of the choices on this lesson as well.

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT THESE CLASSES COME UP WITH.