POSITIVE/NEGATIVE INDIA INK LESSON SHARED

 POSITIVE/NEGATIVE INDIA INK LESSON

CHOOSE SUBJECT(S) AND DRAW THEM IN PENCIL COVERING THE 12 X 18 WHITE DRAWING PAPER. 

OVERLAP THE SUBJECTS AND HAVE THEM COMING FROM ALL DIRECTIONS AND HAVE PARTS OF THEM GO OFF THE PAGE

I CHOSE ROOSTERS FOR THIS EXAMPLE:

START AT A CORNER OF THE PAPER AND MARK AN X INEACH SHAPE YOU INTEND TO DARKEN.  THE OBJECT IS TO NOT HAVE ANY LINES, ONLY POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SHAPES.

BEGIN COLORING IN THE SHAPES USING INDIA INK OR FELT TIP PEN.

THIS IS THE EXAMPLE I WORKED UP FOR MY STUDENTS USING MY IPAD AND PROJECTOR.

I THOUGHT THE STUDENTS’ WORK CAME OUT QUITE WELL.

India Ink and Rebecca Penney

"You can get all A's and still flunk life."

Walker (Alexander) Percy   May 28, 1916

When I saw this quote on my daily email quoting famous people, I didn't have a clue as to who this was.  I don't really care, to tell the truth.  I just know it spoke a whole world of ideas about what actually IS important.  This blog has tried to stay centered around the idea of intrinsic motivation and its importance in the learning process.  Getting all A"s is the ultimate external motivation in education.  We place so much value on that concept that we forget (ignore) completely the value of learning for the sake and joy and worth of learning.  So, hail to you, Mr. Walker Percy, for reminding us way back at the turn of the century that we need to get our heads out of dark places and find the light of learning as life itself.

Yesterday was my LDWKTY (last day with kids this year) and it was busy and fun.  I gave them a formal test over the last semester similar to last semester's exam where I asked them to summarize the lessons they had and the projects they did and feelings they had about them.  I also asked them again how they felt about the "program" they were on, the self grading, choices, etc.  I'll share some of their thoughts about that in subsequent posts here.  We also finished, or came close to finishing, their last project, the Positive/Negative India Ink projects.

I am posting a video showing, again, some of them working along with some still shots of some of the finished works.  This time I set it to music by the artist Rebecca Penney.  I love her piano work and hoped you would enjoy it.

John Wayne on "Life and the Creative Process"

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us
 at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts
 itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from
 yesterday."

"If everything isn't black and white, I say why the hell not."

John Wayne   [Marion Michael Morrison]   May 26, 1907

Today is the "Duke's" birthday.  In looking over a couple quotes attributed to him, I decided that these two would be appropriate.  The first could be an analogy for the beginning of an art work.

The "blank canvas" that every artist faces in some shape or form.  Is is the "tomorrow" of each

piece of work we attempt.  The other quote, while being meant as a "no nonsense, no gray areas" approach to life, I merely saw it as a metaphor for the POSITIVE/NEGATIVE SPACE 

projects my students are finishing the year creating.

Here is another short video of students in the "creative process'.  Uncut and uncensored.

"Mistakes, Failure, and Being Wrong"...the creative process

"Do not fear mistakes. There are none."

Miles (Dewey) Davis (III)   May 25, 1926

I love jazz musicians.  They are the genius' of spontaneous creativity.  An old acquaintance of mine from a couple of lifetimes ago, Ken Cassover, was a psychologist by day and a jazz pianist in the likes of Dave Brubeck at night, was trained as a traditional concert pianist.  I asked him one day if he found that rigid training beneficial or a hamper to his playing jazz.  He shared that his classical training had been a benefit.  He said that it broadened his base of spontaneity.

I feel the same way about classical training in the visual arts.  Students need to be held to an accountable understanding of the elements of art and the principals of design.  I think at every level of learning those tenants hold true.  I use as an analogy with my students that at every level of football (elementary school to the pros), players practice the rudiments of blocking.

Tiger Woods practices putting.  John McEnroe his backhand.

Now, about Miles Davis' comment about mistakes.  FDR said, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself".  The only "mistake" we can make is to believe that failure is not a part of the process of creating art.  Being wrong is what makes us human.  Embrace it.

Here is short video of students while they were staining their ceramic pendants the other day.

Stained and Acrylic Glazed Clay Pendants

"And since geometry is the right foundation of all painting, I
 have decided to teach its rudiments and principles to all
 youngsters eager for art...

Albrecht Durer   May 21, 1471

A busy day today, what with demonstrating the process of staining and glazing our clay pendants, working with students finishing up their crayon/india inks stain glass projects, and getting everyone started on their positive/negative projects using the animal silhouettes and india ink.  It also included some interesting and mildly "humorous" situations dealing with student behavior.

 I'm a stickler for students paying strict attention when I am demonstrating a process.  When a student chooses to behave in a manner which distracts me or other students, I always ask that they stop what they are doing, even though it may seem minor in any other circumstance.  This morning during a class period, two of my students sitting right in front of me were fanning themselves with their folders.  I asked them to stop..they refused..again..refusal..asked them to leave the room...refused.  My patience at an end, I went to the hall and summoned the vice principal assigned to our building.  He came to my room and immediately noticed that the "leader" of this little rebellion was totally out of dress code, wearing jeans and also did not have his id badge..  The student was sent to in house suspension for those violations.

 The humor in all this is that this is the last week of the school year.  I was about to show the students a very unique process no other art teacher in this school would have taken the time to show them.  Here was a student, who got up this morning and decided he was going to dress against dress code, come into my room late, and behave in a manner that was guaranteed to draw my attention...then be belligerent enough to get me to call the authorities and draw their attention as well.  Maybe it's just me, but I thought it was funny.

Ok, then I am posting some pics of some of the pendants the students finished today.  Hope you enjoy them.

Clay Pendant (TEXTURE) project

"It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting
 up and taking action."

Honore de Balzac   May 20, 1799

So I went out and bought the clay, hauled it up to my room on the second floor, cut it up, demonstrated various ways to texture the clay to arrive at a pleasing composition, helped the students achieve some very nice pendants, packed them all up carefully and hauled them home where they now sit to dry.  I will then load them up in the kiln, pay for the electricity to fire them, haul them back to school on Monday, have the students paint them with watercolor, and have them cover them with gloss transparent medium.  Once they are dry, I will give each student a piece of lace to attach to the pendant so they can be worn.

Doe EVERY art teacher do stuff like this?  I don't know.  I DO know, however, that when I do things like I just described, it bothers me a WHOLE LOT when I get a text from the teacher with whom I share the classroom and who teaches air brush that one of my students crammed clay down one of his air receptacles and he had to spend a lot of time cleaning out.  Not to mention the danger of having this act possibly injure one of his students because the line is under 70 pounds of pressure.  

Here are some pictures of the pendants drying out in my studio.  I'll fire them tomorrow over night so they will be ready by Monday morning.

Paul Soldner on the "critique"

"I'm sure there are other ways to avoid playing Artistic God, but real problems arise if grades are affected by a critique. Giving grades on artisitc effort seems contradictory. On one hand we expect the students to be original, self-motivated and inventive, but then we judge their success or failure by personal feelings."

Paul Soldner

A leader is best When people barely know he exists Not so good when people obey and acclaim him, Worse when they despise him. "Fail to honor people, They fail to honor you." But of a good leader, who talks little, When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, They will say, "We did this ourselves."                    -Lao Tzu Tomorrow in my art classes I am going to do a begin a special project with my students.  We are in a "last few days of the year" mode and I want to make each day count.  Last year I had my students, during the study of texture, create a textured clay pendant that they finished in watercolor stain and glossy medium.  Even though we have already studied texture and we spent 6 weeks creating textured paintings in tempera, I decided I would allow two days of the class time to do this fun project also.  Since we will be working in clay and since the idea is texture, I used a comment by Paul Soldner, who is known for his beautiful textured sculptural works to emphasize the feelings I have come to when it comes to grading my students' work.  In his article he used the Zen master, Lao Tzu's quote to illustrate his feelings about teaching as well.  Here are a couple of Paul's works that illustrate his mastery of the clay medium.  I will be posting some video of my students working in clay and their final products when they finish next week. Pedestal Piece, 91-12, 1991, slab built, with white terra sigillata, low-temperature salt, 23 3/4 inches in height; at Louis Newman Galleries in Beverly Hills, California. Pedestal Piece, 90-26, 1990, low-fire clay with slip, salt vapor fired, 28 1/2 inches high, by Paul Soldner, Aspen, Colorado.

Stain Glass Crayon and Ink

"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not
 aiming high enough."

Alan Kay   May 17, 1940

Alan Curtis Kay (born May 17, 1940) is an American computer scientist, known for his early pioneering work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interfacedesign, and for coining the phrase, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

I copied this off Wikepedia because I had no idea who this was.  I just liked the quote and wanted to use it for the blog.  I keep stressing to my students they need to push further with their art.

I'm going to post another series of paintings from this last assignment for your viewing pleasure.  We are getting ra[pidly down to the wire for time in the classroom this year.  I have three more regular class periods with each of the classes, then it's finals.  I have one more project they will work on this year unless I have them do a "special" project in clay.  We'll see.  Here are the pictures.

The "Henry J" of Art...the Faux Stain Glass Window

"Problems are only opportunities in work clothes."

Henry J(ohn) Kaiser   May 9, 1882

Back in about 1950 the Kaiser/Frazier Car Company were making cars they simply called the Kaier.  Cadillac had come out in 1948 with the slant back sedan that incorporated a "fin" at the end of the rear fenders.  In 1950 the made the car more "rounded" but kept the fins.  Kaiser decided to jump on the bandwagon and produced a limited number of small 2 door coupes that also had the cadillac fin on the back fenders.  It actually looked like a squished version of the 1950 cadillac sedan.  They called it the "Henry J".  I always wondered why they named it that.  Now I know.  Go figure.

Well, I hanen't had time to listen to more than a couple chapters of my book, The Paradox of Choices so I don't have any real revelations regarding the program.  I HAVE had a couple of students finish the assignment I gave them and I asked each one what they thought of the work they finished.  So far the response has been very positive.  I'm posting a few of them in this post so you can see what they are doing.  More later. 

Choosing how much Choice...the dilemma

"Creativity takes Courage"

Henri Matisse

I realized that there has been a noticeable lull in my postings to this blog.  This past week was TAKS testing in Texas, so the students were involved in that process for 4 of the 5 school days.  They are working on a project I described in my last post, having to do with a faux stain glass window design in crayon and ink.  It is a rather elementary sort of process with the only real challenge to the student being the skill with which they draw the subject and design the background.  I didn't give them a CHOICE as to whether to do this assignment, which brings me to the point of this posting.

I am currently reading a book titled THE PARADOX OF CHOICE, by Barry Schwartz.  I heard him talk about this subject on TED and became interested in the subject because of the nature of my art curriculum.The base concept of the curriculum is to give the student total freedom of choice over all the aspects of what he/she decides to learn about the subject at hand.  The idea of the importance of autonomy in regard to intrinsic motivation being the driving force.  As you might recall from my first posts, the germ of this idea came from my response to students leaving art work behind that they had created which I praised them for and yet they were not "connected" to enough to want to keep it.  So I built an entire program around the ability of the student to CHOOSE all of the aspects of what he was learning in order to foster that feeling of "caring".  For the most part I am satisfied with how the year has progressed in this manner.There have been only a few of the students who have not been able to "get it" totally, and a handfull more who have tried to "beat the system"  I kind of expected both of these situations to exist  Now that we are nearing the end of the year, as always, I sit and reflect over the year and try to assess what we've done and how I can improve on it for next fall.  I believe, to some degree, I will gain some insight into that process by the time I am finished reading this book on Choices.

In the meantime, here is a copy of the last "lesson" format for this year.  The element of art is SPACE and the principle of design is PROPORTION.  I will be following this post up with a quick series of posts highlighting the work of the students and more thoughts on the program..