1. Keep Your Hands to Yourself

Art I M.Brodnax

Welcome to ART1. This class will teach you about art history, media art techniques, and tons of other cool stuff. By the end of the year you will be amazed at how much art influences your daily life. This class is usually pretty interesting, and we are going to do lots of great stuff, but we still have a few rules. Instead of calling them rules, let’s call them guidelines. Theses guidelines are necessary because we must have calm and order in the art room. As you read you will see that none of these guidelines is too hard to deal with.

1. Keep your hands to yourself. -Do not touch other people, other people’s things, art work that is not yours or personal items that are not yours. If something does not belong to you then don’t touch it! 2. Eat somewhere else. -My classroom is not the lunch room. Don’t bring food or candy or drinks into my class. If I see it – open or not- I will ask you to throw it away 3. Go to the bathroom before you get here. -You will be allowed 2 passes out of class per semester. 4. Edit your artwork. -The handbook says that some things are inappropriate for school. Don’t let those things show up in your artwork. 5. Stay in your seat. -Please do not get up and wander aimlessly around the room. Don’t move your chair to another table and do not change seats. 6. Control your volume -Don’t be loud. 7. Clean up. - I have lots of students working on lots of projects. Everyone must clean up their area before the end of the period. Cleaning up will be part of every grade… Participation

You may be wondering how you will be successful in art if you don’t think you have any artistic talent. This brings us to grades. Your grades on projects will be based on how well you did each part of the project. Not necessarily how well you drew a picture of the moon, for example, but whether you did it using the right media, or if you filled the paper, or if you followed the directions, etc. You will have test, quiz, and project grades. All grades count one time. Projects will be due every 4 weeks. We move quickly and sometimes you may get a little behind. If you do, you can come to the art room before school or after school to catch up, however, every 4 weeks projects that are behind will need to be turned in so they can be graded. This gives you extra time to work if you need it, but we don’t get too far behind. You will be required to take a cumulative exam at the end of the year. This exam is called and SLO exam (Student Learning Objective). The SLO will count as a final exam at the end of the year and it will be 10% of your final grade. Remember: grading is year-long. That means that you will be in this class for the whole year and your grades from the whole year will be averaged to determine if you get credit for the class.

Supplies: -Required: Pencil, Notebook or folder -recommended: Markers, colored pencils, scissors, watercolor paint, etc. An old shirt or apron

I have read and understand the rules for art: ______Drawing Assignments: These assignments are intended to help you be creative, they are not about drawing a perfect representation of something. I do not expect you to be a wonderful, accomplished artist from the time you walk in my door. I do not expect you to spend hours and hours working on each of these assignments. I do want you to TRY HARD with each assignment. Some drawing you will like some you will hate; this is okay and it is part of your learning process. Your work may not be as “good” as the person sitting next to you, it may be better, that is okay, too. As with all things in Art I, I want you to try. Drawing may be colored, they do not have to be.

Week 1 – Remember? Draw a picture of your first grade classroom. This assignment is about perception, so include as many details as you can. Really try to think about what you remember and then put it on paper.

Week 2 - Name it. Words and letters by themselves are not necessarily all that interesting. For this drawing I want you to use you name to create an interesting drawing. The name must be the dominate element in the work and you must fill the space in an interesting way.

Week 3 – History. Draw a picture of a historical time or event. I should easily be able to tell what time in history you are trying to show me.

Week 4 – What line? Draw a picture that has an implied line and a vehicle. Both the line and the vehicle should be easy to see in the drawing. Use your imagination… the vehicle can be real or imagined, don’t forget to show me where it is - background.

Week 5 – Safe. Draw a picture of a safe place. When you hear the word “safe” where is it?

Week 6 – My Favorite. Draw a picture of your favorite_____. You fill in the blank and then draw it.

Week 7 – Scared? Ask someone what they are afraid of. Draw a picture of it.

Week 8 – Body work. Draw three figures (human or animal). Instead of trying to make them look like real figures, draw them out of shapes. The body might be a square, the arms rectangles, a triangle head, etc.

Week 9: Shapes are flat and 2 dimensional, forms take up space, they are 3 dimensional. Draw three shapes – they can be geometric or free-form – then make them forms.

Week 10: BOO! It’s Halloween, draw me a scary Halloween picture… or a nice fall picture.

Week 11: Where? Draw a picture that has foreground, middle ground, and background.

Week 12: Active and Static. This week’s picture should be either active or static. Active shapes and forms show movement and action. Static shapes and forms are motionless. Draw a picture that is active OR static by using the correct type of shape, form or line.

Week 13: Thanksgiving. I am thankful for ______. You fill in the blank then draw a picture of what you are thankful for.

Week 14: Numbers. Just like letters, number can be interesting. Draw a picture that uses only numbers. Find a way to make the picture interesting!

Week 15: All I want for Christmas. Draw a picture of what you want for Christmas. If you don’t know what you want then draw a picture of what you think you will get. Writing assignments:

These assignments are intended to make you think about what you are doing and what is going on around you. Some of the assignments are about art some are not. Write until the assignment is complete.

Assignment 1: What is art? You are a babysitter. The 10 year-old you are babysitting asks you some questions about the drawing you are working on. When you tell them it is for art class they ask, “What is art?”

Answer the question ‘what is art?’ in terms that a 10 year-old can understand.

Assignment 2: Everyone has influences in their lives. Most of us are influenced by the culture we are raised in. For example: a person who grows up in Jamaica will be more likely to listen to reggae music and eat seafood. A person who grows up in Alaska will be more likely to drive a 4-wheel drive vehicle and hunt or fish. A person who grows up in New York will be more likely to know how to use public transportation and they might speak with an accent.

Describe yourself and two things that have influenced you to be “you”.

Assignment 3: In the last writing assignment we learned that groups of people have similar characteristics. This is the culture of a given group. Individuals within the group, however, can be very different. Those differences make everyone’s artwork unique. Think about how you are different from those around you. Think about how those differences impact your choices.

Describe how the things you like or dislike influence your artwork.

Assignment 4: We have done several projects since school started. Carefully think about each one. Some have been created very quickly, some took more time. Some were more difficult to complete than others. Think about the project you liked the most and the one you liked the least.

Compare your favorite and your least favorite project from this class so far. What do you like/dislike about each one? What would you do differently?

Assignment 5: We have worked with several 2-dimensional art forms and several 3-dimensional art forms. Remember, 2-D would be things that are flat like drawing, painting, photography, etc., 3-D things take up space like relief, additive sculpture, subtractive sculpture, etc.

Which do you like better, 2-D or 3-D? Why do you think you like it?

Assignment 6: What’s your favorite color? Colors have an emotional impact on us. Some colors make us comfortable and happy while others can make us feel anxious or tired. Sometimes events in our lives can make us prefer one color over another.

What is your favorite color? Why do you like it more than other colors?

Assignment 7: We have done several projects since school started. Carefully think about each one. Some have been created very quickly, some took more time. Some were more difficult to complete than others. Think about the project you liked the most and the one you liked the least.

Compare your favorite and your least favorite project from this class so far. What do you like/dislike about each one? What would you do differently?