Surrealism Style Magazine Collage

Grade 10- 12 students looked at the work of Surrealist master Salvador Dali. They noticed the high realism of his work, the sense of space and distance and the juxtaposition of random objects in one picture plane. 

Salvador Dali, "The Persistence of Memory", 1931

Students started off by looking through my stash of magazines (why does every art teacher have a huge cache of National Geographics, lol). They were to rip out any page that had an interesting image or cool texture or something that would make a good background. 

Once they had collected a fair number of images, they had to carefully and precisely cut out each image and then re-arrange them on their background landscape, creating a pleasing composition. I encouraged them to try and tell a weird story, but not to clutter the composition with too many images.

Some finished collages:

(there were some really weird ones and some humorous parts!!)

 

Embroidered Photographs

This was a cool project I did with my Grade 7,8,9 class. It's quite tedious and time consuming, so is a good lesson in patience and perseverance; a definite era of challenge for some of today's students!

I started by showing photo examples of embroidered photography online. |There are lots of examples. Many contemporary embroiderers are pushing the boundaries of the age-old craft to produce unique hand-stitched pieces.  Han Cao, and Flore Gardner are a couple of good examples. 

Students chose a high resolution photo online and then I printed each one onto cardstock. 

You need thick paper for this to work. 

They used a thumbtack to punch evenly spaced holes in the areas they wanted to stick. They could stick over specific areas, or add new stiches to totally transform the image.

We used embroidery floss and tapestry needles. 

Some of the finished ones:

 

Sliced food observational drawings

This was a home assignment for my high school class- Grades 10,11 and 12 combined.

They had to draw a fruit or vegetable, with a sliced part, from observation. 

Such a classic drawing lesson that always yields great results.

 

Winter Cardinal Paintings

Somehow I haven't done a cardinal themed project for a while. They are my favourite bird and I've done SO many cardinal lesssons with my students over the years.

See them HERE, HERE, HERE , HERE and HERE!

Ironically, cardinals don't even live where I am unfortunately- they're more of an Eastern Canada bird and only in certain small areas.

Why am I doing a winter themed project in March you may ask? Well, it seems like it's always winter where I live in Alberta, Canada, lol. We've had a very snowy March (and cold -17C!) with even a big snowfall last night! It honestly felt like Christmas outside last night- a complete winter wonderland.

My morning and afternoon drives to work are NOT FUN.

Anyway, Grade 4 students started by choosing a colour of 9 x 12" construction paper. Thry sketched on a branch, then drew on a cardinal. Then, using tempera paints, they painted everything in. I demonstrated how to paint pinecones, and pine needles. Some chose Holly leaves. 

They used a bit of white and black to add some shading. 

Then they dotted white snow over their entire painting.

Some of the finished pieces. Hopefully I will move on to actual Spring art next week, fingers crossed, haha!