Botanical Mandala Printmaking Lesson

This is a fun lesson I have for middle school. I did this project with my sixth graders, but it could easily be expanded and adjusted to fit older groups of students. It takes several class periods and has multiple stages in the process of designing and making a print.  The students loved it! The funnest part for most of them seemed to be inking and using the printing press. The majority had never seen or used a printing press, so it was a great new tool for them. See below for more info. about the process!

Final Botanical Print

Our local Botanical Gardens has an art show every year and I had students create some artwork with the botanical/nature theme in mind. Later, some of their pieces might be chosen to submit to the show.

To give students some background information, we discussed botanical illustration, its uses, and some of its advantages and disadvantages over photographs. We also discussed how and why the illustrations are made as prints. To get the students thinking and looking at different designs, I had them research at least 4 different plants. In their sketchbooks, they drew a small sketch of the 4 plants and wrote down two interesting facts about each one. I met with students individually to discuss their designs and the students settled on one design they wanted to develop.

Student Plant Sketch and Facts

Student Plant sketches and 1/4 Mandala Design

The next step of the project was to make a mandala (circular) design based off of their sketch. To do this part, students first had to get a CD and trace it 2 times on drawing paper. The CD tracings were then cut out and each was divided into quarters. Then the student would draw their design in 1/4 of the 1st circle. The 2nd blank circle was then placed over the design and students duplicate the design into to each of the sections of the circle using a light box. This way the design is identical in each section. I allowed some designs to be done using a half of the circle if it worked better with the plant design they had chosen, this creates a reversible design that looks the same right-side up and upside-down. For instance, bamboo was better suited to this layout because it was long and the shoots would be oddly cut off if it was forced to be drawn in quarters.

Steps to Make Mandala Design

Student Sketch and Mandala Design

Making the printing plate was the next step in the process; the CD used to make the tracings became the printing plate. First off, students used the graphite transfer method to transfer their designs onto the CD's. Then they went in with a stylus or compass needle and engraved (cut or scratched) the design into the CD. After the design was engraved, students were ready to make prints.

Students used paper scrapers and paper towels to work ink into the lines they had scratched. For printing, the only place that should have ink was the engraved lines, everywhere else had to be wiped clean. Once the plate was inked, students ran their plates through a printing press with damp paper on top to take the print. After the plate was through the press, students slowly peeled their paper off the CD to reveal their print. The reveal was always a fun part for students!

Students made at least two prints: one in black and white and one in color. Many loved using multiple colors on one print and this created various interesting effects. Several turned out looking like tie-dye. Yellow was the only color that didn't really show up well because it was so light.

To finalize the project, students mounted their prints on construction paper, labeled their plants, and included the 2 researched facts about their plant. Many students got creative and added extra bits of flair and decoration to their pieces. They turned out wonderful and I was very impressed with their work.

Here are some student examples, enjoy!

Prints on Display in the School

 

Art Portfolio Website Updated

I have gone through and updated my art portfolio site at http://www.kellynixonart.com . I added a slightly bigger and smoother slideshow to display the images. New artwork has been added to each section. Information in Resume and Contacts has been updated. Last but not least, I added links to my new Art Ed blog.

Light an Color Study: Added to Website

It took about a week (on and off) to get the slideshows and coding updated. The only major problem I came across happened right after I had uploaded the new version of the website to the server, to make it live. I had tried all my files locally on my computer and everything looked perfect. I added the files to my server on GoDaddy.com and then when I viewed my page, the main image for the slideshow wouldn't appear. I spent a day and a half trying to go through the html and javascript coding to see what was wrong. Finally, I checked to see if there were any suggestions online. One of the entries I found, talked about everything being case sensitive. I double checked my file names and sure enough, the website server had converted all the titles to lowercase and that was why the slideshow wouldn't work. Once I made the image titles lowercase to match the html file, the slideshow began functioning properly again.That is the funny thing about coding, one little mistake somewhere can throw everything off.

Now everything is ready to roll! Enjoy!

Bison Sketch: Added to Website

Anime and Manga Classes with Chesterfield Libraries

Since January 2013, I have been teaching some Anime and Manga drawing workshops with Chesterfield County Public Libraries. The classes were offered occasionally throughout the year on Saturdays as part of the Libraries' Teen Studio Program. The library and I provided all materials to students for the program.

These classes have also led to other opportunities like teaching at the Chesterfield Library Comic Con Events and being a guest artist/teacher at Meadowbrook High School's Anime Club.

 So far, I have taught 4 installments of the Classes covering different aspects of the topic.

The first class was Introduction to Manga and Anime. This class mainly covered how to draw faces, and figures in the Anime style. I also covered drawing facial expressions, mouths, hands, feet, clothes, and hair. Students used the information and techniques I taught them to draw their own Anime/Manga character. I taught students how to transfer drawings using carbon paper and how to finalize characters through inking. I provided various inking materials and techniques for them to experiment with including India ink, brushes, brush pens, multi-liner/micron pens, etc. I also taught a short version of this lesson at the 2013 Chesterfield Comic Con Event, which covered how to draw the face in the Anime style.

 

Ad for Intro to Manga and Anime Classes in the library's magazine

The second set of classes explored Character Design. I taught students how to use a matrix/chart to get unlimited ideas for characters, personalities, costumes, and environments. The matrix technique was from a book called The Manga Matrix by Hiroyoshi Tsukamoto. (This book is an absolutely awesome reference to have! I brought a copy to class so everyone could take a look at it.) In addition to the matrix, I reviewed how to draw the face and figure, taught how to draw unique characters from a basic shapes, body proportions for realistic vs unrealistic style characters, character variation, using a silhouette to check the strength of a character design, and inking.

Postcard Ad for Character Design Classes

 The third installment of the classes dealt with How to Make a Manga. First, I quickly reviewed how to draw a face, the figure, and character design. The main topics covered on making a manga included layout, panels, speech/word bubbles, font, sound and line effects, black and white vs. color in manga, planning and process of making a manga, publishing/sharing a manga, and inking. I had two exercises built into the lesson for students to try their hand at story telling, paneling, and speech bubbles.

Ad for How to Make a Manga Classes

My most recent class discusses How to Draw Chibi Anime and Manga Characters. In this lesson, I discuss what a chibi is, the characteristics of chibi's, body proportions, chibi characters vs regular anime characters, and how to draw a chibi. For drawing chibi's, I covered the face, eyes, bodies, mouths, facial expressions, hands, feet, clothes and hair. I taught this lesson at Meadowbrook High School recently and I will also be teaching it at this year's Chesterfield Comic Con Event on March 22nd from about 10:30-11:30.

Ad for 2014 Chesterfield Comic Con Event

These classes are so much fun! The students really seem to love them. We often talk about the anime they lik and even play some clips and songs from their favorite shows at the end of class. I love getting to see their drawings, they are really talented artists!

Bubble Printing at the Science Museum of Virginia

On New Year's Eve 2013, I got the chance to teach a bubble painting lesson for Art on Wheels at the Science Museum of Virginia. The museum was having a New Year's Event and dropping the "ball" at 12 noon, for children (they would most likely be asleep at 12 midnight). The ball drop was actually 2014 bouncy balls from a balcony, it was pretty cool. It was a really fun family event!

Bubble Printing

For the bubble printing lesson I mixed tempera paint, dish soap, and water to get

the paint the right consistency. Many parents wanted to know the recipe for it, but it is mainly trial and error. Start with about a silver dollar sized amount of paint, fill in water to about half of paint cup, add in a few squirts of soap and stir (it is pretty watery). To test if it is right, you have to blow bubbles with a straw and press paper to the bubbles to make a test print. If the mixture is not bubbling enough, it needs more soap. If the paint is too thick for bubbles, it needs more water. Lastly, if the print comes out too light, then more paint is needed. It is a messy project, so have some table covers handy!

To get started, each person gets their own straw to use, for sanitary reasons. They could take their straw from color to color. Color mixing from putting the straw in different paints was minimal. Children blew bubbles into the paint bowls using the straw, until the bubbles were over the edge of the cup. While the bubbles were still high, the participants would press their paper on top of the bubbles to make a print. The process was repeated for different colors and bubble sizes. To get different sized bubble prints, I had different sized paint bowls. Some also dripped paint on their paper and then blew it around the paper with the straws to make a design. 

Two safety reminders for children were to:  

     1. Only blow OUT with the straws- A few really young kids forgot and sucked in, resulting in             a mouthful of paint. Luckily, there was a water fountain nearby to rinse in. For really young 

         ones, I suggested that an adult or older child make the bubbles for them and they press the paper

         for the print.

     2. Take a breath- Blowing hard on the straws too long can make kids lightheaded, remind them to 

         take a breath every now and then. I didn't have this happen to anyone, but it is something to 

         remind them of just in case.

Here are some pics of the event and some of the students' work. Enjoy!

Blowing bubbles in paint cup

Color stations: Spread out the colors to give easy access

Blowing paint drips with straws

Making prints

Blowing bubbles above the rim

Student work on drying table

More student work

Even more student work

Animal Twists - Photoshop Lesson for Art I

Time for another update!  (This will be a long one.)

This lesson is another favorite from my Student Teaching days, this time at Hermitage High School (Go Panthers!). The idea was to create animal hybrids using Photoshop. These hybrids were to be convincingly merged to make the animal believable. Students had to combine at least 2 animals and add in two textures, so they were blending a minimum of 4 photos. I aimed it at Art I students, who are generally all in the 9th grade. I also had the opportunity to teach this lesson to 8th grade level Art I students, while I was board subbing at Tuckahoe Middle School.

Demo Model : Bear-Frog made with bear, frog, turtle, moss, and dirt photographs

I had several goals for the lesson. The first, was to give students a basic understanding of Photoshop and photo-manipulation. I wanted students to understand that Photoshop could be used as a tool to make unique pieces of art.  Some of the big topics we covered along the way included: using royalty free images vs. copyrighted images, photo-manipulation vs. photo-merge, raster vs. vector based programs, and resolution and its relation to image size. In addition to those main topics, there were specific aspects and tools in the Photoshop program that were necessary to learn including opacity, layers, the clone stamp tool, selection tools, hue/saturation, eraser, blur, burn, dodge, and move tools. 

A note on copyright in regards to this project, it is a biggie! Students were required to use either photos they had taken themselves or royalty free photos (photos that did not need to be paid for). Most websites with royalty free photos only required the user to give credit to the source to use the image (I checked the usage policies on several sites and gave students an approved list of websites they could use). To meet this requirement, students had to fill out a citation list and turn it in with their final project. Copyrighted images were NOT allowed, as that would be copyright infringement and plagiarism. This was a learning experience for many students. Several wanted to use images from movies or comic characters and I actually walked them through how to check if an image was copyrighted, by checking for watermarks and copyright info at the bottom of web pages. As a general rule all movie, art, and comic images were a no-go because they all were sure to be copyrighted. I also had to make sure they clicked and went to the original webpage to cite their source, a ton of students tried to put Google.com or Google Images as their source.

Needless to say, there was a lot to cover and this was a multi-week lesson. It was a process of taking what they learned the previous class and building on it as we went, so all the information was spread out over the classes and easy for students to absorb.

I created step-by-step tutorial handouts for students to reference while they worked (complete with screenshots) and I did several demonstrations. The first demo, was just showing how the tools worked and students had a Practice Assignment to basically try out the tools. After that, I gave a demo on how to merge animals and textures (See Bear-Frog above^^). I  made the photos I was using available for them to follow along with me. Two things to note with Photoshop whether you are teaching it or using it yourself: the best way to learn it is to use it hands-on (not just read or listen about it) and there are many different ways to do the same operation or effect (like using menus or hot keys, etc.).

Here are some student examples!

1st Post! Welcome to Kelly Nixon: Art Education

It is finally time to launch a blog dedicated to my love of Art Education! Here you will find a collection of my various lessons, ideas, and musings on Art Ed. I will be adding a lot of content over the next few days as I go through lessons from my teaching experiences. 

I have a list of links to my art oriented sites to the right if you would like to check out some of my personal artwork.

Check back often and enjoy!