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Inside the Art Room

2/21/2021 0 Comments

Almost  A Year of the Pandemic

In a few weeks, it will be a full year since I posted regarding our remote learning, initial lockdown situation. It's hard to believe that we've been navigating this "new normal" for almost a year. So many educators have made major adjustments to the way they teach and connect with students via whatever technology we have access to. In the arts, we've made due with not sharing supplies, not collecting physical artworks, and translating traditional media into digital projects. We've consoled and comforted our students via e-mails, google meets and virtual workshops. We've hosted virtual Art Honor Society ceremonies and upped our YouTube following because of all the tutorial video's we've now created. We've sat in classrooms, behind our desks, with our masks on, not circulating the room, with our students placed six feet apart. We've seen family members, friends, students and colleagues get sick from Covid, deal with loss of their loved ones, and  still come in to work to forge ahead. We've started to get vaccinated, we've started to allow sports to open back up, we've started to allow some students to come back full time if the social distancing  can accommodate it. We give air hugs and air high fives. We walk in one direction in the hallways. We try to address the tumultuous  political, socio-economic, racial, and environmental issues we're facing, that students are questioning, through self-expression and creativity. We've endured hardships and struggles. It's been hard to muster up the motivation to get out of the car and into the building in the morning but we slug back some coffee and pull up our mask and do it. Through it, we're still innovating, creating and being role models for a group of young people who are going to have a mess of stuff to clean up after and hopefully the tools and energy to make the changes we need to see. I'm proud of us, educators. We've got a ways to go, but we've got this. 

-Danielle
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3/18/2020 4 Comments

Distance Learning week 1

Our district is implementing remote/distance learning for our students. Here's some background: our school is a 7-12th grade, 1:1 iPad school. This year I have the following courses: studio art (intro to art, grades 9-12, 1 full year), drawing and painting (10-12th grade, 1 full year) and art 8 (8th grade, 1/2 year only). I will be posting my lessons to Schoology for my students. My first goal will be to use the schoology discussion board platform to check in with students and respond to questions/concerns etc and ask them to post an art related tutorial video from YouTube so we can have our own database of activities to go back to.

Since we have iPads for our students, eventually, I will be allowing students to work on the digital projects that we normally do together in class, at home, by breaking down the project into daily goals. My drawing class will be doing an in-depth graphite or charcoal study (depending on what they brought home to work with) of their board game still life as a way to prepare for their painting and I will ask them to post a progress shot daily.

If you'd like to try any of these assignments (see below for two examples), here we go: access the documents you need in this google drive folder! I did not break them down into daily activities for you, but you can feel free to alter them as needed.
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drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j_Csb5dbpiUtqkLMgZ1F4aaAcPSWCwX9?usp=sharing

The folder includes: a Medibang paint tools cheat sheet, rubrics, power point in pdf version, and student samples! Also in there you will find my “staying creatively engaged” list of activities.

If you do any of the projects, please tag me on social media @Daniellelivoti on instagram, @mslivotiart on twitter! Best of luck to all my fellow educators!


​xo, Danielle

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Digital Scratch art by Student Gina Lee
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3/17/2020 0 Comments

Staying Creatively Engaged



The world feels pretty weird right now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most schools in the US are closed for a minimum of two weeks, if not longer. Some school districts have remote learning in place, while others do not. While my district is not implementing remote/distance learning yet, I have decided to compile some ideas for students, art teachers and for parents/guardians who may be struggling to find things to do. 

I think it is incredibly important to continue to exercise creativity each day. It is great for your mental and physical health. Depending on what you have access to, there are ways to involve yourself in a creative practice. Visual arts, writing, music, cooking, dancing, singing etc are all ways to promote a creative practice. 

I have created a list of ideas to get you started on this journey, feel free to try something out if you get bored- the file "staying creatively engaged" is available for download below. For my students personally these are not mandatory, they are not to be graded or turned in. It is just for "funsies". Times like this can cause a lot of unnecessary anxiety or stress and many of these activities can help combat that. You don't need to be an "artsy" person to partake either. Step out of your comfort zone during these very unprecedented times and you might surprise yourself and find a new hobby that you enjoy. Doing something creative with your kids, or with friends via google hangout/skype can also help you create new memories. While this time away from our normal routines is definitely strange, I know we will all get through it together!

Additionally, I am always available if you need any other help coming up with creative things to do, and if you are an advanced art student who needs feedback or assistance with portfolio work please reach out to me: [email protected] or via ig @daniellelivoti

I do have some tutorial videos for art educators posted on my YouTube account as well- https://www.youtube.com/user/mslivoti

if you do any of the activities on my list, please consider sharing via social media and tag @daniellelivoti on instagram

stay healthy, stay home, and take care of each other!
​
xo 
Danielle 
staying_creatively_engaged.pdf
File Size: 54 kb
File Type: pdf
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2/20/2020 0 Comments

Mercury Retrograde

Decided it would be an interesting challenge to myself to make one work on paper each day for the length of the time Mercury is retrograde (Feb 17-March 10). I find myself usually susceptible to the effects of a retrograde; feelings from the past come up, my brain tends to spew out a lot of random thoughts that don’t want to stay organized, I feel restless and often have a hard time
communicating. In creating one work each day, I hope to channel some of that restless energy into something productive and also see a visual-physical manifestation of that energy. It is interesting to see already what kind of marks and compositional cues I instinctually gravitate towards. I’m four days in and there are definitely some themes reoccurring across the works. I’m also curious about how my color palettes will change day to day; mood to mood. In the act of creating the work, I feel a release, where I am able to have some control over what I’m doing without the impact of anxious/restless thoughts.
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12/30/2019 1 Comment

The last decade: work, life, hairstyles and tattoos.

It’s hard to believe an entire decade is coming to an end; time really escapes me sometimes. I decided it would be fun to take a look back at the last ten years, as a way to remind myself of the things I’ve accomplished and the many things I have to look forward to that are yet to come. It’s interesting to see how my personal and professional life has changed, how my art has evolved, and of course.. how many times my hair color has changed. Let’s get into this visual journal of life beyond just the art room.

2010

My studio at NYU, the final year of my MA in Studio Art program
This was a sort of pivotal work for me; it was my leftovers from silk screening and just a general dumping ground for other media I was using. I left these on my studio floor and walked on them. They were meant to capture my process without me having to think intentionally about them. Drawing without drawing.
My aunt, sister and mom with me at my senior thesis show
This year this charcoal drawing from 2009 was exhibited at Photo Photo gallery in huntington
The teacher sample that started it all... the charcoal portrait drawing unit that I do with my drawing and painting classes.

2011

Besties with bangs: me and fellow art teacher, my bestie, Devin
Another pivotal work for me; large scale drawing done from starting and stopping YouTube videos of girl fights... one of my last drawing projects.
First time dressing up for the school halloween party, a little pop art influence
First time doing my cupcake underpainting project with studio art
Another teacher sample that took forever but sparked the “pinned” assignment. Will need to go back to this project; I’ve put it on the back burner for a few years.

2012

Skrillex hair and Lily Rose as a puppy in the summer time
Big day! Officially received my professional teaching license after getting my masters. This year I’m in my 12th year of teaching.. 2020 will be lucky #13!
No words.. these bangs were very short.. also read hair.. and also big on my kid robot collecting days
April 2012 I brought this little lady home! She’s turning 8 this January!
Proof I had long(ish) hair at least once since I’m 5
In 2012 I purchased my own condo, which was very exciting and also terrifying.

2013

2013 was the year I got this Rose Hardy tattoo, she will forever be one of my favs
And apparently I thought it would be a good idea to match my hair color to my dog... one and only time I went coppery red
Stood in Jackson Pollack’s studio in 2013

2014

My college art Ed ladies and I at Devin’s wedding in 2014
Started incorporating the trapped in technology project with my AP Drawing class; this is a student work.
Started taking commissions for digital dog portraits; these were always fun to do!
Halloween as Andy Warhol
From ending my masters program and being overwhelmed as a new teacher, I rarely had the occasion to work on any personal artwork. Everything I was doing was supporting my professional life as a new teacher- lesson and unit planning took forever, observations stressed me out, making samples for projects took over my nights and weekends.. but it didn’t bother me so much that I couldn’t find time to do my own work because I was always invested in getting this whole teaching thing just right. 2014 came with its ups and downs for sure, but I learned a lot.

2015

Hard work paid off and in Sept 2015 I was awarded Teacher of the Year out of all of the amazing educators I work with at my school. It was surreal being honored at our district opening day. When I first started I would see the TOY ceremony and want to be up there.
First tattoo on my arm by Becca Gene Bacon, I drove through a pretty bad blizzard alone to get to her brooklyn shop at the time.
2015 was the year I finally got to do a Europe trip, and Cinque Terre blew me away.
I was able to get a half sleeve started by Claudia DeSabe in the summer of 2015 before school started. This was a dream tattoo, especially since Claudia is based in London.
I started finding ways to make my own work again, starting with just charcoal portraits that I wanted to make for my grandma who was struggling with dementia. I wanted to draw people from her past that she would remember.
I finally had my art teacher moment and saw the Mona Lisa!
I created my most fav art teacher Halloween costume in 2015... and got re-tweeted by the MoMA!
Incredibly lucky that I was able to see my childhood best friend, Paloma, get married in northern France that summer.

2016

Added to my leg with another tattoo by Becca, this time an anchor
Worked on this Frank Sinatra drawing for my grandma, which went up in her room at the assisted living. When she passed away this summer, my uncle kept the drawing and it’s nice to know it will always have a sentimental value. Also, this drawing opened me up to more commissioned charcoal work which I was really grateful for.
Claudia came back to the states, this time to Invisible tattoo in NYC. She filled in more of my arm for about 5 hours.
I finally achieved blonde... a hair color I’ve wanted for a long time!
I also started to do more digital drawings, like this one for stranger things. I had several prints done of this and it’s cool to see them on a few walls of people I know.
2015 and 2016 had me finding my flow. Teacher stuff was getting a little more easy to handle; still doing a ton of stuff for work but also I started treating myself to things I had wanted for a long time. I started to figure out ways that I could bring myself some creative freedom given the confines of making personal work at home. Lack of space meant working digitally or working small enough to not create a huge mess. I was just happy to be doing something creative and for myself finally.

2017

This style was something that just emerged for me this year. I started working on more processed based pieces that I could add to over time. I’d hang my work up on my kitchen walls and just add a little something each day. Starting to work small, and abstractly was an adjustment but I fell in love with it. This process also reminded me of what I was doing 7 years prior in my last year of NYU.
Short, dark hair phase was back.. along with shaving my head a bit again. Ah, when personal life gets tricky my hair takes the brunt of it...
2015-2017 was like my physically fit hey-day. I was crossfitting 5x a week and powerlifting. This was from my first competition for deadlifting. It was pretty exciting to do, and I’m glad I got to experience it. I miss it a lot.
2017 was the year we lost my grandpa, Dominick Livoti. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor and within months he had passed away. It came out of nowhere and was devastating.
Pink hair phase was a phase that 1998 me would have been jealous of. I always wanted Gwen Stefani pink hair circa Return of Saturn.
I got this done by GREZ at Kings Ave as a tribute to my pop pop and grandma. On my grandpas urn he had an eagle for his service in the navy and the pin up in the eagles wings is based on a photo of my grandma.
This year my student Jason Yin won the congressional art competition and had this piece on display in DC for a year
This was really different for me; started adding ships to some work in response to reading work by Neil Degrasse Tyson

2018

In 2018 I said goodbye to the first condo I ever owned, because I bought a new one. I found a great spot that had more space and had to take advantage of it. These last two years I’ve been a landlord, renting out my old condo. It’s been stressful at times but I’m lucky to have my dad helping me navigate this whole homeowner thing.
33rd birthday selfie. Back to blonde.
Started branching out to work on new surfaces like this wood panel and started loving it! Spent a lot of time during the 2018 summer making work and it felt great to be doing it.
Summer of 2018 I was able to add to my leg with this snake by Brian Thurow from Denver.
I also started this blog during the summer of 2018 initially as a way for me to combat summer depression and anxiety.

2019

Summer work in 2019 also came with getting these pieces in two art shows! An alumni show at LIU Post and a show at Cinema Arts Center in Huntington.
This summer my grandma Barbara passed away, and it was really difficult to say goodbye. I’m grateful for the time spent with her in hospice. It was a difficult holiday season this year not having her or my grandpa to call anymore. I owe so much of my love for art and astrology to her.
In April 2019 I was able to chaperone the school trip to Italy and woah what an amazing experience it was!!
Recently in October of 2019 I was able to get this dragon and peony done on my leg by Matt Adamson.
I started 2019 with blonde hair and made it until about august before I changed it...
... so I had purple hair for the beginning of the school year. Once again, personal life stress manifesting itself as crazy hair color.
But by the end of October I decided to go back to brunette and also hosted my first ever workshop at the Balanced Minds conference. I actually really love public speaking and teaching other art educators about my practices. This is something I want to do more of in 2020!
I’ve been trying to make mini series of works that are a big larger.. this is from “Winter Solstice” and it’s 24x24 inches. I used to work very large when I was in college and haven’t had space.. still sort of don’t but I’m trying to make it work.
An end of 2019 thanksgiving selfie. Feeling the most like myself that I’ve felt in a decade probably.
Had to include my Bob Ross day attire. Here’s to more reasons to dress up and be silly in 2020.
Work and life bestie, fellow art teacher, Jess and I at my cinema arts center art show
Commissioned to make this very special drawing for the family of Joe Wilkinson; this was something I poured my heart into for them. So sorry to have lost him this year.
Love this chick; Devin and I at our alumni art show at LIU Post.
I’m extremely grateful for all the experiences I’ve had in my profession; being an educator has taken me places and allowed me to meet people I never thought I would. I’m excited to keep sharing what I do, hopefully inspire other art educators and my students to share their work too. It’s taken a decade but I finally feel like I’m at a place where I feel like myself, my personal work feels like it matches my identify and is showing my voice, and my students work is also advancing. Things that happened outside of work have also shaped me, made me stronger and made me realize it’s ok to focus on bettering myself and finding myself again. Thanks to everyone and everything that has helped me get to where I am today. I’m thinking 2020 is going to be an amazing year.


XO,
Danielle
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12/26/2019 0 Comments

Cheers to 2019

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A lot of time has passed since I last updated! Summer came and went... and almost the whole first semester of a new school year is over (mid-Jan). Here I am on my two week long holiday break and reflecting on a really great first half of the school year. The picture above was from our second annual alumni day, pictured here are some of the best humans I know; they have passed through the doors of my art room and are currently out there using their creativity in their every day lives.

What else have we been up into the art room?
- I taught a workshop about the new AP Studio art exam changed at the Balanced Mind Conference and for the Art Supervisors association
- We hosted our 2nd annual alumni day
-We had our first ever Bob Ross painting day
- My art classes have been cranking out awesome projects like our charcoal portraits, pop art portraits, pixel projects and watercolor figure projects.
-I’ve been posting mini videos to my YouTube channel that I have students use as supplemental content during class (look for MsLivotiArt)

I’m looking forward to a busy and positive second half of the school year when I get back on Jan 6th, and I hope to be more active in updating this regularly! Here are some student projects from this year so far:


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3/24/2019 1 Comment

March Madness!

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Artwork by Winni Jiang for our district office art show!
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March in the Art Department is our most busiest time of year! Art shows and contests galore!! Every week we have something going into an exhibit or being entered into a contest. Its Youth Art Month so we host a variety of activities for staff and students to attend (this year I did a lotus painting after school workshop!) and we have our National Art Honor Society induction ceremony at the end of the month. Speaking of, I can't believe this coming week is already the end of the March Madness! 

I've been powering through projects with all of my classes so here's what's been going on:

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Drawing and Painting classes did their first ever tattoo art inspired ink painting. This was the first time putting together a project using tattoos as inspiration. It's something I've always wanted to do with my classes because of my love for collecting tattoos and artwork by tattoo artists. We had our own "Ink Master" style challenge of creating Japanese or American Traditional style flash and we presented awards to the ones kids chose as their favorites.
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Now my drawing classes are starting their grisaille underpainting for their board game still life painting project. This is one of our only "photo realistic" paintings that we do. Students develop their forms in grayscale first then apply color over it. 

I've learned to teach a lot of transparent layering with my drawing and painting classes because of the materials we have access to. Blick's acrylic is usually what we are able to purchase and the colors sometimes are very transparent. So in order to build density and not have to mix every color, we do underpainting first and then glaze color over it. It helps us use our materials more effectively.

Studio Art and Drawing and Painting classes also worked on our Women's History Month Portrait Poster project. Students selected a name of an iconic woman from history and paired them with the style of a female artist to create the poster. In Studio art we also finished our Chinese Brush Painting unit and have begun our cupcake still life painting (where they learn about underpainting with just black and brown acrylic and water).
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watercolor painting by AP Drawing student Percy Reale
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watercolor by AP Drawing student Sophie Ouyang
AP Drawing students have really been in the zone, with just over a month until their portfolios are due! They've been finishing up Breadth 11 and Concentration 10, making really strong works! I'm super proud of this crew for their hardworking. We're getting very close to the end and we've  started matting quality work. As an AP teacher, I'm very curious about how the changes to the exam starting next year will affect the way I teach the course. I'm looking forward to sharing my ideas on it when we finally get more info!

That sums up what's been going on this month, although I'm sure there are a ton of other things I am missing. As always, if anyone has any questions about a lesson idea you see here and want more info, please send me an email: [email protected] or message me via my instagram @daniellelivoti

For the pixel art project info be sure to access my shared google drive folder from the menu above called "The Pixel project!" Be sure to tag me in any posts with your student outcomes :)

XO, 
Danielle
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2/5/2019 0 Comments

Digital Scratchboards!

Once again, finding time to post regularly has been tricky! I've been spending a lot of time creating some new lessons and continuing to make more content for old lessons! 

Here's a quick lesson tutorial that you can use with your classes if you have access to using iPads or the Medibang paint app on other platforms. I tried this lesson out last year and really enjoyed it because of the flexibility of working digitally rather than on actual scratchboard. This allowed more students to be successful with the use of a photo layer under the black layer. If mistakes are made, students can go back and add more black to that layer and erase again! 

Hopefully I'll have a more complete update on what's going on in the art room soon, as we're quickly approaching art show season and the third marking period has already started!! This year is flying!

​XO Danielle

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1/16/2019 1 Comment

Critiquing in Your Art Room

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critique set up by AP student Kyra R.
The first time I recall having to really "critique" an artwork, was when my first ever art professor had us hold up finished design work, spin the the work around for her, and then she'd tell us to go back and fix everything because it was terrible. Other than spinning the work, there was no involvement from me.

My next critique experience involved: staying up in an anxiety induced insomnia, finishing charcoal drawings on the floor of my bedroom, getting driven to college by my boyfriend because I caused myself a pinched nerve  in my neck from stress, frantically and nervously hanging and arranging my work for three of my professors to judge while I stood there awkwardly awaiting their responses. They may have asked me what work I thought was my most successful piece. They didn't really say anything bad, but I still felt very strongly that I wanted to barf after.

Later in grad school, I quickly I realized I was going to have to talk about my work when a professor walked into my studio asking, "Who are you looking at?" Meaning, in this context, what other artists are inspiring me at the moment. I couldn't even answer this. When they asked me questions about why I was doing what I was doing, I was unsure of myself. I kept searching for the "right" answer. I didn't feel equipped to discuss my work. I was intimidated and uncomfortable. 

This is why I critique with all my classes, even 8th graders. I give all of my classes different critique experiences but prior to critiques, I require that they do some self-reflecting and writing about their work so they start to become more comfortable asserting themselves. Each kid should know their "why" no matter what the project is.

When they get to the advanced level, such as my AP Drawing class, they're expected to respond to each others work and reflect on their own almost on a weekly basis. Here are somethings we do:
1. Process videos/photos- taking pics along the way to see how far you've come/record your process. You can do this in one class period even. Take a pic 5 minutes in, take a pic at the end- discuss what changed.
2. 5 minute art swaps- no matter where you're at in a project- swap it, grab a post it note, provide some feed back (not just- "I like it, it's nice"). 
3. Mid-project critiques or online discussions- posting work to a forum or discussion board (Schoology or google classroom), and students comment on each other's works and provide feedback/ways to improve etc.
4. End of project critiques/assessment/self-reflections
-You can do a traditional critique- posting work, having kids start by choosing a work they are drawn to, explaining why/what appeals to them, then offering suggestions. The student of that work can then choose the next one, you can keep piggy-backing off of that.
-You can have kids organize work based on who met the project goal the strongest via technique, creativity, concept etc. 
-You can group work from strongest to weakest (yes they do need to see when the work is considered weaker by their peers and by you, the teacher, so improvements can occur) but provide weaker outcomes with HELPFUL and constructive feedback. I NEVER offer the suggestion or allow a student to suggest the work just get completely re-done. Always look for ways to problem solve and improve a work, or recommend something for next time.
-Assement- I always have students go around and score work at the end of the projects with a teacher-created rubric. At the end they have to leave at least 1 positive and 1 constructive comment.
-Self-reflection- writing about their work with or without an art vocabulary word bank- discuss the process, opinion of their work, why they used materials/surfaces they chose, why they were inspired to create the work etc.

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The Small Group/Large Group Critique

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crit set up by Percy R. for AP Drawing
With my advanced kids I do mid Breadth and Mid Concentration critiques. When they get to around 7 breadth/7th concentrations. We do one spread out over 4 days before December break, and the concentration ones get done over 4 days in January at the end of the first semester. Here's how it goes down:

Students are given a specific day to be prepared for their crit (similarly to that college experience). On that day, students come in immediately setting up their critique space. My art room has no space for displaying work on a board, so they spread their work out on our tables. If it's a concentration critique they need to provide their artist statement and a contact sheet of their works in the order they're intended to be viewed in.

Students then select new tables to sit at in small groups of 3-4 and are provided with a rubric to fill out. This rubric has 10 criteria that are aligned with the college board AP studio art scoring guidelines. They can earn up to 100 points. There is space on the rubric to leave comments in relation to specific criteria so their responses and feedback are more focused. They leave extra comments as needed, like to determine a weaker link in the portfolio.

With about 15-20 minutes left of class (we have 43 min long periods) students then get up and we make the rounds to each table. Students are presented with 3-4 focus questions to discuss with the group.I set a timer for 2-3 minutes. They talk me through their comments. For breadth, focus questions may be "Is there enough variety, are the techniques strong, what could be a quality work, what needs improvement etc." For a concentration crit we focus on "Does the work and the artist statement relate (sometimes the statement just has to be tweaked to reflect the work), where should the student go next with their work, is there something that is standing out as a weak piece or is out of place. etc."

I chime in as necessary to guide, pose an alternative question, or point out something if I think a student missed something. Students can use this time to also clarify anything about their images. We also use this play "crit money" inspired by a fabulous art ed account I follow- @mrs_tfox on IG (I think I recall her using something similar) so students can use that as a vehicle to explain what art work they would buy if they could. It's a cool way to bring that discussion of is art meant to be viewed by others, what value do we place in art, etc. Fine artists need to sell their work to make a living. It's also interesting to see what they would want to own from each other, I think that shows a deeper sense of appreciation for their works.  To be clear, the money isn't a reward system for this class, it does't mean that artwork "won" something. 

You can test out this small group to large group crit along with the rubrics I created, and print out some of your own crit money! Check out the links below!

XO Danielle
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crti set up with crit money by Winni J. for AP Drawing
updated_breadth_rubric.pdf
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critique_money.pdf
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concentration_crit_rubric.pdf
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1/6/2019 0 Comments

Lesson Plans and Revamping Old Projects

LESSON PLANNING NEVER STOPS!

PictureMy sample for my upcoming Perspective unit
Sorry to tell you this but, if you're not still creating new content for your courses, you're doing a disservice to your students. This is my opinion, you might disagree, such is life. Yes we have projects that have amazing outcomes and students may have mastered technical skills through the lesson, and it is tried and true. You may not want to deviate. You may not want to touch that lesson, for fear of the slightest change altering the outcomes. If you want to elevate yourself as an educator however, are you reflecting on your work? Is there a new artist you can incorporate into this lesson? Is there a current exhibition that relates to this project's concept/technique/style or material? Is there an extension to this project? Is there an activity you can try for a few minutes prior to starting the classwork on the project? Are there different management techniques you can try, or a way to arrange the room more effectively? Are there different questions to be asked?

If you're not asking yourself these reflective questions, you may be doing a disservice to your students. You may also run the risk of getting bored with your own projects. If you're not that personality type, I'm almost jealous because I can't seem to leave well-enough alone for long enough. Which leads me to the dreaded "Perspective Unit". 

I really despise perspective lessons. One point, two point...any point, I don't like teaching it. I don't like rulers so much, or the confines of fitting my ideas into a template such as perspective is essentially a template for creating space/depth on a 2D surface. Yes, the concept is important to teach, yes I need to bring up Renaissance art and boring dead white male artists who propelled this concept further, yes I need my students to understand how to make something 3D on paper. So each year, I struggle with what I'm going to do with my perspective unit.

The two-point street corner. A surreal twist- make it a board game, make it in outer space, make it upside down. I tried drawing a corner of our school hallway from observation then taking that drawing and collaging it into another surreal landscape to talk about displacement. Student outcomes were mediocre at best, and I was bored, and frustrated. I still can't pronounce "orthogonal". I was tired of using the basic surreal artists, Dali, Magritte, etc. as the basis for this work too. 

This year, I was determined to do something with a contemporary twist, so I sat down and looked at one of my favorite artist's work, Scott Listfield (https://www.astronautdinosaur.com). His paintings infuse surrealism displacement concepts with Pop art. There is a strong sense of background, middle ground, foreground and scale. He uses a reoccurring figure of an astronaut, to tell an on going story of what one might find in the future when we come back to Earth. Abandoned stores, left over billboards, nature taking over, dinosaurs coming back to inhabit the Earth, it's all very engaging stuff! In several paintings there is the use of two point perspective within a building/structure. 

Using this artist, I started to construct my new lesson. Students will be creating a landscape with at least 1 building in two-point perspective. Their building should reflect a modern day, recognizable store/restaurant etc. Their background landscape should be a place where this store wouldn't normally exist. They'll draw this out and render it with colored pencil.

To me, this was still a basic two point perspective project. So to take it a step further, and reinforce this concept of scale/foreground etc seen in Listfield's work, I am going to have students take a photo of an action figure, or use a found image from the internet of a dinosaur, animal, figure etc. And using an App of their choice, they will create a digital illustration combining together this image with their perspective drawing. 

For my sample, I used the app called "Over". It allowed me to overlay an image of an old scuba diver, with transparent effects, and mask out the rest of the image so the drawing was more visible. I went ahead and also incorporated a piece of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" into the sky. Pixlr is free, may be effective but you can't mask out the object. MediBang paint on the iPad may also work.

What will be cool is that students have their original perspective drawing, which is a complete project in and of itself, but they also have this digital component that can exist and they can be as creative as they want with out disrupting their original image. I also want them to use this as an opportunity to see that once they create an artwork, that doesn't have to be the end of its life. It can exist in many other forms and become the start of something new. Getting into the habit of continually transforming an artwork and finding new ways to alter it to become something new is a skill that my students need to be successful contemporary artists themselves. 

So, I challenge you to tackle that project that maybe you dread teaching or are bored of, and find a way to make it work for you and for your students. I am not sure how this is going to go, but I can tell you I am feeling way more enthusiastic about teaching it, which can only mean that it should be a better experience for my students. I tried my best to make a solid teacher sample, so they can be inspired to try the techniques too. Keep putting the work in, keep changing things up! Yes it's a little more work (my friday night....) but it keeps me energetic about what I'm doing in the art room, where I spend most of my time, so it's worth it.

Have fun!
XO, Danielle

PS: Thanks to other art teacher friends, here are some other artist you can look to for a more contemporary approach to perspective:
Cinta Vidal: IG @cinta_vidal
Patrick Hughes: IG @patrickhughesartist
Scott Listfield: IG @scottlistfield
Photography, forced perspective: Wire Hon IG @wirehon
Mark Hogancamp, "Marwencol"
Spherical panoramas by Randy Scott Slavin "Alternate Perspectives" IG @randyscottslavin
Pen/Pencil, concept art, futuristic cities with immense detail: Jae Cheol Park (aka Paperblue) IG @paperbluenet
Photorealistic landscape Painter: Nathan Walsh IG @nathanwalshartist
Photorealistic landscape: Jessica Hess IG @jessicahessart

Picture
Project extension: digital illustration
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    Danielle Livoti

    Artist. Art Educator. This is what we're doing in art room 144. 

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