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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Spectrum Art Class. January 20/ 20011

Spectrum art class January 20/2011.

Warm ups: 1 Squares, randomly placed and overlapping.  2. Swirls; draw a person running but only use swirls. 3. Shading in, using the side of your pencil draw tree without lines only by shading in. 4. Clouds make them fluffy on top and flat on the bottom.

Our Classroom project: was drawing from real life a teapot, Emphasis given to form and shadow.
We continued a two week unit on mounting artwork, with hands on mounting of student’s best work.  

Optional take home projects: included a confidence building task drawing from a formula an owl, and mountains using basic shapes.

Our inspiration for today: is from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship."  This is dedicating yourself, or consecrating, yourself and your work to God. The idea of dedicating yourself to God goes all the way back to the book of Genesis.  It is the idea of giving your eyes to God to let him show you what to see in your drawing,  giving your hands to God to let him use them to draw skillfully, give your imagination to God so he can put great and creative ideas in it. By having this attitude in our task, whatever it is, we are making our task an act of worship. Your art can be an act of worship this way, so can be doing the dishes, picking up your room, laundry, presenting an oral report in front of judges or whatever you do. Give yourself, hands, feet, eyes, imagination, mouth, attitude, etc to the Lord before you begin, he will accept it as an act of worship and He will bless you.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Lesson Plans for 1/13/11

Spectrum art class January 13/2011.
Warm ups: 1 Curley "Qs" like ocean waves.  2. a face using only shadows to create negative and positive space. draw it without lines only shapes. 3. Two sided lighting bolts. 4. A pelican standing.  drawn only in silhouette.
We discussed composition in landscape drawing. Building on fore ground and back ground, we introduced point of interest in the composition. determining the horizon line in composing a landscape.
We began  a two week unit on mounting artwork, With a demonstration. The students selected a picture from their portfolio to mount. 
Optional take home projects included a confidence building task drawing from a formula a mouse,  and a fantasy hero.
Our inspiration for today is from proverbs 16:3 "Commit to the Lord what ever you do and your plans will succeed." (I don't remember if I already used this one but it is such a treasured thought I personally come to it often). This verse is a promise from God that if we commit to him what ever we do we will have success. But we must remember if we are committing to God whatever we do it should be our best, or else it would be an insult to God, it must be done humbly, reverently, and unselfishly .  If we honor God in our lives He will honor us.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Lesson Plans for 12/9/10

Art class 12/9/10

Today we worked on drawing objects with texture. We used some common fruit and seeded bagels to explore the subject. And did a few sketches.

We also did some drawing by formula for fun, and drew a cat.

This week practice drawing things around your home that have different texture. Like a cat scratcher or piece of furry clothing, or anything else you want.


Our inspiration for today. The Gift of Art.

The Bible says in James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down form the father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” NIV.

The gift of art is a gift of God to man. If you have a gift in an area you also have a responsibility to use that gift in a way that honors the one who gave that gift to you. Maybe your gift is not in art, maybe it is soccer, cooking, dance or math, but whatever it is God is looking at how you use it. The way you use it is your way of saying “Thank You” to God for the gift. He will also reward you for using it righteously.  

Lesson Plans for Dec 16/10

Spectrum Art Class Dec 16

Our warm up focused on shading, and line technique.

Class work: A. Today we sketched a pineapple- giving attention to the variety of shapes and textures and details.
While sketching we are encouraging the use of multiple drawing pencils from hard to soft to create various effects.

Class work: B. For challenge drawing we celebrated Christmas by sketching some nativity figurines.

Class work C: For fun we drew cartoon turtles using a formula with shapes.

Homework: Over the Christmas break draw something every day. Here are a few ideas.

  • Draw your favorite Christmas ornament right off the tree
  • Draw a favorite Christmas decoration from around the house, draw a snow scene
  • Look through magazines and find pictures of Christmas characters and sketch them.
  • Draw the Christmas gifts under the tree.
  • Design your own Christmas card.
  • Draw the items on your Christmas wish list.
  • Draw Christmas candles.
  • Draw a wreath.
  • Draw Christmas stockings.

Or inspiration for today is from Gospel of St. John. 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” NIV.
If you are working on a difficult task remember Jesus is “your vine.”  The vine gives energy, life, nutrition, and everything the branches need to grow fruit. No matter what church you go to Jesus is the “Vine,” a Christian’s inspiration, power, and hope. If you take a branch off the vine it can’t make fruit. Sometimes when I have a hard time I say something like, “Jesus This project is too big or hard I give myself to you and ask you to do it through me. I give you my weakness and receive your strength, I give you my lack of ideas and receive your wisdom, I give you my inability and receive your power. Thank you Jesus you are going to do this through me.”


Spectrum Art Lesson Plans for 1/6/11

Spectrum: Thursday Art class 01/06/11

Warm ups: on one page,
1. Draw tornados, use the side of your pencil and draw them darker at the bottom than at the top. Draw as many as you can in 2 minutes. Keep your wrist loose.
2. Draw squares, make them overlap draw them random. After 60 seconds draw more squares to turn the random squares into a castle. (OK you can add some rectangles and triangles too.)
3. Just straight horizontal lines, After 60 seconds shade in the lines from darkest to lightest from bottom darkest to top lightest.

Class Project: drawing a portrait from a live model, thanks to Mr. Tim Dozat who was gracious to sit as our live model for class. General discussion and foundations of portrait drawing, emphasis given to outline and dimensions and placing of features of the adult face.

Alternate project: still life from a potted plant, an African violet.

For those needing more projects: we have two hand outs, “Dog a Log” and a “How to draw a superhero flying.”

Our inspiration for today is “For by You I can run against a troop. by my God I can leap over a wall.” Psalm 18:29

            There are problems we face that come upon us unexpectedly, like a solder who must face a "troop" out in the field. Other conflicts we see coming, like a solder commanded to attack a city wall.
            "For by You..." We have a companion; one who willingly and joyfully goes with us through our task.  Remember God is near. "by You..." It is like David is talking to someone right next to him. We should always remember to pray. As two solders must constantly stay in communication in battle so we also must constantly talk it through with our God.
            Remember it is not by our ideas or inner strength that we overcome the challenges of our life, but, "By my God..." It is by my God. we must turn to God, and remember what we know about Him. With prayer I need to invite Him along to the battle. I could say more about the nature of Christian victory but the point now is "By God." It is not just ''by God's help." No, that would suggest He is only a partner like a 50/50 him and me thing; instead it is 100% by God that I can run against a troop or leap a wall.
            We might say I won the game by a strategy, or we finished the job by hard work. We are giving credit to the power that accomplished a thing. David was giving credit to the One who truly deserves it.