Graffiti Tag Names

I remember whenever I used to observe art classes in college, there was one high school art teacher in Union City, Hilary Webb, who did a unit over graffiti to her classes. I remember them coming up with so much awesome work and how much they LOVED learning about it. Ever since then, I knew I would want to teach graffiti to each of my classes every year.

If you are not teaching graffiti right now as an art teacher, I would strongly adivse you start. This is an amazing thing to teach on to our students. It's such a big part of their culture and generationa and it really does apply to them so much. I have taught graffiti to all ages, and I have yet to have a student (yes, even those troublesome ones!) who did not enjoy this unit.

I usually start off by a PowerPoint that opens up in discussion over the topic of graffiti. Do you think it should be illegal? Why or why not? What are some ways our cities can prevent art vandalism? I also make it clear to them that IT IS A CRIME if you graffiti property THAT IS NOT YOURS. Then I follow up with a lot of examples of graffiti from all over the world. The internet is FULL of amazing graffiti examples, and the kids will be so blown away!

I've done a wide variety of projects for graffiti. For 7th Grade I decided to keep it simple and assign them a "graffiti tag name" drawing. They all had to come up with a tag name, like all graffiti artists and create a signature. I loved this project! I feel like it was a great first time graffiti project especially for younger ages. When you get up higher in grades you can play around some and require them to draw more letters, but I was so impressed with these. They all had a lot of fun coming up with their own tag names too. Here are just a FEW that turned out awesome.

Sweet Still Lives

7th grade finished up their "sweet still life" projects. I found this project on one of the blogs I follow on the left and just loved the playfulness and character the paintings have. It was inspired by the Pop Artist Wayne Theibaud.

This project was assigned at a very strange time. It was right before spring break and as soon as spring break finished, my student teacher Jessica took over all my classes. So they didn't really have a solid amount of time to work on them. Also, we had absolutely no painting practice beforehand (NEVER assume that students automatically know how to mix colors, you will be VERY surprised lol) which was a *huge* mistake. I had to constantly remind and remind them "Use JUST A LITTLE paint!!! You can always get more but you can't put it back!!!" It would have also benefited them if they practiced drawing different types of food beforehand. Any teachers planning on doing this, I highly recommend practice, practice, practice!!!

Op Art Cube Display

I decided to brave it and hang these up just outside the cafeteria. I already had to scold three 8th graders because they started to touch them. I hope they will survive long enough! I still have several more to put up and it will all be complete. But here is just one section of them.

**I should note that I have had SO many compliments on these from all the other teachers. The kids love them too!

 

Upcoming Lichtenstein Portraits

7th Grade is now studying Pop Art and we are emphasizing the style of Roy Lichtenstein. Their upcoming project will be to create a Lichtenstein-style portrait. Now I'm at a cross-roads here. I can't decide whether I want them to do a famous person or themselves. I think it will be a little easier to do famous people but it will benefit them better if they do a portrait of themselves. And it will also be a little bit more work for me bringing in my camera and taking snapshots of everyone. Hopefully I will make that final decision tonight...

Either way, to get them into practice mode I had students draw smaller style drawings of famous people (they had a coloring sheet to look at). Here are a few samples of their practice rounds..

Nicki Minaj

 

Justin Beiber

 

Taylor Swift

Op Art Drawing display

I finally went and bought myself some bulletin borders for this bulletin board I have outside my class. But I did not get ENOUGH. Way to go, Mal, way to go. I am going to look into getting 2 more boards this size. One for each grade would be great.

Here is the Op Art display (still more to come). I'm overall happy with my kids and their work. This is just a win project for everyone.

Future projects for the semester...

I feel like I am in a creative rut. And it ALWAYS seems to happen during the spring semester. Anytime this occurs I try to indulge myself in research with different art ed blogs, websites, books, Pinterest, whatever I can find that I really like. I hate this sometimes because I don't want to ever get to where I just can not come up with my own ideas and projects for my kids. I know that teachers shouldn't feel bad taking stuff that others have done. That is kind of the beauty of our jobs, our success is meant to be shared but as someone who strives to be original, these ruts are hard....

NEVERTHELESS...

I have been finding some wonderful project ideas to do for this semester. So just in case you are curious as to what will be coming up in art class----

6th Grade.

Positive/Negative Space Object Drawings

Value Drawings

Monochromatic Colored Trees

7th Grade:

Lichtenstein Inspired Portraits

 

"Sweet Still Lives" Pop Art inspired paintings.... I am so pumped for this one!

And finally, a Chihuly chandelier! Courtesy of Mr. E at Tulip Grove Elementary. I can not WAIT for this project! It will be a group/class assignment.

Keep checking back to see our progress!!!

Mrs. G

Op Art lately..

6th and 7th grade have been working on Op Art all this week. 7th grade is making the cubes and 6th grade are making the "tubes" (yes, I DID just rhyme!). I have been finding SO many different lessons you can do over Op Art. Here are just a couple of shots from class.

6th grade working on their Op Art project and sketchbook assignments.

And here are some finished Op Art sketchbook assignments. Looking good! Below you can find the instructions sheet that explains to you step by step how to draw this design.

 

 

7th Graders working on their Op Art tubes. They are very involved with this project it's amazing. I was afraid they would rush through it since the designs are on a smaller surface but for the most part they are being very particular and precise with how neat and organized their designs are!

 

 6th grade Op Art sketchbook assignment instruction sheet:

 

Lots of good things going on!

-Mrs. G