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The second week of my student teaching experience at the high school level was be a bit challenging, because I had to get the students back on task from having a week off for spring break. It was also challenging, because I am slowly easing into taking over Mrs. Aguilar’s classes by starting a new project in her Art One class. [flickr id=”6894468276″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”original” group=”” align=”center”]

The Project: Tempera Still-Life Painting

The Challenge: Everyone works at their own pace.  Therefore, I only had a handful of students that had finished working on the previous project and were ready for still-life painting. The previous project was a metal project, so I concluded that students would finish the project in small groups.

My Solution: Address the whole class, giving information about the next project in a few minutes, so they could continue and hopefully finish their last project during the week.

Initial Information: I asked the students to bring in 5 still-life objects, regardless of whether they were finished with the metal project or not.  In addition, students were told that the objects should have various sizes and colors. If the students forget, I knew there were plenty of still-life objects in a closet off the classroom. However, I hoped they would bring in their own objects, so they would be more interested in painting them.

Next, I briefly explained that the first step is to draw two thumbnails of the still-life composition from different angles. Then, I wanted them to check with me to discuss which composition is stronger to use for the final painting.

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An Aha Moment: After the initial information, I then gathered the handful of students that were ready for the new project at a single table. This is where I found that I should not assume that students know what a thumbnail drawing is, even if it is the second semester of Art One.

I explained that a Thumbnail drawing is a quick sketch for the artist to plan the composition of their art work. Then, I showed my examples (see above). I showed them how they could create a window box using their hands or a cut piece of paper to see how they wanted to arrange their composition.

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