What to do with all that leftover candy?

Paint it, of course! I had my more advanced Drawing and Painting students do photrealistic still life paintings of candy and while it proved to be pretty challenging, the kids rose to the occassion. I stressed the importance of keeping things simple in terms of the background because the intricate details of the candy and packaging posed enough of a challenge. They took a few photos of their setups and we worked together to choose the best composition. Here are some of the results...

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Once Upon A Time...

Recently, I asked my middle school classes to choose a scene from a classic fairy tale or book that they wanted to illustrate in a torn paper collage. I first showed them a little slideshow on the history of collage, touching on its roots with Picasso and Braque. Then, I provided them with a long list of stories that I thought might have great scenes to illustrate. The funny thing though with kids in middle school right now is that many of them consider Sponge Bob a classic childrens book... sooo I had to do a little bit of steering in the right direction, but most of them picked up on what I was trying to get them to do. They researched their chosen story and chose a few pictures to work from, selecting certain elements from each to create the perfect scene. Once their pictures were sketched out, they then began the INCREDIBLY long and tedious task of ripping and cutting small pieces from magazines that they collaged in a mosaic fashion to fill in the colors of their images. Did i mention that this took an incredibly long time??!! I would recommend having them use much smaller paper than I did (most of my kids did theirs at around 16"x20"), and perhaps allowing them to work on this project alongside another one so that they can have a break from time to time. The fact that I only see my middle school classes a few days a week was also a hinderance to their progress, so if you meet with yours everyday, you might have better luck with the production time. As always though, the middle school kids continue to surprise me with their work ethic, skill, and creativity!

The Tin Man's heart

Cinderella's Castle (6th Grade!)



Detail of 'Cinderella's Castle'




Alice in Wonderland



The Lion King



Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp version of course...ugh)




Detail of 'Willy Wonka'

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