1. Junior Studio
This course is designed to help students prepare for the Senior Studio Advanced Placement course. Students will learn about the structure of the AP program, National Portfolio Day requirements and post secondary education and career options in the visual arts area. Students will assess their current portfolios and learn what to add to compliment and strengthen them. Time will be devoted to the creation of individual artwork, which would meet the expectations of the Advanced Placement Program and college entrance requirements. Experimentation with new media and methods will enhance the overall experience of the students in this class. A materials fee is required.

2. Students develop
a series of pieces
in a sketchbook
demonstrating their
ability to accurately
work from life.
Rendering objects
in black and white
and color is something
that post secondary
schools definitely
want to see in a
student’s portfolio.

3. Students begin the class by
choosing the media, time and
place to draw a “favorite place”
or a place of refuge. Working
from life builds technical
drawing skills.

4. Hands are often used as subject matter
Hands are often used as subject matter. Practicing contour line work of hands in various positions is a great exercise in drawing and used as an exercise
to make connections between the left and right sides of the brain. Here a very traditional contour line approach was done for the piece on the left. The piece on the right was started
as a contour line piece but finished with shading and detail for
added interest.

5. Using a variety of media
and continuing to work
from life the students
carefully arrange and draw
common objects as still
life drawings in very
realistic ways.

6. Students do
Plein air style
work by drawing
on location outside.
Contour line drawings, fine line
pen and ink work and graphite
renderings are done as part of
the series of work.

7. Students carefully arrange a still life of objects that
interest them. They then light the arrangement in a
way that gives interesting highlights and shadow
detail to the subjects.
They work large and first do a contour line drawing of the entire
composition. The second piece is done as a fully rendered graphite
drawing and the third piece is done as a cropped view in color.

8. Trompe L’oeil is a French term that refers to
a value study in grey. Students work in this style by arranging a group of personal objects in an interesting way and recreating them as accurately as possible in graphite pencil. The
goal is to have
the finished
work have an
extremely
lifelike
appearance.

9. By “going back to crayon” – the most familiar art material
to most of us - the students are
challenged to use this simple
media in a much more
sophisticated way. By using
Georges Rouault and his work
as a point of reference
the students
use heavy dark
outlines and a
layering of color
to create
striking work.

10. Using crayon in creative ways helps students realize how even the most basic media can be exciting and interesting. Here a very well planned approach allows students to create very detailed fine line crayon etchings.

11. Students often work
“in the style of” famous
artists. Here Modigliani
was used as inspiration
for these self-portraits.

12. Famous artists are used as the
subjects for very graphic 2-D portraits.
During the class students study
famous artists and their work. After
making some connections to these
individuals they decide
on a favorite
and try to
immortalize
that person.

13. Life drawing
skills are
developed by
studying the
human form,
lighting,
composition
and cropping.
Students warm
up with quick
gesture drawings
and then do longer
studies working
in charcoal.

14. Studying the contemporary architecture of the high school has been a great way to use line, shape, form, color and texture in a funky, fun and interesting way!

15. Students are encouraged do traditional
and non-traditional portraits and
self-portraits using a variety of media
and approaches making choices based
on “what they want to say” through
their work.

16. A wide variety of artists and their work are studied and used as a point of reference for the work done by the students. By working “in the style” of a famous artist the students are encouraged to make a connection to that artist and
use their
work as
inspiration.

17. Striking work can be
developed by referencing
images that have strong
visual interest. Students
build collections of images
that they can use as
reference material for their
work. The work seen here
is more abstract or 2-D
in nature. It employs the
effective use of color,
contrast and composition.