Arts & Activities articles from March 2008

Arts & Activities archives from March 2008

Classical Drawing Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... CLASSICAL DRAWING ATELIER: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice (2006; $29.95), by Juliette Aristides. Watson-Guptill Publications. Oftentimes, advanced high-school students are drawn to the challenge of classical drawing....

Discovering Drawing, Second Edition.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... DISCOVERING DRAWING, Second Edition (2007; $44.95), by Ted Rose and Sallye Mahan-Cox. Davis Publications. This is a "drawing textbook" designed for upper middle- and high-school students. It offers a comprehensive approach to the teaching...

Easy2draw: Dolphins & Reef Animals!(Brief article)(Video recording review)
March 1, 2008... EASY2DRAW: Dolphins & Reef Animals! DVD/110 min./$19.99. Artragous Designs. Level: Elementary School through Adult. Through the steady gifted hand of Cordi, several lessons about drawing marine creatures are made to look very easy. This...

Crystal productions.(shop talk)('Art of Illusion')(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Art of Illusion is the latest set in the Portfolio Prints series. The set of 12 prints, each 16" x 12", feature the work of artists who aim to fool the eye. M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali are two featured artists,...

Richeson art.(shop talk)(Premium Pastel Surfaces)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Premium Pastel Surfaces make framing easy. With its gritty grip, there is no need to tape down rigid surfaces and they are durable and archival. Available in three surfaces: Gator Foam, Pastel Paper and Hardboard;...

Draw 3 lines publishing.(shop talk)(The Drawing Breakthrough Book: A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Drawing Breakthrough Book: A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence was developed by John Hastings out of his frustration with conventional drawing lessons. Intended for high-school students, teachers and parents, the...

Crayola.(shop talk)(Crayola Crayon Classpack 8 Colors)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 832-count "Crayola Crayon Classpack 8 Colors" offers students all the colors they need pre-sorted into 13 reusable plastic bins. The new configuration makes it easier for teachers to distribute crayons to their...

Triarco Arts & Crafts.(shop talk)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 2008 Triarco[R] Arts & Crafts catalog offers an array of products that will perform and keep you within your budget. For 62 years, Triarco's Arts & Crafts catalog has established the tradition and reputation of...

Drawing: Mastering the Language of Visual Expression.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... DRAWING: Mastering the Language of Visual Expression (2005; $29.95), by Keith Micklewright. Abrams Studio. At the outset, the author observes: "drawing is at least 20,000 years old and is a much older and more basic human activity than...

Young artist.(Cover story)(Brief article)(Photograph)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] I think there is no such thing as bad art. I think it is all in the eye of the beholder. One person might see something in an artwork that no one else sees. I once took a class that tried to tell me art should be a...

Hand stories: hand contours, hand pockets and accordion books.
March 1, 2008... There are times during a school year or semester when there isn't enough time to teach or facilitate a full-blown art lesson, yet the desire to provide a meaningful lesson holds precedence. There are many reasons why an art teacher would need...

Playing with Picasso.(20th-century artist Pablo Picasso)
March 1, 2008... As a substitute teacher, I rarely get to implement my own lesson plans and experiment with all the little details that make the lesson a success. Recently, I was fortunate enough to serve as a long-term sub for an entire year at the...

Hip like Haring.(Keith Haring)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Keith Haring is an artist whose abstract, cartoon-like style is readily accepted and embraced by my elementary students. His style infuses graffiti, stick figures, gestures, dancing, cartooning, design, patterns and...

Artistically adaptive animals.
March 1, 2008... It is amazing that the survival value of animal colors and patterns lies in how the colors adapt animals for their life in a particular environment and for their relationships with other animals. The colors of certain animals conceal them...

Artprint: Night of the Equinox.(Brief article)(Photograph)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Charles E. Burchfield (American; 1893-1967). Night of the Equinox, 1917-55, Watercolor, brush and ink, gouache and charcoal on paper mounted on paperboard. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gift of the Sara Roby...

Clip & save art notes.(Biography)
March 1, 2008... ABOUT THE ARTIST When Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967) was a boy, he often took long walks around his home in Salem, Ohio, to observe the natural world. He marveled at the progression of the seasons, the quality and changes in light...

Classroom use of the art print: Charles Burchfield (American; 1893-1967). Night of the Equinox, 1917-55. Watercolor, brush and ink, gouache and charcoal on paper mounted on paperboard. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation.(Biography)
March 1, 2008... THINGS TO KNOW The American watercolorist Charles Burchfield was born in 1893 in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio. After graduating from high school (he was the class valedictorian), he enlisted in the army where he worked as a camouflage painter....

Art's in the kitchen.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Inspired by Untitled (Five-bladed Saw) from artist Jim Dine's Untitled Tool Series (1973), I gave my students an assignment "in the manner of" so they too could give a sense of monumentality and awe-inspiring...

People in motion.
March 1, 2008... Drawing people in motion, kicking a soccer ball, running with a kite, jumping for joy, walking along the shore or doing the splits on the balance beam is much easier when students discover how and where people bend. Working with my first- and...

Bridget Riley--inspired op-art drawings.
March 1, 2008... My high-school fundamentals of art class is an all-encompassing experience in drawing, painting, 3-D, printmaking and more, with most of the projects directly influenced by art history and artist studies. Students are generally attracted to...

Cubism with a scheme.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] I teach art in grades four through eight, and always run out of time before I run out of projects. There are so many materials and techniques and so little time in which to teach them. To combat this, I decided...

Sumi-e sunrise surprises!
March 1, 2008... This month's lesson in this series takes us to the interesting continent of Asia. This unit was a student favorite, as we have a large population of Asian students who were excited to learn about the art and history of their homeland. This...

Playing-card self-portraits.
March 1, 2008... I like to have students draw self-portraits, and I'm always thinking of new ways of doing this. I came up with this eighth-grade project by combining two projects I was already doing. The first project was a self-portrait that involved...

Summer Art Experiences: Arts & Activities' listing of Summer Art Experiences provides ideas on how to make the most of art programs this summer. When writing, e-mailing, calling or faxing, be sure to let the workshops, schools and camps know that you read about them in Arts & Activities magazine! (Information subject to change without notice.).(Directory)
March 1, 2008... PACIFIC/WEST California Watercolor classes and workshops in Southern California, Hawaii, New York City and Italy for the intermediate to professional artist. Tuition varies. Non-credit. Timothy J. Clark Watercolor Workshops, P.O. Box...

Drawing and color media: tried & true tips for art teachers.
March 1, 2008... Let's draw a big crowd, thereby drawing more students into our classes who will learn how to draw, enjoying this skill their entire lives. The visual plan, a sketch, can mean many things, from a quick drawing to a short dramatization, but...