Class Descriptions

Basic Art Techniques

Focusing on basic art elements, this class will give students the tools to express themselves artistically, foster their creativity and fuel their imagination. Students will be introduced to fundamental art techniques, color mixing, basic perspective rules, shading and more. Art appreciation is part of the class.

Instructors: Karin Geiger, Helen Browning

Sculpture:

Clay, Assemblage and Collage: Clay is an exciting and magical material. In the Wednesday ceramics classes, children will learn the art and craft of clay while having fun and exploring their creativity.

The clay class a hands-on experience while learning the techniques of shaping clay into Pinch Pots, designing and constructing Slab Projects, building unique Coil Vessels, Clay Decoration, and Glazing. Dishes will be lead free and safe to eat and drink from.

The Friday sculpture class will focus on of learning the technique of using armature wire under clay to create small animals.

Use everyday materials to make art! Assemblage is an artistic process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects. A collage may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, portions of other artwork, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas.

Drawing:

Basic Drawing: The ability to “see” is one of the most important aspects of creating a drawing. Developing the art of observation will be the principal aspect of this class. We will be learning to gaze at a subject, discovering relationships between shapes, looking for subtle shifts in light and shadow, composition, perspective and many other tools for creating an accurate rendering of any subject.

Cartoon Drawing: Manga and Mecha. Ever want to know how to draw those fantastic Japanese anime characters? Or the Mechas like the Transformers? This class will cover the techniques and proportions used to make the different kinds of characters. This is a hands-on drawing class so bring your favorite anime action figure to use as a model and fire up your imagination.

Painting:

Watercolor, Yupo, Acrylic and Pastel: The focus in all painting classes is on creative personal expression. Each unit will foster skills that will help the children do that using water-based media.

The Watercolor class will cover design, color and handling of watercolor materials to get the children started on their first painting. They will be introduced to creative ways to paint, for example, using a stick as a brush. If possible kids will be painting outside rather than from photos.

The Yupo class will demonstrate techniques that are unique to the material, such as pouring and using stamps to create texture in paintings. This is a good way to enjoy a loose, creative style of painting.

The Acrylic painting classes will begin with a brief demo by the instructor to teach a concept. Art History will also be included in the instruction as a way to introduce each lesson. Using acrylic paint, projects will be a mix of still-life and paintings started from photos. The three “C’s, Composition, contrast (value) and color will all be covered.

Exploring Soft Pastels will offer an introduction to techniques to be used with different types of soft pastels and surfaces. Each week we will produce a new piece of art: still life, landscape, abstract and a work on sidewalk.

Print Making:

These classes will discuss different substrates that one can use for printing such as fabric, paper, and recycled materials and the inks that are used with each. We will also emphasize the importance of color, color layering and color mixing. How to take a design, make it a printing media, and how to print with it, will be covered. Children will learn the difference between the printing methods that use stencil process and the printing methods that use a relief process (stamping, collograph). Monoprinting and adding other media to your prints will also be discussed and/or demonstrated.

Students will do high contrast drawings, transfer the drawings to blocks and carve the negative spaces with delicate carving tools to create printing blocks. The blocks are then inked with a roller and then hand printed from each block and exchanged amongst all the students.

Exploring the Masters:

Week 1- Explore Chagall and his art, create art using concepts imagination, gravity, feelings, animal characters.

Week 2- Delve into the world of Klimt, learn about pattern, contrast, cells, figure/ground relationships, portraits.

Week 3- Take a look at Matisse, cut paper, collage, painting, color and the crazy Fauves!

Week 4- The 3D works of Picasso and Calder, re-use of materials and found objects, which they prided themselves on!

Fiber Arts:

Weaving, Felting, Batik and Silk Painting: Play with yarn and other fibers to make your own special creations. We will explore weaving, felting, surface design and more in the fiber arts classes. Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. The Silk Painting class will focus on easy, creative and fun techniques that allow beginners to take home a beautiful piece of hand-painted silk at the end of each class.

Photography:

Explore the historic and traditional methods of photography, e.g. pinhole photography. Learn about exposure, aperture and film quality, all of which can be applied to digital photography.

Artists’ Book Making:

Journaling: Children will learn how to make a book where they paint papers for each page. They will talk about personal ways to express themselves in their journals such as writing, using photos, drawing, and collage.

Jewelry Making:

Students will learn how to create beaded necklaces and artistic earrings using a simple technique.