Mr. Hurley's Teaching Blog: 2022

A lesson that has become really popular with the 8^th grade classes at Williams is the annual animal/character sculpture project. This was a lesson created by my supervising practitioner Ed O’Gilvie and later taught by myself during the practicum. The purpose of said lesson is to teach students how to build out and create organic forms (animals, cartoon characters, etc.) by using geometric forms (sphere, cone, etc.) as a foundation. A secondary objective is to encourage students to begin thinking about how everyday materials (cardboard, newspaper) can be recycled and utilized to create art, like sculptures.

Interestingly this particular project did not start with a brainstorming drawing. Instead, students began by preparing their sculpting materials (cutting out many 1” wide thin cardboard strips from cereal boxes, Ritz cracker boxes, frozen food boxes, etc.). Students then used their fingers or the edge of the worktables to curve these cardboard strips. In order to create the initial structure students had to take three of these strips and tape them together (using masking tape), end-to-end, thereby creating a ring. Holding the ring horizontally students then built off of this to create a second ring that runs vertically around the other.

Students continued to add cardboard rings and masking tape to their sculpture until there were no more gaps in the newly created form (a sphere, ellipsoid or ovoid).

Additional forms like crumpled balls of newspaper and paper towel tubes were added to the sculptures in order to create appendages like heads, arms, fingers, tails and objects like goggles, shells etc.

When they were ready to move onto the next step students would then apply two layers of paper mache newspaper to their sculpture, let the surface dry and finally apply one layer of paper mache paper towel (this final layer is intended to cover up the text and images of the newspaper underneath as well as create a better painting surface).

Lastly students used acrylic paint and decorative elements like beads to give life and color to their sculpture.

One of the lessons I created, taught and took the most pride in was the watercolor project entitled “Watercolor Menagerie”. When I initially began the planning for this lesson I had a discussion with my supervising practitioner about what topics and materials he did not have the opportunity to demonstrate and teach about over the past few years. When he mentioned watercolor I immediately thought about the numerous watercolor techniques I had learned at Holyoke Community College. I imagined how the 8^th grade students might get excited about seeing how various materials interact with watercolor paints and how they would utilize them to create unique and visually stunning images. I determined that the main goal for both the lesson and my students was experimentation, to release control over the medium and allow the materials to do what they do naturally. I chose to focus the subject matter, of the final painting, on real life vibrant and colorful animals (like the lorikeets you see below).

On the day of the first lesson I had my students create a watercolor reference sheet, on which they would practice 8 – 12 different painting techniques, that they could later refer to when deciding how to paint their colorful animal.

Over the course of thirty-five minutes I operated on a repeating schedule of showing students how to paint the first two watercolor techniques flat wash and graded wash, and then have them return to their seats to practice those same techniques on their reference sheet. The students then returned to the demonstration table to watch me teach the next two techniques and then returned to their seats to practice those same techniques.

Students learned how to paint: Flat wash, Graded wash, Dry brush, Wet on wet blending, Splatter, Salt additive, Pointillism, Rubbing alcohol additive, Oil pastel resist, Straw blow and Sponge dabbing.

Once their reference sheets were complete students then created rough sketches of their chosen animal in order to figure out the size, shape and position of where that animal would be located on the paper. To add clarity to the project I had students break their drawings up into sections where the various watercolor techniques we practiced could be utilized.

Once this drawing was completed the students cut out their animals shape, then cut that shape up into “puzzle pieces”, traced these pieces onto a sheet of watercolor paper, and then painted over the penciled outlines. After the paint dried the students would cut these pieces out, reassemble them on a sheet of colored cardstock paper and then glue the individual pieces down.

The following images are of students working diligently on their reference sheets, preparatory sketches and watercolor animal paintings.

At the conclusion of this project, these 8^th grade students had created impressive works of art that they should really be proud of. From the outset most of the students in the class had a basic familiarity with watercolor painting. After the introduction of these 12 painting techniques and during the sketching stage they began to think differently about the medium of watercolor, how they would approach this assignment and it is my hope they use these techniques later in their artistic careers. Personally, it was fascinating to see the student’s creativity take this project in directions I had not originally anticipated. I really enjoyed observing the students getting excited while trying out each new technique and then viewing the final menagerie completely assembled. Thus, being in a classroom and having one-on-one discussions with students about their developing ideas and offering words of encouragement when a student is puzzled is why I am fond of teaching. From this lesson I learned how even with the most detailed planning, an assignment would evolve with unexpected challenges and changes that inevitably occur when student’s creativity is released. Everyone did a fantastic job!