Phase One – September through October - Drawing and Portraiture

Students will use a variety of activities to focus on drawing lines, shapes, adding shadows and understanding the use of highlights. An in depth exploration of one-point and two-point perspective is explained. Portraiture will help students to understand proportions and spacing. Color theory is taught, and goes well beyond studying the color wheel. Each student experiences color by mixing 90 different paint shades and utilizing over a hundred different color pencils.  The children will have an opportunity to creature 3D sculpture projects.

Phase Two – November  through January  - Ceramics

Students will explore clay design techniques (slabbing, coiling, pinch pot) and use various materials to add to the design of the clay (embossing, free hand drawing, glazing).  In each session, each student will receive the basic layout of the clay project, but will be left to individually design and interpret to create their own self-made artistic expression.

Phase Three – February through March -  Mosaics

Students create and design, through the use of pre-cut and free-form cut tiles, a functional piece of artwork, for use in the home.  Students focus on spatial application, color mixing with glazes, and texturing techniques.   Students learn about contemporary artists who combine their artistic vision to create functional works of art in parks, pools, buildings, and homes.

Phase Four – April through June – Painting as Personal Expression

Through the use of paint as the medium, students will hone their knowledge from the year’s visual art activities, and create their own masterpiece.  Working in both 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional formats, focus will be on color mixing, blending, brush techniques, and composition.  Although this class will give attention to the work of major artists of the world, indigenous to contemporary, students will be primarily  encouraged to develop their own personal visual language.