Below are examples of student's original logo designs (completely illustrated!). Students drew logo companies and their briefs from a bucket. All companies are fake. Students then created their logo design ideas/brainstorm based on the brief, offered and received feedback, settled on a final design, created the design on Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, and created a mock-up business card utilizing the logo design. THEN, to put it all together, students created a quick Spark Video presentation to show off their work. The Spark video really tied everything together and made grading much easier since there were so many components to this assignment. From start to finish, most students needed about 2 weeks in class. Check them out below!

I've recently been trying to incorporate more fun into my art classrooms. My goal is to get students excited to come to art and graphic design class. One thing I've found that brings joy-- and even some social and collaboration opportunities-- is using games. I don't typically play an art-related game for an entire hour, but the following are art-related games I've researched and many that I've tried out in my own high school classrooms. Many of these games could be modified for younger students too.

Once students chose their final color schemes, I had them record the hex codes in their logo design packet. Interested in seeing my logo design packet? Click the link or image below to view and download. This .pdf is currently free for all teachers personal and classroom use. ​

I just recently created a set of 8 artist habits of mind posters for my art and graphic design classrooms. These posters were developed by Harvard's Project Zero to create a set of habits they found to be best practices in the studio. These make excellent classroom decoration pieces as they are the colors of the rainbow and provide a definition and visual example. The posters come in two sizes: 11x17" and 8.5x11". They can be printed in color of black & white. See some of the posters below.

If you are interested in grabbing a set of these posters for your classroom, simply head to my TPT store to purchase! I offer a bundled discount if you find other decorations or lessons in my shop that inspire you. I hope you and your students enjoy them as much and mine do!

It is nice to make something crafty for yourself on occasion. I made these DIY magnetic spice jars for my fridge after struggling to find more cupboard space. I bought the 2 oz mason jars, heavy du5y magnets, and round white labels on Amazon all for under $30. Hint: Use a little super glue on each magnet on the lid side of the jar. Keep in mind that not all spices come in small containers. Since the jars I bought were 2 oz, I had to make do. In the end, I am so happy with them! They stay in place and add color to the kitchen!

Just listed in my Teachers Pay Teachers store-- a set of 18 fully editable doodle notes about different art history movements. Each handout of doodle notes includes places to color in, short activities or fill in the blanks, space for writing or drawing characteristics, sketches, definitions, and time periods. Video links are also included that pertain to each art movement! This makes learning about art history far more enjoyable for middle and high school grade levels. Use these handouts and the included 209-slide powerpoint in multiple ways that work for your teaching style! Click the images above or go to this link to preview or purchase this awesome bundle to teach art history!

I love painting with acrylics-- but painting with 36+ kids can be extremely stressful. After lots of trial and error, I have come upon a few hacks I would like to share with ya'll today!

Hack #1: Use condiment bottles to hold acrylic paints! You can label the bottles with the name of the color to make refilling a breeze. The mouth of the condiment bottle is large enough to pour from a half gallon and the little cap fits neat and clean on the end to prevent clogging. Kids are less likely to take too much paint because it doesn't pour as fast too! I bought my condiment bottles on Amazon here. You can also find them at the Dollar Tree!

Hack #2: Use foam plates and gallon zip loc bags to store paint in. If your students are like my students, they like to save paint colors. The foam plates won't absorb the water from the paint like a paper plate would and the zip loc keeps it all from drying out! I have kids keep these in their drawers with their assigned paintbrushes.

Hack #3: Speaking of paintbrushes....I have kids pick 2-3 general use paintbrushes to keep in their drawer for the entire painting unit. I repeatedly tell them that if they don't take care of their brushes, they are stuck with a gross, dried up brush for painting. Or they have they buy their own. They don't get replacement brushes! I can't tell you how much this has saved me from having to pick up brushes from the bottom of the sink! Make them take ownership of the supplies!

Hack #4: And for those brushes that do meet an ugly fate....THIS STUFF is great! The Winsor Newton Brush restorer can save a lot of brushes. Not all, but a lot! Simply use a small amount in a glass jar and leave brushes hair side down soaking in it overnight. In the morning, rinse! You may have some paint to peel off, but this has restored a lot of brushes for me. I NEVER TELL KIDS ABOUT THIS STUFF, simply for the fact that I don't want them relying on it and thinking they don't need to wash brushes. This stuff works on acrylic and oil painted brushes! The only downside of this stuff is the cost. $14.99 for a 16 oz bottle. Less expensive than new paintbrushes though!

Hack#5: This may seem obvious to some art teachers, but labeling your jugs of paint with the season & year will take the headache out of figuring out which bottle to use first! We tend to have leftover paint from the previous year. This helps kids know which jug to open next...I tell them to look for the oldest bottle and use that first! Saves money and paint.

I will be adding more painting hacks in the future! I hope you found some of this tips and tricks useful or that you will try them in your own classes! Let me know how it goes by leaving a comment below!

My teachers pay teachers store has a mini back-to-school sale on right now from 8/14/18 to 8/16/18! Get 10% off ALL products-- no limit! This is a great way to gear up for back-to-school and stock up on some great lessons! Several of my listings are great for sub lesson plans and can be modified and adapted to suit your needs. Click the image below or follow this link to go shopping for art education and graphic design lessons!

ALSO-- if you haven't seen my Elements of Art and Principles of Design block poster sets, I highly recommend you check them out here! See examples below. The entire set of 14 posters is only $16.20! Give me a positive rating and receive 16 TPT credits to use for future purchases.

I have just added a new lesson with a template made by yours truly! Introducing the mandala color wheel lesson! I have seen this done on a larger scale with students measuring, but I wanted to take some of the headache out of the lesson to make it run a little smoother for my Art 1 students. Hence, the printable template! The template is intended for acrylic paint, but you could also use watercolor, colored pencils, chalk pastel, etc. This is an excellent project to introduce students to the concept of color & the kiddos love making an intricate and original design!

Included in the Teachers Pay Teachers product listing is also a 19-minute demo video showing me create a mandala from start to finish using the template below.

You can purchase the mandala color wheel template, video & powerpoint at my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Even though this time of year is crazy busy, showing off my students hard work is so worth it! The kids exhibiting show such pride in their work and their friends are left in awe! I look forward to seeing what my future students make next year!

Keep scrolling to see examples from this year's art show . . .

I started my graphic design 1 students on Adobe Photoshop CS6 standard version first. Eventually we started to move into Adobe Illustrator and this is a fun lesson to teach students the basics of Illustrator. Since Photoshop and Illustrator are very different programs, I informed my students ahead of time that this would be a another learning curve-- that some students might catch on quickly, while others might need more practice.

Last year, I won a $4000 grant to purchase tech for our graphic design program from the Centurylink Grant award program. I purchased 36 small Wacom drawing tablets for students to use and I instructed my graphic design 2 students to use them for this illustrator sefie project.

First, students took a selfie using their phone or one of my classroom cameras. I instructed students that their face had to be showing, but the artistic style, color, line quality, was up to them. I also told students they could change their selfie to an "alter-ego" which made for some very interesting changes to their actual look.

​This tutorial below by RiceGum on Youtube is both entertaining and informative & we watched the video as a class and then I posted it to the graphic design 2 google classroom for students to reference.

When I first taught this lesson, I was worried that it would be too "tracey" and boring for my more advanced students, but it ended up being really okay! Since I allowed students much creative freedom, they were able to really have fun with it. I even had a girl turn herself into a werewolf! After everyone was finished, I created a simple google slides slideshow of each student's selfie to share with the class and I plan on sharing them with future graphic design classes. It was fun having the students guess who each person was! Check out additional examples of graphic design 2 students illustrator selfies below:

My graphic design 1 students just finished a collaborative animation project. I connected with an Elementary art teacher about this project a couple months ahead of time. I asked her if she could have a group of 5th grade students draw characters, write what they want their character to do, and then send me the drawings. I ended up getting about 80 drawings and scanned each one to my e-mail.

Then, I uploaded the drawings as .jpgs to my Google Drive and sent a drawing to each graphic design student. I instructed my students that they had to animate the drawing according to the directions provided by the 5th grader. My graphic design students animated these in Photoshop...some students touched up the drawings a little, while others left the drawings as they were. Some students added photos or other images.

When all students finished, I put together a (not so little) Google Slide presentation to send to the Elementary art teacher so she could show her students all of our hard work! This animated gif project was a great way to connect with the younger student and share our program. We even got featured on the Rochester Public Schools Facebook page for this project!

​This was just so much fun and a great challenge for my graphic design students!  I will definitely be doing it again in the future!

Art 2 students created reduction prints using a 6"x6" block of safety cut linoleum. Students had to create an original drawing and plan for 3 colors + the color of the paper (most often white). Feel free to use my basic instructions with examples below! Reduction prints always seem far more complicated in theory than when you actually make it. One of the best ways to help students understand this is to have them practice on a very small piece of linoleum. Something simple like a flower is a good subject matter. See the process below.

I had been looking for a fun and engaging lesson on packaging design for my graphic design 1 courses for some time. Most projects I found didnt really have a lesson plan or wasnt practical for our resources and facilities. I got the idea from my doodle cup project and from there it turned into one of my favorite graphic design projects of all time!

Each student was instructed to create a logo, background, mock up, and final print design. I had students do research on different drink and coffee logos. We discussed color schemes, rules of good design, etc. Students had to illustrate their logos in Photoshop with a transparent background. Students saved these as .png files.

Next, students created a background in Photoshop. It could be a solid colot, gradient, pattern, etc. but it had to be created by them...no photos!

​After this, students put their logo and background into a mock up file...this was super fun and kids really enjoyed seeing their work on a professional light!

When students finished their mock up, they were instructed to put their background and logo into a cup template .psd file. Studentd used their previously learned clipping mask skills to insert the background into the template.

Then students printed the template in color, cut it out, and glued it to a blank 12 oz coffee cup (pack of 50 was about $12). I also had students paint their lid with acrylic paints if they desired.

​Students presented their mock ups, final designs, and design process to the class at the end of the project. This project took about 3 weeks of class time from start to finish and I just loved the creativity!

Download the file templates below (first one is a .jpg & second one is a .zip file containing the .psd Photoshop template).

Art 1 created cardboard sculptures. Students had full choice in their subject matter, but the sculpture had to be mainly made of cardboard, had to be decorated in some way, and had to be 8 inches tall or wide. Students had to decide if their sculpture would be free standing or be able to hang on the wall. We used lots of scrap cardboard and random craft items for this project....but overall it was my least expensive project of the semester!

This was voted their favorite project thus far!

My Art 2 students just finished their packing tape sculptures and put them together as an installation in front of our school library. For this project, I had students research different sculptors throughout history and then use that research as inspiration for their own sculpture. I allowed students to work in partners or solo. They could choose their subject matter, as long as it was school appropriate. Requirements included:

• ​Must be at least 3 ft tall or wide
• Must stand on its own (not taped to the floor or wall)
• Can only use packing tape, cardboard, saran wrap, paper, masking tape, tissue paper, or scrap mat board. They strictly could not use glue or paint.
• Some students added lights to their projects provided by me. I got the cheap fairy lights online for around $2 each and just bought dollar tree batteries. Very budget friendly!
• Include an artist statement about your work

To get the different forms and shapes, students wrapped themselves, balls borrowed from the gym and weight room, foam heads I already had, skulls, and other objects found around the art classroom. I modeled to students on how to wrap the object with saran wrap first and then layer the tape. Once the object was covered, they carefully cut the saran wrap and tape away from the object. 2-3 layers of tape was strong enough for most of the projects. Many students reinforced their sculptures with cardboard or filled them with tissue paper.
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A few students got a little frustrated with the limitations of the materials but most students really seemed to enjoy this project. It was enjoyable to see their plans change and critical thinking skills at work. Those that worked with a partner seemed extra successful. I used 36 rolls of packing tape, 18 rolls of saran wrap, and plenty of scrap cardboard and paper. It was a nice way to use up some scrap materials! We plan on keeping our installation up until winter break. After that, we will display some of them inside of our library, some kids want to take theirs home, and the rest will be recycled for next semesters sculptures.

Check out that eiffel tower! This student worked on her own and many extra hours than the other kiddos. She went for more of a cardboard route, and it worked out wonderfully for her.

What do you get when you hand over some blank paper coffee cups to a bunch of high school art students?

Some amazing art!

This was my Art 1 classes first major assignment. The Doodle cup project. Students could use markers, crayons, colored pencils, sharpies, etc. The goal for my students was to create a unique design that used the white space of the cup. They also had to do something to the lid. These took students about a week to complete...5 50 minute classes. We had a vote on the top 5 designs from each class to be included in the art show which was extra incentive to do high quality work!



Overall I will certainly be doing this project again. For those art teachers interested, I bought a set of 100 cups with lids from Solo on Amazon for around $20. You can find the cups I purchased by clicking the image below: