Illuminated Letters

Sixth grade artists completed all their projects in time to work on one more! Two years ago I introduced metal repoussé to the then-sixth graders through a short end-of-the-year heraldry project (see below). 

Last year I started the year with an illuminated letter portfolio cover project, but I skipped over that this year. I thought the best way to combine the two projects was to have students created an illuminated letter with embossed metal... and I LOVE the outcome! Students worked on a small scale since we only have a few days left. I did not require them to fill the page, but for next year I think I want to have students fill the entire metal with designs and then glue them to paper where they extend the designs even further. I will be updating the Virtual Art Show soon, but until then, enjoy some of these in-progress photos!

Fortune Teller Critique

Today 6th grade artists engaged in a Fortune Teller Critique, which is something that I came up with when I was student teaching. Students worked in groups of 3 or 4 and used a paper fortune teller to generate questions to discuss about one another's artwork. The critique is very helpful in providing feedback about one's own artwork to use when they fill out their Artist Statement next class. Some of the questions included:

• What  makes this artwork successful? How does it meet the objectives for the assignment?
• Discuss one Principle of Design used within the artwork?
• What does the artwork make you think about? Or what do you think the artist wanted you to think about?

Overall, I think the critique was a success! It allowed students to talk about topic other than Elements and Principles, and it will certainly help make the Artist Statement run smoother since they already have a lot of feedback!