Painting Boot Camp Year 2

Progressive teaching involves constant reflection on planning, instruction, student engagement, etc. to determine what worked well and what could go better. After last year's painting boot camp, I decided to try a few different things this year. 

• Tempera (1 day)- Color mixing activities and color theory- primary, secondary, warm, cool, neutral
  
1. Review or introduce the color wheel and use it to point out different relationships.
2. Groups use primary colors to mix secondary and make color wheel
3. Inquiry mix skin tone- students use primary colors, black, and white to try to mix a paint color that matches his/her skin tone.
4. How to clean brushes
5. If time, paint a fruit with only primaries
• Watercolor blending, dry brush, layering, etc. (1 day)
1. 
   Demonstrate sky and clouds, wash and wet on wet, lifting paint with tissue, creating lighter values with more water
2. Students make light sketch in pencil then play with watercolors. Suggest fruit but students may choose.
• Landscape- background, middleground, foreground, clouds, palette knife, creating texture, shadows
1. Show Bob
2. Ross remix. Because it's awesome. Once in a while a student will ask to just listen to the song. :)
3. Demonstrate techniques for each medium, creating texture, using fan brush, etc.
4. Students choose picture- bring own photo or discuss search tools to find photos labeled for reuse, combining photos to avoid plagiarism. Use Watercolor on watercolor paper or Acrylic on canvas. Sketch divisions. Paint starting with sky/background and move forward.

The landscape painting took most students several weeks. I chose it because not only is it a traditional genre of painting, I thought it would give students a way to gain proficiency in painting and some confidence that they could take into their future choice-based projects. It took a lot longer than the other boot camp activities (most students spent about 3 weeks on their paintings) but I think it was worth it.

 Here are some paintings, and some other work, that I put in the display case when they were finished.