Senior Studio This course is designed for the advanced senior art student who wishes to develop a portfolio, which represents his or her abilities and knowledge in the visual arts area. This portfolio could be used for Advanced Placement credit, for post-secondary entrance, scholarship competition and / or for employment opportunities. Under the guidance of the art department faculty, the student will design a program of study that fits his of her needs. There will be critiques and displays of the student’s work. College credit and / or Advanced Placement credit will be awarded by the colleges and universities according to their individual institutional policies. See a counselor for clarification. A materials fee is required.

Senior Studio provides students with an opportunity to grow considerably as an a young artist. A wide variety of approaches and materials are used when addressing the technical and creative side of art making. It is a year long class that allows students to build an impressive portfolio of work. In addition to creating art the students learn about the structure of the AP program, National Portfolio Day requirements and post secondary education and career options in the visual arts area. Students assess their current portfolios and learn what to add to compliment and strengthen them. Time is devoted to the creation of individual artwork, which would meet the expectations of the Advanced Placement Program and college entrance requirements. In connection with the class students participate in a wide variety of competitions, exhibits and shows. Experimentation with new media and methods enhances the overall experience for the students in this class.

Students are encouraged to work in their sketchbooks on a weekly basis. Students begin the term by “working from life”. They choose the media, time and place to draw a “favorite place” or a place of refuge. Working from life builds technical drawing skills.

Using a variety of media and continuing to work from life the students carefully arrange and draw common objects as still life drawings in very realistic ways.

Students do Plein air style work by drawing on location outside. Contour line drawings, fine line pen and ink work and graphite renderings are done as part of the series of work.

Students carefully arrange a still life of objects that interest them. They then light the arrangement in a way that gives interesting highlights and shadow detail to the subjects. They work large and first do a contour line drawing of the entire composition. The second piece is done as a fully rendered graphite drawing and the third piece is done as a cropped view in color.

Trompe L’oeil is a French term that refers to a value study in grey. Students work in this style by arranging a group of personal objects in an interesting way and recreating them as accurately as possible in graphite pencil. The goal is to have the finished work have an extremely lifelike appearance.

By “going back to crayon” – the most familiar art material to most of us - the students are challenged to use this simple media in a much more sophisticated way. By using Georges Rouault and his work as a point of reference the students use heavy dark outlines and a layering of color to create striking work.

Using crayon in creative ways helps students realize how even the most basic media can be exciting and interesting. Here a very well planned approach allows students to create very detailed fine line crayon etchings.

Students often work “in the style of” famous artists. Here Modigliani was used as inspiration for these self-portraits.

Life drawing skills are developed by studying the human form, lighting, composition and cropping. Students warm up with quick gesture drawings and then do longer studies working in charcoal.

As the final life drawing assignment students choose to demonstrate what they’ve learned by doing a torso, three quarter length, or full length view of a live model in charcoal.

Studying the contemporary architecture of the high school has been a great way to use line, shape, form, color and texture in a funky, fun and interesting way!

Printmaking may be done in a number of ways. Linoleum cuts allow students the opportunity to create very graphic 2-dimensional work in a very traditional way.

Etching is another way students work with the printmaking process. Plates are etched with very fine tipped tools, inked and then run through a printing press. It is a laborious but very rewarding process that produces remarkable results.

Throughout the class students create self-portraits in a wide variety of interesting ways. The top image is an expressive watercolor. The bottom left piece is a multi-layered crayon drawing. The bottom middle piece was done in colored pencil and the bottom right piece was thoughtfully done as a multi-media piece.

Scratchboard is a media which allows for great detail through the use of fine line work. Pieces may be done using straight line work, cross-hatching, stippling and / or pointillism.

By using family members as subjects allows for a very personal connection to the work. The pieces seen here depict a variety of approaches, styles and media. In this class students are allowed the freedom to make many of these kind of individual choices on their own as they develop the direction of their work.

Altered Images is a contemporary concept that allows for great artistic freedom. Here a student created an expressive piece by first doing a large very well defined pastel portrait. She then boldly cut the piece into strips and reassembled it allowing spaces to be apparent between the strips. Altered Images can

Students create a series of work that revolves around a central theme, subject or idea. This body of work is used as part of the Advanced Placement Program portfolio.

Students may continue to do work in a series. The work they create may be either obviously - or as in this case - less obviously inter-related.

Students often move into painting by doing a fully rendered charcoal drawing of the subject first.

Students often work in response to a theme or idea and may create conceptual pieces based on personal ideas, themes, or subjects of interest.

Later in the year a wide variety of artists and their work are studied and used as a point of reference for the work done by the students. By working “in the style” of a famous artist the students are encouraged to think in new and highly creative ways.

Abstract and or stylized work maybe done as the students pursue the direction of some of their own work.

Students are challenged to develop the means of making art in highly creative ways. They are encouraged to develop new approaches to working with a variety of media. Given plexi-glass as a surface these students worked in very different ways. The bottom left piece is done as a reverse piece with marker and paint. The middle piece was done as a mono-print. Here the student printed off the surface of the plexi-glass. The bottom left piece was done a multi-step piece. The plexi-glass was etched and inked. A print of it was made in the darkroom. That print was drawn into and ultimately used as a paper negative to print this image from.

Highly creative responses are done by taking the opportunity to be expressive and or illustrative in their work.

Students often finish the class with very well defined, visually interesting and expressive paintings. Painting provides students the opportunity to work with composition, color and contrast in a very interesting and fluid way.

Students may refine their drawing skills by doing portraits of famous people. This student did a series of portraits of famous people for the Senior Art Show.