1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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!

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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

20. 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.

21. 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.

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

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

24. 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.

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

26. 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.

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

28. 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.

29. 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.