After reaching the Stanley Cup final in 2007 and many successful seasons, 2011-12 was a rebuilding year for the author's NHL team, the Ottawa Senators. It occurred to him that it might be possible to stage an interactive presentation at Scotia Bank Place with his students. His idea was for students to each hold a segment of a large artwork that…

The author remembers as a youngster poring over DC and Marvel comics, wondering if any of his heroes would reach TV or movie theaters. Today, with the blue-screen techniques and computer-generated imagery (CGI), it seems not a week goes by without seeing one of these characters being featured in a film. "Spiderman" has even reached Broadway! None…

One of the things that many post-secondary graphic-design schools look for in student portfolios is one or two typography projects with hand-rendered type. At Merivale High School, junior graphic-design classes work with traditional media, and every year they receive an assignment that encourages them to play with letter forms. In this article,…

As hands-on environmental observers, children use printing to save and share "treasures" they find. In this article, the author shares thoughts which are based on observing what children find valuable and worth saving, and the printmaking processes used to "lift" images from their finds.

Autumn is a colorful season--with the brilliant yellows, oranges and reds against the evergreen trees. It makes sense to incorporate the beauty of season into art projects, and it provides an opportunity to integrate natural science into the lesson as well. Literacy was also incorporated into the lesson, as the author introduced this printing…

After creating fish-themed art works for the school's Evening of the Arts, the school moved onshore. In Florida, a tropical climate and casual dress is the norm, so students are familiar with Hawaiian "Aloha" shirts. To begin the lesson, the author displayed several Aloha shirts across the front of the art room. She then gives a quick…

High-school students are a dominant force in the gaming industry, accounting for annual sales in the millions. Retailers devote large areas of commercial space to keep pace with this lucrative part of the entertainment business. Recognizing the popularity of this phenomenon with the younger generation, it proved an ideal vehicle to explore…

Cows have been a favorite subject for many artists, including Canadian artist Joe Fafard. In this article, grade 11 graphic-design students do a series of exercises in their sketchbooks using the cow motif. Each exercise was designed to have students move from traditional pictures of the dairy cow to more eclectic visual solutions. Eight…

What excites the author the most is finding something new and turning it into a lesson her students will enjoy and learn from. Lately, she has been most inspired by the work she finds on one website. The lesson began with a brief PowerPoint based on an artist's website. This particular artist--Jennifer Schmitt--does reduction prints using several…

One of the fifth-grade art-curriculum objectives is to create a relief print. In this era of budget cuts, the author was looking for a way for her students to meet this objective by making colorful prints without using a lot of expensive printing ink. She knew she wanted to use a rainforest animal theme, as well as share the colorful art of Henri…

Most students enjoy the printing process. Some may have experimented with printing in the past using found objects or cutouts made of cardboard. In this article, students create a design on a pie-shaped piece and then repeat it to make a radial design.

Look for ways to take students on virtual journeys to faraway places, and then connect the experience to something they can relate to on a more personal level. In this article, the author describes a block-printing unit inspired by Japanese printmaker, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), and his series of art prints, "Thirty-six Views of Mount…

This article describes an art project that gives students an opportunity to contribute to a very worthy cause. Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) encourages schools to participate in their annual fundraising campaign by submitting designs to their poster contest. Each year, this is assigned to the author's junior class art students. A…

Each fall, the author presents a printmaking unit, starting with simple techniques such as rubbings, stamping and stenciling. In this article, the author describes a linoleum printmaking lesson wherein students are challenged to break away from singular images of peace signs and initials, and create illustrative plates that could communicate a…

The author could have chosen any ancient symbolic language, such as Egyptian or Pre-Columbian, but being from Denmark, she developed a unit that would introduce American students to artwork familiar to northern Europeans. Looking at examples of ancient art from Denmark and Sweden, students were to think about the use of symbols in ancient time and…