It is common in the everyday art class to find many examples of avoidance, omission and exaggeration in young adolescents' depictions of the human figure. When students depict sophisticated human images, they make every effort to avoid the difficult parts, and some students tend to exaggerate the size or distort the shape of the human image. Art…

Despite the dramatic increase in the number of graphic novels created and published, and the growing popularity of graphic novels among students, some teachers think that certain sexual and violent imagery in graphic novels renders them unsuitable for teaching (Weiner, 2003). Additionally, the lack of cultural diversity and the depiction of…

Ongoing debates over children's encounters with popular culture are grounded in representational images of what childhood is and what childhood should be. As such, the tendency to overcode and regulate children's behaviors, relationships, and desires are often part of a greater effort to prepare the child to fit fixed and essentialized notions of…

While the observations of generalist educators (Irving, 2009; Scheld, 2012) and anecdotal studies have suggested that interests in popular stories can "turn non-reading pupils into readers" (Smith, 2005) and increase critical writing skills (Kell, 2009; Thomas 2006), many art teachers fail to recognize the educational merits of fanart,…

Art, like beauty, as the adage goes, is in the eye of the beholder. Art also is a living, breathing thing that evolves over time, so what is considered "art" is ever changing--how many of the great artists whose works today sell for fortunes were failures during their lifetime? The 20th century unknowingly gave birth to new variations of art that…