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…

Kids love to build robots, letting their imaginations run wild with thoughts of what they might look like and what they could be programmed to do. Yet when students use cereal boxes and found objects to make robots, often the projects look too similar and tend to fall apart. This alternative allows students to "build" robots in a different way,…

Nature has always been a source of inspiration for artists across the centuries. Artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, and Andy Goldsworthy all drew inspiration for their work from nature. Seeds come from the dried pods, which when planted and cared for, bear fruit. In this article, the author describes how her…

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…

In order to inspire her students to work in mixed media, the author chose to highlight the art of Jasper Johns and Robert Indiana, both of whom used numbers and letters as a main focus in their art. In this article, the author describes a mixed-media printmaking project. (Contains 2 online resources.)