Students in the seventh grade completed a long unit concerning value (the use of light and dark) with an intense charcoal drawing. They began with pencil on paper to learn about adding dark to a light base. They then tried the often frustrating (you can’t erase) scratchboard to figure out how to begin with a dark base and draw the light. Finally we moved to charcoal where an artist begins in the middle with gray toned paper and can both add dark and remove light with an eraser. While very messy, the students prevailed and these beautiful and richly shaded animal portraits are the result.
Meanwhile, 8th graders were putting the finishing touches on their self-portraits done in the style of realist portrait painter, Kehinde Wiley. Wiley paints his figures on large scale canvases with intricate backgrounds. He depicts everyday people of color in the grandiosity of classical Baroque portraiture, forcing the viewer to consider issues of class, race, power, and societal expectations. The student artists used a block printing technique to create their patterned backgrounds, then drew colored pencil portraits based on photos they took of each other in “power poses”. Like Wiley, these students are using their art as a megaphone for their young voices that may not always be heard.
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