Magazine Cutout Project.

During my first year teaching, I taught four sections of Multimedia 1, and one Art 1 class. As a result, the planning I did for that class was more of a "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of deal because I would rather spend a ton of time having four classes planned really well than just one class. I would be at lunch and say things along the line of, "hey maybe today I should do portraiture...ok yeah...I will do that." Ten minutes later I was teaching portraiture...and well...the ten minute planning didn't always go over so well. That might be an understatement.

Anyway, I found myself in my little time looking at various websites and talking to other teachers about what they do in Art 1. I would gather ideas, but never knew what to really do with them. I didn't want to just bite off people, but that first year I just had to. Since everyone teaches differently, even when I tried to do a lesson exactly the same way as other teachers around me, my results were always different. My curriculum was a mess, I was a mess, and I was glad when that first year of teaching was over.

However, throughout these past few years, I have kept two lessons from year 1 that were actually successful. One being a creature made of forms that some people in my department showed me how to do and did my own thing with, and another being a magazine cutout/drawing project that I acquired from a teacher at a school in NY. This magazine cutout project has always been a really big hit with the kids and people who see the finished products. I'm not sure how the other teacher I got the idea from did it, but I saw a finished product and made my own directions to get to that point.

So these are the steps I use:

1) Look through magazines and various ads that stand out. You could teach a whole lesson on ads in general and graphic design and such if you want to get super into it. To be honest this is more of a "what do I do now" kind of assignment - as in, when the students finish a project early, they can work on this for fun/something that looks awesome.

2) Take the magazine and cut it into 1 - 1 1/2 inch diagonal strips. You could also change the way you cut the strips if you want to get creative.

3) Glue down every other strip on a white drawing/sulfite paper, leaving every other space white for the students to color in. Make sure the students keep the strips that aren't glued down, as they need it for reference. Also, make sure they keep them in order so they don't get confused.

4) Students should use Prismacolors to color in the white areas and complete the magazine ad. Prismacolors just work better to give the glossy look and blending colors in general. Obviously if you're working with younger kids or don't have the budget at your school for Prismacolors, Crayola should suffice.

Finished product: