Elements and Principles of Art and Design
It's important to go over the Elements and Principles of Art with your students because this will be a fundamental concept that they should use in all of their art projects throughout the semester. It's good to start off the semester with your new students by introducing the elements and principles of art and how other artists produce work that display these concepts of Art and Design. Teach your students how to create a successful composition and how they can use line, color, pattern, and an assortment of other elements to create a strong image.
One project that can be a good introductory assignment for students that can incorporate the elements of design can be a photography assignment. If I taught a Photography class this would be a good first lesson to have with my students. If I had access to a dark room and film cameras I would certainly want my students to use them for their assignments. Of course, depending on what school you go to and what the facilities and funding look like one may have to just do digital, which is absolutely fine. If I had access to film I would want my students to do both film and digital throughout the semester. So for this assignment, let's say that they did have access to a dark room, film cameras, and black & white film; I would have their first assignment be for them to take what they have learned about the elements of art and incorporate that into a series of photographs. I would want them to choose at least five of the elements of art and create five images that represent and show how those elements work to create their images.
I would want them to experiment with shooting from different point of views, take close up photos that focus on detail, but also take photos from great distances. I would really want them to push the boundaries and think a little more outside of the box. This assignment is a good way to really get them thinking about how the elements of art work to create successful imagery and hopefully they will always go back to these concepts and incorporate them in their future work.
When your first critique with your students it's a good idea to give them expectations of what kind of feedback and commentary you want them to make. Starting off with an assignment about the elements of art will be a good way to start off your first critique for the semester because you will be able to ask them what elements are represented in these images and how do they make the image successful. The first critiques are always the hardest, but starting off with an assignment like these will be a good way to ease them into the typical routine of doing critiques. I believe critiques don't have to be so formal and intimidating, they can be more causal and informal because after all these are high schoolers you don't want to overwhelm them. At the same time it's good to challenge them to think and make their own judgements on the work they are creating.
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