Reflection #3

I really liked the pieces of artwork that were brought into the class to be able to see examples of  the principles of art. My favorite piece was "Ladder for Booker T. Washington." This piece was a great example of rhythm and emphasis to me. The rhythm of the picture was constant but distracting at the same time because of the crookedness of the ladder. It was constant because it continually led upward toward the sky. The emphasis was definitely the ladder because the backdrop to the ladder was a dark, drab, monotonous color. Through the other pieces I learned about proportion and keeping a balance in art. I never realized how many aspects there were to think about when creating art. Unity and variety is also a factor that is pleasing to the eye. 


The children's book illustrator activities was a great idea. Not only did I learn about different styles and why people illustrate the way they do but I learned about myself as an artist and my little niche. I really enjoyed being crazy and using watercolors to blend and splatter. I think this would help children get to know themselves as an artist and find out what they really enjoy and are good at doing, I'm not a very good freehand artist but I thought I did well at a couple other ways of expressing my art. Sometimes art for students can be intimidating for them. Each child has their own abilities and come from different backgrounds that influences their art. When you can introduce them to many different styles they can see that they can find where they fit in and immediately be connected to an illustrator and using that to validate and be proud of their own artwork making them more comfortable with themselves as an artist. 


To effectively prepare to teach about artists and illustrators I will do my research on more of them. I need to become more familiar with different types of art before I can teach it effectively. I would like to have a variety of books from different illustrators in the classroom so the children can discover who they are drawn to or whose art techniques they like most. It would be great to do a similar activity in class that we did in our groups. This will be important because they will be able to discover their creativity and where they feel the most comfortable expressing it. It is also a fun way to for them to learn the principles and elements of art.