UNDER CONSTRUCTION!
CAMP #1
Cereal-Box Books
Students will use actual cereal-box cardboards to create unique books. K-3rd students will make a simple scroll-in-a-box 'moving picture book,' and a thumbie [thumbprint-character] or other simple to draw "Bob Book"-style character "flip-picture" book. 4th-6th graders will make a Nature-Notebook, and a fold-up treasure map keeper or accordion vacation diary. Of course half the fun will be in painting & stamping the covers.
Intro to Drawing & Hand-Lettering 7th & up [both topics covered in a single, two-hour class]
DRAWING
Students will get a taste of the most basic elements of pencil drawing: line; positive & negative space; simple perspective effects; creating the value scale [for shading/modeling of forms]. Drawing exercises are chosen from a variety of sources, including but not limited to: McIntyre's, "Drawing Textbook," Edward's "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," and DeReyna's, "How to Draw What You See."
HAND-LETTERING
The focus is on 'drawing' letters, then words. The goal? uniformity in height, proportion, darkness, and spacing - of individual letters and of words. Students will use a slightly relaxed variation of the traditional, upper-case, Gothic hand-lettering, from drafting classes, long ago. Students work in pencil only, and also learn the use of the Ames Lettering Guide.
CAMP #2
Seeing Double [or Intro to Printmaking]
Look at a colorful ceramic tile, a roll of fun wrapping paper, or a length of printed fabric. They're all examples of the art of repeating designs - or "seeing double" [and triple, and so on].
Students in this camp will experience printmaking - duplicating a design - at its most basic: with store-bought stamps; homemade stamps; thumbprints-turned-into-critters; simple hand cut stencils, and more.
Intro to Printmaking 7th & up [all topics covered in a single, two-hour class]
These students will also explore "relief [carved block] printing" as well, using common tools, materials, and a unique, expedient method.
CAMP #3
Almost 3-D [Relief Sculpture (i.e. the portraiture on coins; and, say, the landscapes, etc. on the new quarters!)]
Nearly everyone has played with clay, but in this camp, students will learn - or review - basic clay handling and shaping techniques, then choose to build either, a) their bedroom's 'portrait;' b) a playground or park landscape; or c) a day-at-the seashore.
Relief Sculpture & Paper Birdplanes 7th & up [both topics covered in a single, two-hour class]
Older students will make a clay relief bird, and then, test their "attention to detail" skills, as they follow the origami-like steps needed to transform ordinary 8.5"x11" copier paper into a pair of "Paper Birds That Fly." See the book by this name, here.
CAMP #4
Mobiles
The good thing about growing up in New England is that anything about the seashore just shouts, "summer" to me...Younger students will use torn & cut layered-paper to create their, "Enchantment Under the Sea" mobile, while 4th-6th graders will learn to use papier-mâché sculpture techniques to fabricate a major portion of theirs.
Intro to Paper-making 7th & up [all topics covered in a single, two-hour class]
Students and parents, alike, will be amazed at this fast-forward version of papermaking which uses inexpensive, easy-to-make screen & deckle equipment, and common household appliances.
Participants are invited to bring several sheets of throw-away school papers [perhaps the rough draft of that report you despised doing last semester?] to run through the shredder during our "recycled paper" pulp-making demo...