Course Syllabus
ART 2 Honors
Prd 1, Room 250 (Butler Building)
Semester 2: Winter-Spring 2024
Instructor Information
Melissa Rioux is the teacher for this course as well as Visual and Performing Arts Dept chair for George Stevens Academy. She joined the GSA community in Sept 2020. She spent ten years teaching and writing curriculum for Publicolor, a not for profit in NYC, and teaching jewelry making at the 92nd St Y before moving home to raise her family in 2015.
School Phone: 374-2808 ext email: m.rioux@georgestevens.org
Office Hours: By Appointment during Prd 3
Textbooks and Other Materials
Students are given sketchbooks that they are expected to work on throughout the course. These should be brought to class each day, and only be left in the classroom for grading. Students are expected to check their Canvas accounts daily for posted material. Students are allowed to sign out materials with the instructors permission and signature.
Additional books TBA
Course Description
In Art 2 students will continue with a deeper investigation of Art and Making through mediums and their methods. An understanding of the 1) Elements of Design and the 2) Principles of Art gained in Art 1 are built upon through different projects that teach both technical and creative skills. The loose outline below can be seen as a preview to the course, and potential investigations. This class is taught using a differentiated approach, the modules may be moved around to meet student need, interest or the possibility of trips and studio and museum tours.
Art History, art appreciation, design, documenting art, displaying/installing art, etc are incorporated into our investigations and not as stand alone projects.
Introduction week
- Become familiar with room: studio etiquette
- Expectations and class descriptions
Drawing
- Relationships and anatomy: hand drawings
- Gridding
- Charcoal self portrait
- Abstract vs Naturalistic intention
- Drawing from life vs. imagination – teaching confidence in creativity
and technical skills
-Figure drawing
Oil Painting
- self portrait using the zorn palette
- Tint, Tone and Shade exercises
- Painting from 2d reference and from life
Egg Tempera Painting
- Mastercopy/Master study
- Significance of historical technique
- Techniques in Oil, tempera grassa
Printmaking
- Relief Printing with lino/wood
Gouache
- Plein air landscape study
- reduced palette studies
- fruit study in preparation for Egg Tempera
Sculpture
- Clay: figurative and ceramic explorations
- Wire and paper crafting
- Book arts
Mixed media
- Collage
- Book arts/paper crafting
Culminating Assessment can look like either:
- End of the semester semi-independent project
- Teacher prompted, but student driven semi-independent project in which
students work on a piece based on skills they’ve acquired (usually has a theme
and certain criteria, but open to interpretation)
- Project that can bridge with the community
Learning Objectives
- Demonstrate skills in painting that show form and space as well as the ability to work with both limited and expanded color palettes.
- Describe the process and techniques of making art, elevated by the articulations and understanding of the elements of art and principles of design.
- Evaluate the use of positive and negative space in relief printmaking.
- Recognize the vocabulary of the visual arts in reference to drawing, painting, printmaking, and multimedia.
- Analyze the creative process and its role in thinking and connecting art with other curriculums.
Assessment and Grading
Assessment will reflect the effort in learning skills and techniques in concert with a students's artistic outcomes and the cultivation of their creativity. There will be the copying and study of Master works as well as the time for original works. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students will be graded on their sustained use of a sketchbook for both classwork and homework. Assignments will be posted and submitted through Canvas. Class Field Trips TBA.
Timely submission of work is encouraged, there is no guarantee that late work will be accepted.
Attendance and Participation
Students are expected to arrive on time, with their projects/sketchbooks, prepared to work. All students are expected to participate in classroom discussion and class critique to the best of their abilities. If a student is expecting to miss multiple days of school it is their responsibility to keep up and to communicate about their absence with the teacher.
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|