Ben Franklin High School's Art Room

Friday, June 12, 2015

Final Portrait Projects

Here is a collection of portraits by my 9th - 12th graders. Above are some examples of our final projects that focused on measurements, value, and texture. The students studied American artist, Chuck Close, and his grid method of drawing.

Assetou, 12th Grade Amarilis, 10th Grade

Mohammed, 12th Grade Ryan, 12th Grade

Oswaldo, 11th Grade

Emily, 9th Grade

Phuong, 12th Grade Wesley, 9th Grade

Story Paintings

9th - 12th Graders had to tell a story using tempera paint. These story paintings could be about the past, the present, or the students' dreams for the future.

Shikui, 12th Grade

Shafiq, 11th Grade

Tyshani, 12th Grade

Amarilis, 10th Grade

Serge, 11th Grade

One Day Lesson "Magic Books"

To help students prepare for Keystones and final tests, I taught my classes how to make "magic books", which are essentially tiny booklets with a cover, 3 spreads, and a back cover. These books come in handy for studying, and serves as an alternative to flash cards. For this one day lesson, my students had the choice in whether they wanted to make a book for studying AND/OR a creative booklet for fun. Below, you will see just a few pages from various magic books. As a whole, I found many books on fashion, sports, comics. One student even made a magic book containing her French vocabulary terms!

Dylan, 12th Grade

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Isaiah Zagar Inspired Mosaics

In class this week, we have been studying Isaiah Zagar, who is most famous for his "Magical Gardens" in South Philadelphia. The students looked at images of his eye-catching and familiar artwork in our city, and they learned about the process of creating a mosaic.

After studying Zagar and this form of art, my students constructed their own mosaics out of construction paper. The theme for these mosaics were the four seasons in honor of Earth Day on April 22. As they manipulated the paper "tiles" around the composition, their mosaics came together beautifully! See below for some student work!

Jimin, 11th grade

Minh, Grade 10 Shamera, Grade 9

Amarilis, Grade 10

Daniel, Grade 12

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

"Young Artists" District Wide Art Show 2015

Welcome to Ben Franklin's new art blog! I am a new teacher in the School District of Philadelphia, and over the past 3 months I have been working with my amazing 9-12th graders. Each and every day, I am lucky to be teaching the artistic, hilarious, and enjoyable personalities of this school. In May 2015, the district is presenting an art show called "Young Artists" that some of my students were selected to be in. Below are some pictures of various projects they have created over the past school year!