Mission Accomplished: Botanical Sumi Ink Silhouettes

Today was the second and final day of Unit 10 critique for Art I students. Very rarely do we have the opportunity and space for a two day critique process, but in light of Spring Break next week and such amazing evidence of student engagement in this project (see below for some incredible artwork!), I thought it was only fitting to celebrate our successes with pre-vacation treats and artist talks!

A little background on our project process...

About two weeks ago, we braved the blustery and rather damp Houston weather to visit our school garden. We talked about how to see negative and positive space in more complicated objects, such as garden plants. Next we snapped pics of our favorite plants and learned how to draw the "positive space" (think of a silhouette) of their photos. Students then created a "grid" over their large positive-negative space drawings, and painted black and white negative space and positive space with sumi ink. In the end, we have amazing checkerboard, optical illusion masterpieces and it has to be one of our overall strongest groups of work. Check out some of our favorites below!

What do you think? Leave a shout out for our awesome students below!