Ideas for Art Projects in High School
High school art class is a time for exploration and challenge. Art is a subject area that older students are engaged in, and they desire to excel. Creating art projects that push students to think outside the box and hone their art skills can be accomplished by using styles of famous artists along with exciting themes.
Pen and Ink
Appeal to high schoolers' desire to doodle by creating a hidden-image pen and ink drawing. Introduce the use of pen and ink to create stippling, cross-hatching and lines using dip-ink pens. Share images of realistic artworks from the past by masters such as Albrecht Durer. Students can select 10 snippets of images from famous artworks to collage into a pen and ink drawing, keeping a hidden key to the location of the images on a separate paper. Once the detailed drawings are finished, display the students' artwork around the classroom, and see how many students can find the hidden images.
Collagraphs
Encourage high school art students' understanding and manipulation of printmaking by having them create collagraphs. These employ the technique of additive printmaking, where items are added on top of a base and then printed. Students can use recycled pieces of cardboard as their collagraph bases and then add items with glue. High school students can print layers as they desire, using rollers and tempera, and then continue adding to their collagraphs to create a finished print or collage of prints.
Balanced Mobiles
Sculptor Alexander Calder created balanced mobiles of various sizes, showing his skill at mastering the art concepts of balance, shape and design. Share images of Calder's famous mobiles with high school art students, and discuss how he created them. Provide students with wire, wire cutters, pliers, craft cutting knives, hole punches and various colors of heavy card stock. Students can create a large-scale mobile of their own creation that is perfectly balanced and displays large organic shapes. Display the finished mobiles in a special location of the school for others to see.
