Winning Entries - Hopefully

Every year a local church/business holds an art competition exclusively for our city.  It is completely funded by donations from businesses in the area.  The unique thing about this competition is that the prizes are all in cash.  There are six categories and in EACH category there are 10 winners.
1st place is $5000 cash.

Our kids are always so excited about entering (duh).  The competition is very tough, but it is art, so it is subjective and based on what the judges like and therefore anything could win.  I have not always agreed with their final choices, but the majority of the time I am amazed at the winners.  To see past winners (and by the end of next week this year) go to www.cultureshapers.com and click on "go to visual arts  contest page".

Last year, I had one entry that made it in the top ten and he received 9th place and $250.  We were so excited for him.  This year all of the entries from our school are really impressive.  We find out tomorrow who made it in the top 10 and the placement determines how much money they will receive.  They all got my cell phone number yesterday and can't wait to text me if they made it or not.  Here are just a few of our entries for this year.  I didn't have the files for all of them to post.

This one is amazing!  She hand drew all of the creatures (they are in the shape of a hand) 

and then created watercolor paintings.  

She scanned them all in and added photos of rocks in the background.

This is one from a first year multimedia student.  

She was very nervous about her skill level coming into the year, 

but she knocked this one out of the park!

All of this one was hand drawn directly into PhotoShop using a pen tablet. 

 LOTS of hours went into this one to get all the shadowing and detailing.

Great use of PhotoShop effects and brushes!  

They started this one with a portrait studio session in Narnia

 (we call it that because it is a simple door down the hallway from our rooms, 

but when you open it, it leads into this massive cavernous air handling room).

This artist is in the school's "B-Boy" club.  In my day it was called breakdancing. 

 He got one of his friends to do some moves for him and added some really great effects.

I have to preface this one by saying that it is not in any way, shape, or form a demonic image. 

 The girl in the picture is one of my sweetest students 

and the boy who made the image is super nice and happy.  

He was just having some fun with paint.

The Art Teacher

I have been an art teacher for quite a while.  20 years to be exact.  I had collected quite a bit of art that I had done as examples for my classes in addition to my own stuff.  Some of them were starters and I never finished them, but several I took a liking to and saw them through to completion.  A couple of years ago our school went through a major renovation.  I, in my desire to leave quickly for the summer, did not pack away one of my most important collections - my own portfolio that dated back to my freshman year in high school.  When I returned it was no where to be found.  I have since moved on and tried to remake as much as I could, but there have been many times where I start the phrase "Let me show you an examp-......oh yeah, it doesn't exist any more"  Heavy sigh.....  Hangs head in shame.  So now I take photos of everything because you never know when it could go missing.  Here are some of the projects that I have attempted with my students over the years.

 The white still life is always good to start basic shading techniques with Art I. 

 One of my favorite mediums is watercolor.  

This is a glazing technique that is pretty easy to do for Art II students.

 I also love working with Prismacolors.  Especially on black paper.

 One of my most successful projects is Op Art.  It teaches color, value and space so well.

The students really love it and it is a pretty easy one for all to understand and be successful.

 This is fun to do with patterns on textured surfaces.

 Tempera Resist.  

 Watercolor practice techniques using warm or cool colors.