Engaging End of Year Art Projects for Middle School

Later on a decade of pedagogy loftier school art, I've recently moved to teaching middle school art. It'due south a boom and there is truly NEVER a deadening moment. Through some trial and error, I've learned that some projects are more engaging than others. Below are some of my favorite middle school art projects that have yielded engagement and neat visual finish products! The ideas below use a variety of art media and include a range of 2d and 3d art projects. I hope y'all relish! Feel gratuitous to comment below if y'all'd like to share some of your personal idea for successful middle school art projects.

#1- 3D Shadowbox Collages

Student goal: Use found collage images to create layers of depth inside a 3D foam cadre shadowbox. Click here for the full lesson of this 3d shadowbox collage project.

#2- Colored Low-cal Self Portraits

Student goal: Use colored pencils on toned paper to draw a cocky portrait of yourself photographed with a colored light source (we used 3 light sources- reddish, blue and green bulbs).

#three- Vortex Drawings

Student goal: Use a media of your pick to draw a vortex that shows depth, rhythm and movement. Click hither for a full lesson on how to draw a diverseness of vortexes.

#4- Alien Betoken of View Perspective Drawings

Student goal: Use paint stix, oil pastels, or colored pencils to render an exaggerated "alien'due south signal of view" space drawing. Click hither for gratis lesson a guided worksheet of this fun, conflicting perspective drawing.

#v- 1/2 Cartoon Face Digital Portraits

Student goal: With a photographed portrait, creatively divide the face in one-half and use digital drawing methods to stylize one side as a cartoon. Click here for free guided steps on how to do the 1/2 cartoon face portrait.

*This projection was inspired by a viral challenge called #cartoonme. Lots of cool inspiration photos online!

#six- Plaster Masks

Student goal: Using plaster strips upon a cardboard armature, create a wearable 3d mask. **In my course, we connected this to Hispanic heritage month and created Sugar Skull and Alebrije masks. We used this free template to create the armature for the mask.

#7- Elements of Art Project

Student goal: Split up one discipline into seven sections. In each department, illustrate each of the elements of fine art using a variety of materials. For more information on this lesson including step by pace directions, click here.

#8- Monochromatic Posterized Portrait Paintings

Educatee goal: Using a portrait of your choice, create a monochromatic, posterized portrait. **We used this method (with the free webpased program Pixlr) to digitally posterize our photo references prior to cartoon and painting them on canvas.

#ix Limited Color Scheme Landscapes

Student goal: Using a random color scheme of only 5 colors, create a composition of a landscape that shows a sense of space with foreground, mid ground and groundwork. **Click here to cheque out how I randomly assign students their 5 colors and their landscape setting. There is also a costless guided video to bear witness students how to begin this project.

#x Surreal Collage Perspective Rooms

Pupil goal: Draw a room with authentic one indicate perspective techniques and add color to all sides of the room. Then, creatively comprise surreal collage images into the room. Click here to check out my FREE guided footstep by footstep instructions on how to draw a i point perspective room interior.

#11- Agamographs

More info to come!

#12-Monster Dolls (inspired by kid drawings)

Student goal: Using a drawing of a monster from a young child for inspiration, create a manus sewn stuffed animal. Utilise a multifariousness of materials including felt, cloth, yarn, buttons, and more!

#13- Wire Stocking Sculptures

Student goal: Using a block of wood every bit your base and a nylon stocking stretched over a manipulated wire hanger, create an interesting 3d class. Utilize acrylic paint to create a gradient of at least 3 colors.

This is a really popular project, if you are looking for stride past step directions a quick google search of 'wire stocking sculptures' should get ya at that place!

#14- Dictionary Page Drawings

Educatee goal: Given a random lexicon folio, find at last one word on the page to illustrate visually. Utilize a variety of art media to contrast your fatigued image with the busy background. **For more info on this lesson, bank check out this link hither.

#15- Geometric Creatures

Educatee goal: On a watercolor wash background, depict a silhouette of a animal. Interruption your beast into polygonal shapes and add color with marker.

#16- Collaborative School Logo "Quilt" Drawings

Student goal: Create a quilted tile section of the school logo. Use a material of your option and a style of your choice to prove your private personality. **Note, the entire logo is visually connected by the black lines.

#17- Faux Lined Paper Illusion Drawings

Educatee goal: On a white piece of paper, create a "faux" lined piece of newspaper with bending blueish lines over a shaded pencil drawing. **My students used this awesome website by Julianna Kunstler to aid in our drawings. It was very helpful.

#19 Linoleum block printing

Student goal: Create loftier dissimilarity prints using a hand carved linoleum cake.

#20-Oil Pastel Dragon Eyes

Student goal: Use oil pastels to create a colorful drawing of dragon heart. Imply the texture of the scales through use of blending gradients. **Notation- I am definitely not the teacher who created this idea, it's pretty popular and oh-so-fun! I would dear to credit whoever originally got this going, so let me know! My students used this resources by Art by Ro to help the states depict the dragon eyes.

#21- Line Drawing Landscapes-in-a-shape

Student goal: Create a landscape in a shape that shows a sense of depth. Explore a variety of line drawing techniques such equally hatching and stippling to add texture and value. **Notation, this lesson comes from this post from Cassie Stephens who was inspired by an artist named Jen Aranyi.

#22- ANYTHING op fine art!

Student goal: Choose from a option board (I gave them lots of choices!), create an original op art cartoon! **If you are interested in a fun op fine art drawing from Make a Mark Studios, check it out here! 🙂

#23 Art History Reproductions

Student goal: Analyzing the brushstrokes, colors, and composition, recreate a famous artwork. **We created ours on our ceiling tiles equally our 8th grade legacy works. Click here for tips we learned along the way for painting on ceiling tiles.

#24 Non Objective Abstract Fine art

Student goal: Utilise sharpie to describe a not objective abstract artwork with a diversity of lines and shapes. Using oil pastels, color in the composition fully.

#25 3D Animal Heads

Student goal: Use recyclables to build an armature of a 3d fictional animate being caput of your ain imagination. Use newspaper mache or plaster strips to finalize your head. For full lesson on how to do this, bank check out my blog post here—

#26 Glowing Light Seedling Drawing

Student goal: Utilise colored pencils on blackness newspaper to create the illusion of a glowing light bulb. For stride by step guided tutorial and video, cheque out my full post here.

#27 Watercolor Mosaic

Pupil goal: Create a mosaic using cut tiles from a painted watercolor groundwork. Explore either random polygonal tile shapes or a geometric repeated shape. For full lesson, check out my web log postal service hither.

#28 ii bespeak perspective graffiti wall

Pupil goal: Create a personalized graffiti tag on an illustrated 2 point perspective brick wall. For a FREE total guided drawing lesson of how to do this, check out my blog post here.

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-Stephanie Villiotis , creator of Brand a Marker Studios

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