Class: Famous Forgeries (ages 7-11)
How can you tell what’s fake and what’s real? In this class, students explored famous forgers from Michelangelo (who copied the Romans) to Robert Driessen and John Myatt. They made their own look-a-like works and learned how to recognize artists’ (and forgers’) tell-tale techniques.
Week 1
Students as Forgers (Mon-Fri)
Week 2
Detecting a Forgery with UV Fluorescence (Mon-Fri)
Week 3
Self-portraits in the Style of Vincent Van Gogh (Mon-Fri)
Students as Forgers (Mon-Fri)
- Objective: Students will learn about forgery and choose a famous artwork to reproduce.
- Concepts: Forgery, color mixing, background & foreground, line, shape, grid lines, painting
Week 2
Detecting a Forgery with UV Fluorescence (Mon-Fri)
- Objective: Students will create two, non-objective, abstract, complimentary color paintings. One represents a forged painting, the other represents a “real” painting due to added Invisible UV Reactive Blacklight Paint. On Friday, students will analyze each other’s work to determine the real versus the forged painting.
- Concepts: Forgery, abstract art, geometric/organic, complimentary colors, contour lines, painting
Week 3
Self-portraits in the Style of Vincent Van Gogh (Mon-Fri)
- Objective: Students will paint a self-portrait in the style of Vincent Van Gogh using John Myatt’s forgery techniques.
- Concepts: Forgery, portraiture, Art history, post-impressionism, contour lines, painting
Class: Portraiture (ages 8-11)
Students took their drawing skills to the next level as they learned the fundamentals of portraiture. Students explored anatomy, proportion, and perspective as they created both realistic and presentational portraits. They enjoyed trying their hand at self-portraits and learning to make amazing drawings of their friends and family.
Week 1
Body Tracing Self-portraits (Mon-Fri)
Week 2
Artist Inspired Selfies (Mon-Thurs)
Week 3
Family Portraits (Mon-Wed)
Body Tracing Self-portraits (Mon-Fri)
- Objective: Students will explore proportion and anatomy as they create life size self-portraits in addition to using collage techniques to represent their personalities.
- Concepts: Portraiture, anatomy, proportion, drawing, line, shape, form, collage, self-expression
Week 2
Artist Inspired Selfies (Mon-Thurs)
- Objective: Students will learn about self-portraits throughout art history and then create their own in the style of one of six artists.
- Concepts: Portraiture, photography, representational art, Art history, painting, mixed-media, contour lines
- Objective: Students will experiment with different types of portraiture through various exercises.
- Concepts: Portraiture, drawing, line, shape, form, blind contour, continuous line, gesture, anatomy
Week 3
Family Portraits (Mon-Wed)
- Objective: With their material of choice, students will create a drawing of their family using a photo reference.
- Concepts: Portraiture, photography, perspective, mixed-media, line, pattern
- Objective: Students focus on what’s on the inside as they represent their identities visually through making a mask.
- Concepts: Color theory, identity, culture, performance art, self-expression, painting, collage
Class: Funky Fabric (ages 5-8)
Cut it, shape it, paint it, pin it—sometimes even wear it! There are a million ways to have fun manipulating fabric. Students explored printing, dip-dying, and painting as they created art from unlikely materials.
Week 1
Creature T-Shirts Inspired by Merritt Johnson (Mon-Wed)
Week 2
Identity Flags (Mon-Wed)
Week 3
Yarn Painting (Mon-Wed)
Creature T-Shirts Inspired by Merritt Johnson (Mon-Wed)
- Objective: Students will imagine their own made-up creature and design a t-shirt to represent it!
- Concepts: Contemporary art, performance art, character development, storytelling, painting, drawing
- Objective: Using printmaking techniques, students will create their own block prints to design a 14”x14” tie pillow.
- Concepts: Printmaking, relief cut, design, line, functional art
Week 2
Identity Flags (Mon-Wed)
- Objective: Students will create personal flags to express their unique identity in symbols.
- Concepts: Identity, culture, symbolism, color, self-expression, drawing
- Objective: Students will create crazy, comical characters by manipulating socks and other materials.
- Concepts: Character development, story telling, multi media art, performance art, recyclable art
Week 3
Yarn Painting (Mon-Wed)
- Objective: The Huichol Indians of Mexico are known for their yarn paintings. Students will learn about the art of Mexico and create their own yarn paintings depicting symbols of personal significance.
- Concepts: Culture, symbolism, identity, painting, texture
- Objective: Students will work with unusual materials as they dye fabric with sharpie and isopropyl alcohol to create expressions of vibrant color.
- Concepts: Color mixing, drawing, dying, abstract art
Class: Art Unknown (ages 5-8)
This mixed-media class explored the mosaics of the Middle East, the ceramics and textiles of Asia, the murals of South America, and architecture from all over the world. They learned new ways of creating and seeing.
Week 1: The Middle East
Collaborative Cardstock Mosaic (Mon-Wed)
Week 2: Asia
Hanko and Chop Stamps (Mon-Wed)
Week 3: India and South America
Mehndi Hands (Mon-Tues)
Collaborative Cardstock Mosaic (Mon-Wed)
- Objective: The Middle East is known for its beautiful and intricate ceramic work and mosaics. Ceramic tiles are used to decorate the walls and floors of important building such as mosques and mausoleums. Students will learn about mosaic designs in Mesopotamia, which feature scenes from everyday life, such as people, plants and animals. Then, students will work in pairs to create their own mosaic.
- Concepts: Mosaic, culture, design, line, collaboration
- Objective: Students will design a mosaic clay tile inspired by the geometric, floral, and calligraphic designs found in middle eastern tile work.
- Concepts: Mosaic, culture, geometric/organic, design, texture, clay
Week 2: Asia
Hanko and Chop Stamps (Mon-Wed)
- Objective: In traditional Asian culture, individuals used a small, unique stamp to sign documents and artwork. Students will design a personal “chop”, not just the seal portion, but a self-identifying, sculptural handle as well.
- Concepts: Culture, 3D art, functional art vs. decorative art, identity, self-expression, painting, drawing, shape, form, printmaking, relief cut
- Objective: Mandalas are a rich part of the art and cultures of Himalayan Asia. Students will learn about the geometric forms frequently depicted in Buddhist art. Students will explore their geometric and symbolic elements through the creation of a meditative mandala.
- Concepts: Culture, relief cut, drawing, line, design, geometric/organic, symbolism, identity, community.
Week 3: India and South America
Mehndi Hands (Mon-Tues)
- Objective: Originating in ancient India, Mehndi is the artistic application of henna to the hands and feet. This tradition is usually part of a wedding ceremony, special occasion, or festival as a means of personal adornment. Students will practice the art of Mehndi without staining their skin by tracing their hands on paper then creating radial point designs in marker.
- Concepts: Culture, wearable art, drawing, line, design
- Objective: Students will learn about the murals of South America and the famous Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera. They work together to recreate one of his murals.
- Concepts: Art history, culture, mural, drawing, collaboration
Class: Mixed-Up Modernism (ages 5-10)
Students played with colors, symbolism, dreams, and new materials as they explored Modernism. Students discovered how modern artists like Cezanne and Van Gogh, Munch, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Kahlo worked in new ways and captured the spirit of their age. Then, students used all sorts of messy media to express their own spirit!
Week 1
Fauvist Mood Landscapes (Tues)
Week 2
Frida Kahlo Spirit Animal Portraits (Mon-Fri)
Week 3
The Exquisite Corpse (Mon)
Fauvist Mood Landscapes (Tues)
- Objective: Students will utilize oil pastel techniques to draw like the Fauves and create their own spontaneous mood landscape drawings.
- Concepts: Art history, Fauvism, neo-traditional, landscape, drawing, color, value, blending, line, hatching, cross-hatching
- Objective: Students will learn about Vincent Van Gogh and create their own Starry Night paintings using his techniques.
- Concepts: Art history, post-impressionism, lines, shape, landscape, painting
- Objective: Students will learn about Paul Cezanne and create their own Apple Still Life watercolor paintings.
- Concepts: Art history, still life, contour lines, drawing, watercolor, color mixing, blending, dry brush vs. wet brush
Week 2
Frida Kahlo Spirit Animal Portraits (Mon-Fri)
- Objective: Students will explore the works of Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits and the rain forest animals in her paintings. Then, they will create self-portraits with their spirit animal.
- Art history, culture, portraiture, drawing
Week 3
The Exquisite Corpse (Mon)
- Objective: After learning about Surrealism of the 1930's and viewing famous works, students will collaborate to create a strange, comical, crazy creature, known as The Exquisite Corpse. It means ‘beautiful dead body’, but in artistic terms, it's a popular game invented by the Surrealists in 1925. Surrealists often played games to trigger their imagination, and used collaboration to create surprising and unusual pictures that didn’t make sense.
- Concepts: Art history, art games, collaboration, line drawing, form, gesture, scale, anatomy, exquisite corpse
- Objective: Using magazines, students will look for strange and interesting images to juxtapoz and put together to create a scene inspired by Surrealism.
- Concepts: Art history, Surrealism, collage, juxtaposition, scale, background and foreground
- Objective: Students learned about the unique style of Alberto Giacometti and made their own action sculptures in his style.
- Concepts: Art history, action, sculpture, figurative artwork, movement
Class: Wild, Wild West (ages 8-11)
This mixed media class explored the art of the Southwest. Students painted incredible red-rock landscapes, and learned about Hopi art, Mimbres pottery, and artists who have captured the rugged beauty of the painted desert. Students explored drawing, painting, and pottery.
Week 1
Kachina Doll Drawings (Mon-Wed)
Week 2
Huichol Indian Yarn Painting (Mon-Thurs)
Week 3
Red Rock Landscapes (Mon-Wed)
Kachina Doll Drawings (Mon-Wed)
- Objective: Students will explore the cultural significance of the Kachina Doll, and the role it plays in the lives of the Hopi Native American Indian Culture. Students will then create a Kachina doll drawing with a unique meaning to apply to their own life.
- Concepts: Culture, artifacts, line drawing, geometric/organic, pattern, color
- Objective: Students will explore the symbolic meanings in Hopi art, then create their own symbol using printmaking techniques.
- Concepts: Culture, symbolism, printmaking, relief cut, color, pattern, repetition
Week 2
Huichol Indian Yarn Painting (Mon-Thurs)
- Objective: The Huichol Indians of Mexico are known for their yarn paintings. The Huichols take beeswax which they melt in the sun, and spread it over a piece of wood. They then push colored yarn into the wax to create images. Students will learn about the art of Mexico and create their own yarn paintings depicting symbols of personal significance.
- Concepts: Culture, symbolism, identity, painting, fabric art, texture
- Objective: Students will explore the diverse shapes of cacti in the Southwest deserts and then create their own crazy cactus using clay.
- Concepts: Landscape, shape, form, texture, clay, 3D art
Week 3
Red Rock Landscapes (Mon-Wed)
- Objective: Students will explore the deserts of the Southwest and create their own red rock landscape painting.
- Concepts: Culture, photography, landscape, color mixing, painting
- Objective: Students will learn about the intricate designs seen in Mimbres pottery and create and decorate coil bowls using patterns and symbols.
- Concepts: Culture, functional art vs. decorative art, symbolism, design, clay, pottery, coil and slab, painting, 3D art
Class: Puppets (ages 8-11)
Students explored the topsy-turvy world of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Lookingglass as they designed and created both shadow puppets and 3-D characters. Students created hand and tabletop puppets, and explored how to make puppets move and express emotion. We collaborated with the Acting Ensemble: Through the Lookingglass class for a magical final performance.
Week 1
Alice Through the Looking Glass 2016 (Mon-Wed)
Papier Mâché Finger Puppets (Thurs-Mon)
Week 2
Shadow Puppets (Tues-Fri)
Week 3
Hand Puppets (Mon-Fri)
Alice Through the Looking Glass 2016 (Mon-Wed)
Papier Mâché Finger Puppets (Thurs-Mon)
- Objective: Students will choose their favorite character from Alice Through the Looking-Glass and create a puppet head with papier mâché, a process using paper and paste.
- Concepts: 3D art, character development, story telling, papier mache, sculpture, painting, shape, form, fabric
Week 2
Shadow Puppets (Tues-Fri)
- Objective: Students will split up in groups, then chose a scene from Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass and create shadow puppets for the characters. Along with the puppets, the groups will write their own scripts and perform them for the class on Friday.
- Concepts: 3D art, performance art, collaboration, story telling, drawing, shape, form, line, shadow
Week 3
Hand Puppets (Mon-Fri)
- Objective: Students will create and perform a character from Alice Through the Looking Glass using self-made hand puppets.
- Concepts: 3D art, performance art, mixed media, painting, drawing, fabric, storytelling, improv, sound effects
Class: All Together Now (ages 5-9)
Students were a LARGE part of Camp Adler as they helped create mosaic art, murals, puzzles, and installations to be displayed at the Celebration of the Arts. Students learned about the process of designing and constructing a large artwork, and had fun collaborating with others to make pieces of art that are larger than the sum of their parts.
Week 1
Group Flags (Mon-Wed)
Week 2
Crazy Zoo Installation (Mon-Fri)
Week 3
Collaborative Mural (Mon-Fri)
Group Flags (Mon-Wed)
- Objective: In groups, students will come up with a Team Name and design a flag design that represents their group identity.
- Concepts: Collaboration, identity, symbolism, color, drawing, text, line, shape, design
- Objective: Students will design a single puzzle piece depicting their favorite person, place, or thing (or combination of all three) in their community. The pieces will fit together to create a larger puzzle, which is symbolic of the David Adler-Libertyville-Lake County community and our own special place within it.
- Concepts: Collaboration, community art, memories, drawing, color, blending, hatching, cross hatching, conceptual art
Week 2
Crazy Zoo Installation (Mon-Fri)
- Objective: Students will work in pairs to create animal sculptures for a wildlife habitat. At the end, students will put their habitats together to form a crazy zoo!
- Concepts: Science, zoology, 3D art, installation, sculpture, shape, form, proportion, collaboration.
Week 3
Collaborative Mural (Mon-Fri)
- Objective: Students will create a large, collaborative, multimedia installation to promote positivity and acceptance at Camp Adler. The mural will incorporate colors and shaped to express the personalities of the students.
- Concepts: Identity, community, collaboration.