J.J. is learning art from graphic designer Bob Barnes this year at HeartLife.  They started with a review of drawing and shading techniques and have now moved into using different media, including paint and construction paper.  Here's one of his first assignments of the year: a self-portrait.

 Here's a quick sketch they did in class (of J.J.'s tennis shoe):

His assignments are now getting incredibly specific, much like they would be for a real-world graphic artist.  I don't remember what the directions were for this one, other than they had to use an exact-o knife to create negative space using black-on-white.

 
For this next one, the directions were to make something that is recognizable as a bird using only triangles, circles, and half-circles.  They were only allowed to use the 7 basic colors.  It was very interesting seeing what type of birds each of them chose (they did several sketches before landing on one design to paint).  Most all of them were birds in flight, but from different perspectives (directly above, from the side) and with very different wing positions.

Can you tell what type of bird this is?

I think for this week, J.J. is working on an elephant - similar to the bird assignment, but with more shape and color options.  We'll let you know how it turns out.  :-)