Cartooning and Clay!!

Students playing a cartoon building game called "exquisite corps" where each student draws a different part of the character. 

This Autumn my cartooning and clay class designed their own cartoons, story lines, built characters, sets, props and made original claymation movies! We started out by learning basic techniques for drawing cartoon characters, practicing drawing different features, expressions, movements, etc. We then moved on to sculpting with clay and figuring out how to turn 2 dimensional drawings into 3 dimensional forms. Students then started developing story lines and some students partnered up to form creative teams. Students built all their own props, sets, and characters. I helped photograph stills of their projects as they moved the characters. Students picked titles, music and made voice overs and I helped edit and turned their videos into short films. Here are some of the videos (passwords located below videos)!!



Day of Destruction from Diana Ryan on Vimeo.
Password= Artscenter1


The battle of Spinxwood from Diana Ryan on Vimeo.
Password: Artscenter3


One Good Day Gone Bad from Diana Ryan on Vimeo.
Password: Artscenter2


Where the Bird Beats Person from Diana Ryan on Vimeo.
Password: Artscenter4


Picnic from Diana Ryan on Vimeo.
Password: Artscenter5

Dooms Day from Diana Ryan on Vimeo.

Password: Artscenter6

Painting Projects

 I wanted to post some of the fantastic self portraits that my painting class created this Autumn. Students looked in the mirror and drew sketches. Students then used watercolor paints to add color and re-traced their original sketch lines with black marker to bring out the details.

Happy Autumn!

Basic color wheels created by beginning painting class

 What a beautiful time of year! My beginning painting students enjoyed the sunny weather and did some sketching outside with chalk and oil pastels, then we came inside and mixed earth tone palettes and painted from our sketches. We talked about how to create shortcuts with brushstrokes- so instead of  trying to capture all of the details of the trees we tried to capture the feeling or impression of the trees. We looked at some impressionism paintings and discussed the different artist's styles and how they used their brushstrokes. 

Chalk pastel sketches on black paper

Tile Quilting at College Hill

Close up of some of the tiles 

This month the students at College Hill High School kicked off the school year with a collaborative tile project! During orientation each student in the school got to decorate a 4"x4" tile, keeping the overall themes of "respect" and "empathy" in mind. There were about 90 tiles in total made. Students had the creative freedom to express what those themes meant to them by using stamps, hand carving and hand painting designs. Some of the tiles represented the themes more literally by using words like "respect" and quotes like "Be the change you wish to see in the world". Other tiles were more playful with sayings like "I (heart) cats" and "moop". There were also purely visual tiles made using abstract designs and images of people holding hands, footprints, and nature.

Watercolor flower paintings

Here are some photos of lovely paintings done by the 4th and 5th graders at Lincoln Elementary school during my residency in spring 2013! We talked about shape, contour, and value and students learned how to blend their colors and add shading. 

Summer Madness

 The whirlwind of summer camps at the Arts Center hit and some wonderful things were created, (most of which I did not photograph, unfortunately). We started off the summer with circus camp where students learned stilting and poi, made props and I taught a yoga class that kept students focused and taught concentration, mindfulness and balance. The yoga turned out to be invaluable for the students (and the counselors, and me) and I received lots of positive feedback! I also was able to sit in the audience (having not had students prepare anything in particular for the circus performance) and that was a real treat to see the whole production from the audience (as usually I am behind the scenes coordinating).

Life Drawing Class

In this 4 week class, students learned fundamental drawing techniques to help them create more realistic drawings. Students practiced form, value, shading, portraits, and perspective! Here are some of the results!

Shading exercise with modeling clay

Spring Overview!!

Once again the wonderful craziness of spring has hit and the creativity is spiraling out of control! There are so many wonderful things going on right now in my classes I am going to lump them together a bit and do an overview of some of the amazing projects this spring!!

Picasso Play pre-school class doing self portraits! Students used oil pastels to sketch themselves and added watercolors to color their backgrounds.  

 Tie dying in Open Studio! Open Studio students created amazing tie dyed clothing, some of which was used for the Flower Power fundraising event for arts education and outreach!

Fantasy Fiction of Spain

 Here are some fantastic artworks from my classes at The Arts Center's Fantasy Fiction of Spain Bi-Lingual camp. My classes read a spanish folktale called the Bird of Truth ("El Pajaro de la Verdad") and designed illustrations to go with the story using at least 3 different mediums (paint, pastels, markers, glitter, feathers, ink, pencils, etc.).

Easy Batik Project!!

During the week of spring break 2013 at the Arts Center, students created many african safari themed art projects! My classes created a group project that visualized the grasslands food chain (photo above). Students also learned how to batik using elmers glue and watered down acrylic paints!! See photos below for more detailed instructions for this project and try it at home!

Master Painters Class Spring 2013

 In this painting class students learn about different painters from history and create their own paintings
using techniques inspired by the artists. The following paintings were inspired by Henri Matisse. Students used bright colors and heavy brush strokes and even added bits of colored paper to enhance paintings!

MUD: Pottery Wheel Throwing Class for Kids!

 MUD Workshop! In this 8 week class students learned the fundamentals of wheel throwing and made their own mugs, bowls, lidded vessels, even teapots! Session 2 of Mud starts Tuesday, March 5th from 4-5:30pm at the Corvallis Arts Center, there is still room! Register here! 

Here are some photos from the winter session of MUD class!

 The basics: How to make a pot on the pottery wheel with photo demonstrations by young potter Zeke! 

 Step 1: lightly dampen the surface of the bat (board attached to wheel by metal pins). You don't want a puddle of water, just some moisture to get the clay to stick!

Lincoln Elementary Residency

 This winter and spring of 2013 I am a resident art teacher at Lincoln Elementary School in South Corvallis. I am visiting 4th and 5th graders in 3 classrooms every other week for a total of 12 classes. Each class I will do different art projects with the students ranging from drawing and painting to clay! The idea is to expose students to different art media, teach them basic fundamentals and techniques, and encourage their artistic self-expression! I wanted to share some of the projects here!

 OPPOSITES ATTRACT! In this lesson, the students learned about primary and secondary colors, Mixing colors on a palette and complimentary colors. Students created landscapes that utilized complimentary colors in order to make their paintings "pop".

Shadow Art!

 This winter I taught shadow drawing in my creative studio class as part of an interactive group project in experimental art! The project was very well received and students learned about contour lines!