Art Challenges

Fourteen Art Challenges for Middle School

… or the Fun-damentals of Design

Students conquer the simplest Challenges, then climb to higher levels, taking on more complex Challenges. To review this outline scroll to the bottom and observe how each new Challenge builds on the one below it.

  CHALLENGE MEDIA INSPIRATION
14 EXTREME ACTION
Figures in action
Watercolors Miriam Schapiro
13 MAKING AN IMPRESSION
Color and texture
Acrylic paints Claude Monet
12 THINKING ABOUT THE BOX
Cubism and abstraction
Acrylic paints Picasso & Cubism
11 TRANSPORTED IN
TIME & SPACE
Intro to painting
Mixed media Edward Hopper –
American painter
10 EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Psychological space
& texture
Mechanical pens with assorted nibs Rene Magritte
9 IS THIS PLACE HAUNTED?
Space: two-point perspective
Colored pencils on black paper Victorian houses
8 DEEP SPACE
Space: one-point perspective
Colored pencils on tinted paper Renaissance &
classical architecture
7 A SURREAL EXPERIENCE
Form: light & shadow
Graphite pencils Salvador Dali:
Surrealism
6 A MATTER OF VALUES
Value & contrast
Grayscale markers Chuck Close:
digital design
5 MASTER OF ILLUSION
Space: positive/negative
Felt tip pen, markers, colored pencils M C Escher
4 WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Shape and color
CorelDraw, markers, colored pencils,
gold pen
Medieval Illuminations
3 LIFE ON PLANET EARTH
Rhythm & shape
CorelDraw, felt tip pen, black marker Poster design
2 DON’T BE SO OBVIOUS
Advanced rhythm & line
Felt tip pen Geometric &
organic lines
1 COOL RHYTHMS
Simple rhythm & line
Felt tip pen Nature
Begin here at Challenge 1 and design your way to the top

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