North Lakes State College, Australia

Justin teaches at North Lakes State College in Australia. Don't let the name of the school fool you. This is a secondary school- not a college or university. Justin moved on to North Lakes State College from Dakabin State High School in 2005 - the first year that it opened its doors to middle school. He won two regional art competitions with a huge prize pool that has supported an on going artist-in-residence program. Students also walked away with first prize awards. They were also successful in a $15,000 grant for an artist in residence program to build a sculpture with electronics in it out front of the school. Students had their  first public exhibition in a regional gallery in 2006. An artist contacted Justin that year and worked with students for an exhibition. Below are works from North Lakes College.

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Hair Drawings - Year 8

Justin came across this lesson "Hair Today" by Sandra Campbell at UIC Spiral Education. He modified the lesson to use oil pastel and lead pencil instead of the scratch board. The students had the back of their heads photographed and developed their drawings using these as a reference image. Students then developed a background for them to be looking at. For the most part students selected landscapes. Students enjoyed this lesson and it was successful to reinforce observational drawing and avoid using symbols systems, i.e. concentrating on the strands of hair, their length and direction. Students were instructed to select a colour scheme that communicates and informs the environment that they drew them selves in.
Resource: "Hair Today" by Sandra Campbell - University Illinois at Chicago Spiral Art Education

"Lined Persona" - Grade 9 Lino Printing Unit

This unit focuses on examining the elderly face and representing it as a linoleum print. Students worked with the elder portrait and simplified to a lino-cut design. Students researched different lino cutting styles when developing their own images. One of the student even entered her preliminary sketch into a competition and won second prize in a open division competing against much older students. The prize was $150 plus art materials. She even then went on to sell it for $300.  This was brilliant for a Year 9 student. (Award winning drawing was done for print top row - far right). This is an end of year unit for Justin. He finds that it focuses students during a very hectic time of year.