Intro to Art Lesson Bundle: High School/Middle School Art

This Introductory art Lesson Bundle for middle schoolers and high schoolers includes 6 low prep easy to deliver lessons for beginner/foundations art students. These lessons offer beginners success but can also offer advanced students opportunities to challenge themselves- I have used these lessons in mixed grade level classes with great success! All of these introductory art lessons require only inexpensive materials but will guide your students to make tremendous strides in their skill level and confidence.

This Lesson Bundle Includes:

Collage Portrait Sketchbook Covers - Start of the year lesson

In this start of the year sketchbook cover lesson students will explore the work of Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo and contemporary artists who work in similar approaches. They will then use either their own profile or the provided blank profile to create a self portrait using drawing or collage that is inspired by the style of Arcimboldo.

Pen and Ink Unit- A great introduction to line and mark making, including line value techniques (hatching, cross hatching, stippling, scumbling), line weight, and expressive line. Three to four weeks of pen and ink activities/handouts to build student confidence using dip pens and sharpies. Powerpoint slides include beautiful and thought provoking examples from art history and contemporary art.

Fractured Values Drawing - A great introduction to shading using drawing pencils. Easy to follow step by step skill building activities and a confidence building shading project.

Positive/ Negative Space Lesson Bundle- Introduction to positive/negative space with examples from contemporary graphic designers. Skill building worksheet activities and a fun very low prep/simple materials drawing activity (perfect for distance learning!)

Finding Shapes Drawing Lesson -In this lesson students will be guided to find simple shapes in images to aid their observational drawing. Students will draw a horse and a rabbit by finding shapes to get the drawing started. This lesson is perfect for Middle School and High School beginner students. I have used this lesson for several years with success.

Surreal Collage Lesson- Great intro to Surrealism and collage for High School or Middle School students. This lesson awakens creative thinking and teaches students strategies for creating compelling and thought provoking compositions. Also this lesson is very low prep and low cost and can be done with just basic materials of scissors, glue and magazines or with a few more specialty materials like X-ACTO knives and transfer papers.

As a BONUS you Art Project Rubric is also included- this rubric is easy to edit for your needs and I have used it for all of my projects for several years with great success.

Download my FREE materials guide here (11 pages with over 130 quality art products for every medium)

Follow me on Instagram @artfulideasclassroom to see these lessons in action in my classroom, please tag me in your posts of student work from these lessons!