Ideas for Teaching College Art Classes

Teaching a college art classes requires skill and a big imagination to give students the skills they need to create all different types of art. Use these ideas as warm ups and for art sessions where their imagination will flow.

Historic Art

You can start off the class with a lecture about art from the past. Some topics to choose would be medieval art, renaissance art, or Victorian era art. You can also choose primitive art as a topic and let them create crafts out of clay that are reminiscent of 500 BC art. If you are using a different time period as an area of study, allow them to create a painting in that style.

For example if you are doing a renaissance art topic, let them paint or draw in the style of such artists as Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Another good art project would be ancient Chinese calligraphy scrolls. Teach them how these scrolls were formed and show them the certain brush strokes used to create the wording and scenery.  

Mixed Media Styles

Mixed media art is the perfect example of using creativity while learning at the same instance. You can tell students to draw something they are fond of and then use various types of paper such as colored constriction paper, tissue paper, and even newspaper to form a backdrop. Mixing different types of materials will provide you with endless creations for your students. Another idea is to use charcoal with conte and colored pencil to make an abstract piece of art with various materials.