Students are finding art assignments as a way to be creative and express themselves. Through YouTube videos and other online instructions, students are enjoying art classes at home.

Art teacher Milton Anderson is taking a creative approach with his Southwestern Middle School students, while being mindful of limited supplies at home. He has kept the projects to pencil and paper and made instructional videos to demonstrate linear perspectives.

“My goal is to teach the students how to see the world like an artist and notice angles, lines, negative space—things like that,” says Anderson. “Art has always been considered a creative emotional outlet. I hope my class will serve as an escape from all that’s going on in the world right now.”

Students send their finished projects to Anderson via email or Canvas. Below are drawings from two seventh grade students. The 2-point perspective (city scene) is by Easton Gibb and the 1-point perspective (room) is by Grace Lorton. 

Easton enjoys watching the videos and following along. “I enjoy being creative with art and remote learning gives me the freedom to get work done on my own time,” says Easton.

Grace misses being able to collaborate with her classmates, but enjoys putting her own personal creativity into each piece. “I work on my art in a dedicated space that I use for all school work,” says Grace. “Mr. Anderson sends a video to the students where he shows us a baseline of how to create the artwork, and we add our ideas to our individual artworks.”

Fourth grade teacher Jocelyn MacLaverty asked her students at Hershey Elementary School to participate in the Getty Museum Challenge. Students read an article and then find a piece of art and recreate it using items found at home.

“I wanted to do something outside the box, and it worked out well because I was able to tie it to an article we read,” says MacLaverty. “The response was incredible. I'm hoping that projects like this will keep my kids engaged and encourage them to get creative.”

Crew Nixon says he chose a photo of the Chicago Bulls because he and his father are big fans of Michael Jordan. “I enjoyed looking at the old photos from the Chicago Bulls, but I did not like hugging my brother,” says Crew.

Classmate Brody Younker recreated the famous Creation of Adam painting because he and his family had seen it in the Sistine Chapel. Brody says, “It was fun to try and recreate a work of art that is so famous and cool.”

These are just a few of the many creative art projects inspiring students as they learn from home.