Help With Art

Undeniably, the poetry, short stories, essays and features that are published in your magazine should be your primary concern. You want these selections to be varied in tone and topic. You want them to exhibit strong diction and control of genre. You want them to be the voices and attitudes of this year's student body.

While enhancing your verbal content, you should not forget that this is a visual society. The old chap book that had words and only words, is not appealing to this readership. You need to consider typography and graphics. You need to add photography and art.

You say you understand this, but you don't know how to improve the visual content of your magazine. First, you need to train your staff in the fundamentals of art. How might you do that?

Training the staff

• Invite your school's art teacher to meet with your staff. Ask this individual to address: the forms of art that reproduce well; the qualities that make art, "good art"; how to approach and talk to student artists about submitting to the school's magazine; and who the teacher would suggest you approach to submit to the magazine. If this teacher prefers not to meet with the entire staff, ask if he or she is willing to have lunch with the editor and art editor. Your editors, of course, will provide the lunch.
• Find out if any parents in your school are artists. I have found that often one of the staff members has a parent who was trained in art. Invite this person to meet with the staff or ask if he or she knows of someone who would like to train your staff to have a better eye for art.
• Visit the local art supply store. See if someone from the store would visit with your staff or if the store has a list of artists in your community willing to give lessons.
• Does your local newspaper have a strong feature section or a Sunday magazine with dynamic layouts and graphics? Contact the public relations or Newspaper in Education department to invite the art editor to visit with your staff.
• Get acquainted with members of the local art guild or art league. This group might become interested enough to give a donation to your magazine as well as provide a speaker.
• Do you have an art museum nearby. Arrange for a tour of the museum for your staff. This will help to develop staff unity and give students a lesson in different styles of art. Awaken their aesthetics as they are away from campus.

Art for the school and staff

In addition to guest speakers and tours, you might have art lessons for the staff. In the first month or so when you are awaiting literary submissions, train the staff in layout and design and art principles. You might even invite the school to come to a few after-school Experience Art sessions.

You might be surprised what art can result from these sessions. Some pieces you might be able to print in your magazine. Some will help you to identify people with artistic ability. If you do not have an art department in your school, or your school only teaches photography in art classes, these sessions can be very helpful.

These lessons can be used to develop staff unity, teach staff members what to look for in art submissions and to create some art submissions. If you are on a limited budget, keep the colors to black and white or high contrast will reproduce easily.

Here are a few helpful online sources for art lessons.

Dick Blick Art Materials
Art lesson plans that start from the simplest to the more sophisticated watercolor self-portraits. Magazine staffs on a tight budget and with limited art selections, should review lessons on checker boards, positive and negative space, and repetitive patterns.

Art Lessons on the Web
Lessons are categorized under elements and principles of design, color theory, cartooning, architecture and art history lessons. Look through these lessons to see what your students need to know about art.

A Series of Basic Lessons
Lessons are grouped by medium: pencil/black pen drawing lessons, adding colored marker, collage, mixing paint and art history.

Aboriginal Bark Painting
The lesson includes historic context and steps to follow.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
This site offers online tours of collections of the National Gallery, including several indepth tours and tour of the week. More than 150 teaching resources are available on loan. Be sure to visit NGA Kids section and complete some of the activities.

— Carol Lange
LangeJour@aol.com