IN THE CLASSROOM -- Abstract, in its purest form

Danette Goulet

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a campus within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District and writes about her experience.

COSTA MESA -- A big glob of lavender-colored paint hung precariously

on the bristles of Edgar Guapo’s brush.

After slopping it around in an overflowing paint tray, where he had

mixed purple and white paint to create the lighter tint, Edgar prepared

to attack his work of art.

“What?” he asked with an innocent grin as I looked on.

Edgar was one of about 30 seventh- and eighth-grade students in

Shelley Lang’s art class at TeWinkle Middle School working on a project

meant to teach them about shading, tinting and proportion.

First, students were asked to cut thick paper folded over to create

symmetrical shapes.

It was the same idea as cutting snowflakes out of folded white paper

when you were a child.

Each created an original design to trace into four quadrants of huge

circles drawn on their papers.

When that was done, they were ready to begin painting.

In each of their little egg holder paint trays, they poured white

paint and another color of paint to blend with it, making various tints.

In two of the quadrants diagonal to each other, they were to paint

each section in the various hues of blue, purple, red or green that they

created.

The idea was to make the diagonal quadrants identical.

In the other two quadrants, they used the same color -- only with

black this time to create shades.

A very cool idea, but rather confusing.

This concept was clearly lost on many of the students, who either just

painted with straight blue, or in random sections.

I didn’t really blame them. Although I understood where Lang was going

with this exercise, it seemed rather abstract.

The beauty of it all, she told me, was that if they tried, they all

passed.

“It’s kind of nice to know somewhere during the day they will be

successful,” she said.

For 12-year-old Hector Segoviano, who said he hadn’t painted since he

was in kindergarten, the process may have been frustrating but the end

result and grade will be his reward.

FYI

WHO: Seventh- and eighth-grade students

WHAT: Art projects using paint

WHERE: Shelley Lang’s class at TeWinkle Middle School

LESSON: Tint, shading and radial balance