Ink Patterns-7th and 8th graders' first project of the year

The 7th and 8th graders' first project of the year focused on patterns with ink. I was fortunate enough to have the unique experience of doing my student teaching at LaGuardia School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, otherwise known as the 'Fame!' school. While there, I taught a graphic design class, a ceramic class and a sculpture class. The graphic design class focused on the basics of laying out designs, not on the computer (yet), but on paper. One of the projects the LaGuardia students worked on was using classic pen and ink to show patterns within shapes. When a shape overlapped another shape, the pattern would change as if two patterns mixed created a whole new pattern. Even though this was a project originally intended for a high school sophomore aged student at a premier art school, I was fully confident that my middle schoolers could pull off this project with success. After showing them the work of the LaGuardia students, some of them began shaking their heads; disbelieving that they could accomplish the same results. I'm happy to say, that the 7th and 8th graders definitely exceeded my expectations on this project! We began by talking about the various shapes that they could start with; organic or geometric. We came up with two simple definitions:
Geometric shapes- an enclosed 2-dimensional shape used in mathematics.
Organic shapes- an enclosed 2-dimensional shape often found in nature.
Then, the students came up with various patterns to place in their shapes and in the negative space around their shapes.
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