Category: Photoshop

Week Seven

3/9/2018

Building More Skills

This past week, students were introduced to their next major project theme: Spaces and Places. It was fun to see students shift gears and think about how we can depict different places based on our experiences and interests.

To get students started, we looked at a variety of artists and then spent sometime on building understanding and skill with two challenges: Fast Collage and Photoshop Challenge 2. Both looked at how we can bring images together to make something new and both focused on students working with spaces by establishing a foreground, middle ground, and background in their work. In both works, students are asked to create quickly. It is always amazing to see what they can make in such short periods of time. The goal is for students to use this understanding of space in their project as they see fit moving into next week.

Here are examples of the work below:

Isaac: I created this by using an abstract collage with various scapes and figures, along with putting an unrealistic twist to the size of figures when looking at depth

Kari: I made an interesting piece of collage. There is a really cool background and the middle ground I had cats and then I had a dog for the foreground.

Bryce: I like this piece because it really shows the horizon and the mountain and also the lake thats in it. This could be one of my favorite pieces of all.

Gage: I made this with photoshop I outlined the mountains and the grass. Then I made the little details like al of the trees in the photo and the twigs on the ground. I liked this because I like to do photoshop.

Madeline: I selected the space challenge because I enjoy looking at the space and see all the cool things out there. I liked being able to create a cool effect with the sense glare and with the stars. It was all cool to see how you could create the planets with different patterns and colors. To see how the project came together to create something a whole image was very fascinating

Eli: In the photoshop challenge 2 I did The space image. This was an intermediate challenge and I really enjoyed it. I Learned many new things with photoshop and how it works. I also use lots of factors of art and the composition to get the whole art work. I really loved how the lens flare and the stars make the space look really realistic.

Olivia: To create this piece I used a graffiti name maker to create my name in graffiti. After that I put it onto a photoshop piece with a picture of the wall. Then I made it look like the graffiti was painted on the wall and had been weathered there over time. This made it look real even though it isn't, and that is why I decided to do this piece. It looks so real and it's really cool to have my name painted on the wall.

Niklas: I created this name using Graffiti Creator. I think the shape of the letters look very cool and I also really like cool colors like blue and green. I think the colors show me as a fun person.

Zander: The hallway I made was made in photoshop and it was made with a line tool, The gradient I used was a cool one that I found and this is what I made

Aron: In this image I have made a hallway. First I took a picture of a hallway, and I used the pen tool to fill in the lines of the image. After that I then used the gradient tool to make the background colorful. Finally I used the extort tool to add some cubes for the background. I selected this project because I wanted to try the most challenging project available, because that is kind of fun and the most rewarding in the end.

Technology-based Work

In my STEAM class, students are focused on technology this week for their second major "Can Do" project. They could make anything as long as it was technology focused. It was fun to see the variety of works students have started to make and how they have employed materials we have obtained thanks to grants from DonorsChoose.org and TangerKIDS.

We will be finishing up these works this week and moving onto the next focus: Engineering.

Mini-Hideaways

My 3D students are working hard as we hit the final stretch of class and our last major projects before we complete the course at the end of April. It is crazy to think of how quickly we have gotten to this point. This week, students finished working on their mini-hideaway projects and took photographs of them on their desired locations.

It was neat to see them completed and on location as well as read why students selected the places they did for their work.

Last Collaborative

One of my favorite components of this course has been the amount of collaborative work students have done along the way. We will be finishing our final one next week, where students are asked to create a large cardboard camera.

My students decided to use this older example as their inspiration and also make it wearable (since our next project deals with wearable works). It will be fun to see this come together in the next week.

Making Connections

This week was also spent making connections with our NIS program through Google Hangouts. It was fun to have students discuss various opportunities to create in our program and answer questions from 6th grade students about what it is like to be in Art and STEM in 7th and 8th grade.

0 Comments

Week Three

2/9/2018

0 Comments

Photoshop Challenge 1

It is amazing to me that in three weeks of seeing this new group of students, they already have three works of art published on Artsonia. For their third work published, students created either a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level work based on a series of choices in Schoology. These series of challenges are designed to help students get a better feel for materials and create works that build skills and understanding in hopes they will be able to select those concepts for their personal works for major thematic units.

It was fun to see students make choices this week as they finished up these works and hear time and again that they enjoyed learning more about how to use Photoshop. Here are some examples of the types of works students created from beginner to more advanced skill-building challenges.

Gibson

Lucas

Zoe

Evan

Artist of Interest

Since moving to a thematically driven curriculum, it has been increasingly important to me for students to have as much exposure to a variety of artists using a variety of methods to create their art. I know I cannot possibly cover them all, or even come close, so one of the activities I engage students in is called "Artist of Interest."

In this activity, students are asked to use our digital subscription to Scholastic Art Magazine to access past issues and select an artist they think is interesting and that may inspire their work. Students are asked to describe the work using an element of art and principle of design, give their opinion of the work, as well as what meaning can be found in it as they write their response.

I do this as a discussion board in Schoology so that students can view each others responses and get exposure to dozens of artists that they might not otherwise see in our projects or challenges. This is also a great way to get students to read non-fiction texts, summarize and interpret what they are reading, and use examples and details to help support their ideas.

Here are two great responses from this activity this week:

Tantamounter and 100 objects

This week in my 3D class, students were challenged to create another collaborative. In this team-building activity, students were told they were going to be copy machines and started by shopping the classroom for what they would like to see recreated. After about five minutes of "shopping," students had to exchange their object with another group and then they had about 25 minutes to make a copy using whatever they could find in the classroom.

Many classrooms have done a similar exercise with great success. It was great to see how students worked together to recreate these objects and how close they were able to come to the original using completely different materials. My favorite of the group is probably the spider below. The group's copy was created by a damaged styrofoam head for the body, a Pringles can and pompoms for the head and eyes, metal tubing for the legs, and felt for the striping details. I am still amazed that the groups did what they did in such a short period of time.

3D students also started their 100 object sculptures this week. This is a project that asks students to rethink non-art materials in new and creative ways. After sketching out ideas, students came prepared with a variety of things (Qtips, rocks, toothpicks, colored pencils, and more) to turn into sculptures.

I am excited to see how these come into form over the next week.

Looking Ahead

Because of the nature of the class, some students are actually thinking about their final projects and experimenting with options for it as they are also working on their 100 objects project. For their finals, students are asked to create a project of their choice. I am very excited to see how and what they decide. One student started experimenting with some ideas this week, using the 3Doodler pen that was recently funded through a DonorsChoose.org project. I think it will be really exciting to see how this turns out or changes along the way.

MAEA Region 9 Show

Thursday was the opening reception of the Michigan Art Education Association Region 9 Show at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. It was really fun to see students see their work on display at the museum. It was also great to see the Warhol show.

With 23 works from our k-12 Visual Arts Program on display, it was great to see our Bryon Center Artists celebrated in this way. The works will now move on to the State competition and we will find out the results from that part of the competition in March.

Digital Storytelling Match on DonorsChoose.org

We have had such an awesome amount of success this year getting special resources funded through DonorsChoose.org. I am so thankful to parents, friends, and interested donors for giving to our projects to ensure my students have access to equipment and materials that will push them as creatives in the classroom.

Our newest project is being matched by AT&T because it involves digital storytelling (you can click on this to find out more). We are hoping to get an animation and green screen app as well as stylus's to help students create a variety of digital stories using iPads. We have less than $200 to go thanks to the match.

It is going to be awesome to see how students use these tools to share stories with others and make a variety of animations and film. Maybe we will even be able to enter some into competition soon.

0 Comments

Week Two

2/4/2018

0 Comments

Portfolio Names

Every term, I use the design of the portfolio name as a visual way to learn my students names. It is a go-to project to get students started because it also helps me teach some basics about the design process, formulating ideas and planning in our sketchbook as well as practicing various colored pencil and marker techniques before applying them to our final works.

It was fun to see the student names develop over the week and then be published on our Artsonia gallery. Here are a few of the results:

I really like sports so I used a baseball and a basketball for the letter E's. Three of the letters were some type of plant because I like nature. The letter L turned out really good in my mind because it was the first time I attempted to draw a hand.

This project was really fun. I chose many things having to do with sports or professional sports teams because that is what I like to watch and do. I also did a pencil because I like to sketch and draw. I liked this project because I got to show the things that I like by writing my name

I put the Fishing pole with a fish because I fish a lot and really enjoy it, and I also put a paintbrush with paint , because I really like to paint. My favorite sport to play is ping pong and that's why I put a ping pong ball and paddle to include the types of sports that I like to play and what I like to do in my free time.

I choose these objects because I like the underwater sea life, drawing, ice cream, and nature.

Logo Designs

So, for the first time, I am actually seeing a group of students for a FULL year as a result of a new STEAM class I am teaching. As a result, I decided to change up the portfolio name to a logo design. This was fun to do because it got students thinking about branding and how logos are developed by designers. Because these students have had me last semester, it was also nice to see how quickly they jumped into the sketching and brainstorming piece of this challenge before setting to work on it.

Here are a few examples:

This logo is Charlie B. Golfing. The C is formed into a golf club and the B is formed into a golf ball on a tee ready to be swung. I picked golfing because I really like golfing and it is very chill and a fun hobby to do during the spring and summer.

In this I did a circle and inside the circle I did a C with a softball stitches in it, To finish the other half of the circle I did a pencil because I love art and lastly in the center I did a volleyball.

While designing my logo I thought about things that might represent me. My logo represents a crown as well as the first initial of my name. This is because I like to consider myself a queen or a princess. I chose to use colors like yellow and orange to represent the gold of a crown, and black to emphasize the letter M.

Starting Photoshop Challenge 1

Students also started their first Photoshop Challenge this week after they completed their portfolios. I have accumulated five choices over the years that students can select to complete as a part of this challenge. They range from beginner to advanced. All focus on the subject of portraits or people.

As we finish these next week, it will be interesting to see which levels students selected to challenge themselves to create and if they continue to elect to use Photoshop as a tool when we get working on our first major Project in the class.

Still Painting Those Panels

We are still working on the WMS panels... hopefully they will finish up this week and actually work out. Right now, we are debating on how to outline the shapes. Do we outline everything, are we selective, or do we just paint over everything and start over?

Adjective Forms

In the KCAD 3D class I teach as a part of our high school's Dual Enrollment program, students worked on their ceramic forms this week that were inspired by adjectives. We were inspired by a variety of contemporary ceramic artists like Zemer Peled before going through lists of adjectives that would help inform the direction of their work.

Students were encouraged to hand-build or combine wheel-thrown and hand-building techniques. It was interesting to see how students developed their sketches based on the words they selected and then translated those sketches into forms.

We will not see the completed pieces until these are fired, glazed, and fired again later this month.

MAEA Region 9 Results

BCPS has a great showing at this year's MAEA Region 9 Adjudication. K-12 students from our district had over 20 works accepted and all will move onto State competition. The work will be on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum through this month before heading to the next competition.

Here are the winners from WMS:

Oliver Modderman

Tess Bainbridge

Lindsay Mlejnek

Serenity Metzger

I am excited to celebrate this accomplishment with students at the opening reception this Thursday as we also get to enjoy the rest of the exhibit at the GRAM.

0 Comments

Week Eighteen

1/20/2018

0 Comments

Goodbye with GIFs

For our last week of class, students focused on their exams. In Art, there are two parts to their final exam before leaving for a new rotation in second semester. The first part is to create a GIF using works from our Intermediate and Elementary students art that is posted on their Artsonia sites. The second part is a test that asks students to more formally answer questions based on the content they learned covering media, artists, and techniques.

To help students study for their test portion, we use a study guide and play a game called "Stump the Student" where students ask each other questions on teams for points. It is a fun way to end the semester and creating the GIFs gives students a chance to make some art as a final way to express what they have learned in the class. Here are a sample of what was made (a special thanks to Ian Sands for the idea years ago):

Final Thoughts

Areas students said they felt were covered in class and through projects.

In the effort to improve what I do as a teacher, I ask students to provide me some feedback for the end of the semester. I ask them what areas they feel like they learned new information about, something that was the best part of the class, something that I should do differently for next time, and then a section where they can send me a message of their choosing. This is anonymous, so I never know who left what as their comment and it also opens students up to give me genuine responses.

From their responses, a few things are clear: 1. Students appreciate having choices in their learning, 2. Students would like more opportunities to collaborate, 3. Students appreciate the work I have put into making this class what it is.

It was fun to read through the messages and it offered a nice boost to the ego as we complete the term. This was a really nice group of students. I look forward to getting to start a new term on Monday with another set of great kids!

Just a sample of some the things students said was the best thing about the term.

Some lovely final thoughts from my students as we gear up for a new term with new classes.

First Projects Complete in 3D

Last week students worked on collaborative drawings based on the work of Heather Hansen. This week, students took those drawings and translated them into relief paper sculptures. It was really fun to see how far students stretched their original works and ideas to land on their final projects.

In this challenge, students were asked to create an asymmetrical and symmetrical relief sculpture. Here are some of the results:

This was a pretty action-filled week and I know next week will be even more so with a whole new group of kids to teach in art. And we are starting a BRAND NEW class next week, called STEAM. It will be fun to post more about that in the coming weeks!

0 Comments

Week Eight

10/24/2017

0 Comments

More Finished Work

Last week I pointed out that some students need a little more time to do their best work. Due dates in my classroom are firm, but flexible for those who would benefit from a little extra time. We need turn in dates to help hold students accountable, but we also need some ability to be flexible so that arbitrary dates do not hold back those who want to do something extra special.

It was exciting to see the following works find their way to the finish line this week. I am very excited for how they turned out, but probably even more so for the process in which each student found their way to the best possible solution. I appreciated reading their learning statements and how many hope these works will make their way into competition at some point this school year.

Oliver: In my artwork I was inspired by Julian Opie. But instead of doing a piece like his, I desisted to do the opposite of his art. I did a pencil and paper of a realistic face with lots of shadows. I used huge eye because Julian Opie's art has small beady eyes. My art relates to the theme of this project because it is of the "Me" in the project.

Leila: In this piece, I have a print of myself reaching for the stars. I literally took the saying, "Reach for the Stars", and incorporated myself. I decided to add wings to the figure to have a dreamy effect. I used newspaper that had been painted on for the feathers. For the stars, I opened up certain sections of the negative cardboard space and placed reflective material inside. I ripped parts of the cardboard off, so the piece would have a variety of different textures. In the end, this piece turned out really well and I hope to enter it in to Scholastic!

Mitchell: This piece has helped me learn how to use various techniques such a molding with plaster and clay and using many different colors to really help bring out my artwork.The art work connects to the theme of the project by symbolizing the ME in you me everybody,the project shows how my face can just be a plain piece of artwork but when you add different textures and visual elements such as unique indents into the clay and using a variety of colors you make or break a piece especially when it's clay.

Tess: This work focuses on the everybody piece of the project theme. It deals with the current political issue of whether or not football players should be allowed to kneel during the national anthem in protest of equal treatment for all people. I chose to use mixed media to create this piece. For the background, I used block printing, and for the rest of the work, I used cut paper. These materials help convey the message I am trying to communicate because they are bold, and simple, making the message heard.

Chloe: In this piece I used mixed media and for the background. I used different sponges and techniques to make the background look the way it does. And then the people are made out of black construction paper and I used a xacto knife to get a lot of little details of the peoples faces and hair. This piece ties in with the theme you, me, everybody because I focused in on the people who are really mean a lot to me and these people are my friends so I decieded to do everybody.

Marie: In this piece of art I chose to portray the idea of 'everybody' by using bottle caps and portraits. I intended that viewers would receive the message that everyone is different, and in a world of differences it is important that we find our own way to stand out. To help push this theme I placed one portrait out of place that had a different background, and a different skin color. By using bottle caps and randomized paint colors, I hoped to communicate this same idea of everyones differences. But by placing them all together, I hope to show viewers that we can come together as a community to create something bigger than our differences.

Building Skills and Understanding

Students were introduced to our next Challenge Theme: Spaces and Places (real or imagined). We looked at the work of Vincent Van Gogh, Ansel Adams, Georgia O'Keeffe, David Hockney, and Nathan Walsh before starting out plans for possible ways in which students could explore ideas surrounding the places we visit.

It was fun to see students dive into the sketchbooks right away and start planning out ideas without hesitation. The work we did for our first challenge has helped spark the importance of thinking through ideas and trying out various approaches in a smaller format before making a commitment on a larger scale. This shows me that students are able to generate ideas on their own, do the research they need to help inform their choices, and try out solutions before making a choice on what interests them most.

We also used this week to broaden our skills with various mini-challenges using collaged paper and digital works. Students learned about how to establish an environment by activating the foreground, middle ground, and background of a work as well as how to use various tools to achieve desired effects. It was fun to see students use these skill-builders as a springboard for generating ideas for their project and the results of their learning.

Landscape Fast Collage Challenge

Students created the following landscape collages to demonstrate their understanding of foreground, middle ground, and background while also using collage skills to complete a work. We started out by looking at The Art Assignment Video featuring landscape artist Robyn O'Neill before getting out the glue and scissors and getting to work.

What made this a successful challenge was that the size of these collages were kept to 6x4 inches big and students only had about 25 minutes to create them. Students sometimes struggled with the limited size and time, but by keeping it small they had to forget about being perfect with their choices and focus on demonstrating the various aspects of a landscape as well as the figure/ground relationship. Some enjoyed the process so much, they made more for fun.

Riley

Tobin

Cierra

Photoshop Challenge 2

Students were given another Photoshop Challenge to complete this week as well. These works help build students skills while producing works they are proud of and that they were able to have a say in making. It has been fun to see some students really grow their understanding of how to digitally manipulate images and how to make images from scratch, rather than always relying on the internet.

Here are several examples to show the range of methods in which students created works to demonstrate their understanding of creating visual space while manipulating the methods and tools within Photoshop.

Finn

Jenny

Jake

Emmie

Almost The End of the Quarter

With the end of first quarter next week, it has been such a delight to see students grow and shape their understanding of art in new ways. Students have been exposed to a variety of artists, methods, and tools to use as a starting point for their own creative journeys. I am excited to see this quarter come to a close and how students leverage their learning from this quarter to push themselves even more next!

0 Comments

Week Four

10/1/2017

0 Comments

ArtPrize 2017

As another week of ArtPrize 9 was in full swing, so was our excitement to be a part of it. For those of you not familiar with the competition, it is a 19 day annual event in Grand Rapids that really begins much earlier in the year with creating work and connecting with a venue.

This year was the first year that a Youth Collaboration Award was offered, which was the incentive for us to pull something together rather quickly last spring. We almost did not make it in, though. It was not until the last day of venue connections that we found ours in Monroe Community Church. We are so thankful they took a chance on us and the response to our display has been amazing!

Students this week were especially thrilled when our work showed up over the course of several days on local news because our venue was named by the Jury Shortlist as a Most Outstanding Venue finalist. Even though our work may not win the $5000 grant for the Youth Collaboration, being a part of a venue to receive this kind of recognition makes us feel like we won.

When we came up with this concept to create a work that was a visual response to standardized testing due to the timing in which is was made, the goal was to make something that went beyond cliche kid art. We wanted to make something that we could put up in our school as art in and of itself. I think we did that and I am very proud of the response we have gotten for it.

Names Complete

I have a hard time with remembering names and I share with my students that as a visual learner, it helps me to learn something when I am able to see it connected with an image. This introductory project not only does that, but it also helps me learn about my students and what interests them most. It is fun to see how they approach this challenge and the variety in solutions as well as rationale behind the visual choices they make to complete it.

Kaylynn: In this piece I used objects and colors that I enjoy to spell out my name. For example for my L I used a lighthouse because I enjoy going to the beach. This project was a really great way to show who I am as a person in the form of art.

Cooper: Everything in the name Is something i like c is for the game rocket league the 2 o's are a soccer ball and the chrome symbol, the p is for science the e if for one of my favorite numbers 1,111 and the r is a alligator, my favorite animal.

Anna: What inspired me to draw in this style and what to draw for each letter came from what I love and what I care about. I love to go to Anna Maria Island which is my A, and I love art which is why I did that for N, I love plants and succulents which inspired to do that for N, and last I love to be happy and I love rainbows so thats why I did that for my last A.

Logan: I love this project, I chose all my letters based on scooting. It my favorite thing ever. The L is a scooter, The O is a brand that sells scooter parts.(outset select) The G is a brand also that sells scooter parts. (proto scooters) the orange things are allen wrenches. and the A is a wheel. The N is a rail for grinding on with the scooter.

Photoshop Challenge 1

In addition to finishing up their names this week, students also learned some new skills on Photoshop by selecting a level (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and completing a tutorial within that level. It was nice to see students use their technology to advance their skills and try something new. Here are some of the results:

Overall, this past week was pretty exciting. It was so incredible to see our work on the news, learn more about my students, and see my students try new ideas using technology.

I am very excited to learn about the ArtPrize results later this week and everything else that is planned with my students!

0 Comments

Start of 4th Quarter

4/16/2017

0 Comments

Back from Break

In addition to motivational messages written on my whiteboard in the hall to meet students that included "It's the beginning of the end" and "Be like the Patriots this 4th Quarter," I welcomed students back from break with some quick creations that exercised their understanding of a variety of media.

I thought this would be a good way to ease back into the swing of school after a little over a week away from the grind and it would help students focus on successfully completing the skill-building tasks and use that to springboard into a successful 4th quarter and end to the school year.

Photoshop Challenge 2

Before we left for break, students spent time with on a Challenge and STEAM collaborative that both looked at spaces and places as their subject. I decided to welcome students back from break by continuing that subject into four possible Photoshop Challenges for students to select and complete over the course of two days. Students had the opportunity to create a landscape, perspective drawing, altered graffiti name, or space image and in the process learn more Photoshop tools and experiment with ideas and their understanding of how to create images digitally.

Here are a few of the results:

Ruby: My work is of one part of Mount Everest, in the background you see snowy mountains, and in the foreground theres a part of the mountains without any snow. The tools I used was only the brush tool. I used a lot of the different textures to create shading and make it look more realistic.

Sophia: In my artwork I used a picture of this hallway in our school and I used the pen tool to trace over all of the lines. I also used the gradient tool to create the color across it. I like the work I created because I think it challenged me and it ended up very cool with the colors and all of the lines.

Arianna: The style I did of my graffiti name is I chose the Kodiak style off of graffiti creator and my name ended up looking like this. I decided to use bright colors like lime green, hot pink, and turquoise. I also decided to put 3d bubbles and make them yellow to make the letters pop even more. In the end I put it on a brick wall and turned down the opacity so it would look more realistic in the picture. I also decided that was not enough and I could do more. So then I figured out I could add a shadow holding a spray can that made the graffiti and then I also turned down the opacity on the shadow so it wouldn't be so bold.

Riley: it is a picture of two planets that rotate around each other and will eventually merge. also they are separated by a star belt.

Observational Drawing

The middle of the week transitioned from digital work to more traditional drawing methods. We spent one class period this week simply working on our observational skills and thinking about how our eyes work when we are using them to help us draw from life. One of my favorite exercises if to just simply walk students through a looking/seeing process and verbalizing how to really examine what is in front of you before you start to draw it.

Observational skills are important and can be fostered, just like any other skill can be. During our day of observational drawing, we practiced non-dominant hand drawing, dominant hand drawing, and abstraction through enlargement. Students used their shoes and strings to do this and then worked on turning one of their smaller drawings large on a bigger sheet of paper for our Mixed Media experimentation. This is a great lead into our next challenge, where still life can play an important role.

Mixed Media Speed Dating

As I did with students last semester, I set out materials at each table group with introduction cards to using collage, watercolors, ink, pastels, and sharpies/gell pens with stencils. Students then rotated in 5-7 minute increments around the groups until their observational drawings had each of the media processes on it.

It is a really fun way to introduce students to new media (or even old media in new ways) and they ended up with a work that many enjoyed as a finished piece. I think the best part of this process is that the emphasis is really on experimentation with media and the end product is secondary; however, many students will use their experience to help formulate choices for their upcoming project Challenge that brings the focus in on objects.

Here are some results from the process:

Chloe: We used observational drawings to first draw our shoe and then we tested out different mixed media. We tested out watercolor, chalk and oil pastels, different types of ink, different sharpie ways, and then collage. My favorite was spraying the watercolor everywhere for the background.

Ella: With this piece I fell in love with all that we got to do around the room. I was new to calligraphy but fell in love with the way the pen moved and the way in which if you added more pressure you got thinker lines. This project was short but fun to use all the new types of materials in which we got to used chalk pastel and a ton of stencils. It was amazing to watch all the connections come together that I have never tried before. I would do this all year long if I could.

Oliver: In the art I used for the first time a Quill and Ink to make stitches on the shoe.

Ashtyn: In this piece of art I used multiple things I have never used before like the quill, the blow technique, oil pastel, and paint. But out of all of those the one I liked using the most was the quill, I liked the quill because it was just easy and fun to use. I also liked using the oil pastel and the paint.

Light and Shadow

My Dual Enrollment students focused on Light and Shadow as a subject matter for their 4th assignment in our Intro to Photo class. It has been really exciting to see students advance their understanding of how to adjust the settings on their camera and how to frame their images to get a variety of effects.

Here are a few of their solutions to capturing the idea of light and shadow:

Kennedy

Anna

Elise

Emma

Kathy

Krista

There are only a couple of weeks left before Dual Enrollment is over and I am very excited for what students have been working on for their final thesis. It will be fun to share what their solutions and ideas were as we close out the term and I look forward to seeing what my 7th and 8th graders do as we finish the 4th quarter strong!

0 Comments

Week Seven

3/1/2017

0 Comments

Challenges and Bootcamps

This week was all about building skills as students tackled two challenges/bootcamps that they may or may not use in their upcoming work. I like weeks like this because it allows students to take a step back from worrying about a perfect finished work and instead work through tutorials that help them gain skills and understanding of how certain materials work.

The first challenge this week was with Photoshop. Students were given a choice between beginner, intermediate, and advanced options before selecting which they would do. Each had some kind of video guide to help them, which was good since this was a first experience with Photoshop for many.

Here are some of the outcomes:

Beginner

Ethan

Sarah

Intermediate

Sophia

Nate

Advanced

Drew

After finishing up with Photoshop, students went through a similar practice with small drawings using perspective. Again, they got to chose from a wide variety of resources. I have begun to call this one a bootcamp because students struggle with the challenge that can come from using perspective. Somehow referring to it as a bootcamp gets them to look beyond the struggle and come out the other side trying their best to make the work happen.

Here are some results:

These works will be a nice transition into our next theme which deals with answering the question: "Where are you going? Where have you been?"

The Power of Art Conference

I am so thrilled to have this opportunity next month to learn and share with teachers from across the country in our Nation's capitol. I will make sure to share what I learn on here and elsewhere online. I have to give a huge shout out to my students who helped me earn this spot.

As a part of the application, I had to share a lesson with students examples. Because of the amazing creative and hard-working students I have, I was able to select many samples of how my lesson worked with students. I am pretty sure this is why I was selected and I am so thankful to the great work my students have done and continue to do.

0 Comments

Week Seven

10/21/2016

2 Comments

Finish Works

Students finished up their work for the Biography/Autobiography Challenge and uploaded them to Artsonia this week. It was fun to see the very different outcomes from each student. So many different materials and methods were employed to get the work done. Below are just a few of the works completed this week.

Andrew M.: This piece of artwork represents autobiography because I used a plaster mold of my face and put a clay bowl on the back is my thoughts. I it filled with things I love and cherish dear to my heart.

Leila D.: My artwork, "Vibrant Girl", represents a friend of mine who is always positive and uplifting to be around. I wanted to make a piece that had a combination of bold and bright colors. I also wanted to somehow incorporate collage media into my artwork. I did this by taking parts of magazines and arranging them to look like my friend. After I did that I realized that it needed something more. I then decided to add multiple layers of newspaper, colored paper and magazines to the collage. I think that because I did this, the artwork seems more joyful. I can compare my artwork to Patrick Bremer because he also used collage media. He takes magazines and uses them to create realism and abstraction in a piece. There is also a difference between Patrick Bremer's piece and mine. He uses a grid to create a more realistic piece. I enjoyed making "Vibrant Girl", and hope to continue to learn different ways to make great artwork!

Lindsey P.: My artwork is for the biography unit is a photography piece that I took on my camera. In this I used a longer shutter speed and exposure to slow the picture down and make it look like my hands are moving. Also I turned the contrast up to highlight and darken certain parts of my photo. For example, my freckles stand out more when I turned up the contrast. My work connects to me because I love trying new types of photography. My artwork was inspired by photographers I see on social media and Andy Warhol because he makes his artwork look like it is almost moving also.

Ashley W.: This assignment I used two different block prints. One print was a small print of a car. The other print was a a girl looking down at a tombstone. It has something to do with my life, because when I was very young, three people in my family died in a car crash. The cars show you it was a car crash, and the tombs show that people died in it. This artwork means so much to me! My artwork compares to Andy Warhol, because he did colors that people wouldn't do often to their artwork. While he did bright colors, I did bright red in the background. Then, I did a darker color in the front, to show sadness. I took part of Andy Warhol's idea with bright colors, and mixed it up a bit!

Colton S.: This piece is a biography of Sports legends, singing stars, iconic actors, and etc. These people have inspired me, and many many other people to do the things they do, or love the things they love. This work is most like that of Andy Warhol. This is because it deals with repetitive portraits, that depict celebrities or iconic images.

My T.: In my artwork I took pictures of family members of mine in different spots of their faces. When I was done with it I put it together like a puzzle and made a new face. I have personal connections with this artwork because I took pictures of the people in my family. I think my artwork could compare to Chuck Close because of the square/blocks in the picture because I took the pictures separately. Even though it is a picture instead of a painting or drawing I think my artwork compares most to Chuck Close because of the squares on my artwork.

Topher Z.: I used the idea "steal like an artist" and stole or used the old brick prints to make the random prints. This art reminds me on how creativity is every where and you just need to find it. I did myself and made a wierd back ground that makes me think that creativity is every where.

Carmen D.: I chose to draw an eye with a road bike and landscape in the middle to do with biography. This piece of art is showing the dedication, perseverance, and passion of a cyclist.I would compare my artwork to Andy Warhol because it is a realistic drawing with lots of color.

Damien A.: I made Christopher Columbus's Ship because I think it's cool that even though everyone told columbus that he was going to fall off the edge of the Earth, he sailed his ship forward anyways, and he found America. Because of him, we all live in america today. My artwork kind of connects with Chuck Close because he had dyslexia which was a problem for him, but he found a solution for it and it worked. At first when the paint on the boat started leaking out, I tried to hide it, but instead of that, I found a solution for it and I think it worked pretty well, I put them everywhere.

Abby B.: n the work of art I have presented, I created a piece with drawing pencils and magazine clips of outer space. I was inspired to create this piece, as I originally wanted to create something to do with Cherokee heritage. I always thought that their history was extremely interesting, so when I heard the theme of the project, that's what my mind immediately went to. While looking through my research, I found a group of people called the moon-eyed people. Apparently legend told that these people of Cherokee descent, could see during the day, but could see in the night. I thought this was extremely cool, and I choose that to be the model in my portrait. One artist that I think my artwork is similar to Patrick Bremer, as we both use some sort of college in our artwork, with his the actual portrait and mine the background. One thing different is that I also used drawing pencils, while he just used magazine cutouts.

Photoshop Frenzy

The last two days of the week were a frenzy of Photoshopping as students worked to complete one work (out of five possible challenges). It was fun to see students stretch their learning, even when they had to struggle through some technical issues along the way.

It was fun to see students work together to get their images and work through the challenge of their choice using Photoshop.

Mark Z.: For my Photoshop challenge I created a digital print of me. I used the technique that Andy Warhol used when he made Marylyn Monroe with bright colors that stand out. I used this technique because I liked how the colors complemented each other. Also I liked how the colors stood out more than usual. This describes me to because I love colors that are bright and complement each other’s.

Irieca W.: I chose to do the one with it looking like a cartoon person because i thought it would be fun and cool to do at first i tried it and it was kind of frustrating for me to do. but then when i did it was easy for me to do so next time i might do some thing that will give me a challenge. because this was easy of i might do i for the next project that i have.

Kristina B.: I chose to do a city for my photoshop challenge. I used the principals of design by using unity because this piece shows harmony but also variety because of the different buildings. This photoshop challenge also uses different shape and also color because of the different shapes and color on the buildings in the city.

Trever W.: I used the quick select tool to create my artwork because I used it to get rid of the background of the photos that I used. I used the basketball and baseball in my artwork because I love to play those sports. The bulldog is in there because they are my favorite dog. The hamburger is my favorite food. That is why I choose to do a couple of those things

Alayna A.: In my artwork I used the element of design color by using bright and vibrant colors in my piece. I also used the principle of design pattern by using a square pattern that all have a picture of my face in different colors and locations. This photoshop challenge was fun to create, and the end result was very fun and colorful.

This was a busy week, filled with new works and learning. I am excited to start something new next week (and to present at the MAEA conference in Traverse City)!

2 Comments

More GIFs

5/21/2016

2 Comments

Here are some more GIFs from students last week.

In order to create these moving masterworks, students first went to the Artsonia galleries of our elementary schools. After selecting which image they would like to animate. They copied and pasted the work into a new Photoshop image. Using the quick selection tool, the clone stamp, and the motion workspace, students navigated between layers to create looping images. To save the files so they will move once they are uploaded online, students went to file>save for web and then save the GIFs to turn in on Schoology for a grade.

Overall, it has been really fun to see students learn this method and the amount of interest in turning other student's works into something new.

It was a perfect feeder lesson into our final project, "Something Old, Something New," which we also started this past week.