Pedro's Adventures: A Stop Motion Video

This is the last post until we come back to school in August!  Have a great summer! 

Street Art Stencils

Woohoo, this is the last week of school!  My partner in crime took one of her classes outside to have a little fun making these awesome little pieces.  They used large pieces of paper to make the stencils and a little flour so it won't stick around forever. 

 

 

Stop Motion in Advanced Photo

As the term and the school year wind down, I like to pull out some really engaging projects to keep every going, including myself.  Right now, the Photo 2 students are working on Stop Motion projects in teams.  They were given the option of choosing teams up to four people.  We spent one class watching all kinds of stop motion videos.  I wanted the students to choose from a range of materials to complete the project---and they did.  We've got teams using foil, construction paper, a couple teams are using Legos, modeling clay, and one team is even doing a mix between using the human body and construction paper.  I am excited to see the results! The inspiration for this project came from seeing the Tiny Circus in action at the Iowa Art Educators Fall Art Conference this past year.  If you have never seen their work, you have got to check it out!

Photo 2: Diptychs

Here are some Diptychs from the Photo 2 class to take us into Spring Break.  

Emily B.

Sade B.

Maria C.

Morgan F.

Collaborative Monster Project: Packaging

Packaging by Dominque W. 

Digital Drawing

 

Packaging by Kellie W.

Digital Drawing

 

Photo 1: One Object|30 Images

One Object|30 Images by Anthony V.

Photo 1

More Collaboration Examples

Drawing by Maura W.    

  

Animation by Keenan C.

                                                                         

 

 

Drawing by Hannah Z.

 

Animation by Hannah Z.

   

Ceramic Sculpture by Stephanie

 

Drawing by Caden G.

 

Animation by Jamie P.

 

Ceramic Sculpture by James C.

 

Drawing by Hannah Z.

Animation by Zak H.

Ceramic Sculpture by Fabrice

 

 

 

 

 



Collaborative Art Project

Over the last few weeks, four (really five if you count sections) of the Art Department classes have been working on a collaborative project.  The participants are students from Drawing 1, Ceramics 2, Design in Art and Digital Drawing (Graphic Design).  The Drawing 1 students used Photoshop and Wacom Drawing tablets with MacBook Airs to create the original monster.  The drawings were then sent off to Ceramics 2 for construction.  While the Ceramics students were creating a 3D version of the monster, the Design in Art class was using Photoshop and Wacom Drawing tablets to animate the little creatures.  After production, the Digital Drawing (Graphic Design) class developed packaging to house the creatures as if they were going to be sold in stores.  Below are some of the outstanding results!

Drawing by Jhulendra A.

 

Ceramic sculpture by Lila O.

 

 

Animation by Alexandria L.

 

Drawing by Lacretia P.  

 

Ceramic sculpture by Lauren

 

Animation by Sienna D. 

 

I will keep posting more as they are finished! 

 



Friday Afternoon Fun

This is what I did during my Friday afternoon!  Just a little water-filled balloon-popping for some high speed photography.  Hope your afternoon was just as exciting!

New Equipment and Some Pop Art

January has made for a crazy weather month and lots of delays and cancellations.  When I walked in my classroom the first day back from the holiday break, a kind man was dropping off the new laptops for our art classes.  I was thinking it would still be a couple of weeks before the computers were here, so this was an awesome way to return to work from a long break.  I got busy that day setting up the computers and had them in the hands of students the following week.  The students have loved the new equipment, especially the Wacom drawing tablets.  It really is the perfect set-up for all of the digital classes.  Our students are so lucky to experience equipment and software that professional artists use daily.  The students in Design in Art have been learning about the Principles and Elements of Art.  They are currently working on applying the principles to a Pop Art influenced project.  Students have been working hard for a few weeks now and I couldn't be happier with the outcomes.  The drawing tablets are allowing the students to approach the artwork in a whole new manner.  It is easy to see the individual drawing characteristics of every student.  Additionally, the students are so engaged in this project...it's so quiet in here! 

Painted Graham Crackers

The week before any break is usually a little chaotic, this week was no different.  AP Art History finished lecture a little earlier than planned and instead of moving on to a new unit before a week and a half off, I decided the students deserved a little change in pace.  So, as a treat and something fun for the last two days before break, I brought in graham crackers and frosting.  The students chose a famous painting and recreated it on the cracker.  As you can see the 'paintings' turned out pretty good!  I was happy that we got this in before the ice day on Friday.  Happy Holidays to all!

Text as an Element

Students in Design in Art were asked to manipulate text to create a unique design in which the original letters become unrecognizable.  They used Illustrator and expanded the text objects in order to manipulate the text.  I think the results speak for themselves! 

Drawing 2: The Comic Project Continues

Students are hard at work perfecting their drawings.  They use Photoshop to edit the hand-drawn comics.  Students can add color, create text, outline the panels, and clean-up all the extra marks.  The University of Iowa has a great collection of Graphic Novels and comics.  I came up with the idea for this project after attending a summer workshop at the university with Rachel Williams.  She is incredibly knowledgable and teaches various workshops and classes on the subject.  If you are in the area, I would strongly suggest taking a workshop with her!  The university also does K-12 classroom visits and one of the topics they present on is Graphic Novel and Comic Art.  It makes a great starting point for a lesson on comics.  

Announcing: The Collaborative Design Studio

This morning, when I opened my email, I was greeted with some amazing news!  The Collaborative Design Studio is being funded and headed to Room 241 at Washington High School.  My classroom is going to be equipped with a classroom set of Mac Book Airs and Wacom drawing tablets.  This means even in my most traditional courses, like Drawing, students will be able to experience the technology that is used by professionals.  A collaborative element will be added to all of my courses to encourage creative teamwork.  The end goal is to increase student learning and program numbers by engaging students through the use of these technologies. I can't tell you how excited I am about the future of our art program!