Happy Holidays

Today is the final class of 2014 so have a terrific Holiday break!

Media Arts: Oscar Season films- Nebraska

In Media Arts this week we will be watching and reviewing the 2013 Best Picture Academy Awards nominee Nebraska directed by Alexander Payne and written by Bob Nelson. It stars Bruce Dern,Will Forte, June Squibb, and Bob Odenkirk and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where Bruce Dern won the Best Actor Award. It was also nominated for six Academy Awards; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.

Extra Credit: The Long Island Connected Educators' Summit Logo

The Long Island Connected Educators' Summit is an innovative free conference for teacher that

connects teachers who use social media technology for education such as Twitter, Blogging, and

Instagram. The are looking for a new logo and the contest is the final extra credit assignment for the 

quarter. The due date for the contest is 1/15 so the extra credit will be due 1/14.

The Long Island Connected Educators' Summit: a FREE learning event that allows passionate 

educators to spread innovative ideas through conversation and collaboration

Who: All Students, Teachers, Designers.

When: December 15th through January 15th

Awards: The new logo will be used as the official logo for the event. The winner  

will be awarded a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

Scholastic ART Awards deadline

This week is the deadline for the Scholastic ART Awards and students from each class entered work but I wanted to share a really impressive graphic novel piece above by Luke from our 4th period Studio Art class.  This was a short make-up assignment and he managed to complete 3 full drawn & inked graphic novel pages with original characters in 3 days, really impressive work on a short timeline!

AP Art: Alumni Visit from Sabrina Shankar

Today in AP Art and Drawing we will have an alumni visit from Sabrina Shankar who was in AP Art last year and is presently attending SCAD in Savannah, Georgia.  She'll discuss the first semester of college, expectations, the workload, her work, and the college itself.

AP Art: Advanced Layering Technique

In AP Art we are currently working on Advanced Layering Technique using mixed media.  The vine above is a time-lapse video of my demonstration from last week so you want to build a complex surface using different media and personal elements.  The final piece will be due on Thursday but remember to submit you art work to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards by the due date on Wednesday as well!

Media Arts: Animation

In Media Arts class we are finishing our hand drawn pencil animation film and today at the end of class each student should have the minimum 50 frames finished (but not necessarily the film which can be longer).  Next week we will work on some basic editing, sound, digitization, and completing the film!

Art Honor Society: Holiday Cards

This month in Art Honor Society we are working on our winter community service project making holiday cards for the local Nursing Homes and 6 year old Addie Fausett of Utah who wished for a "lifetime of holiday cards" for what is likely her last Christmas due to a Brain atrophy.  Above are an example of some of the cards Doug, Jamie, & Jackie made this week in club- we'll finish them up and mail them next week during our holiday party.

Next week we will also feature a guest speaker, alumni Sabrina Shankar, who was in the AP Art class last year and is currently attending Savannah College of Art and Design.  She'll be discussing the first year of college, expectations, SCAD, and show us some of her first semester work!

Art Honor Society: Holiday Cards

Today in Art Honor Society we will begin making Holiday Cards for our winter community service project and review some of the details of recent contests and the upcoming induction ceremony.

Studio Art: Pencil Drawing grid self-portrait

Today in Studio Art we are beginning our grid self-portrait pencil drawing by drawing a 1/2" grid over our source image and a corresponding 1" grid on our paper.  The video above demonstrates how this is done but be sure to make your grid accurate or it will alter your portrait and potentially ruin your piece.

Use a diagonal line to quickly check if your grid is drawn properly if the diagonals match then the grid is correct as seen in the image below.

Drawing: Artists and Ink

In drawing class we are currently working with ink so we'll look at two of my favorite artists who work with ink and use it in interesting ways. The first is the "Gonzo" artist Ralph Steadman who has a great loose style and is known for illustrating writer Hunter S Thompson's work and Flying Dog beer.  Take a look at some of his work, it's not totally consistent but it is consistently good!

The second artist is another great, Peter Beard who is known for mix photographs, drawings, and sketchbook collages together.  Peter lives out near Montauk when he's not in NYC or Africa and since much of his work contains nudity I included a few pieces below which are "school appropriate".

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

This week we have been creating paper for origami cranes and today we'll look into the story of how the crane became a symbol of peace through the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

Here's a pretty amazing tribute to Sadako using paper cranes to create an image of Sadako herself and below is a show Japanese anime showing how the story of Sadako is taught in Japan along with the history of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the memorial museum.

AP Art: Duck Tape Drawing

In AP Art we are currently working on Scholastic Art & Writing challenges such as the Duck Tape award so I thought I'd share my favorite tape artist Aakash Nihalani.  Take a look a some of his simple but amazing geometric tape street art work and his website.

Here are the 3 options to choose from, take a look at each and create a piece to enter along with your other work:

The Gedenk Award for Tolerance: Consider what we can all do to learn from humanity's mistakes

The Duck Tape Brand Award: Incorporate Duck Tape into your art work

Creativity and Citizenship: Examine opinions and ideas on the topic of Technology and Privacy

Art Honor Society: Induction Planning

In this afternoons' Art Honor Society meeting we will be planning this years Induction ceremony and events.  We would like to have a concurrent art show and alumni talk so we'll discuss the details and plan the February event.

Studio Art: Japanese Origami Cranes

In Studio Art class we are going to be talking with students in Japan via social media and creating a collection of Japanese Origami Cranes.  Students will create unique textile designs (there's an example of traditional textiles below but you can feel free to be creative) on paper then fold them into paper cranes for our Japanese counterparts.  I took the photo above at the Hiroshima memorial in Japan and it shows how origami cranes are traditionally grouped, we'll create a similar grouping of 1000 cranes as well.

We will also talk with students in Japan via the Going Global network

Media Art: Animation

In Media Art we are beginning to work on our big animation project and we are currently in preproduction writing and storyboarding the film.  The final animation will be due the in 3 weeks right before our December break so make sure the foundation is strong so you don't end up lost in the process later!

Media Arts: Stephen Fry Animation

Today in Media Arts we will complete and submit our stop-motion Stephen Fry Animation after tweeking the transitions and digitizing the drawings.  We will try our best to sync the sound and then submit the final animation.  Above is a short intro I made this weekend that we'll add to our animation from Vine.