Japan Society Junior Fellows Final Projects

Our guests from Japan presented their final projects at the Japan Society on Sunday and had some interesting insights about their experiences and our school.

Aya presented data she collected from Smithtown East students and her Japanese classmates about fear of terrorism and thoughts on Japan and US policies, Kenga showed off his collaborative Japan-US painting, and Imagine presented on what is means to be cosmopolitan and international.  The presentations included many students and teachers from Smithtown East and were really interesting!

Studio Art: Creating Typography for Television

In Studio Art we are learning typography and how to create fonts and this semester our theme is Television.  We will now create a usable font using online freeware.

We watched clips of 5 television shows: Freaks and Geeks, Bobs Burgers, The Unbreakable Kimmie Schmit, Mad Men, (and The Regular Show or Arrested Development depending on your period).  Choose one of the television shows and create a new font that represents the show in the titles.  Include the entire alphabet (capitol and lowercase), digits 0-9, and the @, #, :, ?, !, +, -, * symbols.  Below is an example of Bob's Burgers Original font and a variation under it.

Art Honor Society: Japanese Junior Fellows Students

This week in Art Honor Society we had our last club meeting with our Japanese Junior Fellows Students before the leave for Japan this weekend.  We created a collaborative animation and worked together on projects for their ceremony on Sunday.  We also put together our yearbook pages and had our first live stream in the club.

Extra Credit: Looking into Smithtown’s Past

Share your creative skills and celebrate your community’s 350th Anniversary! Submit an original work of visual art or photography that responds to, reflects, or is inspired by the theme of Smithtown's Sesquarcentennial Celebration Looking into Smithtown’s Past.  The example above is from Samantha illustrates what should be included (5 selfies- 1 from each location and a final photograph or drawing which will be entered).

Entry Deadline: April 24, 2015 (April 6 for Extra Credit 3rd Quarter)
Exhibition Dates May 23 – June 16 at the Mills Pond House Gallery.

Cash prizes will be awarded:  $500 for 1stPlace, $350 for 2nd Place, and $150 for 3rd Place. Winning entries will be featured in Smithtown News.

For more information see STAC's website here: Looking into Smithtown’s Past

AP Art: Online breadth section submissions

Today in AP art class we will be uploading their breadth section onto the AP Studio Art Submissions for the AP test. Make sure all the work is sized and the media is stated, below is the information you need to know:

School Code: 335001
School: SMITHTOWN HIGH SCH E CAMPUS
Teacher Key: xwt0100

Studio Art: Typography

FROM PAPER TO SCREEN from Thibault de Fournas on Vimeo.

In Advanced Media and in studio art classes we are currently working with typography and the short video above gives a terrific overview of what we have been learning.  In advanced media we are in the process of creating a similar kinetic typography animation collaboratively and in studio art students are completing their first type design project which is due today.

The Long Island Connected Educator Summit is coming up this weekend and they have released the finalists for their logo contest which features a number of Smithtown East entries and is open to pubic voting.  Check the links below to cast a vote for your favorite design:

• Finalists link
• Voting link

Studio Art: Type Design Illustration

This week we'll be creating font's that illustrate words or phrases, above is a great example from llustrator Lex Wilson along with one with James Victore below,  We'll begin by reviewing a few new terms for type design then create 5 thumbnail designs on Monday than sketching out a final design Tuesday and complete the coloring Wednesday.  The final piece is due on Thursday.

The Columbus Museum of Art's #MobilePhotoNow Photography Exhibit

This weekend I flew to Columbus, Ohio for the #MobilePhotoNow Photography exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Art which featured two of my photographs including one pictured above from Smithtown's homecoming spirit week last year with students from my media class.  The show was terrific and featured photographers from 40 different countries.  It was reviewed by the New York Times and Newsweek.  More than 5,000 photographers from 89 different countries submitted nearly 45,000 images via Instagram for the show and work from 240 photographers were chosen by co-curaters from the museum and Instagram #JJ editors.

Studio Art: Design Test Day

Today we'll take a test on the design artists we learned about in class with a short visual and written section with a few vocabulary terms.  You can review the terms we learned on quizlet.

Welcome to our Japanese Visitors

This week we have Japanese visitors joining us in class through the Japan Society's exchange program.

SCAD Day

Today SCAD, the Savannah College of Art & Design of will be joining us in AP Art and the National Art Honor Society to talk about their school, program, and to review portfolios.

Advanced Media Art: Storyboarding Animation

In Advanced Media Art we are beginning work on our animation projects and we'll review storyboarding today before writing the pitch.  Students can work in groups or individually but the length and expectations of the film will differ based on the type of animation and the amount of people working on it.  The film above shows the process of becoming a storyboard artist and offers some insight into what's necessary in the job.  Storyboards will be due on Tuesday 3/24

Scholastic Art and Writing 2015 Regional Winners

Congrats to Luke, Rose, Troy, Andrew, Jamie and Kristin from Mr. Needles AP Art, Drawing and Studio Art classes on winning regional awards in the 2015 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

Digital Learning Day

We will be celebrating Digital Learning Day today in all of my classes and throughout the building on March 13 by creating digital art, short films, and animations in class and sharing them throughout the school and online.

Advanced Media: Post-it note animation challenge

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In Advanced Media class we just began working on animation and today we begin the Post-it note animation challenge which will be collected a week from today on Thursday March 19.  Create a 6-10 second animation incorporating post-it notes in any creative way and share it on social media using the hashtag #needlesmedia.  An example I created in study hall on Vine is above as an example but be creative and have fun!

Studio Art: The Art & Design Research Project

We are research influential designers and artists this week such as David Carson who's featured in the TED talk above, we'll each present our artists in front of class and there will be a test on all of the artist and designers Wednesday next week.  Below is the list of designers we'll be researching this semester that will be on next week's test:

Studio Art Semester II Artist Research Project 2015

1. Alan Fletcher
2. Albrecht Dürer
3. Alvin Lustig
4. Andy Goldsworthy
5. Armin Hofmann
6. Auguste Rodin­­
7. Bradbury Thompson
8. Chip Kidd
9. Christo
10. Cipe Pineles
11. Claes Oldenburg
12. Dan Flavin
13. David Carson
14. George Lois
15. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec
16. Herb Lubalin
17. Herbert Matter
18. Isamu Noguchi
19. Jack FAILE
20. Jacqueline Casey
21. James Victore
22. Massimo Vignelli
23. Michael Bierut
24. Milton Glaser
25. Neville Brody
26. Otl Aicher
27. Paul Rand
28. Paula Scher
29. Ruth Ansel
30. Saul Bass
31. Stefan Sagmeister
32. Ushio Shinohara

Media Art: Character Animation

In Media Art class we are working on Character design for Animation and today we will look at how the process works in the industry and then work on it ourselves in class.  The video above gives a look into the job of a character designer on the Smurfs from SONY and the video below gives some great history of character design with Chuck Jones and others from FULL SAIL.

Heckscher Museum: Long Island’s Best

The Heckscher Museum's prestigious Long Island’s Best juried exhibition features works of art created by Long Island high school students in grades 9-12, based on artwork shown in The Heckscher Museum of Art during the 2014-2015 school year. Today is the delivery day so any students that created work for the show mush have their art ready to show and hang along with a artist form.

Art Honor Society: A Note from Jon Burgerman

The Art Honor Society will meet today and begin preparing for our annual induction.  We will be 
creating a large mural to use at the event in the style of one of my favorite artists, Jon Burgerman.
He gives some really great advice in the clip above and it's great to see his actual working process.
The film also features the painting that I bought of his at Tara McPherson's Cotton Candy Machine 
gallery summer small works show in the introduction.

Studio Art: Mosaic Design Installation

In Studio Art class we are creating a collaborative Mosaic Design Installation this week with each student creating a design which will piece together into a larger work.  Today the designs are due and we'll begin creating a thumbnail mock up before we begin the final work.

The examples above show how different colors and designs work together, we'll be doing something similar but within some specialized shapes to create a mural.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Monday we celebrated the birthday of children's author and artist Dr. Seuss!  The video above shows off some of the work students in Studio Art classes created using some of Dr. Seuss's most loved quotes after we learned a little bit about his life and career.

Teach Like A Pirate EdChat Tonight

March is Young Artists Month and to celebrate I'll be hosting the Teach Like A Pirate (or #TLAP for short) educational Twitter chat tonight at 9pm EST to talk arts and creativity in the classroom!  If you haven't participated before it's a fun, fast-paced nationwide EdChat and I included the questions I'll be posting below:

If you haven't heard of Teach Like A Pirate it's a terrific book on education by educator and author Dave Burgess which was followed up recently by P is for Pirate by Dave and his wife Shelley Burgess.  Both books are great reads and resources!

Since it's a chart about using the arts and creativity I'll be using Vine videos that were created around the school to ask each question such as the example below.