Welcome to Art Room 161

This blog was created as an extension of the dialogue that began in our classroom and the purpose is to share creative ideas, images, and critiscm. All posts should be appropriate for the high school classroom and critiscm should be helpful and positive.

Monday, March 30, 2015

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!



Friday, March 27, 2015

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.



Thursday, March 26, 2015

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.


Wednesday, March 25, 2015

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.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015


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:

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.


Monday, March 23, 2015

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.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

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.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

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.


Tuesday, March 17, 2015

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




Monday, March 16, 2015

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.

Friday, March 13, 2015

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.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

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!

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

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

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

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.

Monday, March 9, 2015

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.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

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.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

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.




Monday, March 2, 2015

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.

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