Art Honor Society: Vans Custom Culture Contest

There is just one week left in the Vans Custom Culture Contest so we are finishing our shoe before the end of the quarter Friday.  Here's some images showing the process of creating our shoe designs.  Next week we need to work on our poster designs for the last design component explained below:

THE ADDITIONAL DESIGN COMPONENT: STUDENTS ARE CHALLENGED TO CREATE A DESIGN OR PRINT THAT BEST EXEMPLIFIES TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN ON A SUPPLIED 11X14 SHEET OF PAPER.

Art honor Society: Sketchbook Project

This week we are finishing up our Sketchbook Project for 2017 in Art honor Society and it is due on March 31, Friday.  We'll put the final touches on it and it'll be sent out to the The Sketchbook Project Mobile Library and the Brooklyn Art Library where it can be checked out and viewed by others.

Digital Media: Re-designing a new flag for the town of Smithtown

this week we are working on re-designing a new flag for the town of Smithtown and we are going to take a note from Roman Mars, host of the 99% Invisible (one of my favorite design podcasts), and work to create a better flag for our town, Smithtown.  We are going to watch his TED talk and learn about vexillology, the study of flags, and then critique our town flag based on the basic design rules that he shares written below.

1. Keep it simple. (The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.)
2. Use meaningful symbolism.
3. Use two to three basic colors.
4. No lettering or seals. Never use writing of any kind.
5. Be distinctive


Our flag is definitely what we learned Vexillologists would call a "SOB" (a seal on a bedsheet) so we are going to help our town out by creating a new flag design that represents the 21st Century.  We are also going to use the Quiver app to create a virtual augmented reality video show off how great our new flag designs would look flying over the school and in town.  Be creative, be original- this project is due on Wednesday 3/29!

Here's a few of my favorite flag redesigns from last year for inspiration!

We will create 6 thumbnail drawings in color, then one full color design then take that design and bring it into Augmented Reality using a template.  The last step of the project is to record your flag design with augmented reality and share it, below is an example from Jak last year.

Film: Cinematography Basics

In film class we are learning some cinematography basics before we begin creating our animation storyboards so that we can consider the different angles and perspective's we might want to use. Here's a link to some of the examples we studied in class: Film Studies 101: The 30 Camera Shots Every Film Fan Needs To Know.  We will have a quiz on the shots we learned next week and today we'll begin out treatment and storyboard for our animation.  Below is a classic example of a storyboard from Star Wars that contains the establishing shot as well as many of the basic shots we learned in class.

Digital media- 3D Printing

We've been digitizing & #3Dprinting #art from artists we learn about each week w/ @MorphiApp for March's #YouthArtMonth-Keith Haring's dog! pic.twitter.com/3XsCapkdwA

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) March 26, 2017

In digital media class we are almost complete with our March: Youth Art Month 3D Printing Project. This is the final week of the month so we will finish up our last prints and share them with the world. To close out our 3D printing project we will research and design a print from an artist and finish printing each of our own personal designs so make sure everything is prepared!

Studio Art: I Voted sticker Design Contest

In Studio Art we are celebrating Youth Art Month and democracy by creating designs for the I Voted sticker Design Contest this week.  We began by sketching out ideas in colored pencil in our sketchbooks but we need to digitize the best designs and edit them in Photoshop.  

The final sticker design should have the NYC Votes logo as well as the text "I Voted" and it should be 2"x2".  The design should be finished and uploaded by April 14, 2017 at 5:00 pm ET.  Above is a great example by Kelsey in our 1st period class and below is a terrific design from Adelaide.

Film: Animation Quiz

Tomorrow is our first quiz on the animation basics so be sure to study our CLASS QUIZLET to study the terms for the quiz.  After the quiz we will work on writing the 250 word review of Zootopia in class which will be due typed at the end of the day.

Art Honor Society: Looking Back on our Field Trip to NYC Art museums

We put together our yearbook page in Art Honor Society this week using some of the photographs from our Field Trip to NYC where we visited the Met and The Cooper Hewitt Museums last week.  Here's a few images from the trip!

Film: Animation Process

In Film class we watched the Oscar winning animated film Zootopia and looked at the process that went into making the film.  We will now start working on our own animations using the same process we learned about at Disney and Pixar on a smaller scale.  We will begin the Animation Process by focusing on characters and concept so you will create a story pitch along with character designs which will be due on Monday.  We will also wrap the film by writing a short critique that is 250 words for Friday.  the film review shouldn't tell basic information, instead get right into the details and talk about what you liked and didn't like and why as well as what you learned from the experience in class.

Studio Art: 3D Chess Set Design

Today in Studio Art we will be finalizing and grading the 3D Chess Set Design we have been working on using Morphi on the iPad.  Arrange the 6 Chess pieces in a row like the example above from Brandon in the Period 1 class and they will be uploaded to Thingverse so that they can be printed.

Digital Media: 3D modeling

This week in Digital Media class we will begin experimenting with 3D modeling using some of the best, free 3D capture tools available.  Above is the example of my scan from our class demo and below is a short Trnio video tutorial showing how the app works best that is useful regardless of which capture app your using.  We are going to begin by scanning people so choose a friend, teacher, or relative to scan and then have them scan you.  We'll bring those 3D models into class next week and begin working on them.

Trnio Tutorial from Trnio on Vimeo.

Art Honor Society: NYC Art Museum Field Trip

This Friday the National Art Honor Society will hold it's annual NYC Art Museum Field Trip and we'll be visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and if time and weather allows the Cooper Hewitt Museum and Neue Galerie.  It may be a cold day so dress appropriately because we'll walk from one museum to the other, about 8 blocks.  We'll also be eating at the Met cafeteria so you can bring lunch or buy it there.  It's also St.Patricks Day so lets get our green on.

Studio Art: Drawing in 3D with Morphi

In Studio Art we will experiment with drawing in 3D with Morphi.  We will use the designs we created in class last week and try to created 3D version of them in class using the various inputs in Morphi App.  Below is the example I created on Monday from my sketchbook.

Spent the morning playing w/ @MorphiApp's #3Dprinting photographic input using #cartoons & #drawings from my sketchbook for #art class demos pic.twitter.com/r6V3rSS2AJ

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) March 14, 2017

Digital Media: 3D Augmented Reality with Morphi

Using #Morphi, @SmithtownCSD #artteacher @timneedles made a #3ddesign w/mirroring+we placed on his Tshirt w/#AR. #PD pic.twitter.com/qYydK1sxpM

— morphi (@MorphiApp) March 11, 2017

In Digital Media we will experiment with 3D Augmented Reality in class using the Morphi App and it's ability to create stop motion-animation.  Above is an example of the process to visualize a t-shirt design but we will play with the technology and see what other extension and possibilities it has then we will create a video game incorporating it.

Studio Art: Designers who Impact NY

In Studio Art we are learning about 2 more great designers today in class who have each made a big impact on NY: Milton Glaser and Massimo Vignelli.  We'll learn about their history and designs as well as some of their impact on what we see each day.  They will be included with the previous designers we learned about on our test next week.

Photographers Forum Contest 2017

Congratulations to Jillian Davis from AP Art and National Art Honor Society who's photograph shown above was chosen as a Finalist in Photographers Forum 37th Annual 2017 High School and College competition.  Her image will be featured in Photographer’s Forum’s limited edition hardcover book Best of College & High School Photography 2017.

Studio Art: Book Jacket re-design

In Studio Art we learned about our first 2 designers: Chip Kidd and David Carson.  Now we will create designs using the information we learned about the process beginning with a book jacket.  We will each re-design a jacket for our favorite book using the design principals we learned and the advice each of the designers gave on respecting the audience's intellect and legibility's interaction with communication.

The Harry Potter dust jacket book cover above by Kathie Bayne is a good example of what basics should be included and what a finished design looks like.  You can choose any book you like to redesign as long as it's in the school library.  Below is an additional TED talk by Chip Kidd in which he discusses designing books for authors like Charles Schultz, David Sedaris, and David Rakoff.

AP Studio Art: 31 Nights Extra Credit

The March Extra Credit assignment for AP and Studio Art is Michael Bell's 31 Nights #k12artchallenge you can view some samples of the work above in different media.  I learned about 31 nights this weekend at the NAEA convention and it seems like an interesting series of prompts that can be varied and allow for great art.

Above are the first 7 self-portrait themes- interpret them in a personal and original way and be creative!  Feel free to share them on social media with the #k12artchallenge and #31nights hashtags. The extra credit is due by the end of the month, March 31.

Studio Art: Chess Set Design

In Studio Art we are each creating our own unique Chess Set Design.  We will start by sketching out designs and coloring them in our sketchbooks and then move to Tinkercad to create 3D models.

A standard game of chess, each of the two players begins a game with the following 16 chess pieces:

• 1 king.
• 1 queen.
• 2 rooks.
• 2 bishops.
• 2 knights.
• 8 pawns.

Digital Media: 3D printing

In Digital Media we are beginning to 3D print our designs in class so they must all be saved as a STL file and be sized appropriately to print on the Makerbot.

While the printing is occurring we will also be working on re-designs for our new classroom including seating, desks, layout, color, and concept.  We want to create a better space for learning and one that encourages creativity.  so we will create a blueprint and a digital perspective model.  Below are basic examples of what that might look like for a traditional classroom but remember this is an art room so keep it colorful and creative!