Studio Art: Drawing a digital Piskel animation

This week in Studio Art we'll experiment with drawing digitally but creating a short 6 second 8-bit digital animation using the free PISKEL software. You should create an account by using your school google account and begin by drawing a frame after the in-class demonstration. The you can copy or create new frames and change them slightly to create a simple GIF animation like the example shown above. We use this software in other classes like digital media to create longer animations and video game characters.

Digital Media: Video Games

In Digital Media our Video Games are due tomorrow and we will spend a day playing and rating each others video games.  Here's more help pages in case your stuck: Scratch Wiki & Scratch programming basics

Below is an example from Kevin and Erin's games in the 4th period games- Kevin's game is a 3 level space shooting game similar to asteroids.  Try using the rubric below and rating the game

Level 1: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/223737659/

Level 2: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/225061717/

Level 3: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/225334020/

Erin's game is a dodging game using points. Try using the rubric below and rating the game tto:

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/224766690/

Here's another example from Chris in period 2:

Level 1: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/224737669/

Seven Days Left Of Class

There are only seven days left of class so make sure all of your outstanding projects are in and that you are preparing for the final using our class quizlet review here: Needles Quizlet

Studio Art: Final Review

Media Art: Final Review

Art Honor Society: Completing the Challenge Day Mural

We only have 2 Art Honor Society meetings left this year as well as a field trip so today we will be completing the Challenge Day Mural by adding the final pieces of text for the year.  Next year we will continue and add a full grade level.

Studio Art: Oliver Jeffers Inspired Collage

Earlier this month I spoke with artists and children's book author Oliver Jeffers at his book release party for his new bool "Here We Are" and asked him what his advice was for us as we work on creating a children's book together.  "Be authentic" he said and shared that "the second I found my style was when I stopped trying to be someone else".  He also said it was important to "learn how to listen to your hand" so we will take that advice for inspiration for our children's book in class.

Robert Indiana

One of the artist we just recently learned about, Robert Indiana, the Pop artist who created the famous “love” sculpture some of us saw on our trip to NYC died on Saturday at his home in Vinalhaven, Maine he was 89 years old.  Here's a link to his NY Times obituary: 

Robert Indiana, 89, Who Turned ‘Love’ Into Enduring Art, Is Dead

AP Art: Where The Wild Things Are

Last week we learned a little bit about children's book author Maurice Sendak, author of  and this week we will continue to look into what a career in illustration, cartooning, and children's books looks like with a look at Oliver Jeffers and others.

Digital Media: Designing a Video Game

In Digital Media our culminating project this year will be Designing a Video Game.  You will need to create your characters in Piskel, design a background in Photoshop, and use Blockly in Scratch to code the game.  You have two weeks to put everything together but the characters and background are due on Monday.

Just 3 weeks left of classes left so we're using the skills we built in #media class to create some #art to show what we've learned this year, here's an animated GIF created by Hayley, a9th grade student! pic.twitter.com/ajPkrXM7rm

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) May 18, 2018

Media Art Honor Society: Field Trip to Cinema Arts Center

In Media Art Honor Society we will planning our last Field Trip of the year to the Cinema Arts Center along with the French Honor Society to see the film The Butterfly on March 30.  Field Trips forms will be available and we will also go over the end of the year events including our induction.

Film: The Power of Improv

In Film class we are learning about The Power of Improv and how it can aid writing and character development. Above is a short TED talk on the power of improv and creativity on the brain that will support some of what we are learning and it's power.

Studio Art: 3D

In Studio Art we are going to begin the 3D unit with a group 3D printing project.  Each group will be assigned an artist that we have already researched and learned about and you will work together to reproduced one of their works as a 3D print.  All of the artist have created sculptures but the work does not necessarily have to be a sculpture, it can be a detail from a painting, street art, or anything else that works.  Above is an example from a 3D printing collaboration in which each group printed part of the sculpture and combined it to reproduce the bust of George Washington and below is an example that I created with students last year.

AP Art Test Day

Friday was the AP Art Test and we are now complete, congrats on all the work you've done this year.  Today is a catch-up day- if you did not submit all your work and answers to the questions to me via Google please do so and let me know which pieces were submitted for Breadth, Concentration, and for Quality so I can reference them in the future if necessary.  Above is an example of a quality section from Ilysa as an example for future classes.

Art Honor Society: 2018 Sketchbook Project

Today in Art Honor Society we will reflect on our 2018 Sketchbook Project that was just completed and mailed in, it will be digitized and going on a tour of North America this summer with stops in New York City, Toronto, and Chicago.  We will also continue to plan our Zen garden and begin writing how we will each "Be The Change" on our Challenge Day mural.

Studio Art: digital illustration

Our next assignment is to create a digital illustration based on this week's Illustration Friday topic: Utopia (an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect).  For this illustration we will create at least 3 separate layers using Photoshop and use the Wacom tablet to draw.  You can use your imagination to create whatever look for utopia you'd like but the full US paper page should be colored or shaded.  I included a link to the art attack video above that shows a professional version of a digital illustration, we'll be using the same format as well as a link to the Illustration Friday page which show other examples.  Below is a cool digital example from artist Sombras Blancas from Illustration Friday.

Digital Media: Shanti Peace Poster

In Digital Media Art we are working on creating designs for the 2018-2019 Shanti Peace Poster contest.  Each student should create a 8"x10' poster for the contest, the theme is PEACE AND GANDHI and you are free to use quotes from Gandhi but make sure you  his name correctly.. We will begin by creating thumbnails and I'll discuss your concepts with you and give you suggestions then we will work in mixed media to create the poster in landscape view.  Each grade level has prizes and finalists may be considered for inclusion in the 2018 Shanti Calendar.  The examples above were finalists from previous years and here's a link to the some winning Smithtown designs from past years: 2011 Peace Poster.  The final poster design will be due on Wednesday and we will critique the results in class.

AP Art: AP Testing Week

It is AP Testing Week and the AP Art test is due on Friday meaning all digital images should be uploaded at this point on the AP Studio Art Digital Submission page and the 5 quality works should be mounted by Wednesday so they can be ready for prep on Thursday.  Be sure to share you concentration statements with me as well if you want me to review them once again before submitting.

2018 AP Senior Show 1: Ilysa

This week we're celebrating the opening of our 2018 Smithtown HS East senior AP Art shows with Ilysa's Gallery Exhibit, great to see how much she's developed as an artist over the last 3 years- terrific work!

Digital Media: Creating Animated GIF's

via GIPHY
In Digital Media we are creating animated GIF's in Photoshop like the example above from GIPHY this week.  We had 2 days to create the drawings on layers and today we'll be doing the animating using the timeline.  They are due on Friday and we'll take a look at all of them in class.

AP Art: Digital Test Submission

All AP Art work is due to be uploaded to the AP Studio Art Digital Submission page for the AP test by this Friday May 4.  All 12 breadth works should be photographed and online now and all 12 concentration pieces should be added along with the 2 AP statements.