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.

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Create Wednesday: Untraditional Selfie

This week for our CREATE WEDNESDAY challenge we will make a self portrait without using any art materials at all. Watch the video above and create a self portrait with any materials that aren't used for art and share it on Google Classroom.

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Studio Art: Sumo Paint Zentangle Name Drawing











This week in Studio Art we will learn the basic of the Zentangle drawing technique which mixes different patterns of doodles together for greater effect.  Below is a short tutorial about the basics. The goal is to create a Zentangle drawing of your name on Sumo Paint.



This is a technique that can be simple or as you build layers turn complex based upon your design, skill, and precision.  Below is an example of a more advanced Zentangle within a simple design.  The use of patterns that suggest 3 dimensions adds a complexity.  We will experiment with some different patters, use of color, and designs in class and later working on our peace poster designs next week.



Here's a great Zentangle design to begin with that we will follow which uses a simple square inside a square with a circle interior.  The shapes and technique are pretty simple but together form a complex design which gives a good example of how the process works.

Friday, September 25, 2020

Photography- Photographing Smithtown East

This week in Photography class we went outside to take pictures of three themes: the school, ourselves, and the nature around us.  Once the photographs were taken we learned the process of managing the images and uploading them to the computer through Google Drive then editing them in Adobe Photoshop,  Finally we will take 3 images from each theme and combine them into 1 design creatively.  Above is the example I made in class as a demo using my images today of photographing the Smithtown East school building.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

AP Art- Setting up an account

In AP Art we worked on setting up an account last week and we will talk about submitting payments today, it's due October 9 and the details are listed below.  Visit https://myap.collegeboard.org/login and set up an account if you haven't already, remember to save the username and password because some people forget it!

Here is some important information regarding payment for all AP Exams:

● Payment for all AP Exams will be due by October 9, 2020.

● All regular AP exams (EXCLUDING AP CAPSTONE EXAMS) are $95.00 per exam.

● All AP Capstone Seminar and/or AP Capstone Research Exams are $143.00 per exam.

Exams can be paid by:


❏ Credit and/or debit cards via SchoolPay. Please note there is a 3.5%

non-refundable convenience charge added to orders processed through

SchoolPay. Please visit https://www.schoolpay.com. If you do not have a current

account, please create a new account.

❏ Checks or money orders written out to “Smithtown HS East AP Exams”. Please

write the student’s name in the memo section of the check. (Students should

submit their payment to their AP Teacher).

❏ Cash (Students should submit their payment to South Administration at East).

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Create Wednesday- Creative Self Portraits


We are taking on Creative Self Portraits in any media for this Create Wednesday.  Check out the video above for more details but the idea is to make a self portrait that helps your personality come through in an interesting and unique way.

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Virtual Film Club/Media Art Honor Society

 

The Film Club/Media Art Honor Society will begin meeting in October virtually.  We watch and critique films together, collaborate on global projects in media from 3D printing to animation and film, and also function as an honor society volunteering in the community and hosting an induction annually. The yearbook photo above shows some of the types of activities we do each year and membership is open to all!

Monday, September 21, 2020

Adobe Spark 5 Frame Introduction Film

 


Today we will finish our first project by creating our Adobe Spark 5 Frame Introduction Video.  Add an introduction slide and music then take the 5 Spark frames we made last week and combine them into a film with Adobe Spark Video (or slideshow) and share it to Google Classroom/

Friday, September 18, 2020

Mindful Tools with Adobe Spark


We learned how to use Adobe Spark in our 1st week of art classes to introduce ourselves & share some of our mindfulness tools that help us relax, decompress and manage stress- here are a few terrific student examples!

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Adobe Spark Photo Story

 


This week we will be working on putting together a 5 frame Adobe Spark Photo Story using Spark Video introducing ourselves with the different Spark Post projects we are doing. The 5 Spark designs that should be submitted are listed below: 1. Selfie Introduction 2. 5-10 Things You Love To Do 3. Something you learned in the last 6 months 4. 2-3 Ways You Relax 5. What are your goals this year?

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Create Wednesdays: 4 Frame Story


This week we are going to create a 4 Frame Story with text, sound, and images using Adobe Spark Video, a free app. The theme is Long Distance Romance so make a creative, micro fiction story with a beginning, middle, and end. You can use the free images and music in Spark, watch the video link for a short tutorial! Here's Mr. Needles Example, looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

International Dot Day

 


Today is International Dot Day so we are going to be sharing the creative Augmented Reality Dot Drawings we all created last week! The video above shows author Peter H Reynolds introducing the celebration.



Monday, September 14, 2020

Adobe Spark Photo Story


 This week we'll be using Adobe Spark to put together a 5 frame Adobe Spark Photo Story using Spark Video introducing ourselves with the different Spark Post projects we are doing. Here's an example of the first image which uses the selfie we took in class last week.


Friday, September 11, 2020

Remembering September 11


Today is the  anniversary of the September 11 attacks so well take a moment to look at two short films from StoryCorps animated by The Rauch Brothers of two very personal stories from that day.  The first about John and Joe Vigiano (a firefighter from West Islip and a police officer from Medford) and the second about Michael Trinidad (who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald). 



I had a chance to visit the memorial and see the tribute in light in lower Manhattan from Brooklyn on the 15th anniversary which was meaningful as I was teaching the morning of September 11 and some of the students I taught lost parents that day.


Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Create Wednesday: Celebrating Dot Day

 

Today we are going to create an augmented reality drawing for International Dot Day, a celebration of creativity stemming from the book The Dot by Peter H Reynolds. We are going to draw a unique and original dot today then tomorrow we will use the AR app Quiver to augment our dot and take a creative photograph of it in 3D. The video below shows some examples from last year and goes into more detail but once we are complete we will share our work on social media to celebrate.
   

Here's an article I published in School Arts magazine on the project which includes some student work as well: School Arts September Issue

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Welcome to Artroom 161 2020-2021

 


It's been a long time since we were all together at school and things have changed a great deal but I'm looking forward to working with you and creating some amazing art this year!  We are going to focus on creativity and mindfulness this week to begin the year on a positive note.


We are going to work on a series of pieces that will be incorporated into a larger project using Adobe Spark next week.  This week we will discuss what it means to be creative and learn a few helpful creative mindfulness tools.


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