Have a Happy and Safe Holiday Break

 

Today is our last day of class in 2020 so I want to wish everyone a Happy and Safe Holiday Break and Best Wishes for 2021! 

Photography: The Decisive Moment

 In Photography we are learning about Henri Cartier Bresson's concept of the Decisive Moment to prepare for our final assignment which is a long form photo story. We started watching the short documentary above which we will finish today and review the details of our final photo story project in class.

 

#25DaysofMaking project

 

We are sharing our one word project with the Maker community including it as Day 30 in the #25DaysofMaking project. We are going to share some of our results with the world so now that we have our word chosen and designed we'll be learning to make a digital 3D version of it using tools like Tinkercad or Morphi.

National Art Honor Society: Among Us Tournament

 

We had a Virtual Reality Holiday Party this week in the National Art Honor Society and our last meeting of the year will occur on Monday at 3pm for out Among Us Tournament with the SADD club. We'll be working with  SADD on a number of projects this year so it's a fun introduction, join in to play and see which club comes out on top!

Studio Art: One Word for 2021

We are heading into a New Year so this week we are going to work one creating a #OneWord resolution for 2021 and making it a graphic image using 3D design that we can use for inspiration.  This concept comes from author and speaker Jon Gordon who came from Smithtown along with Jimmy Page (not the Led Zeppelin guitarist) and Dan Britton who wrote the book One Word that Will Change Your Life.  Jon Gordon returned to Smithtown speak here a few years ago and was inspirational, below is a look at his Football highlight reel from the late 1980's which appears to be taken here at Smithtown East at points.



The idea behind choosing one word is that it's simple, memorable, and more realistic as a driving force for you but it's important to be authentic and think about what you really need in your life before choosing a word.  Here's a clip of Jon on the Today Show talking about the process and the questions to ask yourself when considering your word.  I chose my word. CREATE, early this year and painted it on the classroom wall as a daily reminder which has made an impact.

We are going to talk about how to choose your one word then you will create an 8"x10" design incorporating the word to use for inspiration.  Tomorrow we'll finish our designs and then Wednesday we'll share our work and talk about our goals and why we choose the words we did. We'll learn about 3D design and make our word designs able to be 3D printed. Remember to keep it positive and focused, we are starting out on a blank slate in 2021!

Photography: Using the Tiltshift Technique

In Photography we are continuing our work on Alternative Processes this week with creating tiltshift images. Tilt-shift effects are done either optically, via a special (and expensive) lens, or more usually, in Photoshop. For this first experiment we will use the tiltshift maker link to create 3 tiltshift versions of your photographs. We'll be using the technique and pairing it with others in the future so spend some time seeing what works and getting acquainted. Here are a few tips on what makes for a good tiltshift image:

• The photo must be taken from above, but not directly overhead. This only reflects what someone taking a photo of a miniature scene would likely do; it’s unlikely they would (or even could) be level to the subject. If you have a direct over shot, you won’t be able to get a decent depth of field that is required.
• A simple scene is usually better than a complicated one. This is because miniature scenes are usually very simple; you wouldn’t find a dense city block, for example, in a model railroad scene. 
• Photo sharpness is a must, as well as good lighting. There will be enough blur in the photo as it is; your focal point must be sharp.
• If people are in the scene, they need to be fairly obscure and small. Again, reflecting what you’d see in a real miniature scene. People are very small, and not well detailed in miniature scenery. 
• Generally, avoid wide shots, and make sure the scene is interesting – for instance, an aerial photo of a cathedral with spires and flying buttresses is interesting, while an aerial photo of a flat-topped shopping mall would not be.

National Art Honor Society: Artist Trading Cards

We are mailing out our 2nd round of Artist Trading Cards with other schools around the country this week. We'll also be creating ATC's to exchange with each other for the holidays as well as creating some cards to exchange with students at some of our district elementary schools!

Art Honor Society: Artist Trading Card Exchange

 

This year in addition to making artist trading cards to exchange with other high schools around the world we'll also do a trade with some of our own elementary schools. Create a card that's appropriate for students k-4 and we'll do a trade at the end of the month then take it a step further and develop an art exchange!

Studio Art: 8-bit Self Portrait's

 

In Studio Art class we are continuing our STEAM unit by creating 8-bit self portrait's in Piskel.  Here are a few terrific examples from class. The next step will be learning how to make them into simple 6 second animated GIFs.

Photography: Coding a Digital Photo Booth

This week we are going to learn how to Code a Photo Booth with CODE AVENGERS to celebrate Hour of Code and CS Week. We'll follow the step by step directions on the link below together then each student will create their own photo book app.

Computer Science Week

We're working on new STEAM projects to celebrate CS Week & Hour of Code- we'll make CODE ART with Code dot org & Scratch then experiment with new technologies! We'll start by learning a little bit about the TIME magazine teenager of the year Gitanjali Rao then start working on some CS and art projects of our own!

Collaborative Doodle with Jamboard

 

For this week's Creative Challenge we will try to work together to complete a Doodle Drawing using Jamboard. Click the links on the Google Classroom and finish the first doodle yourself and submit it. Then we will work together to complete the a second drawing as a class.

Photography: Photo Transfers

In Photography we are learning about the world of Photo Transfers and preparing images for our first experiments with the alternative photography process. We'll be working with a few different techniques such as: wet transfers with alcohol hand sanitizer and gel medium along with wet and dry techniques with different surfaces.

Studio Art: Drawing with Code

 

This week we will begin learning the basics of coding using Code.org.  Were beginning with the basics but the concept can lead to really cool technology such as the sand table featured below.   A link is posted on Google Classroom, follow the step by step instructions to complete the 10 levels and make sure your computer coding is completed by Wednesday at the start of class.