Tim Needles blog for art & media art classes at Smithtown H.S. East
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.
This month's Extra Credit assignment for painting, studio art, and AP art class is to participate in a full week of Inktober. The image above gives the basics but also tag me in the images with @TimNeedles and #Needlesclass so I can see them. Below is a demo of my first work for the theme of Swift by drawing and painting author Johnathan Swift.
January's Studio Art extra credit is based on the art history unit we just completed. You will recieve Extra Credit for watching any of the 3 films available streaming online this month based on artists we learned about: (Banksy) Exit to the Gift Shop, (Frida Kahlo) Frida, (jean Micheal Basquiat) Basquiat.
To get full credit the film review should be 250 words and not reiterate basic information such as cast and plot, it should instead focus on your opinion on the film based on your knowledge of the artist and what we've learned. To give you a better idea of the expectation you can read this example film review I wrote for the Short & Sweet NYC blog for the art bio film Finding Vivian Maier.
This week we are drawing and designing Mini-Comics in Studio Art and Drawing class. We learned early in the week about the basic elements of a story, the folding techniques, and the variations in the media. Today we begin drawing and designing our own.
You can base you comic on the character you created in our warm-up cartooning activities or start create new characters but the final comic should include 8 pages including a cover with your name and a title and a back with Smithtown High School East and Mr. Needles written.
After you comic is shaded, toned, and/or colored you should open it back up to one piece of paper and scan it. We will be scanning these comics after they are completed to show and trade them.
Happy New Year everyone! Today we are going to work one creating a #OneWord resolution for 2016 and making it a graphic image 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. Remember to keep it positive and focused, we are starting out on a blank slate in 2016!
Today we will start the first section of our Studio Art Final Exam with the multiple choice test and tomorrow we will complete the rest of the test. Make sure you study from our class quizlet!
In Studio Art we began our Drawing unit and are beginning to review the drawing terminology. The video above shows the basic elements or art and design that we are working with and you can also reference my Quizlet study guide to review all the terms you'll be responsible for. We'll have a short quiz Friday on the drawing terms.
Now that we all know how to make paper beads we'll get a little advanced in Studio Art with more ornate paper beads and a challenge to create a paper vase. Above is a tutorial on how to make the paper beads more decorative with different varnishes and color combinations.
Below is a simple tutorial on how to make a paper vase or pot. If anyone wants to try it'll be this month's extra credit assignment so find some magazines to recycle and get started!
Today we will have our test on the sculptors and designers we studied in studio art. It's a straight-forward matching test so look at your notes about what the different artists work looks like to be prepared. I choose artists like Saul Bass who created the work shown above who are influential and distinct so they wont be confused with others.
To begin the second semester we will be researching artists who work in three dimensional art, sculpture, printmaking, and graphic design which are the major units we'll be covering. Below is the master list of artists we'll be covering and just as we did last semester we'll have a test on them after the presentations. Check the assignment drive to see which artist you've been assigned and complete a PowerPoint with 10 full slide images, 10 relevant facts, and a title page with the artists name, birth (and death) and your name and period by Friday 2/7.
Today in studio art we will begin looking at two major design movements of the early 20th Century: Art Nouveauand Art Deco which will be our inspiration for our next design project. We will learn about these two diffesnt art styles the incorperate aspects of them into the design of an event poster using both traditional media and computers. We will also learn about modern poster designers such as: John Van Hamersveld,Daniel Danger, Jay Ryan, and Tara MacPherson and take a look at clips from the documentary Just like Being There which looks at the subject.
Thursday is the image test on the art history unit so today we will be reviewing in class and going over your new assignment which is to respond to a work by any of the artists we covered (all of whom are listed below).
Above is a work by one of the contemporary street artistists we covered, Banksy, who had a improptu outdoor gallery piece put up this weekend under the highline in Chelsea, NYC. The pieces are a collaboration with well known Brazilian brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo known better as Os Gemeos and they are a great example of the assignment because while they pieces respond to one another the style of both artists is identifyable and intact. This is one of the most interesting works from his New York residency this month, at least content wise because it refers to the Occupy movement while also keeping a sense of humor commenting on the art world in NY which is based in Chelsea.
This week in Studio Art we're learning how to create different types of Contour Line drawings. Above is short video showing how to draw a basic contour line drawing of your hand like you did yesterday. Today we are going draw a blind contour and a continous-line contour drawing as well as the gesture and contour drawings.
Last week in studio art we did an earthworksproject taking a note from artists like:Vik Muniz, Andy Goldsworthy,Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Smithson. Above is an really cool example of a 3D earthwork from Allison in 7th period and below is an image from 4th period's outdoor ink drawing.
In studio arts this week we designed t-shirts in Adobe Illustrator and above is a great example from Shelby, next week we'll go over the specifics of actually creating your own small t-shirt shop such as mine on MySoti
This week we completed our first digital typography project and the results were diverse and successful. Students had 3 different options in terms of creating a design for their "bucket list" of things they wanted to accomplish in life and here are two great examples from Jess (above) and Reny (below) that used totally different techniques
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Today I'm out sick but don't worry I'm home finishing up your grades not at a wild beach party. Being that it is National Poetry Month it does bring to mind one of my favorite poems by Pedro Pietri, co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café in NYC which I posted below and on video form above.
In studio art class we are finishing up our digital typography project and beginning the type art portrait that I introduced last week so if anyone is finished early you can choose any poet off of this list on Poets.org and find an image, a short bio of the poet, and a sample of their writing to work from and I'll introduce the specifics tomorrow. All my other classes should continue working on their current projects, I'll see you soon!
Telephone Booth #905 1/2 by Pedro Pietri
Woke up this morning
feeling excellent,
picked up the telephone
dialed the number of my
equal opportunity employer
to inform him i will not
be in to work today.
“are you feeling sick?”
the boss asked me
“no sir,” i replied:
“i am feeling too good
to report to work today.
if i feel sick tomorrow
i will come in early!”
The good grey poet Walt Whitman was born in Huntington and actually taught for a short time in Smithtown school district so this week we will be working on creating a work of visual poetry based on one of his famed poem "Song of the Open Road" from Leaves of Grass for a contest sponsored by the Walt Whitman Birthplace. We will begin by looking at poem then writing our own short poem about the road which we will the illustrate and design visually using a variety of materials including drawing, paint, photographs, and the computer in order to create a small book. The project is due one week from today on March 12 and the entries will be submitted later that week.
