Media Art: Voice Acting

Today in Media Art we are going to learn about the basics of Voice Acting and watch some clips from John Di Maggio's film on Voice Overs and Voice Acting I KNOW THAT VOICE.

Art Honor Society Haunted House today!

Today is the Art & Media Art Honor Society's Haunted House and the Safe Halloween Spooky Hallways program so we'll be setting up and dressing up after school and the event runs till about 7:30pm!

Shanti Peace Poster Contest

Congratulations to Paige in our AP Art class on being one of the two winners of this years Shanti Peace Poster contest.  She will receive her award on Wednesday next week from the Shanti Fund organizers and the Suffolk County Executive, Steve Bellone.  Below are some of Smithtown East's other finalists who are still in the running for inclusion for this year's calendar: (T- B: Rose, Jamie, Natalie, Kyle, & Emily)

Art Honor Society: Annual Haunted House

Today the Art Honor Society will meet today to continue to assemble our annual Haunted House for the Spooky Hallways event on Friday.  This year we have three new themed rooms we'll be putting together along with the Media Art Honor Society.

Studio Art: Mini Comic Books Due Today

Today in Studio Art class our Mini Comic Books are due.  We'll grade them and hand them back with comments and then we'll scan the final comic in the computer lab so we can share and trade them with other classes and other schools.  Above are some of the books I've read so far, pretty creative and interesting work!

Drawing: Illustration Friday- Trouble

In AP Art and Drawing class we are continuing our drawing month with a new Illustration Friday theme which is Trouble.  The Example I did in class on Friday is above so finish up your illustrations and post them by this Friday!

The Whitney Weekend

To celebrate the final weekend of Jeff Koons: A Retrospective and the Whitney’s Museum's uptown location the Museum will stay open for 36 continuous hours from Saturday, October 18, 11 am–Sunday to October 19, 11 pm. The famed museum will be closing it's doors after this show and opening a new museum downtown but if you have never visited the building Marcel Breuer and Hamilton P. Smith designed in the early 1960's at 945 Madison Avenue at East 75th Street in Manhattan in New York City, this is your chance.

I've seen quite a few amazing shows at the Whitney over the years- notably the Biennials, Robert Rauschenberg's last works, the Kusama exhibition, the Hopper's and Calder's, but my most memorable experience was my first time there.  My first exposure to the Whitney came as I was finding my way through college in UMass Boston when a teacher exposed me to the work of photographer Robert Frank, who went on to become a pronounced influence on my work.  

There was a retrospective of his work in Washington so I grabbed friends and took a road trip to the national museum to see the work (remember this is pre- "everything's on the Internet" days so you couldn't just Google him) it really effected me so when it traveled to NY's Whitney I was there again on the first night hoping to meet the man himself and see some of the films he had made.  He wasn't there but many of his beat generation friends were and I had a chance to meet poet and photographer Allen Ginsberg which was amazing!

Studio Art: The Ultimate Zentangle

In AP Art Troy tipped me off to one of the coolest Zentangles's ever, a wife who used Sharpie to Zentangle her husband's 1995 Nissan Skyline R33 GTR.

Media Art: Film Industry Research Project

This week in Media Art we'll be working on our Film Industry Research Project in which each student chooses an aspect of the film and television industry and is given a professional in that are to research.  Each student should create a 5-6 page Powerpoint or digital presentation with a cover and references on their professional which we'll share next week.  Below is the list for this semester:

Adham- George Lucas (writer, producer, special effects)
Alex- Ben Affleck (writer, actor, director)
Thomas- Wes Anderson (writer, director)
Antonio- Martin Sheen (actor)
Matthew D- Conrad Hall (cinematographer)
Michael D- Robert Wise (editor, director, producer)
Jack- Paul Haggis (writer, producer, director)
Caitlin- Meryl Streep (actress)
Alix- James L Brooks (director, producer)
Lauden- Francis Ford Coppola (director, producer)
Jeffrey- Thelma Schoonmaker (editor)
Mason- Alec Guinness (actor)
Alexandria- Christopher Walken (writer, actor, director)
Jessica P- Robert DeNiro (actor, producer)
Samantha P- Danny DeVito (actor, director, producer)
Michael P- Jack Nicholson (writer, actor, director, producer)
Matthew R- Marlon Brando (actor)
Sean- Clint Eastwood (actor, director, producer, composer)
Rachel- Dante Ferretti (art director, production design)
Kristen- Tom Hanks (actor, producer)
Adelina- Robert Redford (actor, director, producer)
Suzanne- Hal Ashby (director, editor)
Zakria- Morgan Freeman (actor, director)
Chris- Dustin Hoffman (actor)
Nikki- Eric Sibley (director, special effects)
Douglas- Brad Bird (writer, director, producer, animator)
Brandon- Daniel Day Lewis (actor)

AP Art: Art and Science

This week in AP Art each student was teamed up with a partner to critique each others work and given the new theme of Art and Science.  It's a theme that has persisted in art from DaVinci to Damien Hirst and has led to a few successful AP Art Concentration themes over the years so whether it's biology and the body or Physics and quarks find an artistic link to a science and explore it creativity.

Studio Art: Sequential art & comics

This weekend was Comic Con in NYC and to celebrate we are working on comics and graphic novels in studio art class.  Tomorrow is the quiz on the basics which you can study here: sequential art terminology.

This week we will be creating mini 7 page comic books with a cover using a clever one page design that we learned today in class.  The picture above is from my recent show at Gallery North in Stony Brook of my graphic novel work, later this week I'll bring in some of my work and show you how it's created!

AP Art & Drawing: Young Arts

I mentioned the YoungArts competition in class last month but I wanted to remind everyone in AP Art and drawing class that the applications are due this week!  Click the link above to apply online.  Alumni are Oscar, Grammy, Emmy and Tony award nominees and I've had students win on the national level in the past so make sure you give it a shot!

By applying to the YoungArts program you are eligible for:

• Up to $10,000 in monetary awards
• Exclusive U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts nomination
• Master classes with world-renowned artists
• Access to scholarships, career opportunities and professional contacts
• Opportunity for works to be viewed by top artists in their fields
• All applicants to YoungArts have the opportunity to learn about college programs, scholarships, summer programs and festivals through participation in the YoungArts Student List Service (SLS)

In addition to the great visual art program they also have some terrific writing, dance, and music programs- check out the video below of their "one take" cover of Lorde which teams up student musicians for a timed, improv cover performance in just one take, pretty amazing!

Media Art Honor Society: Hamptons International Film Festival

(Credit: Gordon M. Grant)

Last night was the opening of the Hamptons International Film Festival and Bill Murray was on hand to premiere his film with Director Theodore Melfi and actor Jaeden Lieberher.  Club members will be volunteering all weekend but remember to follow the advice that I gave in our meeting earlier this week.  I'll be taking and posting photographs of our volunteers her all week with updates so have fun and enjoy!

Drawing: Illustration Friday- Silence

In Drawing class we are currently working on our Illustration Friday work with the theme of "Silence".  My example is above and if you want to take the extra step and use social media to post your work online here's a link to how it works.  The advantage to linking your work to the website to to get some real life feedback from professional illustrators and artists which although it might be intimidating at first, its really useful!

Take a look at the statement below from Illustration Friday which gives an idea of the spirit of the critique:

The Illustration Friday community is a supportive, friendly place to view artwork and meet other illustrators, doodlers and creative people online. We have participants from all countries, backgrounds and age groups. We ask that your illustration submissions be mindful of this. Please post nothing that you wouldn't want your mother to see.

If you need help with the posting process I'll be available today after school at during the Art Honor Society and Media Art Honor Society meetings where we'll be discussing: volunteering at the Hamptons Film Festival, Homecoming, NY Comic Con, Safe Halloween, and our fall field trip to MoMA.

The Hartford Art School

University of Hartford | Hartford Art School from University of Hartford on Vimeo.

The Hartford Art School will be visiting AP Art class tomorrow to talk about their program and possibly review portfolios.  This is our first college visit of the year and advanced students can request to join the presentation if interested and available.  Take a look above at the video for a quick glimpse of the school for some background, we've had a number of successful Smithtown East graduates come through their program such as: Jess Brett, Steve Ponzo, Aidi Wang, and Blair Apgar to name a few!

Drawing: Art history visual test

Tomorrow is the art history visual test in AP Art and Drawing class so be sure to study the notes on the artists after our review today.  Above is an image by Daniel Danger, a contemporary artist and print maker who's included in both tests, don't let his dystopian future be yours- be prepared!

AP Art: In Chelsea

There are a few terrific gallery shows in Chelsea NYC right now that I'd really suggest seeing.  The first is Wayne White who I've mentioned before who has a great show at Joshua Liner Gallery featuring 15 foot moving puppets of country musicians The Louvin Brothers made out of cardboard among other things.  He's always interesting, proof is in the trailer for the documentary about his life, Beauty is Embarrassing below!



Street artist DALeast is famous for his unique line quality and he currently has a gallery show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery on 23rd Street that I'd recommend seeing before it closes tomorrow.  

DALeast - Discount Evolution (short version) from Jeff Coles Smith on Vimeo.

There is also a great show of Brooklyn artist José Parlá's work at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery.  Parlá uses writing in a totally unique way and has teamed up with photographer JR who we've talked about in class. Check out the video below of how he works, pretty amazing!



While your there I'd suggest checking out the High Line walkway which is a great way to get around that area of town and features plenty of great art itself.  There is now a new section that just opened north of the galleries so it should be a great view over the river to New Jersey.

Studio Art: Sketching with watercolor

In studio art this week we are working on sketching.  We'll begin like I do with a quick warm-up like the zentangle above that I created on hall duty and then we'll start sketching the room.  You should draw 10 sketches from scenes around the room that aren't setup and well be working with pen, pencil, and watercolor.  Here's the basics: you're free to look around and create 6 sketches on tour own but 4 sketches should be standard- one should include a person, 2 should be created with watercolor first, and the last sketch should be of my film library behind my desk.  I'll grade all 10 sketches on Friday.



Here's an example of a sketch I was drawing in study hall that shows you my process but every artist works differently so you're free to experiment with some of the different techniques.  Additionally each table will get a brand new set of watercolors that the table is responsible for along with new sable brushes for each student that you'll use throughout the year.  Write you name on your brush and make sure you put it back in your shelf with your sketchbook each day because if you lose it you'll have to replace it!

Media Art Honor Society: Hamptons Film Festival

In the Art & Media Art Honor Society we will be discussing our upcoming volunteer opportunity at the Hampton's Film Festival and the fall field trip to NYC on October 24.  The trailer above for St. vincent starring Bill Murray is the opening film of this years festival.

AP Art: Drawing Month

In AP Art we will begin and end week with some drawing to ease in and out of the weekend and improve our skills.  We'll dedicate some time on Monday to drawing from life beginning with drawing portraits of each other like yesterday.  Friday's will be focused on illustration and drawing from imagination with the help of Illustration Friday and Pintrest.  Today we will continue review the artists presentations in preparation for the quiz next Wednesday.

Studio Art: Sketching

Red Hook - a film about Tommy Kane from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

Today we are beginning to look at how to draw and sketch from life and we'll look at 2 contemporary artists who are great at this type of thing Tommy Kane and Wendy Macnaughton.  After learning a bit about them and watching some short videos of them working we'll start sketching ourselves in class beginning with 4 sketches from around the classroom.



The videos above shows Tommy drawing in Red Hook, Brooklyn and at the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan.  Take note of the materials he uses which are pretty simple and the process he uses.  He took a photo of the bar he was drawing but choose to still draw it in person because believe it or not it definitely makes a difference, trust me!



Wendy has a similar line quality but has a different approach using a blend of single line contour with a loose sketch so there is plenty of whimsy.  The video above has a short tutorial showing how she works and the video below shows her out drawing.  I love how she pays attention to detail with drawings like the direction of the gaze of people and animals in the street and the direction they are moving.  Pay attention to the choices she makes in terms of what to include and what to exclude.



Both artist released great books recently Tommy's is An Excuse to Draw and Wendy's is 

Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them, check them out!

Media Art: Global Citizens in Action Youth Media Festival

Last year my media arts class created this Public Service Announcement that was included in the Global Citizens in Action Youth Media Festival.  Take a look at all the entries and vote!

Global Nomad Group Presents: 

Global Citizens in Action Youth Media Festival

View & Share Online 

www.globalcitizensinaction.com 

Vote by October 10, 2014

Overview: Celebrate the student arts and media projects of the Global Citizens in Action (GCA) virtual youth exchange! Over the past year, these students from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the US, – age 12-18 – collaborated across borders to identify and create solutions to problems in their local and global communities. Projects are divided into three themes: Human Rights, Environment and Health, and Media, Diversity, and Tolerance. Selecting the winners: Using the festival website, individuals can vote for more than one project in each category, but can only vote for each project once. Awards will be determined 50% by audience vote and 50% by the GCA Youth Media Festival judges! Winners to be announced live in Kabul, Afghanistan on October 16, 2014

Drawing: Contemporary Artist Research Project

In Drawing class we are starting our Contemporary Artist Research Project in which each student is assigned an artist and has to create a short presentation on that artist including a photo of the with a short one page biography and 10 large quality images of their work.  All of these artists have work In MOMA's drawing collection so that might be a good place to start.  The presentation can be created on Powerpoint or the new Google Presentation and is due at the end of class a week from today on Tuesday September 30.

Mr. Needles- Daniel Danger

Claudia- Monica Bonvicini

Emily A- Swoon

Emily - Farel Dalrymple

Dillan- Aaron Johnson

Veronica- David Hockney

Shannon- Kara Walker

Kyle- Chuck Close

Mike- José Antonio Suárez Londoño

Alana- Barry McGee

Jacob- Magnus Plessen

Amanda- Jason Jägel

Katie H- Sam Wolfe Connelly

Katie W- Wayne White

Nadia- Debra Hampton

Brittany- Jim Dine

Ashley- Thomas Hirschhorn

Amy- Yayoi Kusama

Natalie- George Condo

Dana T- Thomas Locher

Dana W- Elizabeth Murray

Jamie- Siegfried Anzinger
Griffin- Vik Muniz

Local Art: Wayne White

There is a great show that I saw this weekend from artist and creative magnet Wayne White at the Joshua Liner gallery in Chelsea.  Wayne is a terrific artist with a plethora of skills, take a look at the preview to the documentary about him below: Beauty Is Embarrassing. Wayne's work is some of my favorite so I definitely recommend checking him out!

Media Arts: Extra Credit

This month's extra credit assignment for Media Arts class is to see and write a short review of the film Boyhood by Richard Linklater and starring Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater and Ethan Hawke.  The film was made over a period of 12 years and follows characters as they grow up through elementary, middle, and high school and what they deal with in the process.  It's extremely innovative in its scope and is a must see film for any student of the medium.  the extra credit is due on October 1.

Back To School Night

Welcome to art room 161 this classroom blog is used for all our assignments and is a great reference for due dates, study guides, extra credit, and keeping track of what's going on in class.  Here's some of our ongoing projects that we'll be working on in all Mr. Needles classes:

Our "Going Global" project with the Japan Society & Global Nomads Group projects

SKYPE in the classroom and Google Hangouts with professionals and alumni

The MSG Varsity program

College and alumni visits 

Studio in Media:
IMDB- http://www.imdb.com/
Short & Sweet NYC-http://www.shortandsweetnyc.com/author/tim-needles/
You Tube- http://www.youtube.com/user/TimNeedles
Vine: https://vine.co/v/bt9Qbx5XBM0




Studio in Art:
Google Art Project- http://www.googleartproject.com/
Illustration Friday- http://illustrationfriday.com/



AP Studio Art:
Wiki-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement_Studio_Art
College Board-http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_studioart.html
Artnet- http://www.artnet.com/?gclid=CKW4_bj4m7ICFYFo4Aod61UAag
Drawn- http://blog.drawn.ca/



Drawing 1 & 2:
Illustration Friday- http://illustrationfriday.com/
Artnet- http://www.artnet.com/?gclid=CKW4_bj4m7ICFYFo4Aod61UAag
Drawn- http://blog.drawn.ca/



National Art Honor Society & National Media Art Honor Society:

Meets every Wednesday in Room 161

Volunteering at the Hampton's Film Festival on October 6-7

Building our Safe Halloween "Haunted Museum"

Our fall field trip to New York City and our spring trip to the Hampton's

Guest speakers & alumni visits

Contests:
Young Arts- http://www.youngarts.org/
LI Best- http://www.heckscher.org/
Scholastic- http://www.artandwriting.org/
Shanti- http://www.shantifund.org/

AP Art: The Artist Project

In AP Art class we are beginning The Artist Project in which I assign each member of the class two artists to research who I feel have some commonality to the work you have been creating and you're responsible for researching each artist and creating a short presentation with 10 full size images and a short biography with sources.  Below is the list of artists and the presentations are due on Wednesday:

Andrew: Eric Fischl & Xu Bing

Paige: Francisco Goya & Käthe Kollwitz

Juliana: Donald Baechler & Lauren Greenfield

Mikenzie: Sigmar Polke & Ai Weiwei

Christian: Sebastião Salgado & William Eggleston

Troy: David LaChapelle & Billy Kidd

Rose: Tara McPherson & Marilyn Minter

MacKenzie: Barry McGee & Kimsooja

Morgan: Yayoi Kusama & Mona Hatoum

Samantha: Louise Bourgeois & Peter Beard

Bella: Cindy Sherman & Barbara Kruger

Cassandra: Chuck Close & Alphonse Mucha

Kristin: Gustov Klimt & Henri Cartier-Bresson

Mr.Needles: Robert Rauschenberg & Daniel Danger
TA: Swoon & Wayne White

Art & Media Art Honor Society

Today is the meeting of the Art & Media Art Honor Society after school at 2pm in room 161 and we'll be discussing the projects we;ll be doing this year.  We'll also be planning the first field trip of the year to NYC and the volunteering opportunities at the Hampton's Film Festival along with some early planning on this year's Haunted House for Safe Halloween!

Media Art: Production Companies

This week in Media Art class we are talking about producers, directors, production companies, and how films and television shows are created.  Here's a list of some of the production companies you might be most familiar with: American film studios take a look and see who makes your favorite films.  We'll have a quiz on Friday of the basic job titles on a film set and what they're responsible for.

The Art & Media Art honor society will also be meeting today in room 161 and we'll be discussing volunteering for the Hamptons International Film Festival which we take part in every year.  The festival takes place in the Hamptons on October 9-13 and will feature Academy Award winning actress Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry & Million Dollar Baby) and director Joel Schumacher (St. Elmo's Fire & A Time to Kill).

Studio Art: Drawing terminology

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.

Drawing: Every person in class

This week in class we are drawing each member of the class.  It's not just a great icebreaker, the experience also teaches you to look closely at subjects and distinguish facial features.  Remember the best way to improve at anything is simply to do it often so if nothing else you'll get a good amount of practice a t drawing portraits!

AP: New technique week

In AP art we completed reviewing the summer assignments and went over the first assignment of the class which is to draw or paint on a 3D surface.  The video below from Soul Pancake shows artist Cheeming Boey a great example of this technique but you can find it all through art history back to the beginning cave paintings.  The final piece is due on Wednesday in class.  If you want to see more of Boey's work check out his cup collection and his website iamboey.com



In addition to Boey's work we looked at work from artist Audrey Kawasaki who often works on wood, check out the video of her working below:



We also started "New Technique Week" in which we'll learn a new advanced art technique every day for a week.  Today we experimented with open paint and yesterday we learned how to transfer photographs.  Above is part of the demo that I did in class and on Thursday each student will chose one or two of the techniques and incorporate them into a new piece.

Studio Art: Contour drawing

In Studio Art class today we learned the basics of contour line drawing along with continuous-line contour drawing, and blind contour drawing.  We started by drawing our own hands and we'll continue with more subjects this week.  The video above give some additional insight on the drawing style if you had any difficulty understanding.  Tomorrow we'll expand on the technique and look specifically at the silhouettes of the objects.  Below is a really great contour line drawing done by a student a few years ago of another classmate in my classroom.

Media Art: Film & Animation History

In Media Arts class we began learning about the history of film and notable people in the process such as Thomas Edison, William K Dickson, and the Lumiere Brothers.  Here's a link to the study guide and the video above goes into more detail about the Lumiere Brothers first films.  Below is the short film we watched in class showing how a camera obscura, lens, and aperture works.  Well have a short quiz on Friday based on the material we cover today and tomorrow so be sure to use the study guide!

Drawing: Alphonse Mucha and the Zentangle

We began drawing in our sketchbooks today with a great drawing method known as the Zentangle which fills in space with different textures and patterns.  The specific type of pattern we learned is based on the great Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939).  We began by drawing out our name is a design font or script and filling in areas around it using Zentangle patterns such as the Mucha pattern shown in the video above.  This finished design will be due on Tuesday and will count as the first grade of the year.  Below is a great tribute painting to Alphonse Mucha by the street artist Mear One from La Brea, Los Angeles.

Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year!

Welcome to a new school year!  Today in class we'll be going over some of the basic and discuss the expectation for each class and below are links to a few of the contests and opportunities we will be talking about:

National Art & Media Art Honor Societies- the art club is open to all students enrolled and meets Wednesdays after school in room 161.  We do art workshops, alumni talks, volunteer at local events such as the Hampton's Film Festival, go on art related field trips, arrange the annual haunted house, work with outside charity organisations, arrange art shows, and work on student driven extra-curricular projects.

Google for Education- We'll be taking advantage of Google's new classroom technologies to share information and collaborate in the classroom.

The Japan Society's Going Global program- Classes will collaborate on lessons virtually with students from Japan, the US, and Pakistan on projects throughout the year.  There is also a student exchange program which students may enroll in.