Adobe MAX

This week the Adobe MAX event is happening virtually and it is free for all which is a great opportunity to catch some amazing free talks on art, design, and photography. 

Suggested sessions are:

Bold New Strokes for Illustration and Painting

• Illustrator Oliver Jeffers, who is a visual artist and author working in painting, bookmaking, illustration, collage, performance, and sculpture. Curiosity and humor are underlying themes throughout Oliver's practice as an artist and storyteller.*
• Designer, letterer, and educator Lauren Hom discussing "How to Find Your Creative Voice Without Overthinking It."
• Artist David Choe, whose work appears in a wide variety of urban culture and entertainment contexts. He has illustrated and written for magazines including Hustler, Ray Gun, and Vice.*

The Art of Photography

• Photographer Elise Swopes who will discuss "Photoshop on iPad for the Modern Surrealist"
• Photographer Dario Calmese, the first African American to photograph the cover of Vanity Fair. 

Video in the Spotlight

• Famed writer and director Wes Anderson has created a perfectly-symmetrically shot, original film to share with you*
• Music video director, graphic designer, and singer-songwriter Woodkid takes us through his creative process*

From Blank Screen to Brilliant

• Artist Ai Weiwei, a Chinese contemporary artist known for his socially, politically, and culturally incisive work*
• Artist Shepard Fairey in conversation with Gil Vazquez, Executive Director, Keith Haring Foundation and David Stark, Founder and President, Artestar*

Connected, Creative, and Productive Anywhere

• Designer and writer Gail Anderson in conversation with designer and illustrator Zipeng Zhu
• Artist and illustrator Anthony Jones who has educated and helped thousands of aspiring artists to begin, or find their careers. Join him for his talk "Creativity is Not a Talent; It's a Skill You Can Learn.

Creative Luminary: Photographer Mark Seliger

• Hear from photographer Mark Seliger, known for his portraits of celebrities and political figures, with inspirational insights and anecdotes about his favorite storytelling moments.

Loved designer Stefan Sagmeister’s talk on How
To have ideas at @adobemax today, always inspiring- I will have more #creative ideas tomorrow! #AdobeMAX #AdobeEduCreative pic.twitter.com/XfMSwTjs7Q

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) October 20, 2020

Global Maker Day

 Today is Global Maker Day 2020 and we will be participating in Digital Media and AP Art class sharing out STEAM Power engineering challenge with paper.  Here's a look one solution to solving the problem.

And here is another solution with origami, I'm looking forward to see what yours looks like!

Global Maker Day Setup

 

Tomorrow we are participating in Global Maker Day so today we will prepare and practice our project and setup for the day tomorrow to share our creative STEAM Power Engineering Project.

National Geographic Explorer Classroom- Photographer Jeff Kerby

 We had a chance to speak with National Geographic Photographer Jeff Kerby this week with Explorer Classroom. Here's the recording of the session which includes some of the questions we asked Jeff about using drones and the dangers of photographing and filmming out in the wild in the Arctic.

Norman Rockwell: Imagining Freedom Exhibit

 

Norman Rockwell: Imagining Freedom Exhibit opens today at the Norman Rockwell Museum and it features the work of Tim Needles with a video art piece which includes some of Smithtown's own teachers! We'll take a look at some of the work and how the messages in both Roosevelt's speech and Rockwell's art based on it still are poignant today!

National Geographic Explorer Classroom- Photographer Jeff Kerby

We will participate in our first National Geographic Explorer Classroom session of the year with the amazing photographer and ecologist Jeff Kerby today live in Digital Media class. He will speak about his work photographing and filming the arctic using drones and share some expertise and learning. Check out some of his work in the video and link above, it's going to be an exciting talk!

Global Maker Day- STEAM Power engineering challenge

 

Next week we'll be participating in Global Maker Day on October 20th by sharing a STEAM Power engineering challenge with people around the world. Always Virtual - Always Free http://GlobalMakerDay.com

AP Art: Payment Due Tomorrow

 

In AP Art we set up accounts and must submit paymentsby tomorrow October 9 and the details are listed below.  Visit https://myap.collegeboard.org/login to check your AP number and the test code and follow the payment details below:

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).

Happy World Teachers Day!

 

It's World Teachers Day this week so we'll celebrate and share some of the global programs we'll be engaging in this year!

ISTE Creative Lab

 This week we'll be participating in some creative challenges and presentations for the ISTE virtual Creative Lab. I'm a featured presenter at the conference and will be sharing some of the creative approaches we use and projects we do along with some students on Tuesday. Each day this week we'll try some of the challenges along with teachers and artists around the world.

Extra Credit: Inktober Drawings

 

We’re taking on #INKTOBER in my studio #art classes to help learn digital & traditional #drawing techniques, here’s my digital drawing, the theme today was #fish & used it as an opportunity to teach layering color. #inktober2020 pic.twitter.com/jgbr59bH1s

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) October 1, 2020

Yesterday we created a digital drawing for the Inktober Day 1 theme of FISH, above is my example created in Procreate. Today we will take on the day 2 theme of WISP using traditional drawing materials. The term means "a small thin or twisted bunch, piece, or amount of something" which allows a great deal of room for creativity, looking forward to see your work!

Our first extra credit assignment is to choose 10 of the prompts and submit them by the end of October!

Happy Inktober!

 

Today is the first day of October so we will begin working on our Inktober drawings! This month we will be participating the creative drawing challenge which gives a different theme daily (listed above) and promotes sharing your work via social media with the #inktober2020 hashtag (which you can do at your discretion.)

This week's home assignment is to draw an image for the theme of FISH using the free drawing tool Sumo Paint on the Chromebook. We will work using these creative drawing prompts for some of our assignments in class but our first extra credit assignment is to do all 31 prompts for Inktober. The extra credit assignment and all of the 31 prompts will post on Google Classroom October 1, can't wait to see what you create!

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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!

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/

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!

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?

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

NATIONAL Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Day!

It is Monday, March 16, 2020 and that means today is NATIONAL Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Day!  The finalist for 2020 will be released at noon!  Best of luck to all of our finalists!

Corona Virus Closure

The school district announced that we will be closed all of next week to clean for Corona Virus, blow are some of the details.  Today we will complete all of our activities and prepare for the future.

Is school open on Friday, March 13, 2020? YES 

 Are there after-school activities on Friday, March 13, 2020? YES

Will athletic teams have practice and/or games for the closure week? NO

Will the SAT exam be given at HSW on Saturday, March 14, 2020? YES

Will instruction or instructional materials be provided during the school closure? NO, as in snow emergencies we will not be providing instruction or materials for the week of March 16-20, 2020.

Will the District buildings be thoroughly cleaned next week? YES, during the closure our custodial staff will do a thorough disinfection of all buildings including classrooms, all-purpose rooms, auditoriums, walls, doors, desks, chairs, book cases, floors, etc.

Will school now be in session on Friday, May 22, 2020? YES

Will this emergency closure impact April break? TO BE DETERMINED

Will the District be providing transportation for students to attend out-of-district placements and private/parochial schools? NO

Will students that are presently scheduled for home instruction still receive the home instruction next week? NO

Will the District lose State aid for closing this week? NO

Are Adult Education classes and activities cancelled as well? YES

Are outside organizations permitted to use school facilities during this closure? NO

Doodle for Google Contest Due

The Doodle for Google Contest deadline is March 13 so we will spend some time organizing and submitting our finished entries.  Make sure the form is completely filled out with the drawing on it and it is signed by a parent or guardian.  Above is an amazing digital drawing entry by Elisa from Digital Media Class.

Film: What's in a Pilot Episode

Today we'll begin looking at understanding and creating a pilot episode of a television show. The example above from the Simpsons show how the first episode may have many problems even though the show turns out to be a hit. Finding a great pilot episode can be difficult, in fact many pilots never get to air and are reshot, recast, or totally reworked. We'll explore what needs to be included in a pilot and how the process works so we can create our own.

AP Art: AP Portfolios

In AP Art we critiqued our AP Portfolios and now it's time to begin photographing the work for the AP Test and posting it on the testing site.  Digital work like the awesome piece from Juliana above is easy but 2D and 3D work needs to be photographed and uploaded to the AP Studio Art page: https://apstudio.ets.org/apstudioart/

Here are the codes that are necessary to logon and create an account:

School Code: 335001
School: SMITHTOWN HIGH SCH E CAMPUS
Teacher Key: xwt0100

Digital Media: STEAM drawings

Today we are working our STEAM drawings, did you know that Charlie Chaplin spent time in St. James or the Albert Einstein lived on Long Island?  Many of the most import STEAM pioneers had links to where we live!  The digital drawings are due tomorrow on Google classroom.

STEAM Power Challenge

We are taking part in an art challenge for our next project to celebrate Youth Art Month! Draw a digital portrait/illustrated quote of an important figure in STEAM and we'll be sharing them all month on social media.  Here's a link to my Quizlet featuring some important STEAM heroes to get started: STEAM Power Influencers.  Below is an example from Thomas Edison.

National Art Honor Society- Take Action Project

The National Art Honor Society will take part in the Take Action Project, here's a little bit more information:

This year, the United Nations is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The UN Secretary General is looking to youth to answer this question: 

What kind of world do you want to create? 

The #TakeActionProject is designed to guide students in grades K-12 (age 5-18) through a 9-week inquiry experience moving through levels of self to local community to global community to examining our place in the universe. The project will conclude with Take Action Day on May 1st where we will join in an online global celebration to showcase projects and work, and then we will all together send a collective message to the UN Secretary General with our ideas as we look to the future our students hope to create.

To help us answer this guiding question, we have enlisted some of the best minds and thought leaders in science, peace and justice, and sustainability. Our collaborators have helped us curate resources, probing questions, and inspiration to share during the coming weeks. Classrooms and teachers will also be invited to participate in expert webinars, social media conversations, class-to-class video exchange discussions, and community outreach through action research! 

This week's activity is to create their own project digital badge to represent participation. Students can also select to submit their designs to become the Official Take Action Project digital badge for 2020. One badge will be selected in Week 3!  Below are some examples from Apple's Earth program.

Digital Media: Salvador Dali AI

I had a chance to take a #selfie with Salvador #Dali thanks to some pretty amazing #AI technology that interpreted years of footage of the artist to create an interactive video installation @TheDali in Florida! Pretty amazing! pic.twitter.com/R1rHausNM4

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) March 4, 2020

We recently learned about Artificial Intelligence and did some work with machine learning in class so I wanted to share this interactive art project from the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersberg Florida because it used AI to recreate the artist himself using hour of film and television footage.

AP ART: AP Senior Shows

In AP ART we will finish the portfolio critiques and talk about the schedule for our upcoming AP Senior Shows for the Spring.  Below is a look at some of the variety of show's we've done over the years to give you a better idea of what to expect!

Digital Media: Doodle for Google

In Digital Media class we are finishing up our Google Doodles for this year's Doodle for Google contest.  Once they are complete you  need to finish the application which is available online or in the assignment drive and write a few sentences about your work so it can be submitted.  The last step is to get a parent or guardian signature.

TED Talk

Excited to share that I'll be presenting my 1st TED Talk on creativity featuring elements from my book STEAM Power which is out in March! The event is on April 25 TEDx WCMepham!

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Congratulations to the students from Mr. Needles AP art and digital media classes who won gold and silver key awards in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and are now in the nationals, good luck!

Trisan Davis- Gold Key, American Visions Nominee Video Game Design

Nethmi Withanage- 2 Silver Key, 2 Honorable Mention Drawing, Illustration, & Painting

Ashleigh Golden- Gold Key Video Game Design

Kiersten Hebron- Gold Key, Silver Key Photography

Digital Media: Created a texture layer and original brushes

In Digital Media we are returning to digital drawing and learning how to create a texture layer and original brushes. The video above shows one way to add a texture layer but you can also add the layer and just lower the opacity and create masks to block our sections where you don't want the texture to show like the demonstration I did in class.


Creating an original brush is easy and helps make your work unique as well. You can draw or import a shape or image the go to edit and select define brush preset. That will create a new brush that can be used for everyone on that computer.

Digital Media: Google Doodle

We are working on the Doodle for Google contest this week creating Google Doodles using digital or traditional drawing.  The contest drawings are due for a grade March 11 and need to be submitted digitally by March 13.

This year’s Doodle for Google theme is:

“I SHOW KINDNESS BY...

Here's a look at how the process happens at Google with the Google Doodle team, they begin in a similar way with brainstorming and sketching out their ideas the follow the creative process.

SCAD Visit

Today we have a representative from SCAD coming to Smithtown East to talk about their program and review some AP Art portfolios.  Here's a few photos from one of my recent trips to Savannah where I took a tour of the art school while attending the summer educators workshop.  We have a number of students attending SCAD along with tons of alumni over the years but if you want to get a taste yourself look into their summer student programs: SCAD summer