Wrapped up our last part of our first animation unit with a walk cycle tutorial. Instead of going completely digital, we took a walk back to the art room to create some traditional drawings. Students had the option to either draw the eight frames necessary to complete the walk cycle or the could create a movable puppet. 

An art teacher asked the question, "What are Some Art Skills you wish your students had, coming in to high school?"

Send me students who understand the art room is a laboratory that has every tool they could ever need to build anything they can imagine.  All they need to do is Bring an Idea and we can help them with the tools, techniques or materials to bring their idea to fruition.

A student in our beginner art class noticed that the back of her pen and ink drawing was picking up color off a page behind it. She decided to experiment with her discovery  by creating colored sheets, placing blank paper on top and drawing with ink on top of that.

As art teachers, we can and should teach art skills but we also need to leave room for students to create their own techniques.

Above: The first image is the pen drawing. The second image shows the colored page. The third image is the result of the transfer.

Our Open Art Room is student directed. That means, students decide which direction they want to take the art they are creating. Many students come to class with ideas and are ready to jump in. However, some students are looking for new ideas, new opportunities,  new techniques that they might not have known or thought about.
That's where The Tables come in.

For this week's Table, we explored plaster of paris. We mixed and poured plaster into boxes then waited for it to dry over night. The next day, we began the process of carving wit ha variety of different tools. There is a learning curve involved when try to carve a square into a 3D object. We had a few fails, but also a few successes. 

Meanwhile back in the beginning class, we open an ugly doll Table. Other students were exploring non-representational art, while others took a look at juxtaposition. In the second image above, the student is working on a combination of the two concepts working with both non representational images and images that demonstrate juxtaposition.

Even though our art room is fairly well stocked with supplies, it's not uncommon for student's to bring their own art supplies to class. Usually they bring their own set of prisma colors or copic markers but some have even better toys. When I said the art room was a factory that had every tool I was lying. We don't have some of the advanced technology so we have no problem with students BYOD. 

In an open art room there need not be a separation between traditional and digital art. Rather, there can be a seamless merge between the two.

​For example, the image of the sunflowers at the top of the page started with the student designing the sun flower stencil in Photoshop. It was then created with a non digital can of spray paint.

The crow image above started as a traditional acrylic painting. Then the student imported the image into Photoshop to see how her work would be affected by the application of different modes and filters.

Bring an Idea and we can help with the tools, techniques or materials to Bring Your Idea to Fruition.

We started our first unit in animation in our Computer Art & Animation class here at South Brunswick High School. Then we had a hurricane. We were out of school for a few days (19 to be exact). Then we regrouped and restarted our unit in animation in our Computer Art & Animation class here at South Brunswick High School... then we had another hurricane!

So here we are, back at South Brunswick High School in the Computer Art & Animation class completing our first week of our animation unit! Let's take a look at where we are so far...

To begin our unit, we learned about the Photoshop timeline and  frame animation. This first project was to create a simple frame by frame animation to show evidence in understanding the concept by demonstrate the technique.

Our second animation project was to incorporate some of the previous learned skills from the 2D photo manipulation techniques into a frame by frame animation. To do this, we created cinemagraphs. The concept of the cinemagraph is that one part of the image moves while the rest remains still. 

Next steps, we will be taking a look at the walk cycle (ha, that was a pun!). From there we intend to incorporate sound... as long as there aren't any more hurricanes!

I sat down with our AP for my pre-observation conference. He asked me, "When I come for the observation, which of the standards will you be covering?"

"I am the standards", was my response.

Actually, I didn't say that. I thought it. But then I answered to the best of my ability. "All of them."

That wasn't the answer he was looking for so he asked again, "But which one, specifically?"

Well now, that was a good question. As an admin, he wanted to know what he should be looking for when he did the observation. This got me thinking, did we actually cover all the standards in one class? Or at least, in one unit? I decided to take a longer look at the Standards, in this case, the NAEA National Visual Arts Standards, and see if we indeed, did cover all of them. I made a surprising discovery.

My first impression of the Standards is how disjointed they appear. There are four Anchor Standards representing Creating, Presenting, Responding, Connecting.  Creating and Presenting are rather obvious. Making art and presenting art at at the core of every art program.

​The other two anchor standards, Responding and Connecting seemed separated. Almost a throwback to the DBAE days. Looking at art, interpreting art, connecting at some level with art... I imagined an art teacher is a room holding up a poster of Van Gogh's Sunflowers and asking her students to look, analyze, interpret and judge the art.

​Visions of Robin Williams addressing his class filled my brain...

"Gentlemen, open your text to page twenty-one... ​Understanding Poetry, by Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, Ph.D."

​"To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme, and figures of speech. Then ask two questions: One, how artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered, and two, how important is that objective. If the poem's score for perfection is plotted along the horizontal of a graph, and its importance is plotted on the vertical, then calculating the total area of the poem yields the measure of its greatness."

....ughhhh!!

However, I made one very importantly but seemly overlooked observation about the Standards.. they are out of order. One doesn't make art, present art and then look at art for inspiration and meaning. Rather, we look at art, are inspired by art, and then create and present art.  instead of Creating, Presenting, Responding, Connecting consider this:

Responding, Connecting, Creating, Presenting

 When we consider the standards in this order we notice how well they align with the artistic process for creating art. Through the artistic process we are first inspired by art, we then develop and idea to convey meaning, we then plan and create, and finally we reflect and present. 

To be clear, these are the anchor standards and more concise learning targets can and would be addressed through the unit or on an individual basis. However, in this manner, every student that is inspired, designs, creates and reflects on a work of art should be meeting all the standards. 

One of the first parts of the process where we began looking at alignment with the standards was actually the last part of the process. That is to say, the final reflection. One of our goals this year was to increase student participation in written reflection. Earlier in the year, as part of the Art of South B Tool Kit, we updated our list of Question Prompts which students use when completing written reflection on Seesaw.

To complete our alignment between the artistic process and the standards, we rewrote our List of Prompts one more time, and arranged them, including color coding, by the standard's categories.

​Sweet!

Art One: The beginner students are starting with the first of The Nine subject-based themes, the Object. Through this theme, the art student will explore how artists use observation as a source for creating a work of art. ​

Art Two: Our intermediate students are kicking off the year with the Artistic Behavior Unit, Artists Observe. We'll be taking a look at artists and artworks that explore this foundational concept. ​

Observational sketch of a Christmas light

 Most teachers can appreciate having their students document the design phase. We already know the "what". Sure, we're going to present new artists, skill and techniques to our students. It also wouldn't hurt if they found a way to visually plan their ideas before they start development. ​

Since we are running a TAB program, we believe the student is the artists and the art room is their studio. However, this doesn't mean the student is alone in their artistic journey. We are here to present the student a full range of choice while presenting artists, ideas and concepts the student may have never heard of. ​

For the Beginner, it's the Nine. These are subject based themes to get the wheels turning. The intermediate students will explore Artistic Behavior Units. These units cover the way artists think and work. For our Advanced students, we'll layout a framework to guide them successfully through the Breadth and Concentration sections of the AP Portfolio. As teachers, we present the information. At that point, its up to the student to decide what they're going to do with it. We're here to help facilitate their vision.

This year at the Art of South B we are offering a brand new art class... Computer Art & Animation. We'll be taking a look at Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, as well the Adobe tools Animate programs. We'll try our hands at digital painting on hte iPad and may even do a little 3D printing. 

So far, we are only three days in but the class is already killing it. The following is a combination of a few tutorials along with individual projects. Check it out!

The year has ended. The seniors have graduated, the halls are clear and the art room is packed up. There was some great art created this year, like the piece above. These guys were really starting to get the hang of multi level stencils.

​Most of the art is taken home by the students. The art cubbies are clear and ready for new art to fill the shelves next year. Still, there is always some art that is left behind. Here is a look at some of the things found round the room and on Seesaw that may or may not be art... :)

Art of the Fry. 

A Walk to Remember

She stayed after on the last day to finish it!

Eye of Fish Pebbles

And Ever

Here's Looking At You, Kid

We are winding down the year but our artists are still knocking out artwork after artwork. Lainey created the above piece digitally on her tablet. Tablets make clean up easier but they are harder to hang in the display case.

Jo Jo completed another stencil of a fellow classmate. this work is actually three layers of stencils, overlapping. 

This is an app that generates the image based on student input. it's create pretty neat looking works of art.

3D printed turtle, painted in acrylic.

Stippling takes a while. lots of dots. Lots of dots. Lots.. dots.

This is a remake of a piece this student previously completed. She wanted to redo it to see how much she had improved her skill set.

Hunter decided to create a pixel art image. We didn't have any post it notes so he had to hand paint and cut his own squares, 2" x 2".

From up close it doesn't look like much.

as you back up its starts to resemble a face.

From down the hall it looks like Kevin Hart.

This year was a 'big first' here at the Art of South B... in fact, it was a big first for SBHS, Brunswick County and for me, your humble art teacher. For the first time ever, in all three circumstances, we offered AP Studio Art.

So what's AP Studio Art you ask? Well, let me explain. AP Studio Art is an advanced placement course offered by the College Board. Students enrolled in the course must produce 24 works of art to create three sections of a portfolio.

The first portfolio section is called Breadth. Students submit 12 original works of art that show a wide variety of skills and techniques. The second section is their Concentration. These 12 works must demonstrate a common theme. These are the works we'll focus on for this post. The third section is Quality. Students submit 5 works of art that demonstrate quality.

In all, we had 14 students enroll this first year of which 13 students submitted portfolios. In total, over 300 works of art were created! Below is a look at some of the Concentration works completed this year. Words in quotes were written by the student.

"​My concentration is a series of portraits depicting the wives of Henry VIII at the beginning and end of the marriage. In these portraits, I will exaggerate certain emotions in the facial expressions and ideas behind the image in the background."

"​The Central idea of my concentration is depicting trash in coastal areas by creating collages with the actual garbage left in these areas. I went out and took all of these photographs to make the collages. The coastal area is heavily affected by litter because of the geographic location. All of the bottles and various plastics end up on the shores and in the waterways. I want to show how litter affects the natural environment by making artwork using litter found in these coastal areas. "

Kamryn began her concentration with an interested in photo-manipulation. She soon branched out and began creating original abstract digital works. These designs later lead to her incorporating imagery with a focus on various principles of design such as repetition, perspective, and movement

"​The central idea of my concentration is based on a series of questions that a person would be asked. The artwork depicts the responses to the questions metaphorically through portraiture. The audience engages the questions through the title, views the portrait, and makes a connection between the two."

Originally, Grayson planned to morph his own original paintings with photos of classmates. As he worked through the process, he realized he was less interested in the painting process and more interested in morphing animals and humans. 

Vienna created a portfolio of acrylic landscape paintings. All of her paintings were created using he own original photography. She was particularly interested in capturing strong moods through the use of lighting.