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So maybe you decided to stay home on Black Friday but are still looking for the perfect gift? Or maybe you are all about supporting Small Business Saturday? Or maybe you know you can get the best deals during Online Monday.. Then here is the answer to all three...
If a freak milk accident that sparks life to a half cow, half stegosaurus isn’t weird enough, imagine how strange it’s going to get when Trip Stanley’s class starts drinking the milk!
Trip Stanley’s best friend Jules spills a glass of creamery milk onto his uncle’s dinosaur machine and activates the contraption.
A creature hatches and grows rapidly into a black and white spotted stegosaurus with and an udder. A stegcowsaurus. When the last bottle of creamery milk that Jules had planned to bring to school for show and tell is knocked over, Trip decides to milk the stegcowsaurus.
In less than two minutes you too could be drawing a Zonkey!
If you can draw a square you can draw a zonkey! In this easy to follow, step by step video you'll learn how to draw a zonkey and what to do with your zonkey once you know how to draw it.
0 Comments on How To Draw A Zonkey! as of 1/1/1900
November is National Novel Writing Month! Since I will save all that time not shaving (Noshavember), I'll be working on my manuscript titled "Crushing Turtles". So what is National Novel Writing Month? Well, basically you write a 50,000 word novel in a month.. or more likely, you pledge to yourself to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. To be honest, most people don't succeed. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try! Now in my situation, my manuscript, Crushing Turtles isn't going to be anywhere near 50,000 words. So my goal is much simpler. I want to finish the ten chapters I have left to write. And, if i write 1/2 a chapter a day, regardless of word count, i will finish with time to spare! Wish me luck! For more info on NaNoWritMo check out the website http://www.nanowrimo.org
We spent the weekend in a log cabin outside of Boone, NC. Over the mantel was the 4 point buck. I thought it would be interesting to create an observational drawing of a deer instead of using photographs.
I created this painting using sketchbook Pro on my iPad. I really enjoyed drawing this from life and now want to do more. Only problem is, we are back home and I don't have any stuff deer. However, I know some people who do. Maybe i can talk them into lending me a deer head or two. Hmmm.....
0 Comments on Another Digital Deer Painting as of 1/1/1900
Presentation Description: In today’s high school art curriculum there is a separation between the visual art class and the technology class. The current high school art curriculum’s focus is on traditional media with very little integrated technology. Technology is separated from traditional visual art classes and given it’s own course titles such as Computer Art.
Likewise, there is a separation in the selection of art medium. Though the art world has evolved to using a plethora of new materials, the majority of art class storage rooms are filled with pencils, tempera paint and other traditional media.
Our challenge as art educators is twofold. First, merge new technology into our everyday art lessons. Second, share with students concepts and ideas that use both traditional materials as well as branch out to media traditionally not consider art material.
In this presentation we will explore ways to incorporate technology into the full range of an art project. We will explore everything from jump starting the ideas, to developing maps and templates, to critiquing online and digital grading. Furthermore, we will accomplish this through the exploration of such nontraditional materials as post-it notes, glow sticks and mud.
The one project by far that I receive the most requests asking, "How'd you do that?" is the Post It Note Mural.
In this lesson you will find images and a description of the process we used to complete these projects. There is also a link to a video that demonstrates the process.
I just made the entire process available for free!
Later you can use the same lesson to create a mosaic out of any material including Skittles, Jelly Beans,or color swatches. We even used it to create a mosaic of the Mona Lisa using over 2,000 balloons!
No matter what the media, the basic concept is the same. Start by creating an image map that uses the same colors as the object (Post-it Notes, balloons, Skittles, etc) that you will use to complete your mural.
This step by step instruction will walk you through the entire process.
My mom is involved with a charity auction and asked if i could created two paintings to be auctioned off. I knew wanted to create something that would have a wide appeal and since I've always wanted to be a wildlife artist I thought this might be a great opportunity to try it out.
This work in progress was created on the ipad using sketchbook Pro. The selection of brushes is awesome and the layers let me try out different techniques without fear of messing up ;)
Still trying to figure out how to handle the final piece once it is complete. It will need to be printed out and matted .. I wonder if I should handle it like a print.. run a few copies and destroy the original ? Stuff to think about...
0 Comments on Sketchbook Pro Painting as of 1/1/1900
Renoir's Red Hat is a whimsical poem about a kid who goes to the art museum to steal some art (be it literal or figurative is up to the reader).
Each time our little thief fills a pocket, another artist is identified. This story will help kids learn to recognize artists and their work through playful yet effective visual clues.
If you have ever tried to create even the shortest of stop motion animations, you know how incredibly time consuming this art form can be. Still, it is easy to get lost in the story line of a good stop motion animation and forget about the time staking work that went into its creation. However, having the viewer mesmerized by the story line is the aim of stop motion, or any video for that matter.
Listed here are five of my favorite all time stop motion animations. I share these with not only my Computer Art & Animation class but with all of my classes including Art One and Art History.
So that my students gain an understanding and appreciation for the work that went into each of these videos, I often play the "making of" video as well. Below each video, I've also included a link to the "making of" video (where available).
Top 5 Stop Motion Animations I share with my High School Art Classes #5. Cardboard Animation by Sjors Vervoort
This animation created by Dutch based artist Sjors Vervoort brings monsters to life on the street. The characters are painted onto cardboard and filmed interacting in a real life environment.
#4. Light Warfare by Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch
I'm a big fan of drawing with light. Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch team used slow shutter speeds and lights to create this campy, yet entertaining street battle.
#3. In Your Arms By Kina Grannis Directed by Greg Jardin Produced by Daphne Raves Concept Art by Lauren Gregg
What would you do with 22 months, 1,357 hours, 1 still camera and 288,000 jelly beans? Create a stop motion video for Kina Grannis, of course! The background of each scene is created entirely out of jelly beans but you still get lost in the story.
This incredible stop motion video was created on the street using chalk by a group of friends who met in art school. Shynola, their team name, asked the actor Chris Martin to balance on a skateboard in order to save a princess from an evil squirrel. Meanwhile, they created chalk drawing after chalk drawing.
OK, maybe I'm bias but this class did a great job creating this stop motion video. The video was created over the span of the semester. Though it appears to be a sped up video, it is actually thousands of single photographs put together.
0 Comments on Top 5 Stop Motion Animations as of 9/16/2012 1:20:00 PM
If you’ve never seen the shadow art of Tim Noble and Sue Webster you’re missing out. They literally shine light onto piles of junk and produce shadow images of people. You can check out their website here but do it from home and not the classroom. There are a few inappropriate words and images.
Meanwhile, if you are like me (and most art teachers) you already have a box of junk in your classroom. I have used mine box of junk by having the students create Rube Goldberg contraptions. The sculpture teacher at our school uses the box for recycled art projects. After viewing Tim and Sue’s work, I knew exactly what i wanted to do with that junk... Have my students create shadow art.
There really is little planning that can be done with such a project. It’s isn’t like other art projects where you can search for references or create sketches. You literally need to get your hands on the junk, hold it up to a light source and see what shadows form.
To acquire enough light sources that I could afford, I had to think a little outside the box. LCD projectors would be perfect but they are expensive. then it hit me. Our media center was storing a bunch of old slide projectors that nobody was using. When I inquired about checking them out, they asked me if i wanted them. They were happy for me to take them off their hands.
To start the lesson, I introduced my students to several shadow artists through a Powerpoint presentation. I showed the work of Tim Noble and Sue Webster as well as Kumi Yamashita and street artist Ellis Gallagher. Then I explained the project.
I explained to my students that they would be working in teams, manipulating junk to create shadow art on the wall. I left everything else... what they wanted to create, the theme of their art, even where they would project the light... up to them. They had one class period, 90 minutes, to accomplish their task. I kept them up to speed on the amount of time left in class so they wouldn’t finish to early not not finish in time.
The interesting thing about this type of project is there is no actual project. It is solely up to the photographer to capture the moment. At the end of class, the projectors would be put away, the piles of trash disassembled, and the box refilled with junk.
0 Comments on Creating Art with Shadows as of 9/12/2012 8:24:00 PM
There are many wonderful (and some not so wonder) drawing/painting apps available for the iPad. Some are easy to use while others are more complicated. Knowing which to painting app may be right for you can take some research.
Below is a look at my top three painting apps for the iPad. Two of these I currently teach to my students at Apex High School. I'm listing these in order from simplest to use to most complex.
I love this silly little app! It's like opening the draw at home where you keep all the art supplies and finding to your surprise that someone has actually organized it.
On the complexity scale it is relatively easy while still having some really great features. You start out by choosing a type of paper. These come in several different textures. You can also easily change the color. The default is white but here I have changed it to bue.
Speaking of color, that's the next thing you do. Click the little palette icon on the bottom left hand corner and select from a wide range of colors.
Lastly, choose your medium.. crayon, marker, pen, paint, colored pencil. They all respond similarly to what you would expect.
Art Set is about as simple as that. However, I think that the simplicity is what gives Art Set its charm. Most anyone from small children to adults will be able to instantly create art. For the low, low price of 99 cents, it's worth the download.
If you're looking for something a little more advanced, but still easy to us, try Layers. What I like about layers is how simple it is. It has a brush, an eraser and a smudgy finger. That and of course, layers.
The version I'm using only allows for four layers but that is a good number when you are just starting out. Layers has a better set of brush styles than Art Set but not so many that you can't decide what to use. The brushes are adjustable, again just enough to get started without complicating life.
The best feature by far is Layers smudge tool. It just seems to work better than smudge tools on other apps. You can adjust the brush size and pressure as well.
Sketchbook Pro is one of two apps I've already purchased for my art classes at Apex High School. One of the nice features that many drawing apps come with is layers (layers as a tool not to be confused with Layers the App). Layers, which are transparent, allow the artists to draw or paint on top of of drawings. For example, you can put a line sketch on a bottom layer and then paint in color on a top layer. The beauty of layers is, they can be turned on or off while the artist is working. Layers can also moved above or below a layer. Sketchbook Pro also also four different layer modes including multiply, add and screen. you can even adjust the opacity of the layers. you can see how much more rich and complex this app is already.
Another really nice feature of Sketchbook Pro is all the different brushes it comes with. In the image above you can see the 8 little grey icons. These represent some of the different brushes available. I can swipe that menu and reveal more brushes. Plus I'm pretty sure I can add more brushes (though I haven't tried that yet). Sketchbook Pro also allows me to adjust the opacity of the tool I'm using. This way I can spray colors on top of colors.
Sketchbook Pro even comes with a bunch of goofy stamps... clouds, little people, bugs and butterflies.. a little corny and canned but they are fun to play with. Plus, I'm pretty sure, like custom brushes, that I can create my own stamps.
There are a lot of other exciting options that I haven't mentioned.. like the transform tool that lets you rotate and resize your image. Or the symmetry tool that mirrors on the right everything you draw on the left. Want to draw a butterfly with perfectly symmetrical wings? This tool is the trick. Sketchbook pro also provides a full range of image sending options... email it, post to Twitter or Facebook, etc...
If your just looking for something fun and easy to use, I'd recommend you Art Set. If you are looking for something a little more grown up but still easy to use, give Layers a whirl. If you're looking for a big-boy (or girl) drawing app, Sketchbook Pro is complex enough to do some serious damage.
1 Comments on My Three Favorite iPad Apps for Art Teachers, last added: 9/28/2012
Your website is great! I am tiring to start using ipads in my high school art classes and was wondering what projects you do and how you print or transfer the student artwork from the individual ipads to a from you can collect.
Kids love to make art. Nothing is more exciting for parents than watching their child tear into a box of crayons. It’s wonderful to participate in the engaging explanation of what they are creating. Art projects are exciting, creative and fun but they can also be messy to clean up and supplies can be costly. If you are currently using an iPad as an educational tool, you already understand the benefits of using it as a teaching tool. These five reasons will motivate you to migrating your art projects there as well.
1. Easy to learn:
As a computer arts instructor, I teach professional graphics applications. These programs are complicated, they can take years to master. Art apps on the iPad are the complete opposite. You don’t need to be a tech guru to understand how they work. They are intuitive and your students can start making art from the first drag of their finger.
2. Inexpensive:
Besides being easer to use, iPad apps sell for a fraction of the cost of professional computer graphic applications. Instead of hundreds or even thousands of dollars, most iPad apps retail for seven dollars or less. In fact, most apps have a lite version which will be considerably cheaper, sometimes free.
iPad apps can also be a cost saving substitute for more expensive materials. While the iPad shouldn’t replace all art supplies, there are techniques you can create using an iPad that would be expensive to purchase if created using traditional supplies. For example, it would cost several hundred dollars to purchase an airbrush, while most iPad art apps have an airbrush effect.
3. Erasing is easy:
With the exception of a pencil an eraser, no media is easier to make changes in than digital art. all art apps have some sort of undo button. With most you can back up several steps, erasing the last five or so paint stokes you created. Try that with crayons or tempera paint.
4. Clean up is a breeze!
Cleaning up after painting means cleaning brushes, dumping water, wiping up spills and putting away bottles of paint. cleaning up after painting on an iPad means clicking a button. Click once to save your creation, click again to close the app. An added benefit is the ease of mind knowing you’ll never ruin the carpet by spilling iPad paint. Go ahead, paint in the living room.
5. Storage is simple:
There is only so much room on the fridge for showcasing art and only so much attic space for storing older art. With iPad apps, you can save everything electronically and still print the best ones to hang on the fridge. Sharing is also a breeze as most apps have “one-click email” and “post to Facebook” options. Create a digital portfolio online and save more attic space for those boxes of holiday decorations.
If you are totally new to world of digital painting, selecting the right app can be overwhelming at first. Look for apps that have free versions. If you like the app, you can always upgrade to the full version later.
Coming soon: three of my Favorite iPad Art Apps!
0 Comments on IPad Art Apps and Homeschools as of 9/10/2012 11:34:00 PM
The one project by far that I receive the most requests asking, "How'd you do that?" is the Post It Note Mural. We first started creating Post-it Note murals back in 2009 but hit our height in 2011 when we created ten Post-it Note Murals, displaying them all around Apex High School.
No matter what the media, the basic concept is the same. Start by creating an image map that uses the same colors as the object (Post-it Notes, balloons, Skittles, etc) that you will use to complete your mural.
Below, are images and a description of the process we used to complete these projects. There is also a link to a video that demonstrates the process below that. Finally, check out a few of the Post-it Note mural images at the bottom of this post. They're pretty cool!
How to create this Johnny Depp Post_it Note Mural
Step one:
We started with a photo of J Depp and imported it into PhotoShop. There, we made two important changes.
Step Two:
First, we applied a gradient map. You find it under image/adjustments. The point of the gradient map is to turn the photo into the same colors as your Post-its. This takes some playing around with.
Step Three:
After we got the color of the photo to match the colors of the Post-it Notes, we used the mosiac filter. That's under filter/pixilate. Using mosiac breaks the photo down into little squares. You can adjust the amount of squares. The idea is to get the squares as big as possible without losing the image. Again, you need to play around.
Step Four:
It is very important to keep in mind the amount of Post-its needed times the size of the wall. If you use 3" post it notes and your mosaic is 40 squares high, you better have a 10 foot wall.
Step Five:
Once you have the image the way you want it, the rest is pretty simple. Just print out the image and use it as a guide when placing the Post-it Notes on the wall.
The only other thing I would recommend is using tape to adhere the Post-it Notes. Even though they are sticky, Post-it Notes don't stick to walls very well.
For our last street art project, we decided to do a little art bombing at the NC Museum of Art. We got some cardboard and some paint and created some art we could stick on a stick... or in a tree.
Hard at work creating some art for are art bombing.
Choosing the right color is always important.
Once we were done, we headed out to the front of the NCMA to place our art.
Are you looking at that art??? Or is that art looking at you!
POW!
Taco the Cow.
Penguins!
A view from the path.
Then we all went home.
The End!
.
0 Comments on "Street Art at the NCMS" Last Day! as of 1/1/1900
Today, we had the opportunity to do a little masking tape and Post-it Note bombing at the NC Museum of Art. It sure did raise a stir with some people but most people really liked it. Here are some photos from the event.
0 Comments on "Street Art at the NCMA" Day 4 as of 1/1/1900
The proposal, seen above, will be created entirely out of Post-it Notes. The size will be 14 feet high by 47 feet wide, consisting of 15 sections of sturdy kraft paper which will be used to hold the Post-it notes.
A total of 10,528 Post-it Notes will be incorporated to complete the mural.
This will be the largest undertaking of Post-It Notes and if accepted, I'll need some help putting it all together. So if you might want to help....
So far it's only a proposal. It's up to the good people at CAM Raleigh to decide if its the thing they're looking for.
Fingers crossed!
0 Comments on CAM Raleigh Hopscotch 2012 Mural Proposal as of 1/1/1900
Created this using Sketchbook Pro on the iPad right after my stylus broke. I was sort of upset about that because I got very accustomed to using the stylus and going back to the finger felt awkward. Plus it was a fairly new stylus. But i guess they make em cheap!
I've had a good mind to make a bunch of Art History Zonkeys.. and I would have already made more but the lack of stylus is a demotivator. I'm sure I'll get a new stylus soon!
0 Comments on Zonkey Crossing the St Bernard as of 1/1/1900
Today was day one of the week long Street Art workshop at the NC Museum of Art with your host, Ian Sands. We kicked off the event by creating a drawing on a Post-it Note that represented us. Then we practiced the art of stealthily hanging our art in the Museum.
"Stealthily", so as to not get caught... "in the museum" cause everyone should have a piece of art hanging in the museum... don't you agree? The piece above is affixed to the window overlooking the park.
Armed and ready. Here are the ingredients for our street art. The usual art supplies you'd find in any decent art supply store.. spray paint, paper cups, Post-it Notes, etc...
So what's on the agenda? Well, we plan to do a little cup rocking. You know, making graffiti in fences using cups. The museum has lots of fences and we have lots of cups. it's a marriage made in Heaven.
And by planning, I mean planning. Here we are using printouts of what a fence looks like and drawing in the cups with magic markers.
A few of the plans in the works..
We even planned out how many cups we would need. This is a mustache ... or cupstache!
We also plan on creating a masking tape mural, a Post-It Note mural, some sidewalk art and of course... what Street Art workshop would be complete without.... spray paint stencils!
So there was a lot of planning today. Everyone was working on something.
Check back tomorrow to view our progress!
0 Comments on “Street Art 101” at the NCMA as of 1/1/1900
We started today's adventure in street art creation by taking a tour of the museum. "What street art is in the museum?" you might ask. None, but there is still cool art that uses new materials and has street art qualities so off we went.
I'm not sure if you can tell by looking at the picture but this work of art is a plane made out of lots of butterflies.
Devorah Sperber's Mona Lisa made out of thousands of spools of thread.
Funky colors and glitter!
When we got back to the studio, there was still some stencil cutting to do... but not much. so we went straight to it.
It wasn't long before some of the stencils were done so we headed outside with our spray paint.
It is most important to always check which way the nozzle is facing before you start spraying. "Do I have paint on my face?" was a common question for the day. Answer was "Yes, and in your hair ,and on your shirt, and some of it actually got on your stencil."
Here are a few of the completed stencils.
She just finished spraying and is now pulling up the stencil to reveal the work beneath.
And here is the end result.
We also took a few moments to spray cups so we can do some cup rocking tomorrow.
This is a practice piece. Tomorrow, we'll take it to the fence.
See you then!
0 Comments on “Street Art 101” at the NCMA Day 2 as of 1/1/1900
So right outside the museum is this fence and right outside the fence is this sign that reads, "Graffiti Prohibited" and so I thought that would be a great spot to do a little cup rocking.
I stole the term cup rocking from Australian street artist, Andy Uprock who is infamous for making cup graffiti. You need 1. a fence 2. cups. ...
... Lots of cups. And spray paint if you want different colored cup which, or course, we did.
Then it is just a matter of placing the cups in the fence until you get the desire design.
Here is a look at several of our pieces across the fence.
Below are the rest of the finished works.
0 Comments on “Street Art 101” at the NCMA Day 3 as of 1/1/1900
Your website is great! I am tiring to start using ipads in my high school art classes and was wondering what projects you do and how you print or transfer the student artwork from the individual ipads to a from you can collect.
Thank you very much,
Kelley