AP Studio Art Digital Submission Guidelines

I've received come information from College Board about how we will be submitting your portfolios. We will submit them online, which means we won't have to mail in anything except your five quality pieces! No slides!

From the College Board web page:

"Beginning this school year, the College Board will implement a digital, Web-based submission process for the three AP Studio Art portfolios. For the May 2009 exam administration, portfolio sections that have traditionally required slides will now require digital images instead of slides. Please note that changing from slides to digital submission will not change any of the content requirements for the portfolios. The Quality section for the Drawing and 2-D Design portfolios will still require students to submit actual artworks, and the number of images required for all sections will remain the same.

Requirements for Students’ Digital Images

File format: All images must be submitted in JPEG format (file name extension .jpg).

Image size

Landscape orientation:
Recommended maximum size: 780 x 530 pixels (10.83 x 7.36 inches)
Recommended minimum size: 480 x 480 pixels (10.83 x 7.36 inches)

Portrait orientation:
Recommended maximum size: 530 x 780 pixels (7.36 x 10.83 inches)
Recommended minimum size: 480 x 480 pixels (6.67 x 6.67 inches)

Note: The image sizes above are recommendations. Your image sizes may be different.

Maximum file size: 3.0 MB per image"

We will format and upload all files in class, so do not worry if you're not sure how to do any of this. We will do our first photo shoot the week of October 13th. Start bringing in any work that you would like to photograph--okay to bring in anything you've done within the last year or so.

Looking for a RAP topic?

How about ART??

Take a look at the following:

Writing about Art

Dartmouth's guide for writing about Art History

Then look up "Visual Art Vocabulary" online and revisit those words you always hear me talking about... line, shape, form, balance, composition, texture, etc...

Don't forget that you may choose a contemporary artist, someone you are interested in who is doing things now, shaking up the "art world." Who knows, you may even be able to track them down for an interview?

Start formulating a research topic, and then see me for help developing your ideas.

Tomasz Alen Kopera

The artists name is Tomasz Alen Kopera. He is a surrealist, and his medium is oil on canvas. He describes his work as “dark and mysterious”.
He wants to stop the spectator for a longer moment and to arouse in him the need of consideration and contemplation.

I think that he is successful with stoping the spectator "me" for a longer moment, because his work defiantly had that impact on me. His work is creative and brings a strong expression of feeling forward. It inspires me to be creative myself and to open my eyes to different styles. It is different from my art by having a fantasy twist to his art. I focus more on the body than fantasy. In this piece I like the colors he uses. They’re light and not overwhelming, I personally like plain black and white but with this piece i really like the colors he used. I also like the lighting and shading. It makes me want to be there as if it were real I think that the lighting and shading brings a lot of emotion into the picture. His work will influence me to be more detailed and to create emotion in a drawing, rather than just drawing what you see.
All of his work is amazing and there are others that I really like and would of liked to put up here only I didn’t know if they where appropriate for school, but I defiantly think you should check them out.

http://www.myspace.com/artalen

Art College Fair @ PSU!

Please try to attend! More info in class...

Zach's Artist: Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta has a realistic representational style for his oil paintings. He uses composition and value to really well.

Frank Frazetta started out his art career by drawing comics. Born February 9 1928 he published his first professional work in 1944 at the age of 16. He was learning how to paint at the time but kept and drawing comics for a while. By 1955 Frazetta had pulled back from comics after working under Al Capp. After a while Roy Krenkel convinced Frank to do paperback book covers. 1965 to 1973 were productive years for the painter doing several covers for series such as Vampirella and Conan. He even did magazines and posters. Frazetta become a big influence on many science fiction artists. To this day frank Frazetta has many health problems so he doesn’t do many professional works any more but his art is highly regarded to where a simple sketch could sell for thousands of dollars. Though he mainly works in oil paints he can use watercolor, ink and pencils masterfully.

I like this work because of the composition and the value on the different colors. I like how the tree gets molded into the background and how the colors flatten as they do so giving atmosphere to the background. The placement of the warrior and the height of the water at his shins give you a good sense of the space between the warrior and the crocodile (or alligator witch ever it is). I also like how he blended the sky and water together putting a reflection below the monster and the tree and using a stream of color around the bodies and the warrior’s legs.
The style is very different from mine by the use of color and value to create an atmosphere. I believe that these two things along with well-placed figures will affect my style this semester.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Frazetta
http://www.bpib.com/frazetta.htm
http://frankfrazetta.org/

Posted for Zach B.

Artist: Katie De Sousa

Katie De Sousa

Digital Artist/Painter illustrator

This artist has been one of my many influences in the digital art world, the way that her techniques are used are completely amazing! Shes posted a tutorial on how her painting methods turn into realistic art, which is very helpful but no one seems to be able to be great like her.

Katie has created a website just for her exclusive artworks not good enough for the artists site im watching her on. katiedesousa.com is the site where ive found some of her best works ive ever seen!

Katie lives in Canada with her new husband, recently married. She posts art very frequently, considering how much work she puts into the pictures, thats amazingly fast. Digital artwork is a very detailed process which requires an exspansive knowledge of the body(if you are looking into painting humans or animals) and colors. Her influences are somewhat very diverse, there is fantasy all the way to mythical. Katie De Sousa lives a great life in eastern Canada as a 20 year old Freelance Digital Illustrator.

A link to the actual image size is here Go to Gallary and find Ielf.

Christian's Artist: Blaine Fontana

Blaine Fontana uses mostly Acrylic on canvas with some oil paintings, and uses styles as some would put it, ‘cartoonesque, surreal, and abstract.’ His paintings are of many things that surround him and of that he studies, which most of his work consist of spiritual beings and life. Fontana was born in Seattle, Washington and raised in Bainbridge. In high school he first studied sculpture, graphic design, and life drawings. After graduating he spent 4 years of his life between Portland and Seattle doing graffiti. Finally he attended Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California in 1998, and graduated in 2002. Since then he has worked for many companies such as Drifter, Metro Pop, and Abound LLC. In 2003, he became self-employed as a fine-artist and designer. Currently he has a studio in his hometown, Bainbridge Island expanding it and working on sculptures, canvas pieces, and furniture.

I personally am enthralled with his work. I love other artist’s work where I can just look at and be like "How did they come up with that…how come I haven’t come up with something like that?" which pretty much drives and inspires me. And acrylics is what interests me the most, considering I don’t believe Im very good with it, but I would like to be better at it. My style is cartooneque with an extremely small mix of realism. And its all in pencil sadly to say, which of course I’m proud of my ideas and work, I would just like to broaden my horizons and Blaine Fontana and other artists have inspired me to try new things and acrylic painting is something I’d like to work on and actually get good at. This semester id like to get a good handle on Acrylic painting with fresh ideas I want to lay down.


http://www.blainefontana.com/

posted for Christian L.

Georgia's Artist: Danny Clinch

"Media is Photography."

Danny Clinch was born in Tom’s river, New Jersey in 1964. Clinch photographs musical groups and individuals. His work has appeared on many album covers and inter art for bands like Foo Fighters, Metallica, Jack Johnson and Tupac. His work has also appeared in magazines and directed in films. Clinch attended Ocean County Community College in Tom’s river, New Jersey for two years and during that time decided he wanted to be a photographer. He transferred to The New England School of Photography in Boston for two years. Clinch graduated in 1985 and joined two photographic workshops. Bruce Davidson's "The Photograph as a Document," and The Ansel Adams Workshop in Yosemite where he worked with Annie Liebowitz. In 1986 he was invited to intern for her and worked his way up to becoming full time assistant. While there he got opportunities to travel the country and direct films. Clinch frequently uses his 35mm Leica and currently has a gallery exhibition in Washington DC with his work throughout his career.

I like this photograph Clinch took of Jack Johnson because, you can see the reflection in the window and door of what is behind him. I also like how he included the surfboards on the ceiling and how the shadows are on the floor and walls all point to Johnson. I also like the angle he took the photograph and how he portioned everything to be evenly spaced to create a sense of balance and unity while still having the reflections on the windows and door.


http://www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/clinch/biographya.html

(Submitted by Georgia H)

James Jean

James Jean is a celebrated artist who has won many awards for his work. He's won seven Eisner awards, three consecutive Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of LA, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of NY for his work as a DC Comic cover artist. James was born in 1979 in Tiawan, but he was raised in Parsipanny-Troy Hills, New Jersey, after High School James Jean enrolled at the School of Visual Arts in New York where he graduated from in 2001 after which he quickly became an acclaimed cover artist for DC Comics. James uses such things as acrylics, charcoal, chalk and pencils for his artwork. James has an interesting art style, in his non-comic related artwork he retains the comic book art stlye while having serious and adult overtones/images. His work has is astounding, though it tends to be a bit darker and creepier it has tons of symbolism and details throughout each peice he creates, his art style tends to be clean, though he has used more of a sketch like approach to his artwork once in a while. James Jean artwork inspires me to further myself and my artwork to push my boundaries and limits, and to try and develop my artwork to a level (eventually) to a level equal or above his own. I think his artwork will influence my own throughout the year as I try to develop my own style even more than I have already.
James Jean's Website: http://www.jamesjean.com/

Michelangelo Buonarroti

“Pieta” is one of many famous works by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), depicting the image of the body of Jesus being held by his mother, Mary. Michelangelo both painted and sculpted during the renaissance with amazing accuracy and detail of the human figure. His work often emphasizes the slightly exaggerated posture of figures in order to communicate the emotions of various biblical scenes. Michelangelo chiefly worked with marble for his sculpting, having lived with a stone-cutter during his pre-teen years and his father owning a marble quarry. He grudgingly took up fresco-style painting when commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which took him four years to complete. He was actually originally commissioned to just paint the twelve apostles in the chapel, but opted for a much more complicated scheme which ended up including over 300 figures, essentially depicting the whole of the Catholic/Christian faith. Michelangelo is also famous for sculpting the statue of “David”.

This guy is the most amazing artist I have ever seen! Even his “rough” sketches of the human figure are astounding in their detail and accuracy. You can tell he definitely has a profound understanding of the human body, its muscle tone, bone structure, everything. Just look at his depiction of Pieta, I swear he made that fabric all wrinkly just so he could show off how insanely talented he was, fabric wrinkles are insanely hard to do accurately. I admire how real his work feels. This is cold, hard, chiseled marble we’re looking at, not actual people sitting there. I love how much feeling is shown through the stance and body language of the figures in his work. I rarely work with sculpting or oil paints, but I hope that my work this year will be even a tiny bit as successful at communicating emotionally through composition, posture, etc. as his is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo#Early_life
http://www.abcgallery.com/M/michelangelo/michelangelo.html

SABER MSK AWR

Saber was born in Los Angeles, California a "couple" decades ago.  at the tender age of thirteen his cousins took him to the infamous Belmont tunnel where he was introduced to the art of graffiti. Growing up he painted illegally on anything he could with anything he could get his hands on. The young Saber soon got into a lot of trouble with the law and started to lay low to work on his skills as a fine artist. While painting graffiti is his main focus he is also well know or his deep and surreal landscapes which he says, "Come from dark places in my psyche." Saber also works with wood and metals to create the sharp, abstract letter forms which he is so well known for. 

Saber's most well known and profound piece is the humungous piece he did in the L.A. River which can be seen from Google Earth. The whole process took place in 1997 and took him a total of 35 nights and over 100 gallons of paint. This piece is 100% illegal and is now a huge part in the history of Los Angeles graffiti.

Saber's work has most definetly influenced me as an artist. His deeply creative letter style and vast artistic abilities have not only affected me as an artist but opened my mind to what there is to do with my art. i hope to do a piece this year that really reflects Saber's art and his overall flavor.

www.saberone.com

Salvador Dali

This is Raphaelesque Head Exploding by Salvador Dali, 1951. It's a surreal oil painting on canvas. Salvador Dali (1904-89) was a surrealist painter born in Spain, who also worked with film, sculpture, and photography; he worked with Walt Disney on a short film, and with Alfred Hitchcock on Spellbound. His most known work is The Persistence of Memory (also known as the "Melting Clocks").

I love the depth and imagination of this piece. Dali uses abstract solutions to suggest form, and adds greater interest by twisting the view at the top of the piece. I like to draw portraits, but I can't imagine working at Dali's level of surrealism. His paintings challenge me to try new ways of thinking with art. I'd like to make a portrait in this style, or maybe expand on this idea for a concentration.

Website: http://www.virtualdali.com/

Greg "Craola" Simkins

Greg "Craola" Simkins was born in 1975 in Torrance California. In 1999 He Greg got his Bachelor's degree in studio art, and has worked as an illustrator. For fine art he uses acrylics on canvas but also is a graffiti artist. He has described his artwork as "cartoon realism, creepy bedtime stories, organic meets tech." He uses alot of elements in his artwork and will use things from pop culture, comic books, and kid's stories. Many of his pieces will have a creepy-ness to it but won't be scary. From all of the other artists work i have seen, Craola's is my favorite. His use of color, texture and character incorporation amazes me. I have gotten alot of influence from his work and try to think as out side of the box as he does, many of his characters are very ilogical but very thought provoking. When i see his work, i get in a mood to go create something that no one else has, and i think its very important to have an influence like that.
His Website!

August Macke

Macke studied pastels between 1907 and 1909 and he worked to understand Dega's impressionist technique. He also strived to create a soft lit setting when portraying his wife, Elisabeth. These were all combined to create this piece of art called "Elisabeth reading with a bowl of fruit." He depicts Elisabeth as if being seen from above and enjoyed working with spontaneous poses and positions of his subjects.

August Macke was born in Meeschede on January 3rd, 1887. He died in battle, Perthes-les Hurlus, France, on September 26, 1914.

I particularly enjoy Macke's work because of the color blends that he uses in almost every piece. My favorite trait that differentiates his work from the rest, though, is how he does not bother to make it clear when one subject in a piece starts and when the next begins. They are all blending with one another, yet you can still tell what every detail in each picture is.

This is very different from what I do because I almost feel like I actually strive to make the solid lines showing a subject to be separate from another, but now that I reflect on this, it makes me feel like I am putting my creativity on a page the way I see it and not giving my viewer any room to be creative themselves. I might, in the future, try to not make my work look like I might hand out a viewer's manual on how to look at my pictures. I want them to hold more mystery and give room for more than one portrayal the way August Macke does.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/wriston/collections/pohl/82029.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/wriston/collections/pohl/pohl%2520thumbnails.htm&h=552&w=366&sz=179&hl=en&start=2&um=1&usg=__Q7fjnlqYcC3QQQIi8qdPEO747PI=&tbnid=LLTPKNfQorKX_M:&tbnh=133&tbnw=88&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAugust%2BMacke%2Bportfolio%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Blog Assignment due Friday, 9/12

Search Google for an artist, either an old favorite or find someone new. The artist can be a painter, photographer, sculptor, or any other kind of visual artist. Your assignment is to create a blog post including the following:

1. Post a photo of one of the artist's pieces and describe the style & medium.

2. Describe the artist and his or her work. Be sure to use very descriptive words when you write about the artwork. Include facts (name, year of birth & death, style, art movement if applicable, media, etc.).

3. THEN, give a personal reflection on the work. Tell us...

• What do you think of it? DETAILS please (i.e., "I
  like it because..." or "It makes me feel ____").
• How is this similar or different from what you
  do?
• How might this influence your work this
  semester?

4. Lastly, give a link or two to show us where you got your information.

Due Friday, 9/12

Whoa.

Just kidding!
I fixed it!
Let's get our blog on! ;D

Dang =/

Alright, well, apparently I already have a blog under this email.
So it shows up as Frinja because that's the name I made before.
I suppose either I need to find out if I can change that name to Amanda J or if i need to use a different email.

woo hoo

Tester post

Hi!

Who likes food here?