Critique dates/milestones:

MARCH
3/6: Small group breadth critique, all 12 done (12 points)
3/13: 6 concentration pieces photographed and submitted to drop box (6 points)
3/16-17: Concentration critique, 6 pieces (4 points)
3/20: 7 concentration pieces completed
3/27: 8 concentration pieces completed, balance due to activities office ($73)
3/30-4/3 Spring break!

APRIL
4/10: 10 concentration pieces photographed and submitted to drop box (10 points)
4/13-4/14: Concentration critique, 10 pieces (4 points)
4/17: 11 concentration pieces completed
4/14: Concentration FINISHED!
4/27-5/1: Touch up & final re-shoot of all work

MAY
5/4-5/8: Mat quality pieces, write concentration essays.
5/8: Portfolios due by noon.

It's time!

... to register with College Board for online submission. See Edline for instructions, along with our school code and my teacher number. I am requiring that you register by Friday, February 6th, so get on it! Please also attempt to upload ONE slide so that I can see you are able to do so. You can delete it later. Your $13 deposits are also due Friday. Thanks!

How about I sew your face together?

So a new website I found is pretty nifty. its called Artpromote. Its pretty much a database with information on artists, art, and art culture. It includes information on movements, huge ranges of art including fractal art, crafts, pretty much anything artistic. It also has galleries and a list of resources.

Also there is deviantart if you have never been there, which is kinda odd if you haven't. It is pretty much a community site where people can post their art and socialize wit one another. w00t!

Happy Trees!

http://www.bobross.com/Supplies.cfm

I also wanted to post a link to the Bob Ross website. In the store section you can buy 1 hour dvd's of him doing one of his kick-arse landscapes for about 17$ For those of you who have never heard of him (gasp!) Bob Ross is a white, afro-toting oil painter who does 60 and 30 minute shows on OPB where he takes a blank canvas and makes it look like a photograph of a landscape just by touching his paintbrush to it. This guy is crazy good. Even if the pieces tend to be cliche it's surprisingly calming to watch him make them. Bob Ross is a happy guy with a pillow-soft voice who often describes what he's painting by saying "let's pretend a happy little" (rock, bush, tree, cloud, cabin, mr. sun, etc.) "lives right here..." Sadly he passed away a few years ago, but OPB still airs reruns of his shows at 1 o clock on most weekdays

Here's an image from a T-shirt available from the site:

Art link

http://artgallery.yale.edu/pages/collection/permanent/pc.html

I found a pretty extensive online gallery at the Yale University website. You can view photos and descriptions of paintings, prints, photos, and mostly sculptures in several categories like Modern/Contemporary, Early European, African, Ancient, American Decorative, Ancient America, Coins/Medals, etc.



It's like getting all the benifits of a museum visit without the hassles of cost, transportation, sore feet, boredom, or crazy Portlanders like the drunk Italian man my friend and I met during the summer on our way to a museum, "heayy heayyy ask mea why Imma goin te the park..... DUHH! becuz thers BELLYDANCERS!" ::man staggers away in opposite direction of park::

There's also an interesting section with statements on subjects about art like "What is art and why does it matter?" or "Can Art be criticized on ethical grounds?"
http://artgallery.yale.edu/pages/whatisart/whatisart.html

Look what I found!

Well I happened find a couple cool things that I thought the rest of you might find interesting. First one's an artist, second one is a artistic tournament of sorts, and the third one is an a website.

Jason Chan, creator of the awesome image shown above, is a very skilled and creative artist who's work is spectacular and clever.
His blog can be found at: http://jasonchanart.blogspot.com/

Now the the tournament I was talking about is something that's amazingly cool. It's a kind of Gladatorial arena for artists. It's called Last Man Standing Thunderdome. No joke, it's really called that. If you don't believe me check it out here: http://www.lastmanart.com/
It's an amazing concept really, construct a contest that has artist's from around the world create pieces that a sort of theme (such as outbreak, survival, serenity, ect.) and have them submit their creations, and let judges determine the winner. Brilliant.

While surfing the internet I found a website dedicated to art. Now there are a lot of websites out there that are about art and are "dedicated" to it. But this one makes it clear that at the end of the day it's their love of the craft, and not the profit it turns that drives them. I mean, when it says on their "About" page that:

"Everything we feature is there because we like it, not because some ridiculously rich sponsor has thrown a stack of greenbacks our way. Not that we don’t like ‘da duckets’. In fact, we welcome any economic ’subsidies’ we can get. But at the end of the day, our iPhones are tax write-offs, and we do this out of love, not for money."

wow. So with intelligent writing, inspiring images, and thoughful content all in one place I thought that it was worth mentioning on the blog. So check out http://www.lostateminor.com/ now!

Art link

http://www.arthub.org/

This is an interesting art directory. It has many categories, including muralist and boday art. The site features links to many contemporary artists and their websites. I like this directory because it's a great way to gain inspiration from non-famous artists.

From Megan B:

http://dart.fine-art.com/

This is a link to a great online database full of contemporary artwork. The site sells the artwork, but I like it because it shows work from a huge amount of artists, and it's sorted into tons of categories - type, genre, subject, media, etc.

Check it out to look at art or gain inspiration :)

This weekend's homework:

DRAW TOYS!

Pick one or more objects that have dimension and are universally recognizeable as toys (i.e., baby dolls, dump trucks, barbies, older action figures, legos, doll houses, instruments, etc.). Use antique toys if they are available to you--Goodwill is a good place to get random things to draw, including toys.

Draw your toy over the weekend (in graphite?) and bring in the toy, along with your drawing, on Monday for critique.

New digital submission info:

New information for students about the online portfolio submission process. Please click on the link and read the information, and then comment on this post so that I know you have seen it.

From what I have read, the format is set up as follows:

1. You will receive a unique login (from me) for your portfolio and for our class at EHS. We should receive this information and begin using the online system early next semester.
2. You will keep your portfolio online and regularly upload pieces as they are completed.
3. Once your portfolios are complete and final, you will send them to me, and I will approve and transmit them to College Board for you.
4. If your portfolio is not complete or slides are improperly shot and/or edited, I can send it back to you for resubmission.
5. You will write your essay online and submit it along with your digital slides.
6. You will absolutely need to plan on finishing your portfolio by the end of April in case something goes wrong in the submission process or in case you need to re-shoot anything.
7. I will submit all portfolios, finished or not, by the May 8th deadline.

Please let me know if you have questions!

Thanksgiving Break Homework:

• Complete your self-portrait. Critique Wednesday after break (12/3).
• Shoot & edit slides (if you have the capabilities). 7 sides due Tuesday after break.
• Choose your favorite piece of artwork that you have made this year. Start thinking about your best works essay—we will write this the week of Dec. 1.
• New assignment: Create a tiny still life of personal objects that are important to you or represent you. This could be keys, a camera, a paint brush, a pencil, a book, a fork, a coffee cup, and a toothbrush… WHATEVER. Choose your lighting carefully. Create an enlarged drawing, filling the page with three or more of your objects. Use all four sides of the page. Spend at least three (total) hours on this. Use graphite and then incorporate something else (ink, colored pencils, charcoal, all of the above? Or something else?). Due Monday after break (12/1).

Due dates for edited slides & portfolio critiques

Please leave a question or comment so that I know you've seen & read this post. Leave an addition comment with constructive (i.e., SPECIFIC, not just general encouragement or criticism) feedback on one of your classmates' Chaos & Order posts for extra credit!

November 7: 5 slides due
December 2: 7 slides due
December 12: 10 slides due for 12/15 portfolio critique
January 16: Completed breadth portfolio submitted to drop box (12 slides) for 1/20 portfolio critique
February 18: Initial Concentration set due (3 slides)

Other dates TBA... remember that the ENTIRE portfolio will be completed by May 8th, 2009.

Concepts to think about and look for in the 12/15 and 1/20 breadth portfolio critiques:

Drawing:
Light and shade
Contrast/tonal values
Line quality
Technique
Perspective
Illusion of depth
Mark-making
Composition
Pattern
Color relationships
Representational works
Abstract works
Range of materials
Range of styles
Range of content
Risk-taking & experimentation

2-D:
Unity/ Variety
Contrast
Color relationships
Balance
Emphasis
Rhythm
Repetition
Proportion/Scale
Figure-ground relationships
Representational works
Abstract works
Range of materials
Range of styles
Range of content
Risk-taking & experimentation

Order vs. Chaos

Order; when i was thinking chaos, first thought i had was just crazy surreal organic stuff everywhere. Pure abstract with just plain shapes an what not i dont enjoy though. its like you dont have a set plan. And thats what i did, experimented. but didnt like any, as you can see its like a salmon swirl color with bearly jade in it, then the jade bubbles. First i used tape an painted over that to see if it would make cool lines, but turned out crappy, and i really didnt like the purple. so after 3 layers of paint later, i used a rough green cleaning sponge to make the swirls, and used a stenci to make messy bubbles. Then later thought i would add the faces to my bubbles for a nice touch. So it didnt seem pure abstract to me. This was originally going to be my chaos picture, but it looks too suddle an relaxing to be a chaos picture, its not hectic.




Chaos; this one was suppose to by my order because of the geometric shapes, but when i think of it, just think of smooth solid shapes. i at first wanted to make the shapes going into vanishing points, but didnt like it so much, so i figured i would bring it to this fade on the corners taking away the sight of the crappy vanishing points. the backgroung an 'explosions' you can call them make this piece look more chaotic then it was actually intended to be. i also addedthe face on the face of that cube for good measure. funny how these pieces turned out.

Chaos : Order

Chaos: I started my chaos piece with the idea that I wanted to use a ruler. So I mixed up some red and violet and made a background changing in the middle. After that I took my ruler, pulled it threw paint and slapped it down. I kept messing with paint by using my ruler, smearing and slapping... stuff like that. This represents chaos to me, because nothing really matches or fits together to well, very random.




Order: I started my order with a blue background and then some grey streaks. After that I added some shapes and a the few white accents. This to me is orderly from the repetition and when painting everything but the shapes the brush strokes went in the same direction... dont like it....

Sophia's Chaos & Order Paintings

My Black and White piece represents Order to me because it is organized and, and has more of a form and outline:

In my black and white piece I started by first sketching out what I wanted to do on a separate sheet of paper then, on my canvas I painted a grey wash on the area I wanted my object to be. I used acrylic and water. Next still using acrylic I started adding detail line and shading.

My second piece represents chaos to me because it has no pattern and looks as though it was unintentional along with holding no specific shape or form:

On this piece I used red and white paint. First I put some white and red paint next to each other on a pallet. Then I swirled part of each color together but I did not blend them; I kept the paint colors separate but swirled. With a pallet knife I picked up the paint and spread it on the canvas.

In both pieces I used value, form, movement and balance. On the black and white piece I used unity because of the composition. For my other piece there is more negative space on the canvas then positive, and there is variety.

Chaos
1) To me, chaos is random, unplanned, spontaneous, and messy.
2)I did this piece in watercolor using only white, black, yellow, blue, and red. I chose watercolor because I know it's a medium that tends to have a mind of its own. First I wet the entire surface of the paper with an old makeup brush dipped in water, and then touched a loaded paintbrush to make small and large blobs of color. Some parts of the painting developed puddles, so I tried adding a little color to make it all swirly, and tilting the paper so it would move around a bit. Unfortunately the swirls ended up just mixing themselves together and turned an icky brown. I dabbed some of this up with a paper towel and tried to do those spots over, but since I did end up using a lot of color and all of it wet, the piece ended up sort of a blended together medium tone anyway. Lastly I took an old toothbrush, loaded it, and ran it across the handle of the paintbrush so it would splatter tiny drops everywhere. I got a little carried away with this step since it was so dang fun, as is evident since you can barely see the bottom blob layer. XP (<-face)
3) My piece has elements of texture, contrast, pattern, and color.


Order
1) To me, order is geometric shapes, bold lines, flat color or evenly shaded, and patterns.
2)I prefer using tempura over acrylic because I am messy, especially with art media, and tempura is more easily clean-up-able since it's water soluble. I covered the sheet of cardboard (experimental surface choice I probably won't reuse) with a sort of pea green. I then used drafting tape to make stencils on the surface that I could paint over. First I divided the background and added color to the two outer sides, then after it dried I taped stencils of the large triangles, added color, let dry, and then did the same for the black borders around the shapes. When I tried to do the small triangles, the light colors were letting the dark underneath them show through, an effect I did not want. I also did not want the effect lifting up the tape gave, which ripped off bits of paint AND paper!! Grrr... I tried to glue on the shapes with construction paper instead to create the effect I wanted, which is probably the medium I should have used anyway, and I tried to add some water to smooth out the parts that got lifted up by tape or cracked. This finished piece is not the result I wanted and I definitely will not use this in my portfolio XP
3) This piece shows line, shape, and color elements the most.

Order and Chaos Pieces.

Order PieceChaos Piece

To create my chaos piece I first used red and blue acrylic to make fireworks like objects and made them look like there exploding. Then I used a yellow acrylic with a little green to make my background and I let some of it dry. I tock a big paint brush and covered the rest of panel, using technique. Which created a bolder color with the background I painted over twice. After that I tock a dark green and did two drips on each side to create balance and space. Lastly, I put splats of sliver on.

To create my order piece, first I painted the two circles in black and white acrylic, and then I did the three squares on the side. I used circles and squares to represent order. The two different shapes show order in it’s different forms.

On my chaos piece I created an eerie feeling.
My Chaos piece used good balance, technique and space. I got good balance and space from the Dark green drips. I got good technique from the big brush stroke I used for the background.

On my order piece I created movement.
To create my order piece I used black and white acrylic. To many colors can cause chaos if not used correctly. I used good texture, movement and rhythm, by the different the shades of Acrylic that I used and my techniques to make texture.

I believe that chaos is when order is out of control. or you can think of order as chaos that is calm. To represent this I wanted Order to be organized, and repetitive while Chaos was random and wild.

I planned out the pieces by making sketches of how each was different and worked the sketches so that recognizable bits of order where in the chaos piece. The sketch was done as one piece so that the two would connect as one piece. I painted the order piece first so that i could get a pattern that I continue onto the chaos piece. I wanted the Order piece to glow so that the chaos piece would be bright so I pick blue and green adding yellow to brighten the green a bit and had the colors blend smoothly throughout the painting. On the chaos painting I added all sorts of different lines and forms and some movement to the work to give it more energy.

The order piece is very balance and repetitive. Analogous colors were used to keep the energy down. The these colors were also easy to blend for a satisfying look of glow. Not a lot going on.

The Chaos piece has lots of movement and contrast with the warm colors at the bottom flowing around to the cool at the top. There are jagged cuts of red through it's cool compliment green and there are some spurts where the lightning like lines hit and exit the spheres. A lot of things going on.

Blog Assignment Due 10/22

Photograph your "Chaos & Order" paintings. Post each photo, and then answer the following three questions:

1. How do these paintings represent, to you, the concepts of chaos and order? Remember some of the words you used in class:

Chaos is... organic, curves, randomness, splatter,
unintentional, etc.

Order is... geometric, straight lines, stripes, outlines,
solid colors, etc.

2. What was your process for creating each piece (describe each in detail from start to finish)?

3. Define and describe each piece in terms of the elements & principles of art represented.

Please post no later than October 24.

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.