Day 39

There are several ways that you can get your work to me:

You can take HIGH QUALITY photographs of your work and email them or text them to me.  You can also upload them to Google Classrooms.  I MUST be able to READ the Artist Research project if you photograph it.  If you would like, I shared a copy of the document that you can type your research on and turn in via google classrooms.  Check your email for my contact information in case you cannot find it.

As a reminder, all work is due on Friday, May 29th.

All artwork that we have created together this year while in class will be available for pick up in the fall as soon as we are back together.

I miss you all and hope you all have a great summer!  I look so forward to being with you in the art room in the fall!

Day 38

If you are looking for a challenge, you need to look no further than the internet.  You can find challenges that encourage you to donate to a charity such as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge or the Movember Challenge which encourages men's health awareness or the Below the Line Challenge which encourages participants to 'live below the line' spending less than about $1.50 a day on food in order to bring awareness to extreme poverty.  There are silly challenges sure to annoy your teachers back in the old days when we were in a building together such as the Mannequin Challenge or the Bottle Flipping Challenge and there are some downright dangerous ones that I am not even going to mention here because, well, they are dangerous.

The list of ART CHALLENGES (which are not dangerous or silly) is long.  There is Inktober, which is a prompted drawing in ink challenge that happens every October, Sketch Dailies, which encourages participants to draw characters every day and provides inspiration, The Sketchbook Project which I am participating in myself thanks to a birthday present from my bestie and there are tons of general '30 Day' challenges that you can find just by searching for drawing challenges or photography challenges  and photoshop battles or painting challenges.  All these challenges are designed to help you to be creative every day, stretch your imagination, learn new skills and perfect the ones that you already have.

One of the challenges that has been popular on the internet lately is The Style Challenge.  The Style Challenge was created by a 17 year old instagram artist named Autumn Massaquoi (beautifulness87). The idea behind The Style Challenge is simple: Draw a character in YOUR style and then draw the same character in as many possible cartoon character styles as possible.  Autumn's almost 60K followers have joined the challenge and drawn characters in their style and then, also in the styles of The Simpsons, Fairly Odd Parents, Power Puff Girls, Disney, The Boondocks, Adventure Time, Naruto, Codename: The Kids Next Door, Tim Burton, Gorrillaz, Hey Arnold, Hanna Barbera, Mine Craft, Bubbleguppies, Ed, Edd and Eddy, Bob's Burgers, Rick and Morty, Rugrats, Phineas and Ferb, The Proud Family, and Spongebob, to name more than a few.  

Today's challenge is to draw a character in YOUR style and then draw that same character in at least 3 other cartoon styles.  Take pics of your work, post to our google classrooms (or you can just email or text them to me). Have fun!

Day 37

You can use a photo collage program or just put a bunch of photos in a grid on a document or slide.

Here's mine:

Day 36

Fashion designers are artists who apply the principles of art and design to clothing to make it both functional and aesthetically pleasing.  Most artists that want to work in the fashion industry will go to school and study for a Bachelor in Fine Arts Degree in Fashion Design.  If you have ever watched earlier seasons of Project Runway, a reality show where contestants compete each week in fashion based challenges, you will know that seasons 1-13 were shot at Parsons School of Design which is one of the top art and design schools in the world.  On Project Runway, designers are often given a challenge to create clothing using unconventional materials.  Over the years, designers have created clothing out of sombrero hats, newspaper, silk flowers, bird seed, and garbage bags.  Designers visited a candy store and created clothes out of wrappers and the candy itself and struggled with creating something to wear with vegetables after visiting the farmers market.  This was always one of the most fun episodes to watch but one of the most difficult for the designers.

You may have also heard of the Duct Tape prom challenge, Stuck at the Prom sponsored every year by Duck Tape. Every year, Duck Tape gives away $20,000 in scholarships to high school students who create the best prom attire, completely out of Duck Tape.  A quick google search will yield thousands of images of high schoolers in their best duct tape gowns and tuxes.   

Sylvie Facon is a French designer who creates beautiful ball gown out of materials like books and musical instruments.  You can see some of her work here.

Today's challenge is to make an item of clothing out of a non-traditional material.  Use what you can find in your house - look through your recycle bin for things like bottle caps, plastic, catalogs, envelopes and other discarded items.  Use your imagination to come up with an outfit, but don't worry!  You don't need to be able to wear it. You can make an outfit for a doll or a stuffed animal or an action figure.  It doesn't have to be human sized! 

Have fun!  I can't wait to see what kind of haute couture you create!

Day 35

Have you ever been to Tiger World in Rockwell?  If you haven't, I highly recommend a visit!  It opened back up this past weekend.Tiger World is an endangered wildlife non-profit zoo that focuses on education, conservation and preservation.  The last time that I was there, which has been a few years now, they had a liger named Wayne, so I am not sure if he is still there.  A liger is a cross between a male lion and a female tiger which are the same species but a different genus.  In the wild, lions and tigers don't live anywhere near each other so ligers are definitely always bred in captivity.  Ligers are the largest of all the existing 'big cats' today, ranging between 9.5-11 feet.  Wayne weighed in at 800 lbs.  Tigons are a cross between a male tiger and female lion.  Like a mule, which is a cross between a female horse and a male donkey (same species, different genus), ligers and tigons are sterile and cannot breed.  A lot of people question the ethics of creating tigons and ligers that would never be created in the wild because they are often born with health problems, the animals are prone to gigantism and the mother often has to have surgical intervention to give birth because of the cub's enormous size.  You can read a little bit more about the ligers and the ethics of breeding hybrid animals here and here.

Today's challenge is to create a wacky animal hybrid.  We don't need to worry the ethics of creating these animals because today, we are just using our imagination.  If you head over to google and search 'Animal Hybrids' in images, you'll get a page full of wacky animal hybrid ideas that could never exist in reality.  A horse with a duck face, a guinea pig lion, a dolphin kangaroo - there are a ton of them.  The image below comes up on your first search.

If you are having trouble coming up with and idea you can visit hybrid creature generators here or here.  The first link gives you ideas like a lab accident resulting in a strange cross between and rabbit and a lion.  The second link gives you pictures and even names them.  What do you think a Mooyote is?  Draw your hybrid, give it a name, take a pic and share in google classrooms. Have fun, but remember, no lab experiments!

Day 34

In art school, many, many years ago, one of my favorite classes was Typography.  Typography is the art of arranging letters or type to make them attractive and interesting. Back when I was in school there weren't nearly as many font choices as there are now.  Most of you have written a document and played around with the fonts, changing the way that they look, finding your favorite, adding others for emphasis or just because you liked the way that it looks.  Creating a new and original font or typestyle can be very lucrative for a graphic artist, particularly nowadays when it seems that there just isn't much room for a new font.

Before we start, let's look at the different parts of a letter:

• Baseline: the invisible bottom line on which characters sit.  
• Meanline: the middle line that is at the top of most lowercase letters such as “o,” “p” and “r.” It is also at the curve of letters like “h.”  
• Cap Height: the distance from the baseline to the top of uppercase letters like “B” and “H.”  
• Ascender: The part of a character that extends above the meanline.  
• Descender: The part of a character that extends below the baseline, such as the bottom stroke of a “g.”  
• Stem: The stem is often the main “body” of a letter. The vertical line of a “B” and the primary diagonal line of a “V”.  
• Bar or Arm: Bars are horizontal or diagonal lines of a letter, also known as arms, and are open on at least one side. “E” or “T” 
• Bowl:The fully closed, rounded part of a letter. Letters A, B, D, O, P, Q, R, a, b, d, e, g, o, p, and q all have a bowl.  

Here's a good example of the anatomy of letters.

There are also different styles of letters.  You are familiar with bold and italic and probably use them often.  You are also probably familiar with other styles as well, but you more than likely haven't given them much thought because you didn't know their names.  

Letters are generally divided into two separate groups: Serif and Sans Serif.  

Letters that are in the serif group have an extra decorative line at the ends of a character.  Examples of serif fonts are Times New Roman and Georgia.  

Letters in the sans serif group do not have that extra little decorative line.  Sans is a preposition that means 'without' so sans serif means 'without serif'.  Examples of sans serif fonts are Verdana, which I type this blog in every day and Helvetica.  

Next, we have cases.  There is UPPER CASE, lower case and miXeD cAsE.  

Finally, there are four different styles of lettering.  

• Roman Style in which letters have thick and thin parts.  It is usually a serif font.  

Roman Style Fonts

• Script style in which the letters are connected, as in cursive handwriting.  These fonts can be serif or sans serif and are often used for invitations or for elegant, formal occasions.

Script Style Fonts

• Poster Style fonts which are usually bold and easy to read.  These fonts are often used in advertising, packaging and print media.  They are generally one thickness but can be serif or sans serif.

Poster Style Fonts

• Trademark and Creative fonts.  Trademark fonts are usually created for specific company logos and are generally easily recognized and associated with that particular product.  Creative fonts are the fun fonts.  They are usually unique and have a theme and are highly decorative.  

Trademark Fonts

Creative Fonts

The challenge for today is to design a new font.  Decide which group you want it to be in: serif or sans serif.  Then, decide if you want it to be Roman style, Script Style or Creative.  Draw at least one capital letter, one lower case letter and one number for your new font.  Take pictures and upload to google classrooms.  By the way, don't forget to look for the treat that I left for you today in google classrooms.  You will need a printer, but I hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and I hate to be a buzzkill, but when you get to high school and beyond, it's Times New Roman, 12pt. all the way.  Trust me, you will thank me later on and your teachers and professors will love you for it.

Day 33

Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor and photographer known for his environmental art.  Andy's work is a type of sculpture known as an 'installation' which just means that it is site specific.  He generally uses materials that can be found where he is creating his sculpture, such as twigs and leaves and rocks and flowers and sometimes even icicles.  His goal is to work with nature as a whole and to use what is available to him.  In addition to only using found materials in his artwork, the only tools that he uses to create his work are his hands, teeth, and found objects, like a sharp stone or branch that are found on site.

Photography is a very important part of his work because his sculptures, being outside in nature, are temporary and prone to the elements.  Andy considers the change and decay that comes through the time that his work exists to be a part of the art that he creates.

To learn a little bit more about Andy Goldsworthy, you can visit here, here and here.

Environmental art is also known as Land Art, Earthwork and Ecological art and has been practiced by humans throughout history.  Think of Stonehenge, The Great Serpent Mound in Ohio, The Nazca Lines in Peru and even our own Town Creek Indian Mound. Unlike the environmental art of today, these earthworks often had religious or ceremonial connotations.

"Environmental Art, also known as ecological art, encompasses several different forms and practices that engage with and represent the environment. It is distinct in its less specific time period and greater scope of art."  ~ the Art Story

"Earthwork is art that is made by shaping the land itself or by making forms using natural materials like rocks and tree branches. Earthworks range from subtle temporary interventions in the landscape to significant, sculptural, lasting alterations made with heavy earth moving machinery.  Some artists have also brought the land into galleries and museums, creating installations out of dirt, sand and other materials taken from nature.  Earthworks were a part of the wilder conceptual art movement in the 1960s and 1970s." ~ Museum of Modern Art

Read about Creating Art from Nature here.

Today's challenge is to create your own environmental art inspired by Andy Goldsworthy.

• Spend some time outside while being safe, social distancing and exploring the nature around you (your yard, neighborhood, park-but only if it is open and you have permission from an adult)
• Gather any natural materials that are already on the ground instead of picking any plants or flowers. Items that you can look for are leaves, branches, sticks, twigs, rocks, stones, pebbles, ice, nuts, seeds, flowers, dirt, and even mud.
• Once you have gathered your materials, choose a place outside where you would like to create your artwork.
• Play around with your natural objects and experiment with patterns until you like what you come up with.  Think about radial symmetry, stacking stones or twigs, creating patterns with pebbles or using leaves to create a natural mosaic.
• Take photographs along the way to document your process. 
• Remember that your artwork is temporary!
• Don't forget to upload the photos of your work to Google Classroom.

Here are some images of environmental art found in Google Images to give you some inspiration.  Some are by professional artists, some are by students, some are done by unknown artists.  

Here are some other environmental artists that you can read about: 

Robert Smithson

Nils Udo

Richard Shilling 

Patrick Dougherty (NC connection: Patrick grew up in NC.  His latest artwork was created on the campus of Davidson College.  I might take a ride up there this weekend to see if it is still there!)

Simon Beck Fun fact: Simon makes his art by walking on snow!

Jaaku Pernu

Walter Mason

Day 32!

Using your chromebook, a smartphone or a camera, go on a scavenger hunt to find the following items.  See how many you can find.  When you are done, make a collage out of the photographs and upload the collage to google classrooms.

Day 31!

  After yesterday's challenge, some of you may have practiced drawing hands, which to me, is one of the hardest things about drawing the human body.  They can be so difficult to get right- proportion, symmetry, it can be hard to make hand look real.  It just takes practice. In case you have forgotten, here's the link to the hands tutorial.

I've added 3 charts that show how to do each letter of the alphabet in American Sign Language (ASL).  Spelling out each letter in a word is called Fingerspelling or dactylology.  The first one is a bit cartoonish, and probably the easiest to draw.

The second one is a little bit more realistic.

And this last one is the most realistic of all. 

Have fun practicing.  When you do your name, take a pic and share it in google classrooms!

Day 30!

  I think most, if not all of you have tried to draw anime characters. This website is a great source for tutorials and breaks down how to draw all the parts of the characters that you might imagine.  Have fun combining different hairstyles, poses, clothing, eyes shapes etc.

Day 29!

There's a lot of work put into the art supplies that we use daily.  Click on the links below to find out how they are made.  Each video has been approved for viewing on SCS chromebooks!

Pencils
Colored Pencils
Crayons
Erasers
Markers
Paint

Then, when you have learned how art supplies are really made, head over to our GoogleClassroom and click on the assignment "Wrong Answers Only".  Choose one of the supplies from the videos that you have watched or choose your own ART supply and write a paragraph about how that ART supply is made - WRONG ANSWERS ONLY! 

Day 28!

Comic strips often reflect what is going on in the world. Today, I want you to write and illustrate a comic strip that tells a little bit about what your life is like these days. 

Day 27

Before the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th c., books were not as common as they are today.  Most books from that time period were religious text, primarily the Bible and they often took up to two years to complete.  Monks would work in a special room in the monastery called the 'Scriptorium', copying the text and then later an illuminator would take over and illustrate the text with pictures and designs.  Because making the books was such a painstaking process books were very expensive and generally owned by monasteries, universities and the extremely wealthy.

Another type of book created during this time was a 'Bestiary'. A bestiary is a book of a collection of animals. Like today, animals were a very important part of life for the medieval family. People kept animals as pets, hunting and farm animals and they were an important source for food and clothing. Since they usually didn't travel far from home, people also imagined the world beyond their village might be full of fantastic creatures like monsters and dragons. People also believed that illness and disease were punishments and that evil spirits, demons and beasts were real and ever present. Often these beasts would end up in illustrations in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. These animals that appeared alongside the text were symbolic and they oftentimes told a story. Since the majority of people couldn't read, they could still understand the story just by looking at the illustrations.

Animals were also associated with different qualities. Monkeys were considered evil and
were associated with the devil. Peacocks were associated with immortality and dogs were
associated with devotion. One animal that is often seen in illuminated manuscripts is the
owl. Unlike today, when owls are associated with wisdom, during the middle ages,
owls were often associated with darkness of mind and spirit because they are nocturnal.

You can learn more about illuminated manuscripts here and here.

You can learn more about bestiaries here and take a look at the Aberdeen Bestiary here.

You can learn more about the invention of the printing press here.

In the meantime, my only question for you today is:
Which medieval owl is your mood? 
I’d say I’m about an 8 right now.

Day 26!

Have y'all been spending a lot of time gaming?  Today, I challenge you to step away from the computer and draw one of the characters from your favorite video game.  Don't have a favorite?  Create one of your own!

Day 25

Happy Star Wars Day!  

Today, you will take a Star Wars Themed Art Parody Quiz.  What does parody mean?  Parody, in this case, is imitating an artists style in an exaggerated way, usually for comic effect.  The link is in your google classroom.  See how many of the original paintings names and artist you can find.  Have fun!

Day 24!

You might be noticing more and more people outside, staying safely distanced from each other, these days.  The truth is, the longer that we are socially distancing, the more stir crazy we get.  On pretty days, people are taking advantage of our beautiful Carolina blue skies and weather.  Take advantage of these beautiful days to do something nice for the world.  If you have some sidewalk chalk, go outside and draw some pictures for your neighbors to see.  Don't have any sidewalk chalk, draw some pictures and hang them in your windows for everyone to see.