Digital Art Education

Taking Digital Art to the Next Level

2011-02-13T19:23:00.001-05:00

Digital Art Revolution, by Scott Ligon (Watson-Guptill) is a very enjoyable and inspiring book of creative digital art ideas, theory and instructions. The intro chapter, "Welcome to the Revolution" makes it clear that it is written with an artist's perspective, not that of a technician who has found some neat tricks, and the chapter about "Finding Your Own Voice" has many great ideas to include in discussions of problem solving and creative thinking. It covers both compositing and painting techniques with examples from a wide variety of digital artists, covering many styles, making this real "eye candy".

It's Complicated: The American Teenager

2011-02-13T18:48:00.002-05:00

Photojournalist Robin Bowman has a wonderful website with samples from her book, Its Complicated: The American Teenager. Select "Teenagers" from the menu and click on each photo. Look for the small + symbol to make the text of the interview with each subject appear. She says that her project "underscores the similarity and diversity that make up this country and this generation, and reminds all of us that people are not necessarily who they appear to be." Not only does she give presentations, she also runs workshops to promote tolerance and social awareness for students and teachers. Her website is also a great example of how photographers promote their work and find audiences and venues for exhibits.

History of Graphic Design

2010-11-10T13:14:00.000-05:00

Here is a wonderful website for those of us who don't have a budget for a set of classroom textbooks about graphic design...and it is much more up to date. http://www.designhistory.org/ I noticed that on their history of symbols page, they already have an example of the Culture Jamming/Rebranding of the BP logo.

What do Graphic Designers Do, Anyway?

2010-05-20T13:49:00.001-04:00

Need to be able to explain the career of a graphic designer? The AIGA has a very thorough guide to the careers of graphic designers. For a quicker source, just check out the list with explanations of what kind of projects designers actually work on.

Lark Books Photo Competition for College Students

2010-04-21T06:58:00.000-04:00

Photography students who are at least 18 and can show proof of being enrolled in a two or four-year college can enter Lark Book's Student Self Portrait contest. The deadline is April 30th.

New Leslie Alsheimer Book on Black and White Photography and Photoshop CS4

2010-02-24T20:51:00.003-05:00

Two years ago I recommended Alsheimer's wonderful and thorough book for perfecting black and white digital photography, enhancing in Photoshop, while also managing your photos with Lightroom. You can read the original review here.

There is now an updated edition for CS4 and the latest Lightroom. If you think there can't be much you can do with creating digital black and white images, you need to read this book. If you have a gazillion photos on your hard drive, but haven't tried Lightroom yet, it's time you do (and read this book). I love Lightroom not just because of it's organizational abilities, but it's sophisticated photo adjustments (called aptly, "developing") are often all I need. Asheimer's insights into the art of digital black and white photography should lead you to some exquisite images.

Paraphrasing Alsheimer, you will need to awaken your inner geek for some of the content, but she does a great job of making you feel at ease if you don't quite get it the first time. There are chapters that I have to reread because I don't always remember all the technical info. But, her style of writing is very comfortable and refreshing, and the book is very well edited and designed, so I never feel overwhelmed or bored reading it.

Suggested Beginning Flash Projects

2010-02-08T08:14:00.004-05:00

As promised, I am sharing how I started my Flash unit, using Flash CS4.

For the Sampler, I demoed step one, had them try step one, etc. Demo/try, demo/try, etc. Peer helpers are very important.

Practice Flash Project

The project has at least 4 layers:

1. Dingbat, modified to graphic symbol, moves around stage and distorts as it moves. (Motion tween)
2.Shape morphs into another shape. (Shape tween)
3.Shape appears to move into stage, but actually the shape grows larger. (Shape tween)
4.A shape changes alpha (opacity) from 0-100%.(Shape tween)

Flash Concept Animation

Using what you learned in the Practice Flash project, express one of the following concepts using shapes, letters or dingbats:

1. congestion
2. playful
3. tension or stress
4. lost
5. victory
6. fear
7. perseverance

Requirements:At least 100 frames in length. Must successfully express the idea without words. Use 3 different objects, each on it’s own layer, and at least one motion tween and one shape tween.

Name “Concept” and place inside Third Nine Weeks folder inside your Finished folder.

Have a peer from across the room critique your animation and make any agreed upon changes. Don’t tell them which topic you chose; see if they can recognize it. Your peer must also check that you put it in your finished folder and named it properly.

Visual Literacy: A Conceptual Approach to Graphic Problem Solving

2010-02-02T15:05:00.002-05:00

This is a fantastic book of projects for a 2D design class, by the founder of the Graphic Design Department of The School of Visual Arts, Richard Wilde. The projects are clearly described and there are many wonderful student examples. The book itself is a fantastic example of visual literacy. (Ironic how non-visual so many visual literacy books and presentations actually are.) Fun projects that challenge your students to turn on their creative mind, for grades 11-college.

Design Revolution: On the Road to Change the World

2010-02-01T20:07:00.000-05:00

Great article from the San Francisco Chronicle that explains design as innovation projects that have made a difference.

Interviews with Graphic Designers

2010-01-23T14:32:00.000-05:00

If you teach graphic design, you may want to share interviews with graphic designers with your classes. Lynda.com has some wonderful ones under their Creative Inspiration section, but it that site requires a monthly fee (well worth it).

Another one, which is also a great example of using object animation, is from the School of Visual Arts, of interviews with designers who were students of Richard Wilde. (Love the target assignment!)

Good Flash Examples

2010-01-23T13:59:00.006-05:00

If you are teaching Flash animation, you probably have bookmarked some excellent Flash interactive sites for examples. Would you please take the time to share them with us? Just add your favorites in the comments section with a short explanation (appropriate for public school viewing, please).

I'm looking for innovative, captivating educational sites for my classroom examples.

Here is a great one on the MOMA site about their Tim Burton exhibition.

Another one from MOMA, but very different is their What is a Print? interactive

Here is a Flash portfolio site by a very talented student, whose website is titled "okaydave.com"

Another museum interactive for younger children, from the Art Institute of Chicago, has some beautifully done storytelling, for example.

From the Smithsonian, a site about book illustrations

An interactive site about color theory. I use this in my graphic design classes as an alternative to a lecture style lesson about color.

A nice example of Flash poetry, Why do you stay up so late?

Please share what you've found. If you have some successful student Flash sites as well, let us know.

More Painting with Light

2010-01-21T17:43:00.002-05:00

You may want your students to take part in The Carrot Revolution's collaborative project of images created with open shutters and some flashlights. The deadline for entries is March 1st and you should register your class ahead of time. Visit their website for more info. You may also want to follow the Carrot Revolution blog, as well as read this NPR article about the project with student examples. I plan on taking part and will post my students' examples soon. For some more info on light painting, check out this earlier DAE blog post

Color Decisions

2010-01-21T17:21:00.003-05:00

Creating color combinations is a sensibility that most students haven't had a chance to develop. Cutting and combining Color-Aid paper is not the most efficient way to acquire color experience. (Ok, if you don't know about Color-Aid paper then you really are young.) Teaching color theory and relationships is much easier in Illustrator and doesn't have to be a mind-melting experience thanks to the Window>Extensions menu in Illustrator CS4. Your students can choose Kulor and download swatches of color schemes into their swatch collection without actually going to the Kulor website. You can tell your students which swatch collections to work with for each color exercise, for example, or just require them to choose a swatch collection and stick with it. The above color scheme is called "Haiti Relief". If you need to brush up on color theory, visit the kulor.adobe.com links page. There is even a link to Colorstrology where you can find the Pantone color that vibrates with your inner you... or something like that.

I'm Hooked!: More from mrduey.com

2009-12-13T22:22:00.000-05:00

Rapping Math Teacher

2009-12-13T21:46:00.004-05:00

Whatever works! Read about this creative guy in edutopia.

Launch an Arts-Based, Inter-Disciplinary School Magazine

2009-12-13T20:57:00.010-05:00

Leslie O'Shaughnessy of Robert E. Lee High School in Virginia, creates an interdisciplinary magazine that involves several departments in the school and excites the student body, staff and administration enough that she continues this every year. Check out the full student-produced E-Zine online.

Here is an overview of the project in her own words:

WHAT does an Arts-Based, Inter-Disciplinary School Magazine include?
• An overarching “theme” or “big idea”
• A format to showcase student art work from Fine Art, Photo, and Computer Graphics areas
• A range of student “Features” from various core subject areas (written commentary, photographs, skits or debates via video, music links, wiki research, etc.)
• An online magazine with hyperlinks produced with InDesign, and a hard-copy accordian-book display.

WHY launch an Arts-Based, Inter-Disciplinary School Magazine?
• To enrich overall student learning through collaborative effort with core subjects
• To provide “real world” magazine design experience to Computer Graphics students
• To fold “literacy” into the Art POS
• To enable participating students to receive credit for “published” work (looks good on college app’s)
• To facilitate the use of technology via an e-zine format

WHERE TO BEGIN to Launch an Arts-Based, Inter-Disciplinary School Magazine?

1. Choose an overarching magazine theme or human issue. (i.e. honoring nature/global warming, peace/conflict, human diversity, heroes, life cycles, etc.) Consider how other subjects can tap into it.

2. Recruit collaborative effort from teachers of other subjects/departments and research standards to tie into the theme.

Cite the current educational trend emphasizing collaboration/inter-curricular connections (Our principal LOVED this project!)
Cite the value of showcasing a core department’s work
Cite professional development (Evaluations)
Cite strand (No new lesson planning needed)
Make specific suggestions for tapping-in (Poems, political cartoons, essay excerpt, wiki research, lab results, skits, videos, etc.)

3. For the production of this year's E-Zine with the theme of the environment, aptly titled, Ecozine:

Art students contributed…

Art 1 students– printmaking cover art, short Environmental Artist article w/photos
Photo students – Local Community Service article w/photos
CG 1 students– full e-zine magazine layout, short environmental commentary, original ads
Advanced CG students–environmental posters

Core students contributed…

Pre-IB Gov’t students– Cap and Trade Debate video
ESOL students– recycling pyramids
IB Biology students – Wiki research on alternative energy
Science students– Rising Sea Level models
French 3 students– video skit about littering
Spanish 3 students– children’s eco books on video

I recommend 16-pages, including covers, using InDesign

4. Promotion and Exhibit of Final Magazine/Displayed Artwork

Print-out hard copies and “accordion mount” and display in school Library.
Post pdf file of full magazine on school website. Exhibit mounted cover artwork in school gallery and art shows.

There is more info on the school's website. For additional info on collaboration or magazine production, contact Leslie: LBOShaughnes@fcps.edu

Create Your Own Font-No Software Required

2009-12-07T12:46:00.003-05:00

Finally! So simple. First you download the font template (grid). Fill the grid in with your letters. Scan the template, preview and download. fontcapture.com I'm going to let my classes try this after reviewing some font design theory.

Typography Portraits

2009-12-03T20:40:00.005-05:00

Check out 45 Amazing Type Faces...not fonts...human faces. Above are examples created in Illustrator by computer graphics I students.

10 Places to Find Photoshop Courses, Tutorials, and Lessons Online

2009-12-03T20:32:00.001-05:00

from guest blogger, Karen Schweitzer

Artists who are interested in learning how to work within the Adobe Photoshop program or increase their current skills can obtain a free education online. There are many different sites that provide Photoshop courses, lessons, and tutorials to self-learners. Here are 10 no-cost education resources to explore in your free time:

Photoshop Basics Course - This free About.com course guides students through the basics of Adobe Photoshop. The self-paced course can be taken online or delivered in installments via email.

CreativeTechs 6-Month Photoshop Course - Artists who are interested in learning something new or refining their Photoshop skills can join this free worldwide course that is already in progress. New classes are held each week and take approximately two hours to complete.

PhotoshopCAFE Tutorials - PhotoshopCAFE provides free tutorials that teach artists how to add texture, complete photo projects, work with text, create designs for the web, and much more.

PhotoshopStar - PhotshopStar offers a nice selection of free Photoshop tutorials for intermediate to advanced users. The site also pays artists who submit their own tutorials.

PhotoshopRoadmap - Most of the free tutorials on PhotoshopRoadmap are geared toward pros who are trying to learn advanced techniques, but the site also hosts a few essential tutorials for beginners.

Photoshop Support Tutorials - This popular site offers a wide range of tutorials for various versions of Photoshop, including Adobe CS, Adobe CS2, Adobe CS3, and Adobe CS4.

Psdtuts+ - Part blog/part Photoshop site, Psdtuts+ is a good place to find free tutorials, articles, and videos. The site also hosts a helpful wiki with more than 100 articles.

Pixel2life Tutorials - Pixel2life, which hosts one of the largest collections of free tutorials on the web, caters to graphic designers and webmasters who are seeking a free education. Site users can learn from current tutorials and submit their own to earn free advertising and prizes.

Free Photoshop Book - This free, no-strings-attached Photoshop book includes 25 essential lessons for beginning and professional Photoshop users. The lessons include handy techniques, time-saving tools, practical applications, shortcuts, and other useful information.

Basic Photoshop Lessons - Utah State University offers three free online lessons for students who are trying to learn the basics of Photoshop. Each lesson includes a useful handout, practice exercise, or assignment.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online degree programs for OnlineDegreePrograms.org.

Trippy Notan

2009-12-03T20:28:00.003-05:00

Creating Notan designs in Illustrator is less frustrating than using x-acto knives and paper. Next step: applying color theory to Notan designs. The above are computer graphics I student examples.

High School Photography Competition

2009-11-11T17:04:00.002-05:00

It's time to think about Drexel University Antionette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design's High School Photography Contest. Deadline 12/5/09. All photographic processes eligible.

Painting with Light

2009-10-11T18:06:00.003-04:00

Here is a great lesson idea from Photoshoplab: how to add dramatic lighting to otherwise dull photograph. It is based on one of my favorite books, Welcome to Oz: A Cinematic Approach to Photoshop, by Vincent Versace. This page has screenshots that your students can follow to get the effect.

We all Scream for Screenr

2009-10-10T08:51:00.005-04:00

All those demos we do...now we can record them to share with others, or to post for our students as a reminder....without buying software. Screenr is free and brings us up a few notches in impressive digital teaching methods.

"Screenr is a web-based tool that lets you create screencasts without installing any software. You just click the record button and your screen activity is recorded along with narration from your microphone. Screenr then publishes your screencast in high-definition Flash format. Screenr makes it easy to share your screencast on Twitter, YouTube or anywhere else on the web. Even iPhone users can view your screencast."

This also shines a whole new light on distance learning. I have many artists asking me how to adjust photos of their artwork in Photoshop (also necessary for AP students) and we try to schedule workshops for them to attend, but some travel a couple hours to get to the workshops. This will be my first Screenr (other than the little test I did).

If you create a Screenr for a lesson demo, please let me know and I will post it here for you to share with the rest of us.

Portrait in Contrasting Colors

2009-09-06T09:38:00.013-04:00

This is similar to what Andy Warhol created with his multiples silkscreens, so you can use him as an exemplar if you want, and add steps of painted lines as well. I guess you could also use Shepard Fairey for a more contemporary exemplar and instead of multiples, add some words. This would be a good time to explain the process of silk screening so they understand how the originals were made.

1. Students take photos of friends, of if you use images off of google, choose "large" under options. It should be at least 200K.
2. Open image in Photoshop. Image>Adjustments>Threshhold. (Move the slider to get the right amount of detail. You might need to choose a different image if you can't get good detail.)
3. Select>Color Range. Use the eyedropper on the image to select black (not on the thumbnail showing). You should see the "marching ants" around the black areas.
4. Choose a foreground color. Edit>Fill>Foreground color
5. Select>Inverse
6. Choose second color (complementary or near complementary). Edit>Fill>Foreground color
7. Tweak your colors using the Select tools learned. Select>Deselect. File>Save As
8. To make multiple variants, just use Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and save each as new name.
9. Arrange them on new document that is a size you can print. But first check the resolution of the original image (Image>Image size) and make your new document the same resolution. Open, Select>All, Copy and Paste Use Edit>Transform>Scale to resize each layer. Crop. Students can continue to adjust colors even at this stage.

Let the Party Begin!

2009-08-12T09:43:00.004-04:00

It's that time of year again. We are either looking forward to the new school year, or are filled with anxiety... OK, sometimes a little of both. I want to give some advice to all of those who will be new to digital media this year and to their more experienced colleagues:

1. Don't feel insecure about how much you don't know yet. It is OK to be just a week, or sometimes just a day ahead of your students while you learn. You have a lot to learn. As a matter of fact, I think it's a great idea to let your students know. High school students in particular love to think of themselves as adults, and nothing is better for their ego than to know more than a teacher. If you let the students know you are also learning this along with them, some who are a little farther along than you make great resources when you need help, and are great teacher helpers when too many hands are raised asking for help. Also, all the students in the class will be more forgiving of your mistakes and backtracks if they know you are learning just like them. I usually have at least one student who is more of an expert in something than I am in every class, thank goodness.

2. Be flexible, if something isn't working, don't feel like you will look like a dufus if you say something like, "You know what, I don't think this is the best way to do this anymore. What do you think? I want to scrap this and start with this new assignment. My apologies. I appreciate you giving it the 'ole college try'. Let's start fresh with something better."

3. You are still the expert when it comes to art history, art elements and design and composition, expressing big ideas, looking critically at art and the joy of art. The fundamentals of art are the same whether you are using a spray can, a paintbrush or a mouse.

4. You are still an experienced teacher and an advocate for your students. If an administrator puts more students in the class than there are computers, explain that it is not fair for the students who have to share a computer to fall so far behind, or to have to stay after to catch up, or for you to be forced to teach them after school. Sometimes administrators forget that you aren't just using computer to peruse the internet.

5. Sign up at Lynda.com where you can watch wonderful video tutorials on any software you need to learn, plus some about careers and creativity. It is only $25/ month and you don't have to commit to more than a month. Plus, now you can print out a certificate for every course you finish and use these for recertification points. This style of learning is much more flexible than a class that you have to attend at a specific time. You can find courses at your community college.

6. Remember you are teaching Art and creative problem solving. Always design your lessons around the Art, not the software, but do keep in mind that learning software is cumulative and there is a definite set of skills to learn first before the others. Some software is easier to learn than the others. (I start with Photoshop, but others like to start with the vector software like InDesign or Illustrator.)

7. Digital media is preparing young people for the real world and you should be proud. In addition, you are probably attracting students into the art program who are as intimidated about traditional media as you are about digital media and for the first time, they feel brave enough to take an art class. If your school system requires a traditional media class BEFORE a digital media class, you might want to talk to your supervisor about the potential swell in art students if you allow students to use their digital media class as their foundation class.

8. Ask more experienced colleagues for help and offer to pay for long term tutoring. (Note to more experienced colleague: remember what you felt like when you made the leap.)

9. Psych yourself every day. Use a mantra: "I love art, I love kids, I love learning new things. This is exciting and I AM excited to be here. Life is good." In other words, if you are tense, the anxiety is contagious and the kids will not enjoy the class.

Contemporary Photographers

2009-07-13T14:23:00.003-04:00

If you need a source for showing examples of contemporary fine art photographers, who are truly pushing the envelope, go to the Photography Now website (slogan: "a way to connect your creative vision with the world at large...the internet's premiere site dedicated to people seriously interested in contemporary and classical photography.")

My favorite page is the "More Contemporary Artists" page. Check out MaLiang who combines theater, and aged photo effects, and Julia Fullerton-Batten who directs and creates elaborate images that play with scale or movement, or repetition. John Manno has some new ideas for shooting still lifes and objects, and Keven Erickson has found beauty in motion blur.

Another Useful Book--Digital Painting in Photoshop

2009-07-11T13:26:00.004-04:00

This book definitely crosses over into the realm of Photoshop as an artform, instead the Photoshop cool tricks (boring!) arena...even though you might think some of the finished examples are a little cheesy. Get past that and the techniques are very interesting and useful.

This book is perfect for educators (as well as traditional illustrators who find their clients can't always pay for the time for traditional media illustrations). Screenshots are extremely effective and this book has a lot of them. Most young people are very visual, and of couse, all artists are. I spend lots of extra hours creating screenshots for my students after realizing how effective they are as a teaching tool.

If you are dipping your toes into painting with Photoshop, this book is a great start if you already understand basic Photoshop. It is much better than searching for online tutorials, which half the time are not clearly explained, and the physical book makes for a great reference to keep going back to.

The techniques described are not what you would find just by applying a filter or two. The author spent many hours experimenting with techniques that now you don't have to spend hours figuring out yourself. Whether or not you think all the finished examples are inspiring works of art doesn't matter. These techniques are very useful and I plan on teaching several to my students.

I also enjoyed the respectful discussions of traditional media. I for one would always prefer to use real pastels...when I have a lot of time, but, it would be a huge mistake to not address this digital art form. After all, it still takes an artist to turn these techniques into exciting works of art.

Don't worry, if you are a well-trained artist, your finished products will not look like you were a non-artist who thought Photoshop turned you into an artist, and I especially think that any serious art student who plans on majoring in illustration, graphic design, animation, or art history really needs to be exposed to this aspect of Photoshop.

25 Free Online Resources for Art Students

2009-05-26T06:31:00.001-04:00

Guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes for the online schools search section of OnlineColleges.net .

Looking for free design tools, images, or art education? Maybe you'd like to sell and promote your artwork. Whatever your needs are, there are plenty of free resources to be found online. Here are 25 worth exploring:

Free Design Tools

ArtRage - The starter edition of this digital painting software can be downloaded and used for free. The free version includes eight painting tools and the ability to create, save, and print as many images as you'd like.

Gimp - This free image manipulation program, which works with multiple systems, can be used for image authoring, image composition, and photo retouching.

Artweaver - Artweaver is free Windows-based software that can be used to sketch, manipulate, and enhance images.

Project Dogwaffle - This painting and animation program offers a unique toolset that can be used to draw, sketch, animate, and paint. There is a full version that can be purchased, but the free starter version works almost as well.

Picasa - Google's photo editing software is easy to use and free for all.

Royalty Free Images

Stock.XCHNG - This free stock photo site offers 350,000 stock photos created by thousands of different photographers.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net - You can find thousands of royalty free images for commercial and personal use on this site. Every image is free unless you are looking for an extremely high res version.

Public Domain Pictures - This repository for public domain images is a great place to find free images for personal and commercial use.

iStock Photo - iStock isn't exactly free, but you can get royalty free files for as little as $1 each.

Stockxpert - Like iStock, Stockxpert is a place to buy royalty free photos and illustrations. Image pricing ranges from $1 to $10.

Free Art Education

The Art of Color - This free online course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology explores the use of color through studio projects and readings.

Intro to Photography - This free online course, also from MIT, provides practical photography instruction in multiple languages.

Media Art - Capilano College of Canada offers four free media art courses online. Coursework is delivered through lectures and assignments.

Creating Interactive Multimedia - Offered free through the University of Southern Queensland, this online course teaches students some of the technologies, tools, and techniques used to create interactive multimedia.

Planet Photoshop - Planet Photoshop hosts thousands of free tutorials that cover every aspect of Photoshop design.

Exploring, Promoting, Selling, and Sharing Artwork

Artition - This social networking site for artists is a good place to meet other people, promote your work, and sell art.

Artbreak - Artbreak is a global community for artists who want to explore, share, and sell artwork online.

ArtId - With ArtId's free membership, art students can create a free gallery, blog, bio, contact form, and guest book. Artists who want to sell art and generate income can upgrade to a paid membership.

MyArtSpace.com - A popular social network for artists, MyArtSpace.com is a place to create galleries and upload artwork. The site also creates opportunities for art students to win scholarships and exhibit art at physical locations.

MosaicGlobe - The mission of the MosaicGlobe Project is to provide free and effective marketing tools to creative professionals. You can use it to create your own website, galleries, blogs, and more.

Miscellaneous Resources

The Pauper - This site is an all around great place for artists. Site visitors can network with other people, sell and promote their work, participate in contests, and read informative articles.

Empty Easel - Empty Easel is a free online art magazine that publishes helpful information for new and advanced artists.

Open Font Library - The Open Font Library hosts free software fonts that can be used, manipulated, and shared for free.

The Digital Art Museum - The Digital Art Museum exhibits artwork and articles from leading digital artists. The online museum also offers an introduction to digital art history.

Digital Art Source - This site is a source for links, articles, interviews, and other helpful resources. The site also hosts a free forum and a selection of books related to digital art.

Inspiration for Photography Teachers

2009-03-03T09:50:00.003-05:00

The Center for Fine Art Photography is a site to visit for inspiration for themes and images for photography projects (maybe skipping over some of the nudes for K-12 students...). For example, the current exhibit is "Idea of Self". Past exhibitions were "Negative Space", "Our Environment: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", another is "Interactions", "On the Edge", "After Dark". I'm drawn to this site because here photography is art, not commercial, and creativity is welcome. If you live near Ft. Collins, Colorado, then you are lucky to be able to attend their workshops.

2009-01-11T19:02:00.004-05:00

Students at Big Sky High School in Missoula, Montana has pulled off something as big as, well the Montana sky. With the help of their teacher, Lorilee Evans-Lynn, they have turned their school's literary arts magazine into an international magazine with photography, art and writing submissions coming from high school students all over the world. They even have a board of national writers and poets. Being an art and literary magazine advisor myself, and having to go digital this year since our budgets were drastically cut, and we couldn't get enough people to buy the printed ones, I can just imagine the amount of work that goes into fundraising. Aerie International is truly inspiring. I have several students preparing to submit poetry.

If you didn't get their flyer this year, check out their website and encourage your students to submit. The deadline is February 1st for 2009.

Your Observations of Digital Natives

2008-11-27T09:49:00.005-05:00

We all know the generalizations about Digital Natives: they read more lines of text messages than they do lines from books, they spend more time on Facebook than with their face in a book, they need a constant stream of music to be productive, etc. But, what are your actual observations? I would love to hear from those of you who have a lot of time to observe digital natives.

These are my observations: Digital Natives are not really that impressed with digital art like we were when Photoshop hit the streets. It's fun to make, but they are more in awe with art a mano. After all, they have always had a world of Photoshop art, it's almost 20 years old now. Art by hand seems more of a challenge to them, and highly individual, to many of them, frightenly foreign. Following the lead of the professional graphics world, I create projects for my computer graphics II students that incorporate their drawings. The design world now demands the surprise and individuality of handwork. We can't cheat our students of that experience. My computer graphics students who have taken one or more 2D class have no problem with incorporating one of the scanned drawings into a final digital design, but those that haven't freeze up.

Videos as non-art class projects are so common now that some of my students had 3 videos due in one week for 3 different subjects.

Have you noticed all the handlettering in posters and ads and even commercials that target those under 30? Take a look at these awsome hand-lettered restaurant chalk-boards. Art schools still require some handwork in typography classes.

Most digital natives who are musicians don't make music alone on a synthesizer or with Garage Band. They crave a band and an instrument. Of course, they will always promote their music with posters, videos, myspace, pure volume, etc. And, they will lay down tracks with their recording software. Technology is a convenience that won't disappear.

How do digital native poets get attention now? Sure, thanks to technology they can self-publish with affordable on-demand book publishers, and they can put their work online. But poetry slams are like the pre-technology beatnik poet coffee house readings. In my town, I'm trying to find a space for a young poet to write his poetry on the wall of a gallery with illustrations by his buddy accompanying it. Writing on the wall. Why hasn't graffiti art fizzled out with computers? Just search "wall art" and "murals" on vimeo or youtube.

Art a mano. It must be something primitive that we won't ever let go of, that is, until our opposable tumbs disappear. Of course, we wouldn't be able to see it all without the internet...

My son who is majoring in graphic design (communication arts, actually) just had his 21st birthday. Guess what he asked for. Art supplies, canvases, brushes, paint. Yea, we gave him a wacom tablet, which he didn't ask for, but guess what he is most excited about. He's got a head full of painting ideas and is begging me to let him make art on some of our home's white walls.

He's a fan of the artist blu . That's the subject of another blog.

Course Content Materials for Everyone

2008-11-21T06:45:00.003-05:00

MIT OpenCourseWare is an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to put all of the educational materials from its undergrad and grad-level courses online, free and available to anyone, anywhere.

Check out this list of 100+ Courseware Links for Artists from artcareer.net.

We Love Posters

2008-11-17T16:54:00.006-05:00

In Graphic Design classes, poster projects are the fudge brownie sundaes of projects. The history of poster design shows that in the effort to be eye-catching creativity is given free range. Lettering can be hand-drawn, composition could include mismatched cutouts. Doodles and tape and the bizarre are welcome.

But we all have students who freeze when given such a chance to show their creativity. I have recently purchased 2 fantastic poster books that I prefer to keep by my bed so I can look at them every night, but my intention is to take them to school for my students.

Modern Dog: 20 Years of Poster Art (Not Canine-Related) is a collection from the Seattle group of cutting-edge poster radicals/comedians. Check out their website.

Masters of Poster Design includes their peers, 256 pages of eye-candy and a book jacket great enough to frame.

Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

2008-11-16T12:10:00.003-05:00

Remember those CG 3D modeled fantasy landscapes that blew us all away about... a decade or more ago? The Bryce software used to create them is now FREE. Yes, legally FREE. It is not the latest version, but if you have been wanting to introduce your CG students to 3D animation software, this is a good gateway. You create a "wire mesh" frame, put a skin on it, control the lighting and see it in multiple directions, and even give it simple movement. It is easy to make your own landscape and 3D objects, after you spend time figuring out how it works.

The only drawback is the slow rendering time, so you need to plan how to render overnight, maybe encouraging the students to download the free version at home as well and using a flash drive, take their work home to render.

You need to go to the DAZ 3d website first, go to support, create an account and request your free serial number. Then you can download it for free at downloads.com

Check out the demo reel .

The. Lens: A Network for Student Photogrpahers

2008-11-16T11:45:00.004-05:00

Check out David Gran's latest great idea, a ning for student photographers: http://studentphoto.ning.com/

The photos are excellent and an inspiration to any photography student. They can create a profile, upload their photos, create a slideshow of their photos, leave comments and start discussions and read the blog. Nothing new for them, right? The pool of participants are international. If you are my age, the closest we got to such excitement were those handwritten letters we got back from our foreign pen pal a few times a year.

One especially interesting blog entry by Paddy N is about Graffiti Research Lab

Thanks again David.

Burst Mode Photography as An Art Form - Virtual Flip Books

2008-08-31T19:10:00.006-04:00

Check out this wonderful presentation of Burst Mode (a.k.a Continuous Shooting Mode) photos on Mediastorm.org. (There is a little gore in the middle.) Is it flip-book animation? stop-motion animation? a category all it's own? I've decided to turn this into a project with my Photography II students. They will put their images in iMovie and add music. I will put all the individual movies into one longer one for our art show. I figure when my students are done, they will really understand the burst mode.

What are you waiting for?

2008-08-03T19:56:00.003-04:00

If you haven't subscribed to lynda.com...what are you waiting for?

Do you need high-quality video tutorials to help you learn new software, anything from Photoshop to complex animation software? Do you need videos to share with your classes, say an interview with Milton Glaser, or interview with Pentagram that gives a taste of how designers think? Are you confused about how a digital camera works? How about 16 separate videos to show your students that give an inside look into one of the most innovative web design firms and how they work, including how they work with clients? This site is so deep and wide you will not tire of it. And the beauty of it is that even though you have to pay a subscription fee (about $25/month last I checked) you are not committed to more than one month. My family however started our subscription about 2 years ago and haven't stopped. (I'm married to an animator, my oldest son is studying graphic design in college, and my younger son is a Photoshop and photography wiz.) Everytime I start exploring it, I see that they have a wonderful new addition. I found exactly what I need as an introductory video for my graphic design class (Big Spaceship) and they just added it 2 days ago. Subscribing to lynda.com costs a lot more than subscribing to most magazines, but it is so much more useful (and there are no ads).

No, they aren't paying me to write this blog entry... but they should!

Landscape Photography While the Weather is Good

2008-07-29T09:16:00.008-04:00

Landscape photography is very challenging. It is hard to compose well, because there are so many shapes. You can't move the subjects, well maybe a stick or small rock, but certainly not a telephone pole. And if you expose for the sky you have land that is probably too dark. On top of that if you don't choose the right time of day the colors can be very boring and you might have glare. You have to be at the right place at the right time and this might mean returning later or hanging out for a few more hours.

Here are some tips I've learned, some you'll recognize from landscape painting.

1. Compose and balance the large value shapes.

2. Look for interesting lines, especially those leading into the composition for a sense of depth, and those pointing to the center of interest.

3. Speaking of lines, make sure your horizon is straight, unless you are making a dramatic diagonal. A slight diagonal looks like a mistake. You can always fix this in Photoshop.

4. What is creating the depth? Converging lines, diminishing scale and/or atmospheric perspective? In other words, if you want more depth look for those.

4. Ideally, you should have an expensive SLR and a graduated neutral density filter so that you can balance the exposure of sky and land. But, if you don't, put your camera on a tripod. Bracket above and below and then in Photoshop using the automated Merge to HDR (high density resolution) to get the best of both. Or, if you really have no other choice expose for the sky and in Photoshop use a mask to change the levels of the land and hope that you don't have much noise.

5. Be aware of the color quality and shadow and light direction that depends on the time of day so you can plan your shot. If the light isn't great right now, what about in a few hours.

6. One third sky or land, two-thirds the other is a good rule of thumb, unless there is an advantage to half and half, like using symmetry to create calm. Center of interest should not be in the center, usually.

7. Consider including the foreground.

8. Study the weather channel. Would a sky full of clouds be better than a solid blue sky? Do you need to return another time to get the right sky?

Example above: I think I composed the lines and shapes well. The time of day was perfect and I have one small area lit up and atmospheric perspective. I even have some foreground and an interesting sky. The problem was this was an unexpected view on our way home and we were on a one-lane bridge. I yelled "STOP!!!" to my husband who was driving and grabbed my camera. However, the person coming in the other direction beeped their horn at us! (Can't someone just take a photo on a summer evening in the middle of nowhere? Where did he have to go in such a hurry in the middle of a national forest?) So, I didn't have time to put on the right filter on or bracket or change my position to get the tree clump out of the center. I had to use Photoshop and masking to fix the dark land. As a result it looks like the slightly unreal colors of a Maxfield Parrish illustration. I'm definitely going back there to get a much better photo... as soon as I save up the gas money.

You can find some fantastic examples on photo.net Choose the Landscape category from the dropdown menu.

Photography Project Ideas

2008-07-29T08:29:00.005-04:00

Digital-Photography-School.com has a forum where folks propose assignment ideas, like "Ghetto Lighting" (using everyday lighting like a desk lamp or flashlight), minimalism, eyes, rivers, shadows, self portraits, feet, etc.

At the end of a school year I asked students to type me a little note about what they liked/didn't like about the class. I only had handful of students take the time to do so. One said there were too many projects to complete, and another said she wished I had more assignments because when she finished early she was bored. So, I think I'll make a folder of extra lesson ideas for "If you Finish Early"... or something like that. I'll get some of the ideas from this website.

One of the assignments was "From the Hip". The most exciting one was actually, "Above the Head". I'll think I'll "steal" that idea. It forces students to try different angles and adds some mystery, since you can't see your LCD or viewfinder. Maybe I'll make it one of the steps in an "Overhead Point of View" assignment. Sounds like fun to me.

Also, check out their Digital Photography Tips section with topics like: 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits.

What Matters

2008-07-29T08:23:00.001-04:00

What Matters to You // Me? from Jr.canest on Vimeo.

This was done by a Vancouver Film School student.

Light Painting

2008-07-23T10:31:00.005-04:00

Check out this great video that the Carrot Revolution blog posted on Light Painting: drawing with a light source in the dark while you capture it with a slow shutter speed. I'm going to show it to my students, but might have to make it an extra credit assignment because only some of them will have point and shoots with manual or shutter speed settings.

There are many wonderful examples of light painting on flickr. Here's one set, another, and another. When you see all these images you realize that light painting is not just drawing with a light source, but it also includes shining lights, often color lights, on objects, another version of handpainting an image, but in the camera.

The above photo I took this summer when I was in the audience of a black light dance on stage. They were dancing with light, so I switched to a slow shutter speed and captured a light painting. If you try this, let me know and share your examples with us.

How to Start a Digital Photography Class

2008-07-22T08:00:00.003-04:00

One reader left a comment asking for helpful hints for starting a digital photography and video class.

I also had to start the digital photography class for our county and I was feeling lost until I purchased John Hedgecoe's Photography Basics and his New Manual of Photography (mentioned earlier in this blog "Essential Photography Books"). I basically had my students do projects based on finding shapes, line, pattern, texture, light direction etc. as he suggests in his books. He also covers topics, like flowers, portraits, etc. Then I would add project ideas that I would get by reading other books and keeping up with online sites. (I've mentioned several in earlier entries in this blog.) John Hedgecoe also wrote a great book on filmmaking that I had in college, but I haven't checked if it is still in print, or if he has a video version. I only teach one unit on video using iMovie and I mention good video examples for a starting point in an earlier entry.

I think the key is to remember that you are approaching digital photography and video as art instruction. There are so many digital photographers and Photoshop experts who do not have a background in art and you can tell from their writing that they approach it as a technology challenge, not an art challenge. In my blog I try to focus on the ones who approach it as an artist. So, be careful what books you buy and what websites you read. Remember to cover the art elements and principles of design as well as the concept and purpose of expression. I make the technology part secondary, and they learn it as they go, not all at once.

I always start the year with a History of Photography lecture based on http://masters-of-photography.com (the dashes are important because there is another site without them). That site not only has examples but great articles about each photographer explaining their approach and motivation. It helped me remember a lot from college history of photography classes as well (a long time ago). The students love that lecture because they feel like peeping toms to the past. And, of course, if you have to justify that you tie other subjects into your art classes, well, this one is easy since so much of our nation's history is documented in these photos. Since I love history, I ask them to tell me what they know about the subject of the Dust Bowl, the Industrial Revolution, etc. that they see evidence of in the photos.

I try to introduce visual ideas during the lecture. For example, looking at Dorthea Lange, tell her story but also ask questions: "Did she ask her subjects to smile?" "What angle to the subject was she when she took this?" "What would have happened if she had stood 10 feet to the left? The diagonal line would have become horizontal and that is no where near as interesting." etc. This lecture is important because it helps make the students more comfortable with what I am expecting, before they ever have to turn in a project. Before I give them their first assignment, they already have a sense of the big idea of photography as an art form, that it is as much about the composition and lighting as it is about the subject, and that there is a boring way to represent the subject and a more intriguing way. It helps them understand the difference between snapshots and photography as an art form.

I highly recommend buying the two Hedgecoe books . They made my life a lot easier when I was asked to write the digital photography curriculum and my last photography class had been in the 70s.

Also, my first digital photography shooting projects of the year are: Photographing a Subject from Several Angles, and Shadows as the Subject (this one helps them think abstractly about big shapes instead of the subject). When school starts up again, I will show student examples of these early projects.

Photography Scholarship to NANPA Summmit

2008-06-26T13:30:00.002-04:00

The North American Nature Photography Association gives student scholarships to their conference every year. It includes workshops in the classroom and in the field as well as critiques. It does not cover airfare, or food and supplies ($300). The applications are due October 6, 2008 for the February Summitt in Albuquerque.

Website for Design Lesson Ideas

2008-06-24T22:24:00.003-04:00

If you teach graphic design, spend some time with this educational resource website provided by Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The lesson plans are well-developed and easy to search. Of course, design goes beyond graphic design. I found a great project idea for a 3D class I will teach next year.

Ansel Adams

2008-05-20T19:51:00.005-04:00

Adams is an inspiration not just because of his photographs, but also his zest for life with no boundaries. You understand what I mean if you've read his autobiography. Don't miss this NY Times web article with sound byte interviews about him. This is another website with sound from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. PBS has a movie about him as well.

Really, next time you need some inspiration to do anything, read his autobiography. When you finally put it down you will feel like you can accomplish anything. You probably won't want to put it down until you reach the end, but it is not very thick, so it makes a great weekend retreat.

Can't Get Enough?

2008-05-20T19:39:00.002-04:00

Check out Cameraporn's 60 Photography Links You Can't Live Without

Focal Press Book: Black and White in Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Lightroom

2008-05-06T21:00:00.006-04:00

This is now on my list of highly recommended books for digital photography educators. Leslie Alsheimer has a wonderful, comforting, sometimes lighthearted tone to her writing. Her ability to communicate shows that she is an experienced teacher. She teaches digital photography workshops in Santa Fe. And she is a very inspiring photographer as well. She obviously took great care in preparing every chapter and choosing every photo. This is a book by an artist, not just someone who has expensive equipment and likes to take photos and work in Photoshop.

I have not only improved the quality of my own photography after reading this book, but I find myself remembering many of her tips when the time comes to approach a subject with my students. If you are an intermediate to advanced user of Photoshop, you will still find new ideas here. I especially appreciate that she starts right off by discussing workflow instead of making it an afterthought.

I had trouble putting the book down. And when I was done, I realized I had learned as much about color digital photography as black and white. You don't necessarily need the CS3 version to use this information, and Lightroom is a small part of the process.

By the way, I love Lightroom. How in the world did I manage all my photos before?

Dance Photography, Movement Fashion Photography, and Boxing

2008-05-06T20:44:00.005-04:00

We just finished action photography. Wish I had remembered this short video on Adobe's website beforehand. The photographer, Sarah Silver explains how she takes photos for Dance Spirit magazine and movement fashion shots.

Also on that page is a link to Sye Williams and his photography of boxers, show dogs and miscellaneous oddities of the south.

Baz Luhrmann, Apple, a Design Contest and Podcasts

2008-05-06T20:15:00.004-04:00

If you get Apple email (and actually open it) you may already be aware of this: The Set to Screen Series: Be part of a new adventure in filmmaking.

The podcasts show wonderful examples of yet another way artists are important professionals. I plan on showing them to my computer graphics students on a day when they just can't focus on work.

Student contests (high school and college) accompany each podcast. The first is making a poster from photos provided from Baz's movie Australia. (due May 26) Your students must create it on a Mac.

I hope that when my son enters and wins he includes me on the trip for 2 to Australia grand prize.

Flower Photography Tips

2008-04-26T10:12:00.007-04:00

The above photos were all done by my students. These are the techniques I require them to try:

1. Flower photography is very much like portrait photography. Be aware of the effect of lighting and shadows. You can use the spot healing tool the same way you would for a portrait, if you are looking for perfection.

2. Try holding a stiff black background (like black presentation board, or black foam core board) behind the flower, even with natural lighting.

3. Drops of rain or dew are magical on a flower, but a spray bottle of water can be used if you don't feel like getting up in time for the dew.

4. Get to know your macro...but don't always use it. Understand depth of field and use both shallow and deep.

5. The most convenient angle is also probably the most boring.

Rich Learning on the Web

2008-04-15T21:30:00.003-04:00

http://webexhibits.org is a very art-student friendly collection of educational web galleries. (As a matter of fact, it was a student who showed me the site.) It is a collaboration with IDEA (see below) and museums worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art. Some of the chapters are: Color Vision and Art (with several interactive activities); Pigments through the Ages and Van Gogh's letters.

http://idea.org is the site from which the above site originated. Here are a few paragraphs from their intro: "The Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA) is a nonprofit organization that takes bold ideas about facilitating and broadening the learning process and transforms them into information systems that are then shared with others who share our passion for interactive learning.

IDEA arose out of the belief that there should be no barriers between people and computers. Technology is now advanced enough to adapt to the ways people naturally think and interact with the world. The user’s experience with technology should be personalized, interactive, and intuitive, so that the tools add breadth and depth to the information presented, and stimulate creative thought. Innovative strategies built into the technology can help people from all walks of life maximize their potential."

Big goals. Although the IDEA site is designed to help people who are designing educational websites, parts of it are useful to all educators, from some theories of learning to effective evaluation of your own work, to a color blindness simulator. If you are trying to create an educational interactive website, this is a resource you shouldn't pass over.

Hopefully both these sites will continue growing.

Teens Take Over the Commercial Photography World

2008-04-02T18:57:00.010-04:00

The commercial photography industry should just hire our students. I just brought in some low-end studio lights (all I had were two) and some black fabric for our backdrop. All I did was demonstrate the effects of aiming the lights different ways, tell them to use a tripod, suggested the occasional tissue paper filter and showed them how to use the reflector. They took to the job like pros, bossing each other around. "OK, look sad...no like your sister just died...no, like you're a drug addict whose whole family died... Great. OK, now, flirt with the camera..." Where are they learning this stuff? Must be a reality show. They even put on airs and talked with accents.

Here are just a few student examples. If you want to buy some studio lights and backdrop holder, look at websites like BHphoto, or maybe ebay. You don't need the expensive stuff, just the basic: lights with soft light filter, backdrop holder and a reflector is nice (or you can make one out of aluminum foil). Does anyone else have any studio style shots to share with us?

Essential Photography Books

2008-03-31T16:07:00.008-04:00

When I was first given the opportunity to teach digital photography, I had to head to the bookstore. My last college photography class had been 1979. I had taken 3 levels of photography and had worked as a photojournalist in my mid-20s, but remembering how I was taught the essentials was packed away somewhere in the attic section of my brain.

My digital photography curriculum is a combination of photography essentials (composition, lighting, point-of-view, expression, topics) and Photoshop. During the warm weather months we focus on those photography topics (which would apply to film as well) and then, obviously, during the months with nasty weather, we focus on Photoshop and studio photography. And, as you probably have discovered, there are no books that I have run across that cover both topics well, which is understandable. And for that reason, I do not use a text book.

The majority of the photography part of the curriculum came from two fantastic books, John Hedgecoe: The New Manual of Photography: A Definitive Guide to Photography in Every Format, and his more basic one, John Hedgecoe's Photography Basics. I recommend both, because you can use a lot of the chapters from his Basics directly in the classroom. The Definitive Guide takes more careful thought about what is too advanced or non-essential for your students. I remembered him from college. I loved his book on filmmaking. He writes so beautifully and from the perspective of an artist, not a tech geek. And, they are visually exciting books, as well.

Here are just a partial list of sub topics in his chapter called, "The Art of Good Photography Composition" (Definitive Guide): The selective eye; placing the subject in the frame; using diagonals; circles; frames within frames; selecting a viewpoint; linear perspective; using shadows; texture, pattern, and quite a few more. He has another complete chapter devoted solely to color.

So, if, like me, it's been a long time since you took that photography class, consider these two books. There are many others that cover more specific or advanced photography topics, but these are the best essentials for the art of photography.

New Assignment Got You Scared?

2008-03-26T21:49:00.006-04:00

This is the time of year when a lot of art educators, especially in public high schools, are told, "You will be teaching __________ (fill in something you know diddly-squat about)." That's the nature of our job. If parents only knew how unprepared we sometimes are. If you are visiting this blog because you were just told to teach Computer Graphics or Digital Photography or some other form of creative visual communication on the computer for which you have little experience, relax: there is help, very affordable help, with a friendly name: lynda.com. This site has very detailed video tutorials on just about any software you will need to know, as well as great basic information about.

For example, they have about 120 hours of Photoshop CS3 tutorials, broken up into manageable chapters. But they also have 5 hours of Digital Photography principles, from history of photography to composition. They cover about 200 products from Illustrator to Flash to 3D Studio Max to Dreamweaver, even basics like Word, all up to date.

Lynda.com is designed to be very comforting and easy to follow. The individuals who teach each topic are the type of person you'd like to take out to dinner. Nice, friendly folks.

But, here's the beauty of it. This incredible video collection is only about $25/month with no long-term commitment. That means if you only have July to get your act together, you pay $25 and you can spend 10 hours a day with it if you want. You play only the videos you need, you replay them if you need to. Easy.

My husband (an animator and multi-media wizard) and I use it frequently. I have recommended it to several teachers who couldn't afford a local college class (or wanted to move faster than the local class) and they have loved it as much as we do.

So go meet Lynda and relax.

Adobe School Innovation Competition-May 12

2008-03-26T08:12:00.001-04:00

From their website:

"With the theme My Community — My Planet — My 21st Century, high school students in grades 9–12 (ages 14–19) can submit entries in three categories: Web Design and Development, Film and Video, and Graphic and Print Design. Category award winners as well as one grand prize winner for best overall submission will be chosen.

Submitted projects, dealing with students' community, the world around them, and their own future, should showcase the most creative and innovative use of technology using Adobe products. The deadline for submissions is May 12, 2008. Winners will be announced at NECC in San Antonio, Texas."

Now for Something Completely Different

2008-03-20T15:47:00.004-04:00

You've graduated from Etch-A-Sketch to Photoshop, but have you tried this yet?

Sequential Art Project

2008-03-07T18:42:00.010-05:00

My digital photography students have enjoyed a sequential art project where they turned a story idea into photos, the photos into comic-book style art and then created a few pages of a comic book. Above is an example of a frame I did. The steps are pretty easy:

1. Open a photo in Photoshop and adjust it in Image>Adjustment>Levels so that you have no more than about 15% as shadow areas, paying particular attention to reducing dark shadows in key areas, like faces. (Unless you are going for the dark, mysterious, detective style of comic art).
2. Unlock the background layer.
3. Filter>Sketch>Stamp (make sure the default colors are black and white).
4. Select>Color Range. Choose the white. Then hit delete to make all the white areas transparent.
5. Make a new layer UNDER the stamp layer.
6. Paint on the bottom layer, so that the color shows under the black and transparent stamp image.
7. Add your talk bubbles on separate layers so you can move, flip or scale them. (Talk Bubbles are hiding in the library menu for freeform shapes: choose the shape tool, in the top toolbar choose the freeform shape, choose the arrow at the top for the library of more shapes you can add, find TalkBubbles). Type your dialog using a comic-book style font.

(Some students experimented with other filters to create a slightly different illustration style.)

My students started with a story board sketch. After the above steps they placed them on a new page and added black boxes behind each frame (to look like black borders) and made a title frame.

This idea has so much potential. It's a way to add story-telling into your curriculum. The original idea actually came from an English teacher at my school who had attended a workshop on incorporating sequential art making as a form of storytelling.

Comic Life is a sequential art-making software that has layout templates, style filters, comic-style fonts, i.e. short cut software perfect for this project. This software came free with iMacs for awhile (not sure about this year's iMacs), but is very inexpensive to purchase: http://plasq.com/comiclife So, if you are collaborating with an English teacher who doesn't know much about Photoshop, Comic Life may be the perfect answer.

Picking Dawn's Brain

2008-03-07T17:28:00.004-05:00

Dawn Pederson keeps a blog called "Dawn's Brain", but its her class website that is the gold mine. She has given me permission to share these with you and I did mention it in an earlier blog. But, I just want to mention it again. She has wonderful lessons for graphic design teachers, for example: "You're the Movie: Poster Project", "Layout Game" (I'm stealing this one, Dawn), "Color Theory Mandala", "Color Emotions Poster", "Text as Image". Check it out.

How do Ideas become Images?

2008-03-06T20:09:00.010-05:00

Telling Stories to Trees, watercolor illustration by Rima Staines

A Button House for a Button Mouse, illustration by Rima Staines

I love to read the blog of illustrator Rima Staines. Her writings remind me of how art comes from ideas and ideas from art. Art that inspires us to spend time with it for awhile is rich with ideas.

As she writes in her profile on her etsy shop: "Rima's curiosity leads her through the many worlds of words, languages and lettering, books and stories, puppetry, nature and interesting people, music, superstitions, folklore and fairytales, and most of all the otherness that can be found on the periphery of our lives, the strange and grotesque, the absurd and unnerving ... that topsy turvy in between place where things are not quite what they seem...Rima paints and draws on wood and paper. She enjoys entwining script and image closely and loves to write rhyming stories to tell her characters' tales using forgotten words and other languages."

Her illustrations and the work of other illustrators that she writes about evoke a whole story just in the one sample illustration. They are a glimpse into a vast magical world that we get an invitation to once in while. It reminds me of that game my son plays on the internet that he'll never get to the end of because the game designers keep adding more "worlds". We never get to the end of ideas and stories, so we'll never run out of the magic world of illustrations.

With digital media, our students don't really tap into the magic until after they've gotten a good handle on the technology. But once they do, it is very exciting. I plan on posting regular "When Magic Happens" examples of students and include their description of where their idea came from (if they can articulate it).

Until then, I hope you spend some time with Rima's blog. I think it will give you lots of ideas.

Solarizing Digital Photos

2008-02-18T08:03:00.008-05:00

This is one of the easiest projects to do. I throw it in between a couple very difficult projects to give my students a breather. There always a few that say, "Of all the projects we've done this one is my favorite!" And then I think something like, "But, I put a lot more work into some of the other projects." You could also do it near the beginning of the year, but you might be glad to have something easy and fun to do in the middle of the winter blahs.

These examples were done by two of my students. I included two versions of the eye so you can see the differences determined by what blending mode you choose. The top eye photo started with normal, natural colors, but this process shifted the colors and added interesting textures in the shadow areas.

Its so easy I can tell you how to do it right here:
1. Choose a well-composed color digital photo and open it in Photoshop.
2. Copy the layer and name the top layer "Solarize" (On the Layers palette, drag your layer over the little icon to the left of the little trash can.)
3. Filter>Stylize>Solarize (make sure the fill and opacity are at 100%)
4. Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and play with the sliders to get interesting effects.
5. Now play with the Blending Mode choices (on the Layers palette) to blend the two layers together in interesting ways. It's ok if you think "normal" is actually the best one.

Have your students do it to two different photos so that they remember the steps.

If you were not at my workshop and would like the handout with all the visuals (example and screenshots), email me.

Doodle 4 Google

2008-02-13T20:12:00.004-05:00

Have you heard about Google's K-12 student art competition? Here's my favorite part: "The National Winner will win a $10,000 college scholarship to be used at the school of their choice, a trip to the Googleplex, a laptop computer, and a t-shirt printed with their doodle. We'll also award the winner's school a $25,000 grant towards the establishment/improvement of a computer lab."

More Creative Advertising

2008-02-13T20:09:00.002-05:00

Thanks, Suzanne, for sending us this link.

Good Examples for Video Projects

2008-01-22T19:00:00.000-05:00

It's frustrating to start a video editing project and search YouTube for well-done, creative examples that don't have sex, drugs, violence, nudity or foul language. I recently spent many hours during weekends and snowdays trying to find some. I'll share them with you and would love for you to share your favorites for the classroom as well.

For storytelling style: "Silent Beats", http://youtube.com/watch?v=76BboyrEl48
This wonderful video not only shows us how easily it is to lean on stereotypes, but it is so easy to teach creative camera work, editing and visual storytelling with it. It has no dialog, but we get what it is trying to tell us. When you show it a second time, explaining why the camera is here, why the editor did this, etc. you find even more clues to the story. It is so clear and well-done. It is also a wonderful example for character education.

Stop motion is always fun. Here are some of my favorites, although the first one has a mild violence in it:
"Tony vs. Paul", http://youtube.com/watch?v=AJzU3NjDikY
This one is all about drawing: "Minilogue/hitchhikers choice", http://youtube.com/watch?v=u46eaeAfeqw
"Retro Games in Stop Motion", http://youtube.com/watch?v=nhbt9z4fkWo
"Erbert & Gerbert's: Human Flipbook", http://youtube.com/watch?v=HClNcAvD1AY
and to go with it, the making of it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=AulVwjcnJhI&feature=related

Documenting a performance or other interesting event:
"Parkour Generations:City Gents": http://youtube.com/watch?v=SmVsa1SFgfU
(Notice all the interesting camera angles.)

Not Cheesy

2008-01-06T14:59:00.002-05:00

Last week, one of my students was looking through one of the many Photoshop wow-'em books I have in the classroom. We have actually done some of the projects. The student said, "You know Mrs. Pfeiffer, a lot of these examples are really cheesy. They actually aren't very good." She wasn't trying to make herself look superior, she was just giving me her honest opinion. I wanted to say, "Yea, sometimes I think you don't need much actual art training to publish a book on making art on the computer, these days." But, I just said something like, "Yea, I bet you can do better than him..."

So, today I went into Barnes and Noble and just as I was about to give up finding a truly inspiring book, I found this: Creative Photoshop: Digital Illustration and Art Techniques, by Derek Lea. I would say as a whole, it is for advanced students who have taken 2D art classes as well, but you can teach parts of his involved projects to beginners. I find it very inspiring and I suspect it is very appealing to hip young visual culturally literate teens and college students. My 14-year-old has already spied it and said "OH COOL!" and is actually sitting down and really studying it. I haven't shown it to my 20-year-old who is majoring in Communications Design in college. I think he'll say the same thing...or maybe "Awesome". Three-quarters of the book is more appropriate for a computer graphics, or advanced 2D class than for digital photography, because it is mostly illustration, but some of it does involve photography.

Derek Lea is a popular illustrator, not just a computer nerd who likes Photoshop, so this is real eye candy. Here's a link to the book in the Amazon-run bookstore I arranged for us:

Photo Contests

2007-12-29T10:10:00.000-05:00

Outdoor Photographer magazine's Winter Photo Contest is for anyone 18 and older and is free (unless I missed something in small print...) The deadline is February 20th.

Their Magical Adventures contest deadline is January 4th.

Eliot Porter and Robert Ketchum

2007-12-29T09:35:00.000-05:00

If you haven't opened up your January 2008 issue of Art Education yet, you'll be happy to see that the instructional resource center pullout is: Eliot Porter and Robert Glenn Ketchum: A Conversation on Color, Composition, and Environmental Conservation. Although recommended for grades 5-7, it is certainly a great idea for higher grades.

In addition, there is a nice interactive site designed for student learning from the Amon Carter Museum (in Fort Worth, Texas) : http://www.cartermuseum.org/edu_guides/porter/

A discussion of the two photographers on outdoorphotography.com http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/content/2006/dec/form_function.shtml

Robert Glenn Ketchum's website: http://www.robertglennketchum.com

And the book: Regarding the Land: Robert Glenn Ketchum and the Legacy of Eliot Porter

Layers Project

2007-12-18T20:52:00.000-05:00

This is always a favorite project with my students because there are always surprises and many creative possibilities.

In Photoshop, the student copies the layer and then applies a different filter to each layer. Then he uses the blending modes to find the best blend. He adds a new empty layer for some Photoshop brushes (I suggest a new layer for each brush). I require that the students do the project twice (with two different images, of course) so that they really explore the possibilities. Also, when learning Photoshop, I've found that doing a project twice makes the process stick in your long-term memory better and, of course, pushes the level of quality up, since during the second attempt they are more fluent and fluid.

If you are on my email list, I will be sending you the handout for this.

Don't know where these came from

2007-12-18T20:38:00.000-05:00

They were passed on from email to email. These are just a couple of the creative graphics sent to me.

Short and Sweet Photography Tips

2007-12-04T18:46:00.000-05:00

This idigitalphoto blog page has a wonderful list of tips to share with your students. It's called "Improve Your Photos 60 Seconds at a Time" (referring to how long it takes to read each category).

Layers Magazine

2007-11-27T08:42:00.001-05:00

Layers Magazine is a nicely designed magazine for Adobe Creative Suite products (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Flash, Dreamweaver as well as digital photography.) What I like about it is that the purpose of the magazine content is education, not enticing you to buy more stuff. They also provide many tutorials online.

Illustrator Portrait Project

2007-11-26T21:39:00.000-05:00

This lesson teaches drawing skills with Adobe Illustrator as well as the value tone scale and how to see in black and white. It also teaches patience and the importance of focusing and slowing down to improve craftsmanship. Ideally, a tablet is best, but I only own 2, so this guy drew his with his mouse. (Using LiveTrace is cheating! When you are done, you can have them try LiveTrace on the photo to see the difference between letting the computer make all the decisions and the artist doing it.) If you went to art school before computers, you probably remember doing a project like this with first drawing the portrait then using Color Aid paper, tracing paper, xacto knife, and rubber cement for the final.

1. Import a color photo.
2. Lock that layer and make a new layer.
3. On the new layer, make 1 small black square with no outline and copy it 7 times. Now, using the color palette changed to Grayscale, fill each square with gradually lighter grays until the last square is almost white.
4. Tracing the photo, draw a black shape where you see the darkest value tone. Use the eyedropper to choose the black square. Continue with the progressively lighter shapes.
5. Turn off the eye on the photo layer to see all the white spaces left.
6. Use the anchors to stretch the shapes to touch.
7. Add a border or fill the background with a gray. Delete the value tone scale you made in step 3, or if you want to see it for grading purposes, move it to outside of the print area.

Option: Make a copy of the finished file. Now select the highlight areas and change them to warm colors and the shadow areas to cool colors. Now you have a sort of expressionist portrait and you don't have to redraw the shapes.

Another Option: Now go into a studio room, transfer the image to poster board using the grid method and paint with acrylics. Now, they've learned to mix paint as well.

If you want a copy of my actual handout for the students, or have questions, just email me.

Yet Another Reality Show?!

2007-11-26T15:34:00.001-05:00

This one is about photographers. One of my students watched it and told me about it. I think I'll offer extra credit for whomever watches it because in between the emotional ups and downs, there might be some useful information about shooting people, which is something we will do in the spring. (Maybe I should come up with a different phrase for 'shooting people'. "Don't forget to shoot your friends this weekend," or "Next week we're going to start shooting people, " might get me in trouble.)

It's called The Shot and is on VH1 on Sundays at 10 EST.

Scholastic Art Competition

2007-11-26T15:20:00.000-05:00

This is just a reminder that the Scholastic Art competition is a lot earlier this year (or at least for the region I am in-SW Virginia). If you planned on entering student work, but haven't received any information yet, you should look into it.

Here is the link the general info. You will have to contact your regional sponsor to get the specifics for your regional competition.

If you can't remember why the this competition is worth the effort, check out this list of scholarships available (and there are even more than are listed). We've been very lucky to have two students win at the national level and they received a ton of scholarship money. And one even had his work on display at the Corcoran for a summer, along with the special workshops in NYC they provided.

Graphic Design Lesson Ideas

2007-11-24T09:22:00.000-05:00

I've discovered a wonderful website by an art teacher in California who teaches Graphic Design and Web Design. Her website is very well organized and I asked her permission to tell you that we can "steal" her lessons. You can link to her lessons from her calendar under either class, or from the menu to the right. http://www.nhsdesigns.com/ She also has a blog called "Dawn's Brain: The adventures of a high school web and graphic design teacher." And she's started a forum for Art Teachers http://www.artteacherforum.com/ Thank you, Dawn.

By the way, on her blog, the lesson "Cut Paper Illustrations" is based on a book that I love, Picture This by Molly Bang. It explains composition very well and my students have always been mesmerized by the slide show I've made from it, even though her illlustrations are very simple. You could very easily do this lesson using Adobe Illustrator if you don't have room for studio projects like me. You can order the book from Amazon using my bookstore link.

If you have children, or love children's books, you probably already know who Molly Bang is. My favorite is The Paper Crane. I still enjoy looking at it even though my boys are in high school and college.

Future Innovator?

2007-11-23T15:35:00.000-05:00

We finished the classic graphics lesson, students dreaming up a business for themselves, making the logo, creating the ad. I thought you would get a kick out of this young lady's business idea. Perhaps I didn't remind them enough that they can't promote violence, but, other than a few very minor problems, she did a good job with the design and problem-solving. I required Visual Hierarchy: make it clear what you want the viewer to see first, second and third.

Nothing digital here

2007-11-23T13:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this art is not digital, but you've got to see this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=495538&in_page_id=1811

Chris Jordan's Photography Art

2007-11-23T13:18:00.000-05:00

You may have seen Chris on television recently explaining his "activist" images. Upon closer look at his art and replicas of famous art, you see that they are made of small images that represent the protagonists in our culture. For example, his version of Seurat's ...La Grande Jatte is made up of 106,000 photos of aluminum cans, which equals 30 minutes of U.S. can consumption.

http://www.chrisjordan.com/ (Choose the Running with Numbers gallery to see the Seurat image)

I see his work as an exemplar for a project using art for activism.

Website to Visit

2007-11-22T09:34:00.000-05:00

Have you discovered John Paul Caponigro's photography site? http://johnpaulcaponigro.com/

In addition to his gallery of surreal composite photos (good examples for a surrealism project), he has some informative interviews with professional photographers and artists in his "Artists on Art" section. I plan on having my students read and comment on one of those interviews every month or so.

He is a workshop photography educator and he has included some helpful writings and mini lessons available in his Download section. If you subscribe to Insights you get access to more than if you don't.

What would you like to discuss?

2007-11-21T21:17:00.001-05:00

The whole purpose of this post is to ask you to leave comments about what you would like more information about.

If you want to contribute to the blog, email me and I'll add you to the author list. (Examples: great lessons you did, visiting artist, field trips, your own work and thoughts, etc.)

More Forgotten Information

2007-11-21T21:06:00.001-05:00

Boy, I seem to be thinking of a lot to say, this first day of the blog...

One thing I did not include in your CD were handouts for a couple studio projects that we did to get the students away from the computers, and to introduce them to other art forms in case this is the first art class they've taken in a long time. This only works if you have a lot of available space away from the computers, like an empty room.

These are the two we did last year: Handmade photo album, using mixed media and the japanese method of binding. Arylic painting based on one of their photos using the grid method to enlarge onto their paper. I can see using a black and white photo to learn to value tone drawing.

Other teachers wove photos together, for example. Here's a David Hockney inspried montage lesson: http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/high/cubismphoto.htm Please share any ideas you have.

Photography Contest

2007-11-21T20:57:00.000-05:00

If you didn't already receive this brochure in the mail, Drexel University is sponsoring a photography contest for high school students. The Deadline is 12/08/07. The fee is $20 per person for up to 3 entries. I emailed them and they do accept digital photography (the brochure didn't specify darkroom vs. digital). Each photo must be matted with the form on the back.

http://www.drexel.edu/westphal/academics/undergraduate/photo Click on the green contest logo to see the pdf of the brochure with all the info and the entry forms.

2007 VAEA Conference DP Workshop Loose Ends

2007-11-21T19:23:00.000-05:00

It felt like my allotted time was 10 minutes, not 50. I couldn't cover everything, and it seemed like I didn't go in depth into anything. I guess that is what this blog is for.

One thing that is on your CD that I didn't explain is the folder with flickr screen shots. Since I teach 3 sections of Digital Photography, AND I don't want to constantly be printing out photos all the time, I borrowed an idea from a local college professor. My students upload some of their photos onto our private flickr site. Then they can critique, or just leave (intelligent, mature) comments for each other, even students in other classes. I have also formed a flickr group so that teachers in other schools can join us as well. So, now they can leave comments for students in other schools. If you want to use flickr and would like to join our group, let me know.

Another thing I'm not sure I explained was that although I have taught units of Digital Photography for several years, last year was the first full-year class. The handouts and lessons are therefor still in the experimental stage. There might be some mistakes in some of the handouts I haven't used twice yet. I apologize ahead of time. I will try to post anything I notice.

In addition, of course, you may have a different philosophy about teaching that would cause you to only use some, or add your own to the mix. I am big into covering the basics because many of my students have not had art since elementary school. So, discussing basic art elements and principles is essential. But, I sneak in more conceptual thinking as frequently as I can. If you are working with higher level art students, you might not need to cover so many basics.

For example, my students just did the hoax photography unit. I made this project's Big Idea, Adulthood, specifically, their future as it relates to the condition of the environment, negative or positive. In addition we made a poster that included our hoax photograph and I showed them how to add text and special text effects in Photoshop. We had to discuss Visual Hierarchy in order to complete the design.

Street Photography is a great project for discussing Irony and many other topics that cover how humans relate to each other and their environment.

If any of you didn't have a chance to write this down, this is the website I recommended for teaching yourself Photoshop (or Illustrator, or Flash, etc., etc.) : http://www.lynda.com. Although it costs $25/month, you are not obligated to join for more than one month. It is by far much more economical than taking a class at a local college. You can play, rewind and replay the instructional videos as frequently as you want. I have had several friends tell me that it has helped them tremendously. If you are starting from knowing nothing about Photoshop, and there are several of you at your school system that want to learn together, I can also come to you and get you started. Once you feel comfortable with the software basics, you would find lynda.com a great way to increase your knowledge.

First Post

2007-11-21T19:09:00.000-05:00

I thought that a blog would be an easy way for us to share information with each other, because the posts don't disappear and we can read it sort of like a book.... remember those rectangles that store paper and text?.. going back and forth searching for that choice piece of information we thought we read somewhere.

The reason I called it Digital Art Education is in case we want to also share ideas about Graphic Design, Web Design, Video Editing, Animation–any skills that we teach that necessitate using the computer to create the art–not just Digital Photography.

The blog format is a little plain right now. I chose a simple template until I find time to redesign it. In the meantime the simple one will not interfere with any photos we want to share.

I hope this format allows us to easily share our ideas about this exciting branch of art education. Invite your friends who did not attend the digital photography workshop at the VAEA 2007 to contribute as well.