Current Project: Personal Metaphor

We are currently working on our "Personal Metaphor" project. As you work please keep in mind the following guide lines.

(Canvas size: 8x10 300 ppi)

1. First you are to come up with a metaphor or simile that describes or expresses your feelings.
2. You need to have a photo of yourself.
-Be very aware of lighting, background, scenery, clothing, body position and facial expression.
3. You need to take a photo of the object you are comparing yourself to.
-If this is an impossibility, and you will be borrowing the image of your object, then you are responsible for incorporating a photo you take as a major part of your artwork.
4. Text layer: verbally state your metaphor.
-Remember text becomes part of your composition- choice of font, size, placement, and color will either add to your art or take from it.
5. Remember, in this project you are metamorphosing into the object of comparison. Along with your creative and artistic ideas, your Photoshop skills will be under scrutiny here.
-Which parts of you will you keep? Which parts will you change? How best can you express through an image what it is you feel?
6. Any borrowed images you use, need to be altered and changed to fit into your artwork, you are not just taking and using other peoples work.
-Also keep in mind image size. Images that are too small will not work.

The Aesthetic Experience

Today we learned about the Aesthetic Experience. An Aesthetic Experience is often hard to define. It has been described as spell binding; You become possessed; You find it difficult to tear yourself away, and when you do you're never quite the same. It is a sensory experience that brings one to a different level of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual consciousness.
A life full of such experiences is truly a life to be sought after. However it seems that some people experience things like this frequently, while others have never had the pleasure. I would submit that the lack of these experiences is simply due to the fact that they are unaware such experiences exist, or unaware that they can learn how to have them.
To open the possibilities of having aesthetic experiences big and small, one needs to allow themselves a level of sensitivity to the world around them. One needs to allow themselves the option of being blown away, by something as small as a flickering shadow.
In class I wanted to give the everyone the opportunity to turn an ordinary experience into an extraordinary one. I wanted to help heighten the sensitivity level to the world at large.
Everyone was given a cup with clear water. The students were to try to open themselves up, to having an experience, and interaction with this water. Dye was dropped in, different colors, explosion melodically, desperately wending their way through the water. Blending together, until the water became dark. Each student was to take a photo of their cup and write about their experience in their portfolios.

"Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in." --American Beauty

Hybrid

An exercise found in “I’ve Got a Human in My Throat” The Worth1000.com Artists. By Chris Johnson.

In preparation for our PERSONAL METAPHOR project we brushed up our skills combining objects together. Using layer masks and the clone stamp we blended this dog and bird together.

Frida Kahlo 1907-1954

Frida was an artist who led an active, exciting and glamorous life alongside her husband, famed muralist Diego Rivera. She won recognition as a painter at a time when few women artists were taken seriously.
Frida began to paint while confined to bed, after a serious street car accident in which her spine, pelvis and foot were crushed and peirced by a metal handrail. She underwent over 30 operations and led the remainder of her life in physical pain.
Her relationship with Diego began with Art and led to marriage. He was not the most faithful husband.
Frida said, "I have suffered two grave accidents in my life, one in which a street car ran me over; the other accident is Diego."

Frida is most well known for her symbolic self-portriats and her enhanced unibrow.
She said, "I paint myself because I am so often alone. I am the subject I know best."

Diego Rivera 1886-1957

Magical Movie Moments!

Inspired by Cindy Sherman, and her Untitled Film Stills, we will be photographing ourselves in movies that have never existed. Each partnership will come up with a plot summary for an imaginary movie. This will be the movie that both of your scenes come from. Each student will set up one scene from their movie to star in.
To make your photograph successful I suggest you think strongly about the following three things:
-Costume/makeup
-Setting
-Expression
If you pay close attention to each of these aspects, your film still should be believable.
I cannot stress enough that I will specifically be looking for the effort it takes to create a moment out of your normal reality, which means, if you put no thought into the costumes or setting, your grade will reflect the lack of effort.
Another caution I would like to submit: If you go through all the trouble and effort of creating costumes and setting and expression, make sure that you take a good picture, (i.e. not blurry, good composition etc.)

Each partnership will be presenting their Film Stills to the class on the Aims testing days.



Here are some of your moments!!

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is a contemporary photographer who has become famous for her creative self-portraits. She first hit the scene with her "Untitled Film Stills" series. This series was a slew of photographs of her pretending to be starring in movies that never exsisted. She has explored fashion shots, death, and she has even dressed herself up as paintings.

We will be using Cindy Sherman as the inspiration for our next project.

Chocolate Frogs!

In honor of Valentines day, we celebrated by turning frogs into chocolate. This photoshop exercise required us to use more of the artistic tools in photoshop. We had to smooth texture and add highlights to create this effect.

If you missed out, the instruction will be in the outfolder.

Shadows and Reflections

Today we worked on two different Photoshop exercises. We learned how to make shadows and reflections. The purpose of the lesson today was not only to broaden your Photoshop skill pallette, but to understand the importance and place for shadows in composite works. In laymans terms, if it doesn't have shadow, it doesn't look real.
In both of these exercises we used layer masks to help us fade our objects.


If you missed today, you will need to come in after school to make it up. Check the outfolder for instructions.

Additional Program Covers

After finishing up your graduation program designs, you will be required to complete one more. Depending on which class you are in will determine which program you are in charge of designing. Read the following parameters carefully:

1st Period: Si Se Puede Honors and Awards Night
- 8x10 Vertical Layout (front page only)
-Include title: Si Se Puede Honors and Awards Night
-Artistic image created with photographs you have taken
-Quote: Having to do with accomplishments, excellence, etc.
-Keep in mind that this is an elegant evening with the purpose to honor your peers that have reached high and achieved great things. Your design, artwork, and quote should reflect that.

2nd Period: Academic Letters
-Read over the instructions for "Si Se Puede".
The parameters are the same.

5th Period: National Honors Society Awards Night and Induction Ceremony
- 8x10 Vertical Layout (front page only)
-Artistically incorporate the National Honors society's 4 principles:
_Scholarship
_Leadership
_Service
_Character
And/Or You may also incorporate the symbol of a lit candle.
-Make sure you include the title and date

6th and 7th Period: Student Handbook 2008-2009
-Tabloid Layout (the same as graduation)
-Title, School, Year
-1 or more photos you have taken
-Exemplify and represent your school
-While this should be professional and well done, the handbook will be a more casual, creative, young and fun design. Your graduation and handbook covers should be VERY different.

Antoni Gaudi: Artist Architect

Gaudi was a phenomenal, architect whose work creates a collision between the worlds of Art and Architecture. His organic, surreal style established him as a innovative leader of the Spanish Art Nouveau movement.

His largest project, La Sagrada Familia, consumed his life from 1883 up to the day he died in 1926. Its intended finish date is the year 2030. For over a century it has continued to rise out of the Barcelona soil.

Gaudi shows us that Picasso spoke truth when he said, "Anything you can imagine is real." We can learn from him that no idea is too big to be realized. Good ideas are worth sharing with the world.

Graduation Programs

This week all students will be designing a cover for the graduation program. One student's artwork will be chosen. There will be a lot of freedom artistically with this project. I expect to see the best you can do.

Students will need to have the following:

-Correct layout: Horizontal, the program will be both front and back.
-All important information: Title, School, Date/year
-At least one NEW photo: You may have as many photos on your cover as you want, but you will be responsible for taking each of them.
-A quote: Graduation is a celebration of your education. Your quote should come from a well-known, educated person.

Tips and Hints: The style of your program will be your choice, the amount of artistic expression will also be choice, although I would encourage you to put thought and effort into the idea you are trying to convey.
You may use Photoshop as much or as little as you would like.
The right side of your page will be your cover where all the important information should be found.
The left side of your project will be your back cover.
Break up your background using shapes and gradients.

Creating Our Portfolios!

Today we have began the task of creating our own individual online portfolios. As you will notice, those students successful in this task are listed down the side of this page. If you click on any of their names you will be taken to their portfolio. If your name does not appear on this list, you will need to come in after school to get your portfolio up and running. I have typed instructions for you to follow. For those of you that have not turned in your permission form, that needs to be done immediatley.
After we had our portfolios up and running we created our first post.
It is titled: My favorite project from last semester
-upload the image of your favorite project
-your write up should include: what the project was, a short description, what you liked about it, and what you thought you did successfully.
When you are finished, reread it for any problems, spellcheck it, and then publish post.

Aged Photo

In this project we have tried to reverse time by aging and damaging a photo.

This is a photoshop exercise that we did as a class over 2 days. Remember when we do these in class projects please keep your brains on. Pay careful attention to the tools we use, and why we use them. This will expand your photoshop vocabulary, and give you options when you are working on your own things.

Sandy Skoglund

Sandy Skoglund is an American photographer and installation artist. She began working as an artist in New York in 1972. She became interested in teaching herself photography to document her artistic endeavors, experimenting with themes of repetition in her surrealistic environments. She is currently teaching photography and art installation/multimedia at a University in New Jersey.

Frame Challenge #2

I wanted us to spend a little more time with the frames and with balance. As I was looking at the photographs coming in, I thought I would give you a little more time to explore the idea and add an additional challenge:

So you were responsible for submitting 2 photos by the end of class. One that simply gave you the opportunity to expand on the previous challenge:

Compose one photograph with the following-
-You have to be in it-
-You have to have a frame in it as well
-It will be taken in black and white
-It will have a clear emphasis
-You CANNOT be in the center

-You will work on creating balance

It will be titled and turned in: "Balance"

The second picture was a little more difficult because I wanted all the same things in it, EXCEPT, I wanted you to MAKE SURE, it was completely OFF BALANCE. For those of you who came to class, you saw as we critiqued that almost EVERYONE still innately balanced out their pictures, but a few students did get close, and some even succeeded in creating an "off balance shot"

For those of you still needing to turn this assignment in: title the one you think is off balance, "NO BALANCE" Good luck.

(Is this an example of a balanced picture or an unbalanced picture?)

Balance and Frames

Today we are working with the principle of design: Balance.

Your assignment today was to compose one photograph with the following-

-You have to be in it
-You have to have a frame in it as well

-It will be taken in black and white

-It will have a clear emphasis

-You CANNOT be in the center

Since you cannot be in the center, you are going to have to figure out a composition that creates balance. It will be your choice whether you work with SYMETRICAL Balance (same on both sides) or ASYMETRICAL Balance (different on both sides, but visually balanced)

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is a contemporary Earth Artist. He is well known for his beautiful manipulations of the environment. He uses what he finds on site to create unique and amazing moments. He will use thorns and sap to stick things together. He will even patiently refreeze ice peices together.

Most of Goldsworthy's artwork is ephemeral, meaning that it is transitory and existing only briefly. He creates his art knowing that soon, and in some cases very soon, nature will take it back. To document and share his artwork, Andy Goldsworthy uses photography to capture and preserve it.

Object: Improving on what we have learned

Yesterday we had a class critique on our egg photos. What we saw was that one problem, could have a hundred correct answers. We saw MANY creative expressions of "egg" and we also saw many dull and uninteresting solutions. We saw both good and bad craftsmanship, as well as good and bad examples of composition.

Taking all of this information in, today we shall improve. Today each partnership will be given an object that will be selected at random. Both of you will take the object and explore the many possibilities. Be creative, Compose your picture plane well, and make sure to take a good photo. Turn in your best photo at the end of class.

Each student will be turning in ONLY one photo. You may turn in a black and white photo or a color photo which ever you think is the most outstanding.

(this photo was brought to you by J.C.)

Egg Challenge!

The egg challenge goes as follows:
Each student will be responsible for turning in 2 photos of one egg.
-One will be in black and white,
-One will be in color.
(you will need to use Photoshop to desaturate the photo deemed black and white)

A few things to think about:

1. Black & White requires conscious thought to the contrast and value of your photograph. What is light and what is dark? Does the value scale have a wide range from black to white? Or does it have a small range from gray to gray?

2. A color photo will be thought of and set up differently. Your color photo should use color! (don't just set a white egg down on white cement)

3. We will be looking at all the eggs and discussing their composition. Meaning plan out how you want to set up your shot, take a bunch of photos, and choose your very best 2!

Title them: 1 Cook Aj BWEgg,
1 Cook Aj ColorEgg

Turn them into your class folder.

The 3 C's: Creativity Craftsmanship & Composition

While there are MANY different aspects of art that differentiate good from bad, or strong from weak art, I have a working theory to help simplify the issue. My theory is called the 3 C's. My thoughts are that if an artwork, photographs for our purpose, have a strong sense of either creativity, craftsmanship, or composition within it, you will find good art. If the photograph exibits more then one of these, it will likely be great art. And if the artist can create a photograph that is not only well composed, but well crafted, and the idea behind is creative and strong: you will have an excellent piece of art.
In our beginning struggle as photographers and artists. I would encourage each of you to begin by focusing your efforts in everything you do on at least one of the "C's". As you become more comfortable and confident in what you do, try to incorporate all. Good Luck!

CREATIVITY: Concerning the idea: how unique is it? how strong is it?

CRAFTSMANSHIP: Concerning the technique: Is it well done? Proper lighting? Not blurry?

COMPOSITION: Concerning how you set it up: Is it visually appealing? Do you use the elements and principles of art to your advantage?