Art 4 Daily Drawing for 1/28

Ok, this will be fun.
I want you to open up to the last class period's list of brainstormed subjects and follow the below directions.

• draw on top of the list(s) you made last class
• draw in pencil only
• draw an apple looking into a mirror
• reflected in the mirror must be a pineapple
• you must include some sort of context outside of those three objects
• you must come at least close to filling at least one page with your initial line drawing
• you must at least begin shading at least one of the above three mentioned objects
• I should be able to see drawn images and text in the photo you upload to canvas today
• you may NOT draw from photographs/images
• set the timer on your phone for 15 min as soon as you finish reading this and don't stop drawing until the timer goes off - other than that you shouldn't be looking at your phone for images at all (or any other image source)

This isn't about perfection, it is about working. Not overthinking, just working. Go.

Vans Custom Culture 2015

I just put a lot of the pertinent info regarding the why/how's of the Vans Custom Culture Contest for 2015 on Canvas. Please check there for more info. You can also check HERE.

National Portfolio Day Info

It is that time of year again, time for the announcements for National Portfolio Day to begin coming in.
Often I forget to remind everyone, but not this year! Yay for you.

That's the mailing I just received - which is also posted in the classroom. If you click on that image or HERE, you will be able to go to their site.

While they don't have the time listed, they do have the date set (Jan. 17th, 2015) at San Francisco Art Institute.

This is a great time for Juniors to take in some work and get feedback from a bunch of different art schools pertaining to what they like and what they think you might want to work on. If you are a senior it can still be helpful, but by that time you should basically have most of your work completed.

If you have questions please let me know.

What, the LG Museum announcement already?! Whoa!

Welcome back and all that jazz.
I just received an email from the Museums of Los Gatos referencing the high school exhibition they will hold in the spring.

Art 4's, you will be required to make a piece for this exhibition. While I will try to spend some time brainstorming with you in class, the sooner you can start thinking about it, the better.

Here is what I know so far:

That is the theme. Bridges: facing challenges. I can think of a lot of options and possibilities so far so I hope you can too. There is more information here, so please check it out.

AmazonSmile

AmazonSmile must be new, but I was able to select our very own New Millenium Foundation as the future recipient for Amazon donations based off of my purchases. Pretty cool. You should do the same.

Cat's Corner T-Shirt Contest

CATS CORNER T-SHIRT DESIGN CONTEST
Do you want to see the entire student body wearing your design? Designs for next years Cats Corner T-shirt are due may 9th in L5.  There will be an all school vote to choose the design on may 15th in L5 during tutorial!! Come and place your vote for next years t-shirt!

See me about how we can incorporate this as part of your assignment/study drawings.
Would love to see one of you have your design chosen.

Museum Opening

There were shenanigans.
And people doing weird things. Although by "people" I might just mean me.

At any rate, it was a good and crowded opening at the Art Museum of Los Gatos tonight.
Franny and Sofia were represented by their families and myself and there was a lot of other really good work on display from school all over the county.

Read the previous post to see about the extra credit that is available, and check my Instagram to see a couple of funny pics. I believe the show is up until May 11th.
If I get around to it I'll post some from my phone tomorrow.

Even More Extra Credit

Tomorrow, 4/24, is the reception for the county wide exhibition that Sofia Kuta and Franny Lin had work accepted into. The reception lasts from 6-8, with awards at 7.

I would like to encourage you to attend the show not only to see their work, but to see the work made by other local high school students. I have yet to see the show and am looking forward to it.

The show is up until May 11 and if you take a selfie in front of either Franny or Sofia's art while it is on display and email it to me I will give you some extra credit for attending.
Ideally you would go tomorrow, but any day between now and the 11th with work.

Additionally, don't forget that there is a call for student art for a smaller show at the museum which closes on April 30th - next week.
If you copy me on the email you need to send the museum I will get you points for that as well - regardless of if they choose your piece or not.

There is a lot of good work from this year that you should be proud to show so do it! Now!
Or now!

If you need help getting a decent pic of your work, let me know.

Cheers.

More Art Needed

I said I would, so here it is.

If you want to donate art to help as two different fundraisers, please see me and/or Emily Blaker for details.
They are good causes and your peers are trying to do good things, so...

For EXTRA CREDIT, if you submit something to the Jr. Art Docents/Museum Exhibition that is coming up in May, please make sure to copy me on the email.
If you do, I will get you some extra credit at some point.
Also, send them a good photograph. Get rid of misc background; take a pic straight on; etc.
You can get a decent image from your phone - and crop it there, too - or you can use the camera in class (all the art 3 and 4 students know how to use this by now).

The Full News Release for the Contest

You Want $$$?

Here is an interesting opportunity from the District Attorney's office that can pay you some cash money. Let me know if you have any details.


Greetings,

I am writing to ask you to spread the word among all high school students about a contest run by the District Attorney's Office to make a poster that raises awareness about Teen Dating Violence (please see attachment).  The contest will award a prize of $500 to the first place poster, $300 to the second place winner and $200 for third place.  In addition, the winning poster will be used in the DA's Office's October campaign for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The deadline for entry of the 24" x 36" posters is Friday, May 16.

Please send this information to all students, their art teachers and anyone else who might be interested in submitting a poster.

We are looking forward to seeing your fantastic entries!

James Gibbons-Shapiro
Assistant District Attorney
70 West Hedding Street
San Jose, CA  95110
408-792-2985
jgibbonsshapiro@da.sccgov.org

Europe 2015

As a reminder, the sign up window for the trip to Paris in 2015 is open.

Three people have signed up so far. It would be awesome to get most/all of the sign ups as soon as possible. That way I/we have an idea of everyone going before the end of the year.

Talk to your folks and if you need info, please let me know.

Art 3 - 2nd Semester

I am copying this for the Art 3's straight up from the Schoology site as I want to make sure I don't lose the info, so this is most likely a duplication for those that it pertains to. FYI.


We are going to begin second semester with three quick projects (ok, maybe four - but three for sure). This will require you to brainstorm a bunch, make fast decisions, and get your final copies completed quickly.
All three of the of the images will be small in an effort to allow you to meet the quick turnaround times. I hope this helps.
At least one of these designs will be loaded onto Society6 by the end of the project.

Here are the details:
You have three topics you have to create imagery for (remember, since your image(s) is going online you cannot straight up duplicate an image that has been created by someone else - though you can combine different ideas and change up someone else's idea(s))

The topics are:
Geometry - pick a geometric shape (regular hexagon or circle, for example) and start from there (do you repeat that one shape, do they overlap, do you fill them with color or patter, etc.);
     does this help?
          http://society6.com/search?product=prints&q=geometric&submit=Search
     or
          http://www.pinterest.com/awcomeon/nature/


Animal - pick an animal and do something different to it (you could create an interesting effect with color dripping or combine two different animals into one, etc), keep the background simple here - maybe really simple (yeah, a hint);
     maybe something like this
          http://society6.com/product/Glass-Animal-Flying-Fox_Print#1=45
     or some of these are pretty great
          http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=animal%20watercolor

Typography - pick a word or a phrase, pick an awesome font, then make it more awesomer together.
     do you want to see some examples here, too
          http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=typography%20poster&rs=ac&len=10
     or
          http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=handmade%20type&rs=ac&len=12

Each piece should be turned in on a 9x12" piece of paper (you may or may not use every square inch, depending on the assignment's section)

You might find this helpful if you are going to create something with the intention of putting it on an iphone:
     http://www.lifeproof.com/en/iphone-5/specs/
or here, starting around page 15
     https://developer.apple.com/resources/cases/Case-Design-Guidelines.pdf
    

I really want you to have fun with this. You will have just over one week to create each design. I do not care which design you turn in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, and you will have a grade sheet for this assignment, but it will be your responsibility to turn in each image with the grade sheet (you will be turning in the grade sheet three times in total - don't worry, there will be plenty of reminders along the way)

Were it me, I would get out my sketchbook and start brainstorming right away. I mean a lot of ideas, too. Get them from your brain, twist other people's ideas around, steal your friend's idea(s) - whatever it takes. And you might as well share your ideas, too.

I would guess, roughly, 2.5-3 class periods for each piece is what you will get. This is subject to change so make sure you are paying attention.

New View in Guidance

Benz is at it again. Adorning the guidance office with the awesomeness that is your diligence. Stop by to check it out.

2014 Museum Showcase

A few weeks ago I received the information from the Los Gatos Museums for the show they will be having in 2014 that is open to any high school student in Santa Clara County.
Yes, this is the show that used to be the annual Los Gatos High School Art Show, which has morphed to be a juried show over the years.
I will include all of the necessary information here, but if you want to go straight to their website, you can find it here.

The Art 4 students know that this is a required assignment.
I think it will be for the Art 2 students as well, but haven't fully fleshed out how it will work yet. It won't be dealt with until second semester so I'm not that concerned.

If you are in Art 3 and want to make a killer piece for this show, I can safely say that it would be worth some extra credit for you.

Keep in mind a couple of things, such as:

• there is a due date for you to submit a pic of your piece in Feb. (the 14th I think)
• if the piece is accepted it has to be ready to hang
• if this is a canvas you work on, I have plenty of wire to put on the back
• if it is a work on paper, I haev 11x14 and 16x20 frames that might work for you, so standard sizes of paper will help - keeping me in the loop and talking with me will benefit you

Aside from the assigned (or not assigned) class piece, you can always do more. I believe you can submit up to 3 pieces per student, but again, I would direct you to the above image and/or the above link.

I will help you, but much of it will need to be done on your own outside of class.

I will also say that I strongly encourage you to make art for this. It is a good experience on many levels, it looks good on your transcript if you need it to, and it is just fun to make art and to showcase your abilities.

Art 2 + Update (the ec is for all adv art students)

Yeah, I know, the end of the semester is approaching way faster than any of us would like.
Well, I want another break, but I feel the pressure of finishing the semester strong and continuing to get a lot of stuff done.

So here is what you, Art 2's, need to know for the remainder of the semester.
First, keep checking the calendar to keep up with the due dates.

We will work on our advertising project for a few class periods, and you have until Tuesday, Dec. 10th to finish it. That is 4.5 hours of class time - give or take.

You must:

• make it visually appealing
• include hand-drawn typography
• encourage students to take art - or at the very least, pique their interest
• use different parts of ads/ad styles from your assigned decade for inspiration
• have thumbnail sketches in your sketchbook
• print out some inspirational pieces and tape them into your sketchbook

Know that I will be looking at your sketchbooks as you work and I will be looking at them for a grade on Friday of this week.

Extra Credit for this semester will be due before you leave class on Monday, 12/16.
You have two options for this extra credit.

• take a study drawing you have completed this semester and have a do-over;
• meaning, think about what didn't work; how can you make it better; was it the idea you liked, but the execution suffered; was it just straight up rushed; etc.
• you must include the original study drawing as well as the new one, side by side
• take one of the ideas from the back of your study drawing sheet (section 5) that we haven't gotten to yet, do one of those topics.

I will say this though: they need to be awesome. For real.

If I am giving you extra credit I expect you to really go above and beyond. Wow me. Turning in your average pencil line drawing isn't going to cut it. If you turn something in I will give you extra credit, but I will give you more extra credit the more fantastic it is.

Also know that you may get class time to work on this, but don't count on it. We still have other things to cover that are not yet on the calendar so you will probably need to count on doing the extra credit outside of class.

Senior Spirit Week Help

You creative folks are in high demand for the hall decorations for spirit week.
See Olivia Flechsig, Casey Heyl or Taylor Unger for information about the decorating at Casey's house each Sat and Sunday.
Or you can email
caseyheyl@gmail.com
or
its.taylor.nicole23@gmail.com

for more information.

El Gato Submission

You are awesome and creative and should share that information with your peers.
El Gato (the school newspaper) is giving you the opportunity.

If you need help taking pics, please ask for it.

Here is the info that was passed along to me for me to pass along to you.

El Gato's student life section is accepting art, poetry, and post-secret submissions today and tomorrow. Thursday at the absolute latest! You can submit it anonymously or not to an el gato staff member, drop it by room 506, or submit electronically to billylepage@gmail.com or wade.wallerstein@gmail.com

Take advantage.

Seriously.

Vans Custom Culture

It is that time of year again, and I just received our four pairs of pristine white vans shoes in the mail.

We have until the beginning of April to create and produce designs for the themes: Art, Music, Action Sports, and Local Flavor on the four pairs of shoes and then get pics of them uploaded to the internet.

You can see more about the competition, as well as past winners on the Vans Custom Culture site here.

If you have questions please let me know.  You can pick up shoe templates from me to sketch out your ideas and then I will go through a voting process with the students to determine who will actually paint the shoes.

PLEASE GET ME YOUR DESIGNS BY NEXT WED MARCH 6TH!

Finals Finale

Here are the things you need to know, broken down by level of art, for finals next week:

Art 1
You need to make sure you have your watercolor technique sheet finished and ready to turn in on Monday.  I will give you some class time to work on it, but not a ton of time. Just fyi.
On Monday you need to have a horizontal, color, landscape photo that DOES NOT contain a silhouette.
You need to have your sketchbook with you in class.

Art 2
You need to have your re-do study drawing.
You need to have your original, crappy, study drawing.
You need to have your sketchbook.

Art 3
You need to have your re-do study drawing.
You need to have your original, crappy, study drawing.
You need to have your sketchbook.
You will be turning in your group art advertising poster.*

*note, Art 3's can turn in their study drawing or their poster on Monday and the other on Wed

Art 4
You need to have your sketchbook.
I would also like for you to bring your Art 1 sketchbook in to class as well.

Note: I will possibly be updating this as I get my memory more solidified. Check back more than once to see if anything has changed. I will have this completely updated by Monday night.

If your name is EVB, Saoirse, Mara, Bronte, Carolina, Aaron, Mary, Justine, Will, or Mady I have it in my records that you owe me something - probably money and/or supplies. You need to see me about this asap.

Also, don't forget to visit Studio 502 on Society6 if you need some cards or other holiday gifts.