Monday, March 24, 2014

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

Friday, March 7, 2014

Vans Custom Culture

I need your Vans designs on Monday if you want to be in the running for the contest.

Can you beat Dasha/Karla from last year?
Maybe a better question is, can Dasha beat herself?

I don't know, but if you want additional info, click HERE.

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.


Thursday, January 30, 2014

Great Day!

We finished. 
It wasn't perfect, but we finished. 
Today was the reading/showing of the collaborative project between the Art 2 and creative writing students. 

You write something, I draw a response to it, someone else writes a response to that, yet another person draws something from that. 
And so on. 

A fun idea that I hope the students got as much out of as I did. 
Crazy creativity these folks have. Truly impressive. 

Here is a little pic from our morning. 


Tuesday, January 28, 2014

You Want Extra Credit


Right away, BAM!

Extra credit here at the beginning of the semester. Two ways, actually.



First, we have our reception coming up at the LG Town Council Chambers. This is from 6-7:30 on Feb. 13th. You sign in on the sign in sheet and take a gander at the oil paintings that are on the wall and I give you extra credit for participating in Art.

Awesome.



Second, there is this movie coming out on Feb. 7th. If you can prove to me that you saw the movie, I will give you extra credit. But you will need to get me this proof before March 1st.

You can thank me later.



Oh, and by "prove to me", that means a ticket stub and something else. This could be a written impression, a piece of art inspired by, a critique of the film, or an equivalent. Bring your creativity to the table on this one.
And have fun.




Sunday, January 5, 2014

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.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

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.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

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.