Career Paper & Final Exam

It's time. Time to get a job! You are going to select an art career and research it. By this Monday, you should select a career and run it by Ferrell so you can work on what comes next...

You are going to write a paper that will cover in essay format the following...

1. Define what that career is
2. Elaborate on what an artist's job in that career entails
3. Describe the life and work of 3 master artists in that field (each artists should get at least their own paragraph)

• Name each artist and where they are from (time period...etc.)
• Describe their work and why they are considered special
• Give the reasons you selected each artist

4. Lastly, explain why you chose this career and how you feel it relates to your previous work

The bibliography will need to be in MLA format.

In addition, to the paper you will need to write a proposal that will have at least 5 projects to choose from. These projects will be based upon the research you do for your paper. These projects will be reviewed by Ferrell and refined to suit your needs. Keep in mind you will have to do these projects in a two week time frame. Ferrell will be your client and you will be the professional artist. 

Concept Plan

Your project concept due Monday should include your possible career choice and your master artists for consideration. Please write at least a one sentence justification for each artist to why you think not only they would be good for you to study. but why they are considered masters.

Redo Projects are in!

You took your old work and made it better! However, everyone had room for improvement. Make the changes and you can re-submit your projects for a higher grade.

You have until December 8th to make the needed changes.

Redo Projects Due

Art is a journey...

Hopefully through this journey we progress through experience and learning that we gain knowledge and skills to improve ourselves.

With this improvement comes an acknowledgement that there are mistakes in our past we wish we could fix. So this is that opportunity to take that project you messed up in the past, and fix it. 

Think of this project as a theoretical time machine. 

The work will be due December 1st. All of the same rubrics from the original project will be applied to this one. Each of you already worked out the parameters with Ferrell individually. 

Political Cartoons Due

Cartoons are due Monday November 20th and for classes that meet the next day on the 21st.

Polictial Cartoons

Today we are studying political cartoons. Cartooning has a rich history in this nation of informing opinions, inspiring change, and even bringing criminals to justice.

Thomas Nast is considered the father of American Political cartooning. His work inspired the Democratic Donkey, Lady Columbia, and Uncle Sam. He also assisted with popularizing the Republican elephant. Nast is also credited with creating the modern Santa Claus. 

In our exploration of the history of political cartoons we will learn about how to construct a visual argument. We'll examine how cartoons are not name calling, but cleverly crafted to persuade. It is important to understand that intention of cartoons is to inform. Cartoons can be funny or sad. They can  elevate those who deserve recognition or question why thing are they are. 

The students will also create a cartoon based upon their school experience. They will learn how to craft their cartoon to their audience demographic. So that they learn the value of constructing an appropriate communication. 

These will be fun, and hopefully informative. Working with the Spyglass, the best may be published in the school newspaper. 

Intro to InDesign

We are going to be using InDesign to document our process work. InDesign is a page layout program that assists with creating multi-page documents. Books, brochures, magazines, newspapers and more can all be designed by Indesign. Typically graphic designer, editors, and illustrators have used this program to create media for their industries.

We will be doing a basic introduction on how to utilize the tools of InDesign to document our work and design process.

You should document your thumbnails, sketches, value studies and notes in your InDesign file.

Redo Contracts

Proposals for the Redo project…

Professionals work by contract. A contract is an understanding for how the goods and services will be exchanged for payment.

It is important for us to have an understanding of what you are going to do and why you are going to do it. The redo project is an opportunity to right the wrongs in the past. This is a chance to use the skills you have now to fix yesterday’s mistakes.  So what you need to do is pick a project from your past.

Analyze what is wrong with your former picture.

Maybe you couldn’t draw like you do now.

Describe your motivation for redoing this project. If you were going to do the gig poster your sense of musical taste may have changed. For example, say you are no longer a fan of Nickleback. So you want to draw something for a band that that is much cooler.

So you will need to give a justification of what you are going to change and why you are going to do it.

Next, you will need to determine what your approach for the new project will be. Will you finger paint?

Zentangle?

Will it be digital?

Questions to answer are: is this new approach to this idea appropriate? Does it communicate more effectively than before? Why is this the solution better?

Lastly, you need to clearly define what your goal is for this project. Unless your client (Mr. Ferrell cough… cough… cough) signs off on it then you are not hired to do the job. SO GET TO WORK!

Fear Factor

In order to gain success we have to push through our fears of failure. As an extended jumpstart we are to draw something we are afraid of. The reason is that as artists, we are creators, who are in control. Your fears can't harm you if you are creating a controlled environment for them. You can even make them silly. 

The point is that students are being taught that many of the things we feared when we were small we no longer fear because we learned to gain control of those things in our lives. Such as, if you fear the dark, when you get older you simply turn on the light switch. The light switch we are using in our classes is our minds.

In addition, art is communication. Communication tied to emotion can be more powerful. So we are also exploring how to tie emotion to our images. Please draw your image to be at least 5 by 7 inches.

These are due October 27th.

Final Digital Scratchboards due!

Friday October 20th your final digital Scratch boards are due!

Make sure your lines are clean.

Use your color wisely. 

Clean up your lines!

Composition is important!

Bring your best to the critique!

Time to color those scratchboards!

Now those boards are done... we are going to digital add color.

We will approach this like every other digital painting we did last year. Remember your mother color or atmospheric tone.