100%

My artwork was on display!

The point of the exhibit was to include 100% of the demographics of Austin with paintings. There wasn't a huge number of works, it seemed like they maybe didn't have the turnout they had hoped for. BUT I forced myself to not only make art, but also send it off for people to see (non student people) and that was a big deal for me. Here is my painting. It was kind of a "crap I have no idea what to paint" idea.

"Tools of the Trade"

And here are Munchy and I at the museum.

The paintings are being auctioned off, so I guess I won't ever see it again. I hope someone gets mine!

2014 Art show

If wanted some day I can write a post on how to put a thing like this on.

Peak Inside My Sketchbook- Zentangle.

Hey all-
School is in full swing here, so I thought I would share what my 4th graders are working on.

This has consistently been lauded as the best project 4th grade does all. year. long.  Of course by the 4th graders. Who knows what everyone else thinks of it. I LOVE this project because it can be a quick or long as you need, its easier then it looks, and if you aren't a great drawer it doesn't matter. I like doing this as a first project of the year, because it gets the kids in the right mindset for the year. You can however do it any time. I like to stay away from Christmas though, otherwise I get lots of cups of hot coco in the kids zentangles.

There are books all over the place with directions on how to do this, but I don't have any. I like doing it kind of free form. I show the kids my examples, take them through my process of drawing ideas in my sketchbook, (the process is I think and draw, but it's fourth grade, lets cut them some slack) and show them a few videos.  I like this one and this one. That alone is usually enough. If you want to pick up a book it can be helpful if you have a kid that just cannot think of anything. I have a sheet of visual texture I give out that helps jog brains.

What are you working on this  fall?
TAG

Photography part 2

As promised, here is the black and white.

Oh looky there. Something labeling this as mine. That web art class was baller. I need to do this again.

This photo made my professor say I was his most promising student <3

The one thing I miss about my ex from several years ago? His roommate. This guy. I hope I gave him a print of this.

Photography.

One of my main concentrations in college was Photography. It wasn't official or anything, because as education majors we were technically not supposed to pick an art specialty (or maybe I just thought it was a bad idea in an effort to spread my wings for the sake for the kids.) Anyway, I told a parent about this, and she asked me to photograph her kid, and I said yes! Maybe this can be a side gig?

Well I have a long way to go, and my college professors would be really disappointed in me right now. Like a bone head I uploaded through iphoto rather then photo capture, and it compressed all my photos. Of course I didn't realize this until after I had deleted the photos off my memory card. Ugh. Even though most people would never notice, I'm gonna come clean and offer to not take payment. If anything it was a nice afternoon with kids and a parent I like, and I'd rather think of it that way then be racked with anxiety about her finding out and telling other people that I'm handing out too small files.

anyway it got me to thinking, I haven't shared any of my photography here. I'll put some Color in this post, and then some Black and white in the next post, as I am sure Blogger will not accept that many photos.

One of my flower girls.

Just a taste.
The Artsy Girl

Truth

The Artsy Girl

My Evolution/ Old school examples

I have TONS of art that I have made through out my career as a student. I know I don't have the lesson plans for these, but you may be able to use them as inspiration for something.

 

This was watercolor ( I think)and colored pencil the whole year I was in 5th grade we did mid evil inspired things. I also have my gargoyles, and will try to take pictures.

 This was my second year of painting I think, so I already kind of had a grip on the media, I don't remember there being much of a prompt for this. we went outside, my teacher talked about trees and how artists used to study nature...... Yeah I wasn't listening, there was a cute boy in the class. BUT we got to sit outside to paint, and had to do practice sketches before we started. I vaguely recall using a mini dry erase board, which I'm sure I thought was neat. You can buy melamine board at Home depot for pretty cheap, cut it up, and have a cheap class set of dry erase boards. Crayola makes dry erase crayons if you are wary of giving your kids smelly markers.



Chalk pastels on dark paper with a model. Good for practicing highlights and shadows. For secondary this could be adapted with still life set ups or a manikin. The point was highlights, not nude models!! Make sure you get a dark paper with a good tooth. This was Strathmore dark drawing paper and was awesome.


Write your name in a triangle, trace it all over the page in reflecting ways, and volia! Radiating name design.


This was painting class in High School, we were lucky enough to use oil paint back then. I used a program similar to photoshop to make a photo I took monochromatic (I made mine a negative too). It was a neat way to learn about tints and shades on a more sophisticated scale in HS. Plus, it was me, so I was instantly hooked.



This was a silly project I made up for myself at the end of the year. I got really into copying masters paintings in acrylics on a small scale, which I should post later, and this kind of evolved out of that. The image in the middle is a study I did for a self portrait, which I glued to some Masonite, with a matte board frame. Trees were kind of my trademark in High School. The lettering is Greek and random. this would be a cool "About me" project, the lettering could be things about the student, and around the self portrait could be stuff they are into.


This got me interested in German Expressionism. It was a 10 min extended gesture activity. The length was fine in college, but for secondary students I can see interest loss after 5, which is a shame, because having to go over my lines is what makes this image I think.



The prompt for this project was pick a song, draw how it makes you feel using hatching and stippling. For your students you may want to specify the song needs to be appropriate. I sketched everything out with a pencil and went over it with sharp lines using a Micro pen. I still want to go back and fill in the background so it is very dark and the box will pop.
BTW the song was Portishead: Glory Box

Holga Madness.

Looking for a fun way to get kids interested in photography? Want to break into the art yourself but cant spring for a pricey SLR? Looking to upgrade to medium format but don’t know if you should spring for that Seagull TLR? Are you trying to break out of the formality of 35mm photography? A Holga might be the camera for you.

Personally I’m not sure what made me want to go out and buy a Holga. I had been thinking about working with Medium format film for a while, but I had the option to rent a camera from school for free. The reasons are as lost to me now as they were the day I sent my friend Kelly an instant message during our Art Criticism education class.

Me: I think I want to buy a Holga
Kelly: Do it!
Me: I think I’m going to pick one up on my way to work.
Kelly: Do it!

Obviously Kelly was all on board, she is a Holga fanatic herself. Luckily for me I work right across the street from Precision Camera so after a quick bus ride from campus to work, I went into Precision and checked out the offerings of Holga cameras. They had almost every color but my favorite: purple. This was slightly disappointing, but I decided to go for the black camera. I was thinking I would eventually resent a pink one for not being purple, and the black one had a built in flash a feature that the colorful models lacked. After plunking down a mere $45.00 I picked up some 120 film and headed out. This camera was everything I hoped it would be. It is fun, experimental, and really broke me out of the shell I was growing with photography.

Why are Holgas great for kids? They are relatively cheap, so if they loose interest you haven't wasted too much money. And the negatives are big, so if you are going to try printing the photos rather then having them done at a photo lab, then the child can see the image better then they would on 35mm negatives. And there is always the crazy experimentation that kids love, the Holga was made for that.

If you are getting a Holga know that out of the box there are no instructions on how to use it, so your going to have to go online to figure out things like how to load the film, what the buttons on it do, and what the quarks of the Holga are. I’ve tried to put some of that info here so you don’t have to look too far.

Helpful Holga Facts:
The Holga is a rangefinder, this is different from most cameras that everyone knows.
Distance settings- Shown with images. you can select portrait, small group, large group and infinity.
F-Stops- The Holga has two F-stop settings, cloudy/ flash and Sunny
Shutter Settings- shutter speed can be controlled by the F-stop or be held open for long periods of time, this switch is located at the bottom of the camera.
Flash- The batteries that power the flash are located behind the mask in the camera. In cameras that do not have a flash there is an attachment spot for a flash to be attached.
Holga Halo- the vignetting around the edges of the photo that occur on a sunny day. this is caused by the over hang of the plastic around the lens.
Blur- Holga photos often turn out blurry around the edges. This can be frustrating, but it is one of the things that gives the Holgs its charm.
Light leaks- Due to the inexpensive nature of the camera there are often light leaks around the edges. this can be controlled by taping the camera at the edges. Some people enjoy the leaks as they are each unique to each camera.
Printing tip: Holga negatives tend to be flat, embrace using filters, they will make your images rock.

Loading Film

General Holga Info: this includes info on the odd quarks that your camera might have, along with photo examples. This should give you pretty much all the info you need.

Wikipedia 120 film

Until Next time, check out some of my Holga images above.