Write Your Own Art History Quiz...

Doesn't it seem silly that the teacher puts out all this Art History information and then gets to decide which questions should be on the quiz? Wouldn't it make more sense if the students decided what part of Art History they wanted to learn? I did... and thats when I decided to start letting the students write the quiz questions. Here is how it works...

I ask everyone to write a question but I do pick the top ten. I think this helps encourage them to write interesting questions. I take photo's of their questions and LCD them on the board.

Here are the top 10 quiz questions from our unit on Northern Renaissance art. Take the quiz. See how well you do! Answer key below.

The Quiz:

1. (above): Who is the painter that can be identified by ominous skies?

2. What are two characteristics of Mannerism?

3. Where did Caravaggio get stabbed?
(Note: the class was quick to point out that Caravaggio wasn't the stabbee but the stabber. Also, this is a Baraque question so the answer will come next week.

4. Best Greek painter?

5. Durer apprenticeship?

6. What is the world's most frequently stolen work of art?

7. He couldn't think of a question but I put it on the quiz anyway ;)

8. What was ironic about Durer's rhino?

9. How can you tell the artwork was created by Durer?

10. How many ears does the lamb in the Ghent Altarpiece have?


Answers:

1. Who is the painter that can be identified by ominous skies?
El Greco

2. What are two characteristics of Mannerism?
Twisted bodies and going off the page

3. Where did Caravaggio get stabbed?
Caravaggio stabbed a man in the groin over a tennis bet.

4. Best Greek painter?
El Greco!

5. Durer apprenticeship?
Goldsmith. This is the standard answer to almost any Renaissance artist. 

6. What is the world's most frequently stolen work of art?
The Ghent Altarpiece

7. I'm not sure what the right answer to number 7 is.
We'll find out on Monday when we self grade the quizzes.

8. What was ironic about Durer's rhino?
He never saw one.

9. How can you tell the artwork was created by Durer?
His crazy signature!

10. How many ears does the lamb in the Ghent Altarpiece have?
Four

From Clay to the 3D Printer & Back Again

The latest addition to our 3D printing plan is an app called 123D Catch. What's that you ask? Well, its an iPad app that allows the user to photograph an object and then convert those images into a 3D mesh, ready for printing on our Makerbot 3D printer.

Take this clay sculpture of a dinosaur bird head for example. It was created in clay and will be fired in the kiln. While we were waiting for it to dry, we took a few (40 something) photos using 123D Catch. The app captured the images and converted them into a 3D image. Now we can export that mesh and print as many dinosaur bird heads as we want.  How cool is that! 

The images below are not the clay version but rather the 3D image that 123D Catch created.

View the bird in 3D online!


Click the first box in the window above to view the dino bird in 3D.

The next step was to export the mesh and import it into the 3D printer. We loaded the file into our Makerbot software, pressed the 'print' button and several (12ish) hours later, a 3D printed replica of our clay dino-bird head!

This 3D version is ready for a little clean up to remove the supports and then it can be painted and displayed with pride.

Meanwhile the clay version just came out of the kiln. This piece is also ready for glazing or painting or whatever direction the artists decides to go in.


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Artists Are Self Directed: Art Three

In the traditional art class, the teacher picks the project idea, find and demos any tutorials, and decides on the medium the students will use. That might sound like the role of the teacher... but, it's not. That's the role of an artist.


for this first unit, Artists are Self Directed, I wanted the students (AKA, the artists) to decide what inspires them, to seek out 'how to' information when they weren't sure how to complete something, and to pick the media. After all,  I'm not the artist. They are the artists! Here's a look at what the Art Two artists came up with...

Sharpie

Pencil

Sculpey

Mixed media

Pencil

Spray painting

Check out more examples here and see how it all started here!

Artists are Self Directed: Art Two

Above: jewelry making

In the traditional art class, the teacher picks the project idea, find and demos any tutorials, and decides on the medium the students will use. That might sound like the role of the teacher... but, it's not. That's the role of an artist.


for this first unit, Artists are Self Directed, I wanted the students (AKA, the artists) to decide what inspires them, to seek out 'how to' information when they weren't sure how to complete something, and to pick the media. After all,  I'm not the artist. They are the artists! Here's a look at what the Art Two artists came up with...

Pastel on wood

Acrylic on canvas

Candle making

Abstract designs drawn with fire and smoke

Mixed media

Mixed media (in progress)

Spray paint

Spray paint

Acrylic on canvas

Creating and 3D Printing

We've started printing with our Makerbot 3D printer and we're learning a lot! The students have been using apps on the iPad including 123D Design and 123D Sculpt+. These apps let students either organize and combine forms to create new objects or manipulate the equivalent of virtual clay. In either case, the students are able to build unique things.

There is a little bit of a learning curve trying to understand how best to orientate an object to get the best print. Do we leave it standing up or lay it down? A lot of trial and error.. a lot of error.. but success too. Here is a look at some of the objects in various stages of printing...

SchoolArts: Locker Project & TABology

The March issue of SchoolArts magazine is out and it features not one but two articles out of Apex High School. How very exciting!

What's in Your Locker?
The first article is about our locker project. In class, we talked about space and how artists utilize space when creating art. Then we took advantage of the empty lockers in our school. nobody uses those lockers.. not till now!

Read the Locker Project online!

High School TABology
The second article talks about incorporating TAB at the high school level. Sure, there are plenty of "how to" publications on elementary TAB but not so much at the HS level. This article addresses TAB vs choice based teaching and explains w what teaching TAB in high school really looks like.

Read TABology online!

Artists are Self Directed: in Progress

The first day of the new semester I handed my students paper and colored pencil and said, "We're going to do this tutorial... and we did. When we were done we talked about what my role in the project was. Here were the findings:

I picked the project idea
I found the tutorial
I decided on the medium

That might sound like the role of the teacher. Well, it's not. That's the role of an artist. Artists decide what inspires them, artists seek out 'how to' information when they aren't sure, and the artist always picks the media. So why was I doing it?? I'm not the artist. They are the artists!

First issue was knowing what materials were available. stealing an idea from Jean Barnette, our students went on a material scavenger hunt. They had a list of items to find out about including different papers and different types of paint, they even had to find stuff that they didn't know what it was.

Next, they had to find their own techniques. I encourage them to find a tutorial that they either didn't know how to do or one that improved on a skill they already knew. Then I asked them to do that tutorial.

Finally, we talked a bit about inspiration. What are you concerned about? What are you interested in? What are your passions?

Once they went through all three steps, I asked them to design their first project for my class. They had to decide what to make, they had to learn a new technique or improve on an older skill to make it, and they had to decide what medium to use to best bring their idea to fruition.

The one thing I can say is, I have no idea what's going on! Students are hard at work on something.

They are trying new techniques, new media...

We got everything going on from 3D printing...

To candle making...

To traditional materials like pastels..

To ceramics..

To drawing with fire....

Wait hold up.. drawing with fire! I got go!!!


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What’s a Bootcamp?

The term Bootcamp, originally coined by Melissa Purtee, refers to a method for handling the teaching of a set of techniques. Bootcamps are best utilized when covering a detailed range of techniques within a particular medium that couldn't be sufficiently cover in demos or mini-lessons. 

During the bootcamp, students are given both short demos as well as more thorough exercises in which to explore the media. The goal is for students to gain an understanding, not to create a work of art.

Though Purtee prefers to run her bootcamps consecutively, I prefer to roll mine out a week at a time, alternating between Bootcamps and Artistic Behavior Units.

Examples of my Bootcamps:

Drawing Bootcamp: 

This one week Bootcamp covers observation skills, value and perspective. This is one of the first Bootcamps I’ve run with my Art One students, usually the first week of class. It’s starts off by drawing Chick, our class skeleton then proceeds to value portraits and end with linear perspective. 

Painting Bootcamp: 

Slightly longer than one week depending on the amount of dedication the students put on the final artwork. This bootcamp covers color theory, proper tool handling, brush techniques as well as some Bob Ross style tippy tappy brush techniques. We usually will complete a small acrylic painting at the end of this unit. Click here for a closer look at our painting Bootcamp!

Clay Bootcamp: 

A week long tutorial which runs much like a traditional teacher directed project. This Bootcamp covers score and slip, stages of clay, firing and glazing. Most students create a simple slump mold or other slab piece while learning the techniques.

Technology Bootcamp:

A week long exploration unit of the different types of applications our school offers including the Adobe Suite and the iPads, both 2D and 3D programs. Each day is spent learning a few techniques on each application.