Beyond Artists Observe

 Above, a plaster cast of a butt has been attached to a canvas and is currently being painted in acrylics.

For the final project in our unit Artist Observe, the students were tasked with creating a work of art based on observation. Topics included still life, scientific, figure drawing, landscape.. to name a few. Some of the more traditional solutions can be viewed here.

However, some students took the idea slightly farther than a direct recreation of an observed object. These students went beyond the observation. Here are a few example...

The original thought was to make a replica of a candle using wax.. uhm, ok. But then she decided to create a lighter instead.

She was interested in working with a still life using gum as the subject. That idea morphed into capturing the idea creating the same still life in photography. Finally, she decided she should just use the gum as her medium.

Speaking of gum, he also decided to use gum but in a slightly different way. The gum was chewed and then the chewed gum was used to create the image. 

This large work is a stencil. Each letter was cut out separately and then glued into position on top of a painted background. The letters were spray painted dark colors to represent space. Each letter stencil was then removed, revealing the orange paint below.

This wasn't his final project but was created during a unit on observation. Origami was originally folded and used as still life items. A discussion arose about how large Origami could be folded. We now have a new Apex Origami record.

After observing flowers, this sculpture was create. Each petal was created by hand sewing different types of material on the wire frame.

Newimals in Computer Art

        Lets morph some animals!  Brought to you by the Computer Arts Class of Apex High School.  Students were required to morph two or more animals using their skills in photoshop. Lesson can be found here: http://sudkampart.weebly.com/newimals.html  Done by Mrs. Sudkamp, inspired by Ian Sands.

Artist Observe: Final

For the final project in our unit Artist Observe, the students were tasked with creating a work of art based on observation. Topics included still life, scientific, figure drawing, landscape.. to name a few. Here are some of the things going on...

Above, charcoal drawing of hands.

She decided to observe and capture on film the personality of her family through photographing feet.

A pastel illustration of a friend's car. Almost complete.

The final bee illustration from the sketch in the previous post. Painted from life.

Final acrylic candle painting, observation of light. Drawn from life.

 Using oil pastels, she wanted to capture the folds of the fabric in this dress.

He dropped ink into a jar water and observed how the ink suspended in the water. He then created a series of charcoal drawings.

Artists Observe: Final in Progress

For the final project in our unit Artist Observe, the students were tasked with creating a work of art based on observation. Topics included still life, scientific, figure drawing, landscape.. to name a few. Here are some of the things going on...

Colored pencil still life of a set of toys. She picked this because she thought each ball had a unique texture.

Sketches for the final to be (pun intended). Studying real insects. 

Painting candles in acrylic. The plan is to light the candles to capture the effect of the light on the background.

Drawing a Dinocow? Well, it's still observational... i guess.

This photo doesn't do it justice but this recreation of a brick wall is a thick, relief created using joint compound.

Observing how the gum lines up?? I think??

Not really sure how the potters wheel is part of this unit but...

Uhm... they are making a unicorn horn.. I think we have strayed slightly from where we started.

Artist Observe: The Stakeout!

This project was originated from the PBS show, The Art Assignment and their visit with Chicago-based artist Deb Sokolow. Deb's art is all about observing people and then documenting what happens. Our current unit is Artists Observe so this seemed to fit right in!

For this assignment, we asked our Apex artists to place an object in a public spot where people can interact with it, observe what happens and then document their experiences. Here are a few examples of what our artists accomplished...

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I decided to set out a bowl of candy with a sign reading,"Take one! Have a sweet day!' on a fountain near our local Moe's to see people's reactions. Almost immediately the bowl grabbed people's attention; several kids picked up the bowl only to set it back down on their parents' insistence.

 This begs the question, why were parents so cautious towards individually wrapped sugary confections? I believe I have the answer. In 1982, a series of murders in Chicago rocked the country; these random killings are known as the Chicago Tylenol Murders or TYMURS by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The murders were a series of random and intentional poisoning deaths of victims who had taken Tylenol. The killer opened the capsules and laced them with Cyanide and put them back on the shelf, killing whomever took the pill. The parents were cautious of the candy due to the lasting effects of TYMURS, but the kids succumb to peer pressure. So, would you take the candy or just leave it in the bowl?

~Angela

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I put doughnuts in downtown Apex and watched and took pictures from a nearby table. One thing about stalking that pictures don't show is how frustrating it is! So many people walked by and didn't see the doughnuts! But finally after half an hour or so people walked by and I have pictures of adults looking at the doughnuts and a kid ran up and touched them and her mom pulled her away! I learned its hard to get peoples attention but it's easy to take pictures without them noticing.

~Meredith

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This morning, I put a can of bread on a table at my church. However, I was so sad because no one even noticed my can of breadcrumbs. A lot of people simply looked at it, but they didn't interact with it like I was anticipating.

~Sadie

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My assignment was to set an object out and see if people would touch it. Not surprising, I found that people were not as trusting as you would want them to be. I sat in front of the public library about 10ft away from a can of bubbles that I had wrote "play with me" on top of. I watched as adult and kids walked by but no one would touch it. I opened the cap to see if when people could see that it really was just bubbles that maybe they would play with it. They did not.

Overall it surprised me how much people either don't trust others or are afraid of being laughed at. Most parents told their kids no before even taking a second glance at the bottle. I learned that people would rather be boring than risk being embarrassed or taking a couple seconds out of their schedule to play.

~Sarah B

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On the sidewalk, I place a notebook with instructions for the discoverer to write their favorite song and place the notebook back. Creepily I watched from the window, taking notes and hoping not to be seen, because that would be quite awkward.

What happened:
3:00 pm- Stakeout begins
3:27 pm-A tall man with a baseball hat walking his dog passes by. He stops briefly, but continues to walk past.
4:11 pm-A little boy, maybe around 5 years old, and his mother walk past. The little boy picks up the book and tosses it, about 2 feet. The mother looks at the boy and says something, possibly asking what the book was or telling him not to throw things.
5:00 pm- Stakeout over

Essentially what I discovered is that I live in a neighborhood with a bunch of hermits who don't like to leave the presence of their homes, considering in two hours only four people were spotted. No one even opened the book. The little boy had the closest interaction.

~Sarah D

Attack of the Clones!

This semester Computer Art & Animation has started with a bang! Mrs. Sudkamp has taken over, MwaHahaHa! She has stolen a few tips from Sands, first of all the Clone Project.  Here are just a few examples of the first project.  Students did a wonderful job on these.

What They Saw - Scientific Illustrations!

As part of our unit titled Artists Observe, the Art One and Art Two students took part in Scientific Illustration day! How Exciting!  

There were four areas that students could rotate through. The first table was the table of death! OK, that sounds terrible. But it was a table that contained things that were not living. Like the giant bull skull!

The next table was the table of Life! Most everything on that table was dead.. like the collection of bugs and butterflies.. but they used to be alive so.. ok, the turtle was alive!

The last two tables were the botanical table full of dangerous plants like the dreaded venus fly trap.. and the Process table where students drew things that moved and the process around how they moved.. like a blender. 

All in all it wasn't a day about they draw, it was about what they saw... and illustrating that.