Top 10 Artist I Told You About, But Maybe You Forgot

It's an art teacher thing, make sure we toss in a little art history with each lesson. We can't help it. 

Most teachers go the classic route with a little Da Vinci and some Picasso. However, if you've taken my Art History class, you know I think the Mona Lisa is overrated and well, let's face it.. Picasso was a jerk. 

I tend to go a little off the beaten path when sharing artists.... so who can blame you if you remember an artists but just can't recall his or her name? No worries, I'm here to help!

Here is my 2012 Top 10 List of Artist Every Art One Student Should Know...

#10. Andy Uprock: 

We haven't done a lot of cup rocking in the last few years. Primarily because it's so hard to get the PE teachers to let us use their fencing. Still, I tend to slip in an Andy Uprock video when I get the chance .. mostly cause I like the music that goes with the video.

#9. Buff Diss

Buff Diss is cool cause of his use of line. Plus, masking tape is a hard medium to work with since you can't really make curves. I know we looked at this guy's work before we created our masking tape murals.

# 8. Christian Faur

So a guy opens a box of crayons and figures out he can make art using them. Nothing special there until you see how he uses them crayons. Great artists to reference if you're doing something stupid like trying to make expressive self portraits out of Skittles... but who would do that??

#7. Jennifer Maestre

If we did any art that used pencil, I'm sure I showed you guys this artists. I like how her pencil sculptures look organic, like sea sea urchins. Organic is also a good journal word cause that guy on the clay video says it like 100 times!  

#6. Noma Bar

It's a dog, eating a cat, eating a mouse.. Oh! I see it! Yes, and what you see is great use of positive/negative space. Understanding positive and negative space comes in real handy when making stencils. Remember the threshold filter in Photoshop?

#5. Theo Jansen

Besides the fact that he is crazy and thinks these things will "live" on the beach, I like the way this guy says his name.. with that cool accent. 

#4. Ennio Marchetto

IDK? Did I show this guy when we did the textile (shirt) project? Any excuse to show this guy cause he is so freaky and like a train crash.. you know you want to but you can't turn away.

# 3. Patricia Piccinini

You know the artist you wanted to forget about but then I bring her up any way?  Piccinini and I both like hybrids. My Zonkey is cute and her ... whatever that is... is cute, right?

#2. Terry Border

Might have shown him when we were taking about forced perspective and using the cameras??? Not sure how but I worked Terry's art into class because his stuff is just so darn funny. LOL!

#1 Sjors Vervoort

I don't even now how to say that and not sure if it's a girl or a boy but it doesn't matter. What matters is how this genius artist incorporated both painting and animation into one of the coolest stop motion videos ever!

And, cause I'm the bestest art teacher ever.. here is a link to that very video!

Who should be on next years list? 

Comments welcomed!

And the Winner of the Prang Giveaway...

So I entered a lesson plan for the Teaching Palette June Lesson Plan Collaboration and Prang Giveaway and guess what..... it won!

This month they gave away four Prang Art Marker Master Packs, which include 200 washable Prang Art Markers! 

So see that box above, that will be in Trailer 11, how exciting, yes I know!

Now, guess which project I entered...

The Skittles Expressive Portrait Project! 

Yes, all those skittle are coming home to roost in the form of a large box of markers.

Check out the winning Lesson Plan here or see all the other lesson plan entrees here.

iPad Art at Apex High School

 This year we will be adding a new feature for both Art One and Computer Art... drawing on iPads. 

So far we've got two drawing apps installed. First Layers. If you've not drawn on an ipad yet, this is a good app to start with. It's easy to use but still has some of the advanced features of the more detailed apps. See my first attempt at illustrating with Layers here.

The second app (pictured above) is SketchBook pro. This is a serious drawing app with custom brushes, layers, stamps and a host of other tools like transform, text, etc.. you can read more about Sketchbook Pro here.

There will be a stylus available for each student. to use. This makes it easier to draw than using your finger. 

Meanwhile, if your looking for a fun app to draw with at home that is as simple as  box of crayons, check out Art Set. I might add this fun tool to our list as well. More about Art Set here.

 

In our always continuous effort to improve the Computer Art class.... more Adobe Illustrator! 

Quick and easy Adobe illustrator CS4 tutorial demonstrates how to take a hand draw image and convert it to vector and then turn that image into a symbol which can be repeated and manipulated at will. Basically, create the image above in less than 4 minutes. How very exciting! 

Watch the video tutorial here-->

Drawing to Symbols in illustrator from iansands on Vimeo.

Halle Exhibit 2012

It's become a tradition that at the end of every school year, the Halle hosts the art of Apex High School students both current and former. And every year i go to the exhibit and take really bad photos and post them on the web. 

Above, is one former and one current Apex art student. They are sisters and they don't like to have their picture taken. Eileen, (closest) now goes the SCAD.

This is a dinobird made out of recycled cans. Pretty neat.

There is usually food so I feel obligated to make sure i capture that important fact on film.

These guys are scary. What are these type of hooligans doing at the art show?

Yay! This makes me happy!

Chelsea made scary hooks. I'm starting to think it's good she graduated and decided to go to college 5 hours away... :) JK!

Sebastian needs one of those back scratchers.

She made the stuffed monster thingy. Yay!

Brian is my neighbor. He thinks the show is "thumbs up!"

Even I have a piece in the show. It's a talking zonkey. Shocked, aren't you.

Another illustrator Tutorial

 

In a never, ever, ever ending effort to improve the Computer Art class.... more Adobe Illustrator! 

If you know how to use pathfinder and gradients then creating these cool button thingies in Adobe illustrator CS4 is quick and easy. How very exciting! 

Watch the video tutorial here-->

2D Icon buttons in illustrator from iansands on Vimeo.

3D Illustrator Tutorial

 

Above: 3D icons created in Adobe Illustrator

In a never ending effort to improve the Computer Art class, next year we'll be incorporating more Adobe Illustrator projects into the class. 

To get things started, here is a brand new video tutorial that demonstrates how to use pathfinder and gradients to create 3D logos in Adobe illustrator CS4. How very exciting!

3D Logos in Illustrator CS4 from iansands on Vimeo.

Photoshop Space Tutorial

 

Early in the year, the Computer Art class played around with Photoshop to create an image that looks like it came from space. This short video tutorial shares some of the tricks we learned to create the space image above.

Photoshop CS4 : Space Tutorial from iansands on Vimeo.

Oh, So We Have iPads Do We?

So, Apex HS just bought a class set of iPads for students to use and yes, I do plan to incorporate these devices into my lessons.

So, I'm trying to find a decent drawing program on the ipad. So far I've downloaded Layers, Sketchbook Pro and 123D Sculpt, a 3D program. All I've messed with is Layers. 

What I like about layers is how simple it is. It has a brush, an eraser and a smudgy finger. That and of course, layers. I'll probably start my classes off learning this program because of how simple and basic it is. 

To start, I just wanted to sketch in layers,... try out different brushes and stuff but without any real concern for the image. Then I wanted to take that first image and see if I could make it a little more 3dish. 

Now I need to move on and try Sketchbook Pro. It's got a lot more options. Then onto the real 3D world 123D Sculpt. how very exciting, yes I know!

Already looking forward next year!