The Color Wheel Blues

Sculpture Summaries

joseabrooks — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:38:20 +0000

Here is just a quick reminder that your sculptures will be ready to paint next class period. In the mean time I have a short writing assignment.

Simply answer this question: What is the most beneficial thing I learned about art or myself during the sculpting phase?

Remember all the times you messed up or had a better idea and use this to grow as an artist.

Guitar Hero

The Bright Side of Losing.

joseabrooks — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:20:58 +0000

If you remember, I talked back in January about entering out blog into a competition for Promethean where the winner would receive a complete ActivClassroom. Well I checked out Inspire and submitted my thoughts, but wouldn’t you know they chose someone else. I should point out that even though our blog didn’t win, we were still able to help contribute to the official release of ActivInspire. Read here about how Promethean used consumer response to help develop software.

Bonus:

Here is their new viral video making the rounds on the Internets.

Cartoonist On an Activboard

joseabrooks — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:30:22 +0000

Found this nifty little video of this “bloke” drawing on an Activboard at the BETT Show this year. Pretty simple, yet very effective.

A Quick Reminder

joseabrooks — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:23:42 +0000

You have until Monday, to turn in your outline for the sculpting project. Please include the following:

- What are you going to create? (Mask, Human, China, Other)

- What are you trying to express or accomplish with the project?

- What techniques and tools would you like to use or learn more about?

New Tools

joseabrooks — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:46:39 +0000

I just got the word that Promethean has released a free trial version of their new software “Inspire” and are holding a blog competition for those who want to report on the program. The top prize is a complete ACTIVclassroom setup. One word: ”Mine”. Jokes, but I will be downloading Inspire soon, and try to see what new applications I can find for the software in my art class.

If you are a fellow interactive whiteboard teacher, please check here for more information.

Sculpting Young Minds (get it?)

joseabrooks — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:30:16 +0000

At the beginning of the semester I gave you the choice of starting off with the sculpting project or the woodblock carving project. Can you guess which one won out?

Sculpting always turns out to be the most fun and most anticipated project. You have a free range of ideas and executions as long as they are appropriate. Most students tend to lean towards making human-like figures or some sort of dish (plates, cups, bowls). I would love to see some of you break the mold (I got a million of them) and try for something different.

Over the next week or so I will go over the history of clay work and some of the techniques that can be used when sculpting with clay.

Artrage 2.5 for Promethean Boards

joseabrooks — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:51:47 +0000

Well looky what we have here. The good folks at Promethean have a free starter edition of Artrage 2.5 for their interactive whiteboard users. Artrage is a widely popular application used by educators, young creatives and digital professionals. ArtRage 2.5 Starter Edition gives you eight painting tools, limitless colour options and a host of creative options enabling you and your students to create, save, and print as many pictures as you wish. The cherry on top is that this is a FREE DOWNLOAD. If you wish to expand upon the arsenal of tools and options that come with the free version, you can pay a few dollars/euros/gold doubloons for an upgrade. I really can’t express to you how excited I am to get my hands on this software. This should help me demonstrate several techniques and provide another creativity outlet for my students.

You can find the downloads at these locations:

Windows version

Mac version

new software finally

joseabrooks — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 06:45:26 +0000

A little something I found on MizzMonica’s blog…

I’m not going to FETC (in fact I have never been to one of these huge conferences) but the word is that the new software will be available for download, which means I dont have to constantly shift between activexpression software and activstudio software.

Reminder

joseabrooks — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:47:06 +0000

Just a reminder to all students still working on your self portrait, that they are due at the end of the week. I will help you scan the portraits once you are done so we can view them on the ACTIVboard when everyone is done.

Hopefully we can learn a lot by looking at each other’s work and offer constructive criticism.

Good luck

Portraits from Pictures

joseabrooks — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:33:47 +0000

It is time for one of the more interesting projects I assign. Self portraits from your favorite picture of yourself. I ask the class to bring in their favorite (appropriate) picture of themselves at any age to draw a chest up self portrait.

This project takes a bit longer than what we have covered in the past but I always enjoy the final product. I’ve posted some examples at the bottom.