Artist Tom Levy

Advanced Drawing and Painting

I came across Tom Levy's website when searching for examples of still-lifes that have a white color scheme.  I found his work incredibly creative.  Some paintings are very personal, telling his story and the view of the world and others  are classical still-lifes.   Take a look at his website and find the style of artwork you are most intrigued by and write about it in you sketch book.  Describe the artwork and why you like it. 

Link to website

The "Extended" Drawing Assignment

Advanced Drawing and Painting

Artwork from: From Ordinary to Extraordinary by Ken Vieth

I came across this lesson on another teacher's website (thank you Mrs. Briggs).  It connects with the artists and styles we have been studying.  Start by perusing magazines until you find an image that jumps out at you.  Take a portion of that image and place it in your sketchbook (don't glue it down yet).  Extend the images by creating an interesting composition.  Think of the negative and positive space and how both define your sketch.  Create a few different examples of how you can complete this drawing.  After you have a solid composition and creative idea start planning your color scheme.  What mood are you trying to create?  Use either colored pencil, watercolor, and/or ink (or a combination of all three).  Remember to layer your materials to create depth in your piece.  Be thoughtful, creative, and invest yourself in you work!

Design a T-Shirt!

Out of Print has creative shirts that have a design based on out of print books. They also donate books to those in need whenever a product is purchased from their company.  They are challenging artists to come up with a design for a shirt based on Don Quixote...check out the details below.

click here for more info

Words for Thought

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

-Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and Pixar

How do you use the Bone Tool in flash?

Designing for the Web

We are going to "Flip the Classroom" for this project. Searching for information about a topic on the Internet can seem simple,  just type in what you need and you get the answers.  Not always.  Sometimes I spend ten minutes watching or reading a tutorial and realize that I am wasting my time.  So what makes a tutorial found on the web worthwhile?  YOU tell me at the end of this lesson, be prepared to share the process with the class.

In this lesson you will be required to:

• Create a short animation that utilizes the bone tool. This can be a brief showcase of the bone tool.
• Find useful resources on the web that will teach you how to make an animation utilizing the bone tool. 

If you choose you may work with a partner.  Start your search for information on animations created using the bone tool.  Answer the following questions in a new journal entry.  

1. What websites were the most helpful to you and who were they published by?
2. Which sites weren't so helpful to you and who were they published by?
3. Were there any sites that were blocked from you that you think could have been useful?
4. Were you able to access any videos of someone creating an animation using the bone tool?
5. Once you found the information what complications did you have creating the animation?
6. Did you utilize Photoshop when creating this animation?
7. How did you and your partner work together? What portions of the work did you do?
8. What would you like to add to or change about your animation?

Work in Progress

Advanced Drawing and Painting


I am very excited to see the initial student sketches for the creative portraits inspired by Picasso!

Jane B

Jane is using the photos of Lauren Hill as a reference.

Clare H

Clare moving onto large pastel paper.

The beginning of an idea from Brittaney

A Pastel Inspired by Picasso

Advanced Drawing and Painting


Now that we have studied the art work created by  Picasso in class and discussed the amazing evolution of his art, it is time to create a work of art based on the portraits he painted during and after the birth of cubism.  Your portrait should somehow combine 3 views of a face.  How do you do this?  Work it out in your sketchbook.  Overlap different views of a face you have already drawn or someone you want to draw.  Combine the faces by connecting them with lines, omitting some features, emphasizing others...experiment.
Picasso painted hundreds and hundreds of original creative portraits of people.  Some were realistic, expressionistic, cubist...etc.   Even though you are using Picasso as inspiration your portrait will be an original because you will put your twist on it.

Picasso's sketches of James Sabartes.

Final painting, notice the references to the details in the sketch.

In this painting Picasso is starting to combine views of features.

Making a Slideshow in Flash

Designing for the Web

Now that you know how to  create Shape, Motion, and Classic Tweens it is time to learn how to create a slide show in Flash.  The images below are fading in and out by adjusting the "alpha" in the color effect area of the properties panel.   Photoshop Animal Morph by James, Becca, and Kyle

So when you insert your image to a layer, first convert to symbol-choosing movie clip for your option.  Then insert a key-frame 15 frames down the timeline.  On frame 1 make the alpha  0 and on Frame 15 change it to 100.  After doing this create a Classic Tween between those frames.  There you go.  The picture goes from transparent to opaque in 15 frames.  Insert your next key-frame at 25 (so the picture shows for 10 frames) then at frame 40 insert another key-frame and change the alpha of your picture to 0.  Create Classic Tween in between frames 25 and 40 and you are all set.  The picture fades out.  On a new layer insert a key-frame where the last picture begins to fade out.  Repeat the entire process exactly the same way with the same amount of frames in between the transitions. 
When creating a slide show you can speed up or slow down the transitions by putting fewer or greater frames in between the key-frames.  There are many ways to make slide-shows, this is only one way to get you started.
Now create one of your own and place in the slide show folder as an swf when finished.