Drawing and Folds, Spirals and Numbers

Casual Tuesday studio working out some ideas about spirals, folds, lines, and numbers.

Link to Vi Hart's "Doodling in Math Class" channel. We love Cat Slug...

Vi Hart @YouTube

Next week we can work on Origami "drawings" and look at forms and patterns we see in the nature around us. With and/or without precision (in our own ways!)

Shading a Sphere (Tuesday Discussion and Wednesday Fun)

We will continue drawing, and colouring our marbles, bubbles, balloons and balls next studio by trying to create 3-d shaded versions! (Tues. and Wed.) 

**credit: http://pd.scisdragons.net/msart1/2011/09/22/sketchbook-assignment-5-spheres-composition/

Below is an excerpt of a lesson, from ArtProjectsForKids.org,  that shows us a quick way to approach and better understand shading a sphere: please note that in step 3  the darkest shadow is slightly in from the shaded edge. This is due to reflected light and helps to define a sphere's 'edge'. 

Spheres in Space 

Learning how to turn a circle into a sphere can be lots of fun if you use an outer space theme.

1. Die cut presses and heavy mat board were invaluable for making quick circle templates. I created 2" and 3" templates with circles cut out of the middle so .....
(click here to read the whole short lesson)  from the blog:Art ProjectsforKids.org

If a sphere is suspended, do you think it would still have a reflective area in it's shadowy zone? If a sphere is actually a 'Gas Giant' and not a solid at all, would it reflect light in the same way?...Next studio we'll look for different zones of shadow and reflection in our different spheres and try to render a sphere using line, shade, colour choices, intuition, creativity, and our erasers.

The Tuesday Channel -stop-motion workshop

Our Channel for YouTube is MyFreshorange. We will post all our work to that channel to share. I will burn CD' s of your work to take home as well. Thank you all for working so hard on your animations! They are fun and funny and very well done - Congratulations!

Last Afterschool ArtClub for this school year!!

Our last ArtClub Afterschool session this school year will be
a six-week Drawing Club starting May 15th, 2013.

 

Please call Sylvie at 905-639-8545 to register - or let me know when you see me!  Registration for a minimum of 6 studios is preferred - but Drop-In is also available($25.) All materials provided and discounts are available for siblings.

Spring Sky Palette and Paper Nests - Spring Artclub Jr. Week 2

We were missing a few of the art crew but worked on our group painting just the same(you two can catch up next week).   We painted SKY using a shared, and Spring specific, palette of colours.  We could talk to each other through our work... 

 or create something independently, but because our theme was the same and our colour choices started out the same, we created a very connected group of paintings with subtle and unique inventions and conversations. Great job!

We also did a craft project: Paper Bag Nests!

We talked briefly about the difference between the terms Art and Craft...and some possible differences between a craft project and an art project. We each made our own nests carefully following the basic directions - and we each had fairly unique results. We decided to fill our nests with things that would make it special - and we chose feathers, pom-poms, paper scraps and other soft materials.

In between our nests and our sky: Next week we will start to work on inhabitants of Spring and paint our "eggs" and stones to see where they might fit in.

The Tuesday Channel - Week 1& 2 - stopmotion animation.

 

 Week 1: We started our animation session with a quick 2-D individual project using a media of our choice, and limiting ourselves to thinking in terms of 4 shots...although some of us did need to do more where it became necessary for our idea.  Great work from everyone! You are all very accomplished at getting your ideas out onto quick storyboards(see below for storyboard templates and more info); and at considering and figuring out the essential animating challenges that come from figuring out how to tell a specific story visually and in motion. We shared thoughts on how there are lots of tricks involved in getting us to believe what we're seeing. Here are some stills:

We got two anims. shot week 1 and managed to shoot the rest of your work last week. We'll use these to quickly review how to use our software: we are using iKitmovie mostly, we'll try MonkeyJam, a bit of powerepoint if you're interested, and look into a few in-camera and iphone effects and apps.

 

 

 

Week 2: We started planning our group animations this week - storyboarding and brainstorming for what we would like to see happen.  We did some great drawings and even started working up our clay for claymation. Remember we can add 3-d elements or create a 3-d animation this time.

Here are two different templates for storyboards to download and print.

Storyboard 1

Storyboard 2

Remember: You're scenes aren't necessarily the # of frames on a page. You can use several pages to work out a story.  Keep in mind simple is better to start. Each page is a sequence. You can break out each main scene - which is really a main action and a single background(more or less)- from your storyboard into a storyboard of shots you'll need, details, tricks you need to create with your characters to fool the eye, and materials/props and actions needed to make your shots work in animation.  We are limiting our animated productions to at least 2 main scenes - with as many shots as we need to build each scene.  
If your character is travelling to different places or gets around a lot, you can think about how to best create multiple backgrounds and also think about how to creatively transition to each.

Here are some of the links for reference from Week 1:
Whiteboard 1
SquishyFishy
Gulp **"Largest" stop motion
will post a few more shortly.

FYI Links

Here is a link to Tiff kids.

To download a free copy of MonkeyJam,  click here to go their website.

And a reminder:  Click here to learn about and download SCRATCH, FREE programming software for kids from MIT 

Nests from found materials - Spring Artclub Jr. Week 1

We started this Spring Session making nests and bread dough eggs. Nest making broke into a few groups and individual projects and each nest had to pass the shake test.

 

Very inventive and creative designs. We talked about our larger group nest collaborations and have decided to make them in smaller groups. More on that to come.

Listening, Spirals and Springtime

2012 FreshOrange Studio

This is  a link to some online listening activities from
Exploratorium | The museum of science, art and human perception at the Palace of Fine Arts, 3601 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123

 

This is a link to a fun online version of the graphical game Kaleidograph. 

Summer ArtClub Flyer info: Tuesday Art Camps July 23 & July 30th and August 13th, 20th and 27th

Spies, Masques and Marionette Puppets - March Break

Thank you to everyone for kick-starting our March Break with some awesome artmaking!  A big thanks to Krystii for playing with us on Monday, and to all of our March Break artists who made it work!

Monday became about mixed-up creatures: two different creatures mixed into one...and Tuesday became about animal characters, alternate identities and being excellent, careful undercover spies!

Everyone did a really good job on their plaster mixed-up creatures! That was fun. We made our armatures and learned how masking tape can keep our newspaper dry until our plaster sets, and that we can always do repairs before we paint... we had some bright colours to paint with and created contrast, and colourful planets too!

Our Monday masks were fun and exciting explorations...I will post a link for parents to watch our original masked production.

Tuesday morning we created mini puppet heads on sticks out of clay. Our Tuesday masks became doubley secret identities: continuing our spy games from the park, we decided that we were going to a masked ball for spies! We made our secret identity cards and each created our spy names.

I will post pictures here soon, and post a tutorial for those who wanted to complete a marionette after all but ran out of time!

Have a great remainder of your break!

Sylvie

Thank You! and Flyer

Thank you! to our Artists for very fun and creative ArtClub sessions ~ and Thank you! Parents and Friends for coming to our shows.
(Please see below for AfterSchool and March Break info and please check back soon for updated posts and pictures...!)

Our next AfterSchool Studios start March 26th and 27th.  
Tuesday's ArtClub (gr. 3-6) will work in groups on their own ANIMATION using drawing/painting, modelling and sculpture, digital cameras and the computer.  
An extra day (Tuesday, April 7th), if needed, will be available for final editing/titling and posting to youtube!
3 spots available.
$130. for 6 weeks
3:45 - 5:30
Pick up at Tom Thomson

Wednesday's ArtClub (gr. 1-3) will explore and create using various media both through self-directed efforts and technique-based projects. We are entering Springtime again, so we can use our ideas about the natural world, the weather, change, growth and shelter...(and small creatures, tornadoes and imaginary friends!) to help us explore and create. 
4 spots available.
$135. for 6 weeks
3:45 - 5:30
Pick up at Tom Thomson

MARCH BREAK 2013 ArtClub Flyer

March 19th: Thank you for a fun 2 days!

Feb. 28 ... Space is filling up - so excited!!  We have 2-3 spots left for Monday(Max.) and 4 spots left for Tuesday. Let me know if you can join us by email at: ArtClub@freshorange.ca

Some of you have asked about March Break Camp...

Art is Drama! Two-day studio for all ages:

Monday & Tuesday  March 11-12th.

$90. for both days

$48  per day

$25  half day mornings -  but the whole day will be more fun!

9-4 pm with before and after care($6). 

In the mornings we will make character masks and create character sculptures out of plaster bandage, paint, feathers, ribbon, streamers and whatever else we find! In the afternoons we will create mini-marionettes using clay sculpture, paint, cardboard and string.  There will be time for seriously silly play-acting, drama games and a show as well!  Krystii, our very own dramatic artist, will help lead in all the fun!

Older children will have lots of opportunity to invent, create, write, direct and help stage short performances.

Minimum of 3 children.

Email or call Sylvie(905-639-8545) if interested.

Happy Family Day Weekend!

If people are really interested, we can add Wednesday ~ just let me know!

ArtClub Tuesday - Drawing to realize ideas: Week Four

Today we worked on looking at negative spaces and gesture drawing.

We started with a fun group drawing 'exchange' where 2 of us posed while two of us tried to catch the poses in quick, loopy, gestural sketches - keeping in mind that while the page was quick and sketchy technique building, it was(is) also a composition, so we can take some care and give consideration to this each round in starting the next sketch. After a few rounds we could work into our sheet or start a new sheet. The randomness of the poses, and having so many laid out on the pages made for fun and energetic compositions. After that, most everyone had an urge to create something in a contour format so we tried to create the negative spaces between the branches of our ArtClub tree, or anything in the room that was interesting to us. We looked again at Emily Carr and Henry Moore and talked about the ideas of negative and positive space, and ways of representing space as a volume with mass and contour.

We could then use washes to enhance what we had done - creating some lovely work, and a proto-type for a time-capsule out of found materials.

For the next two weeks we will be creating our own composition, on paper or canvas, using charcoal, crayon, paint and collage that expresses the idea of concave or convex.  We are going to use the ways we know of conveying mass, volume, gesture and contour.  We can consider all the artists works we looked at for 'permission' to try something in our own work. You can work from observation, or from imagination.

ArtClub Tuesday - Drawing to realize ideas: Week Three

We started with a spiral drawing exercise inspired by an exercise from AccessArt UK  and our recurring interest in representing portals. This is an awesome and inspiring resource for teaching artmaking techniques and artful thinking through drawing and making ~ a VERY USEFUL RESOURCE.
We used our spirals as a quick drawing 'icebreaker', working from the centre of the page out to the edge of a shared sheet and back twice more, in black or white pastels. Then, as much or as little as we wanted for 2 minutes, we 'spiraled' with different colours. Our spirals became the ground for a contrasting work in paint and (some) paper collage. 

This work was ephemeral for some of us, as we built on and worked over previous efforts, while for others is was very decisive and deliberate work. We will cut, hang and talk about these in two weeks.

As we worked we talked about figure and ground. We set up our palettes and worked on our spirals with expressive marks - continuing with a feeling generated from creating our spirals, or creating patterns that contrasted with our ground in line quality, intent, or colour. There was acrylic, pastel, markers, finger scratching and torn paper available as well as different sized circle templates(lids) to trace if we wanted.

You all did a great job with a very open-ended prompt for exploration ~ thank you! 

Art Club Tuesday - Drawing to realize ideas: Week Two

We looked at some Artists you suggested.
We looked at Andy Warhol's work, found at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA and Sister Corita's work, examples found at the Corita Art Center in Hollywood, CA.  Graphical excitement.
We looked at images of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, William Morris, Annie Pootoogook,  Emilly Carr and Henry Moore, and images of the sword props and a film poster from The Hobbit (Peter Jackson-Director, Simon Bright-Supervising Art Director). A wide array of influences for our exploration.

We talked out a mental map of connections between the works by connecting their relationships to line, form, and ways of conveying detail, and then decided to draw using anything from these artworks for inspiration.We created random doodle images as a base using ink, pastel, and marker. This led us into some finished doodles, some new geometric work and some ideas for our sketchbooks.