Color Wheel High School Art

I apologize for the bad photos and cropping. I'm not using photoshop because I don't have it on my new laptop. Art Theory 1 made these color wheels with watercolor. They worked on them for 3 days I think.

Non-Objective Abstraction Family Portrait High School Art

The Art Theory 1 kids had to create a family portrait with only shape, line, and color to represent family members and their relationships with each other. They worked on them for 4 periods.

Old Man Face Drawing High School Art

Art Theory 1 drew an old gentleman's face from a large jpeg on a tv monitor. I think they worked two periods on it.

Human Skull Contour Drawing High School Art

In Art Theory 1 the kids did contour drawings of a skull. Not a real skull. A plastic one ordered from a catalog. My mother who also teaches high school art used to have two real human skulls that her kids would draw.

A Dangerous Path High School Art

Studio Art had two weeks to create a drawing dealing with the theme, "A Dangerous Path". I showed them video game stills, some sci/fi fantasy images, photos of booby-traps, and I can't remember what else. This was by far the most successful project of this year.

Text Art High School Art

This was a two week assignment in Art Theory 2. I did a presentation of artists that use text such as Ruscha, Kruger, Pettibon, etc. They have to mix a realistic image with a text of their choice in a medium of their choice although I should have asked them to use just india ink. They shouldn't have too many choices to make. Too much freedom and they become paralyzed.

AP Studio Art Concentration High School Art

I have six AP Studio Art students this year up from four last year which was my first year teaching the class. We had a 50% passing rate last year and hope to do a little better this year. Pinewood is a small college-prep school where most kids are in multiple AP classes, sports, clubs, service groups, etc. So this group has a particular difficulty with putting in the time needed to make a great AP portfolio. That aside, the kids are fantastic and are working their butts off. Here are a few photos from their concentrations. Much like I did when I was in high school, they love Surrealism. They have two weeks to finish each piece in their concentration sections. Click on the image to get a bigger view.

Painting Non-Objective Abstraction High School Art

Highschoolart is back. Our school scanner wasn't working, but I have found another means to bring you the best of Pinewood's High Schoolers. For these photos, the Art Theory 2 class stretched and gessoed their canvases and are starting to create non-objective abstractions. I did a power point on Abstract Expressionism, Color Field Painting, Post-Painterly Abstraction, and contemporary abstraction. I used images from Pollock, Kline, De Kooning, Rothko, Newman, Louis, Frankenthaler, Stella, and Todd Chilton for the contemporary painter. The kids have two weeks to mess around with squeegees, palette knifes, masking tape, and brush.

Animated gif High School Art

For about the last week of school, the Photoshop class made these animated gifs using Photoshop. Thanks to Chris Coy for helping to get them animated in blogspot.

AP Studio Art Assignment #1

Thank you to those that sent me their images. Thank you to those that sent me your image on time. Thank you mostly to those who sent me their image on time and only sent one image that they deemed was the highest quality image.

On to grading. I am not going to give these a letter grade yet. I'll do that when you guys come in the first week. I will however grade them on the AP scale of 1-5 and tell you why. Please give me feedback on my feedback if you have any. Continue having a dope summer and I look forward to seeing your next assignment.


3 This drawing is missing some midtones. There are plenty of darks and lights, but not quite enough in the middle. Sometimes this is a good thing in art when you want to exaggerate, but not in a strict representational assignment. Maybe the photo wasn't great. That's why I won't grade these until I see them in person. The guitar is placed square on the golden section on the right which works. But you have to many interesting objects that are too far off of those edges. A good composition plays with the edges without jumping over. More detail. Again, on seeing the real thing, I might change my mind on that. But more detail is something that can always be done and it will always help your case.



4 The detail is great. Several of the objects are very difficult to draw and the temptation is draw a symbol of the thing rather than the actual object. This drawer did not give in to temptation. I would like to see a bit more of the midtones. Not much. The composition isn't dynamic. It's static. You could do to have something going off the page. The top of that frame should probably be poking over the edge. The space behind your objects isn't completely defined. The objects seem to float a little. Nit picking. This is an excellent drawing.



2 Every inch is covered in graphite. That's good. Lot's of midtones. Good. Composition is good. Where there seems to be trouble is in your rendering of the objects. You seem to be doing what I talked about earlier. You aren't drawing the actual binding to those books, you are drawing a symbol, cartoon, simplification of a binding. To get away from this you need to spend a significant amount of time looking at the binding and not be afraid of the work it will take to get the letters perfectly straight and draw that little curve where the binding moves to the cover where the page bends. There is plenty of detail, but it needs to be detail that exists and that will help define the object as a 3-Dimensional object in space. Also, not the best photo. Don't use an iphone.



2.5 A late drawing loses 10% credit after one day, 20% credit after that. The composition is great. Maybe too many midtones. Many of the objects begin to lose their form and blend in with other objects. It's difficult to see what the items are. That kind of ambiguity is great in art sometimes, but again, not in this assignment and generally speaking, not in the AP Portfolio. Some objects looked hurried. The patterns that emerge from the cast shadows from the objects look great.

AP Studio Art Summer Assignment Examples

Hello AP Studio Art students! I hope you are all having dope summer thus far. I know I am. I just got over a cold. I draw and play XBox every day. I just finished Fallout 3 and bought the expansions. I'll put an image of what I'm doing later in the summer. So, You have some drawings due in a couple of days. I hope you all look at this post. All of the drawings I put up are the quality and have the amount of finish that I want to see in your drawings. I hope they help. Email me if you are having troubles. Later, Mr. Smith

Atmospheric Perspective Watercolor Painting High School Art

My Art Theory 1 kids had about 2 weeks to finish these watercolor paintings. They had to find an image in a magazine that had an example of atmoshpheric perspective and copy it. They could add a little of their own imagination if they so wanted. I took them outside to show them this in real life, but it was a very clear day. So I later showed them some landscape photos that were better examples.