Check out this awesome photoshop project by one of my 7th grade students! The project was made using Pixlr (as a free Photoshop substitute) for layering and blending techniques to combine two animals into a new species. After that, we named our new species and made it a logo design!
In this lesson, 6th graders learned photoshop editing basics and were able to work from home for free using Pixlr to create their own digital self-portraits. Pixlr is a free to use photoshop equivalent that is great for school work because student can continue to access it and explore it more themselves at home! Check out some of the things Crystal said were her interest and hobbies that made her who she is!
In our David Hockney inspired photomontage project, students learned all about Photoshop basics such as resolution sizes, image sizing, canvas sizes, and layering layering layering! 8th graders who really went above in beyond in this project got creative when it came to timing and photo manipulation or were also really considerate when choosing their subject matter.
Here are a few examples from the project, to see more check out my student gallery at BillVaughnArt.com
Check out these fun photos made using Ostagram.ru - a fun resource that lets you create computer generated photo combinations making one photo a filter to be applied over your original. The free version let's you make as many as you want but they take longer and longer to make each one as you go. It's still fun to load up and play around with though! Check out a few of these example combinations I made!
Friday, May 19, 2017
Here's an example of a Google Photos generated creation. The one on the left is the original photo I took and on the right is a suggested filter edit to give it a new look. If you like it you can save it to your photo stream, if not dismiss it and wait and see what Google Photos makes for you next!
If you know me well in real life, you've probably heard me mention Google Photos, then proceed to go on and on about it at some point. Google Photos is one of my favorite Apps & Features and in my opinion is the one thing I feel everyone should have, but no one really seems to know about.
Google Photos is an online storage and synchronization tool, like Google Drive, except it is geared specifically around photos and videos. The thing that makes Google Photos so great is that unlike other online storage spaces like iCloud, Google Drive, or Drop Box - Google Photos can allow unlimited storage space! Now the only "catch" to this is that you allow Google to reformat your images to slightly slightly slightly lower quality, but honestly, I can't even tell the difference between the originals and the Google modified version.
If you are like me you might want some photos to use them for reasons where you need them to remain high quality, like an art portfolio. The way that I manage this, is by taking those specific photos I want to stay high quality, and uploading the originals to Google Drive but also backing them to Photos. This allows for a quick ready view version, as well as a back up of the highest quality file.
I was going to make a video of this myself for Google photos, however I think this video does a great job of explaining the way to maximize your Google Photos use between your computer, devices and phones.
While it might take a little bit of trial and error, I urge you to take some time to play around with it and find out how you want to use it. Google Photos has been amazing in that all my photos are always at hand and searchable in my pocket, and best of all is it's all free!
Just last week, the Guggenheim Museum released over 200 art books from it's collection online for free! These can be viewed online or downloaded in ePub or PDF formats ready for your computers or devices - all for free here at the internet archive!
The iPhone is the most used camera in the world today, however many people don't do too much outside the box thinking when it comes to using it for taking photographs. Check out this awesome video below for 7 photography tips & tricks to get the most out of your smartphone camera!
If you haven't heard about the developments taking place in the field of 3D printing in the past few years, strap yourselves in. In my opinion, ten years from now 3D printing will become the next big big thing becoming increasingly a part of our everyday experience. Today, artists and engineers are using 3D printing to print out artwork, products, food and even biological organs and body parts. Check out the video below to hear more about what's happening with 3D printing today.
The great thing about 3D printing is that more and more places are opening up where you can send in your blueprints to have printed out in a variety of materials. There are lots of different resources for designing things to be printed and many of them are free! To take a look at some options for 3D design check out this link about the 20 Best 3D Printing Softwares Available Today
Copyrighted material can be a tricky thing to understand when it comes to art. Especially when there are methods like appropriation and parody that seem to break the rules, yet are still completely ok for art.
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano from http://langwitches.org/ created a first-rate flow chart to help explain if your work is within the bounds of copyright law!
It's been around for a few years now - but to be honest I am just finding out about Microsoft Sway. If this is the first time you are hearing of it too, check out the two videos explaining what it is and how it works!
Pretty cool, right? The best part about it is, like the best part of most things on the internet, is it's free to use, making it a great resource for schools. Make your own Sway presentation and check out more about it at https://sway.com/education/
Here's a neat resource for Graphic Designers out there, Coolors.co is a neat free resource for generating different color schemes. These can be imported directly into Adobe software and are great for making your design color choices look sleak and modern.
You can try it online for three months free through the Skillshare community, or buy the app on the ios app store for 1.99$
Check out my latest video where I give a quick walkthrough of how I set-up and used Google Drive with my Middle School Art Class for creating collaborative digital art portfolios.
"Make an etching investigating the exploitation of punctures, due in 31 minutes."
While that isn't realistically impossible due to the nature of etching, the concept behind this assignment is where all the fun lies. Meet the "Art Assignment Bot" designed by Jeff Thompson, an artist, professor and programmer. The purpose of Art Assignment Bot is to use code to produce a randomly generated art assignment using pre-selected words that teachers would typically assign. The fun part about it is the outside of the box thinking that happens when you are rolling the dice for different combinations. Some range from the absurd, to curious to actually pretty fun ideas!
Assignments are tweeted every hour on the hour and some examples include:
"Create a 3D rendering about your relationship to obligations, due on Sun, Apr 25, 2021."
"Construct an etching with teeths, due tomorrow."
"Construct a sound installation denying the exploitation of cats on the internet, due tomorrow."
"Build a photograph about your dream world, due tomorrow."
"Make an exhibition about time, due in 28 seconds."
The tweets can be found under twitter handle @ArtAssignBot or you can follow the link here
Some people follow just to see what strange tweets the bot will generate, others follow through in bringing the projects to life. Jeffrey Thompson's webpage also provides a list of people who have submitted some finished assignments which you can find here
A QR code is like a bar code, but when scanned it will link you to a website online. Using www.QRstuff.com I was able to create my own QR code which links to my new website @ www.BillVaughnArt.com
QR Codes can be a fun way to provide easy access to links for direct information about projects or resources. There are lots of different free QR Readers in the app store too, I use the QR Scanner app. Make your own QR code at QRStuff.com !
