Photography Blog Assignment: Week #7 (Due Wednesday, Nov. 23rd)

Photographers!  In anticipation of our upcoming assignment, this week's blog has to do with Photojournalism.  Write about what you think the term "photojournalism" means.  What does a photojournalist do?  Be as descriptive as you possibly can be.  After you state your definitions, post a picture that you think exemplifies the term and career.  Make sure to cite your source and give credit to the artist photographer.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com

Artist: Steve McCurry

Photography Blog Assignment: Week #6 (Due Friday, Nov. 4th)

Hello fellow photographers!  For this week's photo assignment we are taking close-ups of images in nature.  Our assignment will be to turn in one photograph that is in color, and one that is in black and white.  For this blog, discuss which format (either color photography, or black and white) that you like the best and why.  Make sure to support your conclusions with evidence citing the work of

 professional photographers as examples. Discuss which format you feel is the most artistic - meaning allows for the most effective use of the elements and principles of design.  Finally, discuss what you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of both formats and
what challenges you might meet when taking your own photographs.  Happy blogging!

Graphic Design Blog Assignment: Week #7 (due Friday, Nov. 4th)

Graphic Designers!  For this week's blog assignment post your completed logo design (you may have to save it as a PDF file first).  After posting the picture, describe your company in detail as well as the products you intend to sell.  Discuss your targeted audience and how you plan to capture their attention, and eventually their buying power through your logo design.  Finally, discuss your process in creating the final design.  What did you enjoy, what was challenging?  If you could do the design over again, what would you change?  Happy blogging!

Photography Blog Assignment: Week 5 (Due Friday, Oct. 28th)

Photographers!  Welcome back to blogging from an extended break!  For our upcoming project we will be taking photographs of extreme closeups of objects in nature.  For this week's blog assignment, post a photograph, by a professional photographer either living or dead, that is a photograph of a closeup of an object in nature.  After posting the image, analyze it for the elements and principles of design, the composition, and then what you think the artist's intended message was for the piece.  Make sure to cite your sources and give credit to the photographer.

Photograph by: Ansel Adams

Graphic Design Blog Assignment: Week #6 (due Friday, Oct. 21st)

For this week's blog assignment, please post a finished jpeg image of your Typography assignment!  After posting the picture give a brief explanation of the text that you used (it's lyrics and meaning) and how your image connects to that text.  After this explanation, talk about what it is in your image that you think is very successful.  Then discuss what you would change about your typography design were you to do it over again.  Happy blogging!

Photography Blog Assignment: Week 4 (Due Friday, Oct. 7th)

For this unit on self-portraits we are exploring the work of Cindy Sherman and connecting her ideas on portraiture, especially staging and dramatic lighting that she executed for her Untitled Film Stills series, to our "B Movie" self-portraits.  To get us thinking about how we can place ourselves in a "B Movie" environment, please post a picture of "B Movie" poster on your blog for this week.  After you post the picture briefly describe what you imagine the movie to be about.  After that brief description, discuss how you would create a self-portrait done in the style of that poster.  Your description should be realistic as to what you personally own for costuming, where in your community you could stage it, how you would create dramatic lighting, and finally what emotion or mood you would want to create in the photograph.  Your description can even include a back-story or script to your own "B Movie" if you want, but this is not required.  Have fun with it!

  

Graphic Design Blog Assignment: Week #5 (due Friday, Oct. 7th)

Welcome back from a short blogging break graphic designers!  Our next project, after we complete our typography image, will be to design a logo for a fictitious company using your initials or name.  To get us started and our creative brains in the right mindset, we will be analyzing a series of professional logos.  For this week's blog, please upload a picture of at least two logos that you feel are highly successful.  After uploading each picture describe why you think that they are successful.  How is the logo associated with the product that it is trying to sell?  Is it associated to the product at all?  What emotions or feelings do you have when you see the logo?  Answers these prompts for each one of the logos that you post (two total).  Make sure to cite your sources and also list the company that the logo is trademarked to.  

www.starbucks.com

Registered Trademark of Starbucks

Graphic Design Blog Assignment: Week #4 (due Friday, Sept. 23rd)

Artist: John Le  website: www.john-le.com

In our next project we are using typography (or text) to create an image with symbolism based on the text that creates it.  For this week's blog assignment, locate and post a picture of a piece of typography design where the image is created solely by text.  Make sure to cite both the artist who created the piece as well as the website that it was found at.  After posting the picture, analyze the piece for the elements and principles of design - especially contrast, emphasis, line, composition, and texture.  Your response should be a minimum of 10 sentences, or a thorough analysis of the piece based on knowledge garnered from the survey courses.

Photography Blog Assignment: Week #3 (Due Friday, Sept. 16th)

Photographers!  As we've discussed in class, not every photo has to have a person or people in it to show emotion.  Inanimate objects can evoke emotion as well.  Annie Leibovitz, a professional photographer we've been viewing work of in class, does this exceptionally well in her work.  In the photo posted below, she creates the feeling of abandonment or even fear.

In your blog for this week, describe in words how you would use inanimate objects, as Leibovitz does, to capture the following emotions:

1. anger
2. disappointment
3. joy
4. sorrow
5. excitement

Remember, no people can be used in your descriptions - only inanimate objects.  Your answers to this blog might look something like:

"To take a photograph that shows the emotion of anger only using inanimate objects and not people, I would take a picture of a broken glass on the floor with a pool of water around it.  I would also include a broken plate with spilled food all around it."  

Create a photograph, described in words, for each one of the emotions listed above.  

Graphic Design Blog Assignment: Week #3 (Due Friday, Sept. 16th)

Designers!  This week, upload your finished "Old Tech" design (as a jpeg) and discuss your thought processes as you created the piece.  Include why you chose the color scheme that you did, how you want the piece to be viewed by your targeted audience (how you want the viewer to feel), and where you envision that this piece could be used in a professional setting (could it be an advertisement to sell a product, or a poster for decoration?).

Photography Blog Assignment: Week #2 (Due Sept. 9th)

Photographers!  This weeks blog assignment focuses on portraiture.  Locate and post a black and white portrait photograph, taken by a professional photographer (Annie Leibovitz, Alfred Stieglitz, Cindy Sherman, and Robert Mapplethorpe are good places to start) either living or deceased, that follows the composition guidelines discussed in class.  After posting the photograph, giving credit to the artist, and citing the source, analyze the photograph purely for its composition.  Discuss the rule of thirds, leading the eye, positive and negative space, and foreground - middle-ground - background.  Also describe how the composition aids the artist in creating a certain emotion in the viewer.

Annie Leibovitz "Susan at Home"

Graphic Design Blog Assignment: Week #2 (Due Friday, Sept. 9th)

Graphic designers!  For this week's blog assignment locate and post a picture of a piece of graphic design work, professionally done, that you feel symbolizes you as an individual (make sure to give credit to the studio as well as the website where you found the image).  After posting the image, describe in detail how it symbolizes your personality and individuality.

www.diplomaguide.com

Photography Blog Assignment: Week 1 (Due Friday, Sept. 2nd)

                                                                               Cindy Sherman 

Photographers!  Post a picture from your favorite professional photographer (either living or deceased) and describe in detail, using the elements (line, value, form, texture, shape, and color) and principles (balance, pattern/repetition, emphasis, movement, contrast, and rhythm) of design that you learned previously in the Survey courses, why you are drawn to this particular image.

Graphic Design Blog Assignment: Week #1 (due Friday, Sept. 2nd)

This image was created by Loworks, a graphic design studio based out of Tokyo, Japan.

www.loworks.co.jp

Using your previously learned knowledge regarding the principles and elements of design, garnered from the Art Survey courses taught here, analyze this piece of professional graphic design work.  Be sure to be specific as to where you see the various elements (line, value, color, texture, form, and shape) and principles (balance, pattern/repetition, rhythm, contrast, emphasis, and movement) of design within the piece.  Discuss the composition (layout or placement of the objects within the image) as a whole as well in terms of if you think it is working or not, or if there is anything about it you might change as an artist.  Finally, discuss what you think the visual message of this piece is.  What message is this image trying to communicate to you as an audience?  Is it working?  Does it make you feel a certain way?   

Welcome!!!!

Welcome to the Storm Lake High School Art Blogosphere...

I invite you to join me on a blogging adventure. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you begin your own blog this semester:

Blogging Protocols:

1) Do not use foul language or language that may offend other people.

2) Do not use text abbreviations such as LOL or CUL8tr.

3) Take time to compose your writing well. Please spell check and fact check as these blogs are graded. Remember, this is an academic exercise.

4) Any photos that you post on your blog should be school appropriate.

5) When commenting on the posts of others, keep an open mind, do not personally attack their views. If you disagree with something someone has posted, feel free to engage in a discussion that provides sound reasoning to defend your point of view. Ask them to clarify what they mean in order to better understand their point of view.

6) Remember your audience for this blog is your teacher and other high school students. So… be professional.

7) Please restrict your blog to posts related to the weekly assignments given by your teacher, and your experience as an artist.

Thanks and lets have a great semester blogging!

Mrs. Whyte