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I was inspired by this video to try something new with my artwork (thanks Craig R for sharing it). Though it is good to develop personal style, I find myself doing the same thing over and over. With time on my hands I gave the technique a go a few days ago.

The premise is to be influenced through music to explore creativity. I chose “In Sickness and in Health” by The Legendary Pink Dots from their The Whispering Wall album. I had no plan in mind and simply went with it, playing the song over and over for about an hour until the work was complete. It’s harder than it sounds and I doubted myself throughout the whole experience.

My goal was to simply break out of my comfort zone and explore new possibilities and various techniques that I usually don’t use. I used graphite, pastel, ink, coffee, charcoal, gouache, watercolour and collage.

The final piece itself is not a work of art, but a document of an exploration process, something newer art students may struggle with. I recorded the process in the video below and sped it up reducing it from fifty minutes to approximately three (you may also click the photo to take you to the Flickr page).

Check out Rankin (photographer, publisher and film director who launched Dazed & Confused magazine) and the Destroy Rankin Project. It’s…

I am pleased to be included in Craig Roland’s Ten Art Advocacy Videos (as well as being a featured video on The Teaching Palette). I collaborate with both blogs through my PLN.

My little video was created as a course project I took two summers ago. We had to create an artist statement for the work done in the (art ed) course. Instead of writing a paper, I created the video using Skitch, SnapzPro and iMovie. I thought I could kill two birds with one stone and also use it as a teaching philosophy tool for any future job possibilities. I have seen most of the videos Craig has included and encourage others too as well.

It’s still a sensitive topic for me when I advocate about class time for art. At various international schools in Japan, Math, Science and Language Arts usually get daily lessons for the whole year, but art usually does not. I burn through a semester’s curriculum in 5 weeks. (I better explicitly state that these are my opinions and are no way intended to be an insult to my school, admin or other schools and subjects for that matter too.)

We rotate our arts; 5 weeks visual art, 5 weeks voice, 5 weeks drama and then click repeat for semester two. Music gets it’s own slot. Is there academic hierarchy within the arts department itself? I doubt it is intentional. 5 weeks in each semester are held and then a 1-2 week cycle again at the end of the year. They receive art for two 80 minute slots a week. This basically equals to 30~32 hours a year. Not much.

I think it’s great that our grades 6~8 get exposed to all arts, but again, I find the 5 weeks a real struggle. I usually break the units down like this:

• week 1-introduction of the topic
• week 2-students plan their project
• week 3 and 4-students create their project
• week 5-presentation and evaluation of work

This doesn’t give a lot of time to experiment and create art. Usually there is only 1 finished piece. Topics are introduced, and then bang, start your project. The students do however enjoy the class and surprisingly take home some new skills and techniques. I guess I should stop whinging. Some teacher friends I have back in Canada, usually don’t have art specialists up to grade 8. Their art lessons are usually  part of the “draw a picture for your cover” routine. Anyway, what’s my point?

I would really like to see the day when the other ‘worthy’ subjects had to argue for their course. I mean come on, really! We go to museums, we visit galleries, we dance, we create displays, we take pictures, we decorate our homes, we usually all wish we could draw, play or perform better and some colour theory would even help coordinate our clothes better too! I could go on and on….and on…and…on. I love to ask, “Would you prefer your child studying art at university or (insert any other subject here) and why?” Parents get worried when their child wishes to pursue art at a higher level. All kids draw. Haven’t you noticed? I taught kindergarten for several years. A student never complained about drawing or painting. Why have we taken it away from them?

I do have something to look forward to. We just had 2 days worth of introduction work to the MYP which we will be implementing over a 5 year period beginning next year. I asked a few questions. I am looking forward to (hopefully) receiving the minimum 50 hours of visual art. If you have some strong opinionated views, feel free to contact me to offer guidance, support, advice, counseling or anger management.

; )

I stumbled across the Painting & Drawing Channel, a TV show that offers tutorial videos related to well…painting and drawing. The site itself offers videos from that week but they also post their videos on YouTube. Their channel is here. I have included one video below to give you a taste.

(video link here)

‘Wouldn’t it be great to see the creative spaces of other art teachers around the country… or around the world for that matter? Well, here is the compiled list of all the art classroom photos in one showcase. We hope art teachers around the globe can be inspired for their own spaces.’

Head over to The Teaching Palette to view the compiled photos of art rooms from various schools around the world. (My school is pictured left)

Here’s a simple intro tutorial on basic drawing using ‘crates’ (or measuring), that I made with my Grade 9 Art Foundation students. We’re focusing on observational drawing (drawing from sight).

Not everyone is a fan of tutorials. However, it is simply created as a back-up reference for students to use at home as it is embedded on our class website. This is also beneficial for parents to get an insight into what we do in class. It helps both further understand the rubric once assessment rolls around.

It saves me a lot of time in class when students do not remember the steps (or need a refresher). They simply know to go and find it on the net (as we 7 desktops in the classroom), allowing me more time to focus on their strengths or struggles. Some students also prefer to learn independently this way during their own time.

Hopefully in the future, the students can fully take over the creation of these videos (but time is always an issue). To be honest, I always get a little nervous when I post these videos online. What if the quality is poor? What if the information is not accurate? Yes, you are putting yourself out there, but it is worth it. It is indirect studying. I have received more feedback from anyonymous viewers on YouTube than anywhere else. I may also then take these videos with me if I ever transfer schools. Actually, 80% of my resources are now somewhere in “the cloud.” Why take binders or boxes full of paper? Why not share it with a wider audience?

Give it a try, and yeah, try some observational drawing too.

(video link here)

It’s a New School Year!

For the best professional development this year, start twittering and get a strangle hold of your RSS feed/Reader. I find Google Reader the easiest. If you already have a gmail account, you are pretty much set.

(video link here)

Everyone asks me for good blogs to follow in order to get information, tools and ideas etc. Some of my choices are:

Art Education Blogs:

• The Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet
• The Carrot Revolution
• The Teaching Palette
• Modern Art for Kids

Art/Design/Culture Related Blogs:

• Art Threat: a web magazine about politics and the arts. They write about political art of all genres, discuss policy as it pertains to culture, and showcase artists whose work inspires social change.
• Better Posters: a resource for improving poster presentations.
• Drawn!: an illustration and cartoon blog.
• Hongkiat: tips for tech users, designers and bloggers.
• IllustrationClass.com: provides info on the illustrative design process.
• Jilian Tamaki Sketchbook: An online collection of doodles, sketchbook work, and occasional process sketches.
• Just Creative Design: offers tips on graphic, web and logo design.
• Presentation Zen: Garr Reynolds giving tips on design for better presentations.
• Slide:ology: Design blog
• Smashing Magazine: Offers advice, tutorials and inspiration on design and technology.
• Toxel: Offers great thematic pictures on culture, graphic design, art and lifestyle.
• WebUrbanist: Offers pics on urban design, culture, travel, architecture and alternative art.

IT/Educational Blogs:

• 2 Cents Worth: David Warlick
• Always Learning: Kim Cofino’s blog
• CogDogBlog: Alan Levine’s blog

• Digital Ethnography: a Kansas State University working group led by Dr. Michael Wesch dedicated to exploring and extending the possibilities of digital ethnography.

• eLeaning Infusion: some good information here especially if your considering using digital portfolios.
• Free Technology for Teachers: (the title should say it all)
• Moving at the Speed of Creativity: Wes Fryer’s blog

• Remote Access: Clarence Fisher’s blog

• The Thinking Stick: Jeff Utecht’s blog

Other Great Websites/Blogs/Nings I follow/belong to: Tuts, Art21, Flowing Data, Art Education 2.0, Daniel H. Pink,

I hope this helps and you find what you are looking for. I’d love to hear any other recommendations you might have as well.

I have just returned from holidays and had to sort two months worth of mail. I received my copy of Professionally Speaking magazine and saw they offered a few art sites. You may view the article here, but I have also included most of them below.

Arts Edge: Created by the Kennedy Center, you may find lesson plans by grade, which are also cross-referenced with other subject areas and include resource links.

Incredible@rt Department: offers art resources and lessons that are submitted by teachers.

Larry’s Toon Institute & Cartoonster: For students who like comics and wish to create their own. Lessons also describe how animation works. More suitable for grades 4-7.

Art Attack: Taken from the popular TV show, create art projects from everyday items. Suitable for elementary students.

The art:21 blog has an interesting post entitled Playing with Contemporary Art. It briefly discusses how kids create sculptures through play and how the students regard it as ‘fun.’ It name drops Dr. Stuart Brown whom I wrote about before here regarding the importance of play. It also reminds me of a previous post I made about our K students who created various pieces of artwork for one of their units and turned their clasroom into a gallery.

More classroom teachers could be using the arts to enhance or introduce topics to get creative juices flowing. I have used photography in the past to inspire creative writing and to create musical compositions with grade three students. I have also assignd students as publishers and illustrators who had to create artwork for published stories. An ESL student once wrote a children’s story with no text. You wouldn’t believe how much more difficult that is. Critical thinking was oozing out of her ears.

I once went on a three day workshop in Romania and on the second day, we visited a cultural museum. Prior to going, we brainstormed questions regarding Romania. We then went to the museum to see if we could get any of our questions answered. We returned as a group and discovered we had more inquiring questions than answers. It was a perfect vehicle to then start independent projects. The presenter used this approach as a way to demonstrate how we could motivate our students into projects and research through art.

Are you doing anything interesting with the arts in your classes?

I often create basic video tutorials for my classes. They are mainly used as a secondary “refresher” resource for students and linked via our class portal web page. What I like about making them is it saves a lot of time in the long run for both myself and my students. Parents also get an insight into what we do in the class and it helps them understand some of the elements on the rubric. If you relocate to another school, the resources also easily follow. The videos do not have to be elaborate (though efforts should be made to make them well in order to reach and appreciate a wider audience), but I myself am occasionally guilty of rushing, resulting in, well…sometimes basic stuff.

This series of photos demonstrate one process to produce a painting. I used acrylic gouache. First, layers of black tones are applied and then a layer of diluted colour is added on top. This is known as grisaille.

video link here

In this video, I used blending stumps (tortillons) and graphite to create a landscape drawing. Scumbling and smudging with these produce some nice results.

video link here

I think my next step is to get into Adobe AfterEffects, start actually using my copy of Final Cut Express and have some students produce some of these videos instead and then also get them up on iTunes.