Before starting our second units in grade 7 and 8 Technology, I decided to incorporate a little bit of art and technology. We made some glitched photography, which you can see below or directly through Flickr here. I’ve blogged about this before, where there is a great PBS OffBook video and a link to a tutorial. Basically, you open your photo in text edit and start corrupting the file by deleting, inserting, copying and adding text. Give it a try. It doesn’t take long and the students enjoyed it.

My grade 9s are currently working on observational drawing. We’ve looked at measuring proportions, value and gradation. Their next task was composition. As a new element to the unit, I got them to independently research “What makes an attractive composition?” during class. The next lesson they shared their findings in small groups and added to their list, with accompanying pictures to illustrate the terms and show correct understanding. Through their research, they discovered framing, balance, leading lines, contrast, rule of thirds, positive/negative space, cropping, amongst others. Obviously, this showcased their knowledge better and I was pleased. What worked even better was the next activity.

The following lesson students were asked to bring a camera. Students were required to apply their knowledge and take pictures within the art room. Most of the objects are mundane, but students were challenged to take close-up pictures applying the concepts they researched. Their drawing task will require this and it is an element they are evaluated on.

Students narrowed down their photos to approximately twenty and printed out contact sheets. Once printed, students teamed up to critique the photos. What I liked was hearing students use the correct terms and really analyse their photos. I’m surprised I’ve never thought of this before. Super simple! I think it will kill the questions I usually get asked every year: “Is this OK?” “Is this composition good?”

RIP. I did the activity along with the students. You can see some of the photos below.

If you haven’t gotten on board to watch the OffBook web series yet, I highly recommend you do. Following from their previous episode on glitch art, I thought I’d give it a try myself. Glitch art celebrates digital errors and computer malfunctions. I dug a little deeper and found this tutorial on how to glitch my digital photos. Give it a try, it’s sort of addictive. Below is my attempt. Perhaps it may not be something you will celebrate on your living room wall?

I just stumbled upon this new great series from PBS called “Off Book.”

Off Book is a web-based series that explores cutting edge art and the people that make it. The 13 episode series focuses on the process, motivation and meaning of a new generation of artists. A new episode of Off Book launches every other Wednesday on PBS Arts. Follow Off Book: Twitter: @PBSoffbook Tumblr: http://pbsarts.tumblr.com

They have 2 episodes so far that are approximately 5 minutes. The first is on light painting and the second is on typography. You can view the videos and subscribe to the Off Book YouTube channel here. A great resource!

OK, hopefully this will be the last in my book referrals. Here are some more art books I found whilst on holiday:

CREATIVE TECHNIQUES: WATERCOLOR

“This new title gives art students and hobbyists a complete course in the many different techniques applicable to watercolor painting. An introductory chapter describes the pigments, brushes, papers, and other needed equipment, and shows how to use them to best effect. Following chapters present 14 distinct approaches to watercolor art, each approach starting with an example of a finished work by a famous watercolor artist. Among them are a Cézanne painting of a woodland scene that emphasizes the transparent effects that can be achieved with watercolors. A strikingly different exercise shows a Turner seascape, and demonstrates how he achieved dramatic effects by applying pigments to wet paper. A watercolor portrait by pop artist Chuck Close demonstrates the pointillist technique, and Robert Delaunay’s Hommage à Bleriot, demonstrates use of watercolor in abstract art. Students are presented with step-by-step exercises to master these and the other creative techniques shown throughout the book. Full-color photos, reproductions, and illustrations on every page.”

150 PROJECTS TO STRENGTHEN YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS

“Titles in Barron’s Aspire Series offer students of the arts self-teaching tutorials in the form of progressively more challenging projects for them to complete. Carefully structured lessons encourage students to develop their own styles and aspire toward professional careers. In this book, author John Easterby describes photography as the art of storytelling through visual images. Focusing primarily on digital photography, he discusses cameras of different types and sizes and the uses of supporting photographic tools, such as tripods, interchangeable lenses, and lights. He advises on studying the work of professional photographers in galleries, books, and magazines as an important first step in understanding how to look at photos. Tutorial projects include “remaking” a well-known photo by a famous photographer, shooting a natural light portrait, using backlighting, shooting scenes at night, expressing movement in photos, freezing action, keeping a photographic diary, photographing sports events and crowd scenes, using a series of pictures to tell a photo story, and many others. Readers learn how to set up a desktop studio, edit images, and build their portfolio. The enlightening text is supplemented with more than 400 instructive illustrations.”

You may also be interested in 200 PROJECTS TO STRENGTHEN YOUR ART SKILLS.

If you are a teacher, perhaps request an examination copy?

Photographs do more than document history — they make it. At TED University, Jonathan Klein of Getty Images shows some of the most iconic, and talks about what happens when a generation sees an image so powerful it can’t look away — or back.

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

I’ve been seeing a lot of good photo related stuff on the blogs that I subscribe to and they reminded me of this one, which I keep forgetting to post. Why not David Hockney yourself with Hockneyizer? It’s free.

I am really loving this little application and not just because it is free (download and install required). I’ve had it a while now but haven’t gotten around to using it. My loss. NameChanger is designed for the sole purpose of renaming a list of JPG files effortlessly. I love it to keep my photo library organised via titles, which makes it easier to do searches. Sure, iPhoto has a batch change option, but when I drag the photo to my desktop or send it as an attachment, it annoyingly reverts back to IMG3354.JPG. With NameChanger, I no longer have this problem. I was going to make my own tutorial but macintoshtipz has done a pretty good job. See it in action below.

As mentioned in his tutorial, it is better to change the name before importing into iPhoto. However, your camera may be set to import directly into iPhoto automatically. If so, create a folder on your desktop. Drag your photos from iPhoto into this folder, then delete the photos from iPhoto, NameChange them and re-import.

*Don’t forget to empty your trash from iPhoto. A lot of people don’t realise to do this!

Photojojo has Refractographs: How to Take Photos of Light Reflections. It looks simple enough and I may give it a try towards the end of the school year when both myself and my students have some extra time. It may be an easy way to introduce abstract art and finally, do some photography. It also looks easy enough for elementary children.