"STREET ART" PROJECT

“STREET ART” PROJECT

Some may argue that the very act of participating in the medium of street art suggests the artist sees himself or herself as an artist/activist.  Regardless of your opinions on the subject there is no doubt that the street artists in Exit Through The Gift Shop risked bodily injury and criminal prosecution to spread their personal visual agenda. Some of the themes in their work consisted of: social commentary, political discourse, or simply flagrant egotistical self-promotion.

For your next assignments you will create two 8.5 x 11 “Street Art” works that explore some of these themes.

LET ME BE VERY CLEAR!  WE WILL NOT BE RISKING BODILY INJURY OR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS ASSIGNMENT.  WE ARE ONLY INVESTIGATING THE IDEAS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MEDIUM OF STREET ART WE WILL NOT BE ENGAGING IN THE ACT ITSELF.

Project Parameters:

Each of your compositions will be 8.5 x 11 and oriented either horizontally or vertically.

Your projects will be black and white.

Each of your artworks must contain a minimum of 1 image and text.

You must use Photoshop to manipulate your images to convey your intended visual message.

You must save both the photoshop files (.psd) and jpeg versions of your projects.

You will post the jpeg versions of your projects to your blogs.

You will also need to print your projects to the black and white printer.

You have 2 class periods to work on these projects.

They are due (posted to your blog) by the beginning of class next week.

When conceptualizing your projects you should think about whether your intended message is successfully conveyed through your choice of imagery and text.  You should also consider the overall composition of your artworks and whether they have a dynamic visual impact.

Exit Through the Gift Shop - Blog Post

Today we are going to have a screening of Exit Through the Gift Shop.  I would like you to post a 250 word reaction to the film.  Your post should be thoughtful and well written.


Topic Suggestions:
What was the overall message of the film?
Why do you think it was titled Exit Through the Gift Shop?
Do you think a particular artist in the film was more conceptually rich than another and why?
What are your opinions of the use of appropriation in street art/ graffiti?
What are your opinions on street art/ graffiti in general?  Is it a valid form of art?
Do you think the artists in the film have "sold out"?

EXERCISE - DYNAMIC COMPOSITION USING RECTANGLES

Creating a Dynamic Composition

Compositions can be static or dynamic. In this exercise, we will recreate the dynamic movement found within a painting, using rectangles in Illustrator. Dynamic compositions are full of energy or movement. Angles are used to create motion. While a flat horizon line is at rest, a triangle is in motion. The repetition of even spacing is easy on the eye, as our minds predict the simple rhythm of an evenly spaced grid. Angles and uneven spacing between objects causes our eyes to move back and forth. This physical movement translates into the perception of movement within a composition. Use a figurative painting from the artists listed below as the guideline for your dynamic composition with rectangles.

Go to artstor.org and register if you are not already registered.  You need to be on campus to do this.  Search for a figurative painting from one of these artists:  Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, or Gustav Klimt. 

The rules:

We are only using the rectangle tool to create this composition.

There will be no outlines on your rectangles.

You can only scale your rectangles and rotate them.

You should not use gradients.

Your composition needs to be 11 x 17 (tabloid), landscape or portrait.

Use layers to organize your composition.

Do NOT use the direct select tool to modify your rectangles.


You have 2 class periods to work on this assignment.

The Poet, 1911, Egon Schiele, oil on canvas

Example

FOUND IMAGE SELF - PORTRAIT PART 2

If you have finished your self-portrait you need to save your file as a jpeg in medium resolution and post it to your blog.  Additionally, you need to flatten your Photoshop file so it is all on one layer.  This means you will no longer be able to edit your layers individually but it will make your file more manageable.  We are going to attempt to print your Photoshop files in class as long as the printer cooperates.  Because the printer is finicky we will print your files one at a time (do not attempt to print without my approval).  Lastly, you need to answer these 4 questions THOUGHTFULLY and post your answers to your blog.

Questions:

1.     What was the initial inspiration for your self-portrait?

2.     Why did you choose the images that you used in your self-portrait?

3.     What was your plan of attack in terms of the layout/composition of your self-portrait? 

4.     In retrospect, what would you change about your self-portrait to make it even more successful?

PROJECT 2 - FOUND IMAGE SELF-PORTRAIT

WEEK 2 – FOUND IMAGE SELF-PORTRAIT

Create a self-portrait in Photoshop using images you find by performing a Google image search.  I would like you to use a jpeg file format for your images so make sure and type in “jpeg” when performing your search. 

Your portrait should in some way depict a head or body.  For instance you should choose images to represent eyes, a nose, a mouth, legs, arms etc…  The images you choose can be anything so I encourage you to think outside of the box.  For instance, you could use an image of a clock for an eye or a mouth.  The images you choose should express your personality.  Pay close attention to your overall composition.

Project Constraints:

1.     Your portrait will be 8.5” x 11”

2.     You need to use a minimum of 20 different images.

3.     We will be using a limited amount of tools to complete this project.  We will use the move, rectangular marquee, elliptical marquee, crop, lasso, and polygonal lasso tools to modify your found images and then copy and paste them into your final document.  The only modification that you can perform on these images is to change their transparency in the “Layer” window.

4.     You can use a digital image of yourself as a guide but you need to turn off or delete that layer in your final document.

5.     You need to save your Photoshop (.psd) file and make a jpeg  (.jpg) by using the Save As function in Photoshop.  Your jpeg should be saved as medium resolution and posted to your blog.

6.     You have 2 class periods to work on this project so you should take your time and do a really good job.  Students who rush to become the first one done do not impress me. 

7.     None of your images should appear pixilated.  It looks unprofessional.  You can avoid this by selecting “larger” when performing your google image search.

8.     Make sure to save your files somewhere besides the desktop.  If you are looking for an alternate place to save your files you can go to mediafire.com.  This is a file hosting website which allows you to create a free account to upload and download files.

I have posted some portrait collage examples by Raoul Hausmann.  His work is from the early part of the twentieth century.  He was considered to be part of the DADA artist movement.  This movement was made up of artists who were interested in challenging traditional modes of artistic representation.

PROJECT 1 - FAVICON

vector vs. bitmap

Computer graphics are created in one of two formats: vector and or bitmap. Computer files containing these graphics may contain vectors, bitmaps, or both.

Vector graphics are created by using mathematical algorithms: formulas that describe where points, lines, and planes exist and how these elements relate to one another. Vector graphics can be scaled up to any size and retain their smooth edges. Vector graphics look smooth and crisp at their edges, and they can be easily scaled to any size. Logos are nearly always developed as vector graphics, as a logo has to fit easily on a business card, a website, and possibly a billboard or bus wrapping. 


Illustrator and Flash are applications most often used to create and modify vector images.

Bitmap or raster graphics are built from grids of pixels. Each tiny pixel contains a unit of color information. Bitmaps are used for digital photography and scanned images. Bitmap files are not as easily scalable as vector graphics. 
In the top and bottom images we "zoomed in" on the same logo to 700%. This means we are viewing the images at 7 times their actual sizes. If you enlarge a raster image too much, the pixel grid becomes visible to the human eye. The only possible compensation is to blur the edges. Either way, enlarging a pixel-based image results in loss of quality. Vector images don’t have this limitation. On the other hand, extremely complex vector images take an excessive amount of computer processing power. The top image is a raster; it is easy to see the individual pixels that comprise the digital logo as tiny squares of color. In the bottom image, the logo has been created in the vector-based application, Illustrator. Notice that the edges of the lines, letters and figure are still rendered as smooth lines.

Project 1 – Create a Favicon for your blog with Illustrator

I will give you an in-class tutorial on the basic tools of Illustrator so you can create your favicon and then upload it to your blog.

A Favicon is the icon you see next to the URL of a specific website.

For instance, to the left of http://uwf.edu/ you see a favicon in the shape of a nautilus.

Your favicon should be an icon that represents you.

Step 1:  In-class Illustrator Demo

Step 2:  Hand-sketch some ideas for your favicon on paper I will provide.

Step 3:  Start a new “WEB” document in Illustrator (as described in my demo) and create your favicon. 

Step 4:  Take a screen-shot of your finished favicon while in Illustrator by pressing command+shift+3.  This will save your screen shot to the desktop.  Post this to your blog.

Step 5:  Save you Illustrator document for “Web and Devices”.  Change the file extension of your document from .png to .ico

Step 6:  Upload your favicon to your blog using the “design” function in Blogger.

Due dates:

MON & WED Class - Mon. Aug. 29^th 2:30 pm

TUE & THURS Class – Tues. Aug 30^th 11:30 am

WELCOME!

SYLLABUS MON. WED.


SYLLABUS TUES. THURS.



email: aruddick@uwf.edu