murals with maya.

So, I was planning on having my 2nds experiment with shape and cut paper collage this week... and then I went to a makerspace session at naea17 in nyc last week and changed my mind.

I watched how a morphi representative took a 3d solid she designed in that app and dropped it into a image from google earth to serve as a virtual sculpture. Boom! I loved that idea. Now, I am not fluent enough in morphi to teach it to my kids yet, but I immediately realized I could do something similar with the assembly app with my students.

Last year I had a number of grade levels experiment with the assembly app and found that there was a lot of student success and high engagement while working.

So, this week, my 2nds have been looking at the work of artist Maya Hayuk for shape and mural concept inspiration and then working with a partner to play and explore the app while they create a virtual mural for our school community. When looking at Maya's work I have emphasized her use of layered, overlapped geometric shapes. I don't expect the kids to copy her work, but I do want them to focus on geometric shapes and layering. We also have noticed that some of her murals have a strong sense of symmetry while others do not. I want students to be able to recognize this principle in their designs as well.

I have created a short video how-to for the app that I share with the students as we prepare for using the app in class and we view this in a couple chunks after looking at Maya's work. (i'll post that soon:)

I really encourage play with this project. Since it's a digital collage, they can erase shapes and delete parts they aren't digging with the touch of the screen. Assembly is a very user friendly app- it's quite easy to add shapes, flip and rotate them, change sizes and colors.

I went around on Monday with a bunch of ipads and took photos of several blank walls on campus. Students select one of these to serve as the background of their assembly creation. Then, the teams of two start to experiment. Once they have a satisfying composition, they save it and continue to play. They can choose a different wall and go, or simply clear the shapes and work with the same wall.

I have been transferring the images to my mac and then emailing them to the classroom teachers, so they can look at them on their smart boards back in class. I will be printing a bunch of the images out to include in our annual student exhibit that will take place in a couple of months.

There are many choices for students to make with this project. I do have a few rules- no natural shapes, include overlapping shapes, and all of the design must be on the wall. This last one is key because a muralist can not paint on the sky in real life.

My students connect with murals because our campus is covered with them and because we had a local muralist create one on campus earlier this year and they got to see the whole process. I think this project is a great way for them to think about designing with a purpose. In this case it was making something that would turn their playground environment into something more beautiful and enjoyable.

I was only intending these designs to remain digital, but after seeing some of the results, I do believe I need to find the time to make at least a couple of these actually happen on our campus!

moving in Manila.

As part of their movement unit, the 1st graders are getting a chance to experience stop motion and green screen film making this week.

I'm introducing them to contemporary Filipino artist Robert Alejandro with this project. We are looking at a short interview he did last year to start things off. He talks about the role of art in his childhood.

We then look at a few illustrations he has done of Filipino jeepneys. We notice the patterning of shape, line, and color on these and we contrast them with the buses we see around San Diego.

Our role for the day is that of a jeepney designer. We draw and decorate our own jeepney that will then be part of a traffic jam in Manila.

We watch a jeepney how-to in chunks, so that our jeepneys get drawn, patterned, traced, colored, and cut. After that I work with small groups of kids to move their vehicles across our table top green screen, being careful not to crash into each other in the process;)

As a few kids are working with me, others can go to centers and build with a variety of supplies. The filming takes about 10 minutes. Then we regroup, look at the movie with green background, add our city sounds, and then combine the movie with a photograph of a street in Manila as the background.

The kids have gotten a big kick out of seeing their drawings come alive!

luchadors looking around!

This week the 4th graders are experimenting with facial proportion and symmetry. To make this a bit more engaging, we are looking at the art of luchadors and superheros and trying out a couple apps on our ipads.

To start off, we talk about proportion and how I would look pretty unusual if one of my ears suddenly grew 5 times larger than the other one. We look at how the parts of the human face fit into the whole in regular and symmetrical ways. We practice drawing a face on a small sheet to get a feel for eye size and location, nose and mouth placement and width.

Then the fun begins...

I share a few examples of luchador masks and art inspired by them and talk about how these characters are similar to superheros in that their masks keep the person's identity a secret. We notice that in these examples, the facial elements we just practiced are present.

When I explain that the kids will be using ipads to create there is quite a bit of excitement. This activity is a collaborative experience because I want them to be able to teach each other as they go.

Once each team has an ipad, I share my video tutorial with them in chunks. We are using th Autodesk Sketchbook app to create a 3 layer drawing. We build the basic mask first, followed by a detail/pattern layer, and wrap it up with the eye, nose, and mouth details for the 3rd layer. With the video, I can rewind it and repeat to emphasize steps and I can assist some while others are watching the video. When their drawing is complete and saved to their camera roll, we open up the MotionPortrait app and add the drawing from their camera roll. We can then play with mouth and eyes locations in the app. This allows our characters to blink, talk, and move around.

sketchbook tutorial

motionportrait tutorial

When done, they save them to the camera roll and I then download to my mac, so I can email to their teachers later this week.

This foray into digital art and animation has been a whole lot of fun for the kids and I alike.