Studio: Photography and Emergent Technologies - Ang's The Digital Photographer's Handbook

Ang's book The Digital Photographer's Handbook would be an excellent resource for any photographer.

The book is well organized, with helpful sections and lots of colour pictures. It is well laid out, easy to understand, and very helpful.

I really like the quick fix sections, and the instructions were clear, and easy to use.

There is one new Photoshop trick I picked up from the book. Ang calls it the 'Sabattier Effect', but you make recognize it as solarization, or a rayograph (what Man Ray called it)

In the darkroom, this is a trial and error process, that may waste paper to get just right. With PhotoShop it is a cinch!

Above are the before and after effects of playing with the 'Curve Adjustment', just as Ang describes.

Studio: Photography and Emergent Technology - Nancy Howell-Koehler Photo Art Processes

If most of the books on the reading list are a DBAE approach, then Howell-Koehler's book Photo Art Processes represent a VCAE approach.

This is an excellent resource for the advanced photography artist who has a solid understanding of the processes of photography, and is now ready to move onto more 'artistic' endeavors.

The book does not offer much in the way of a how to approach on the science of photography, but provides an excellent resource for the artistic manipulation of photographs. It would provide an great companion for a mixed media book.

There are some excellent manipulations provided in the text.

Above are some examples of mixed media works involving manipulated photography. They are both vintage photographs.

Studio: Photography and Emergent Technology - Hedgecoe's Photography Basics

John Hedgecoe's Photography Basics is a good place to start to learn how to take better pictures.

Hedgecoe does start from the beginning, including a discussion about choosing the right camera. Some of the information is a bit dated because there is no section on digital cameras as a choice, but what he says about film cameras can be applied to digital cameras.

The lessons on photographic processes all still apply, and there are some neat tricks that are explained.

The sections are all accompanied by colour plates to demonstrate the techniques.

I have one concern with the book though. I found it had a confusing layout. Even though each discussion was accompanied by an appropriate picture, the placement of text and picture was not consistent. It had more of a 'scrapbook' feel to it, rather than a text concerned with a logical, consistent layout.

The last section of the book detailed some common problems in photography and would be helpful for the beginning photographer.

I liked the discussion on cropping your subject matter, and the above picture demonstrates an unusual composition as well as highlighting texture, two topics dealt with in this book.

Studio: Photoshop and Emergent Technologies - Performance Art

With the success and popularity of online web sharing facilities such as You Tube, Twitter and Facebook, I think that we are seeing a surge in popularity of "performance art"

Just the other day I saw a report on an artist who staged performance pieces in public spaces. He contacts his stable of actors online, has them meet in a public place and perform. Some of the performances are spontaneous, and some are rehearsed. He then films the performances and posts them on You Tube.

In one particularly entertaining piece, actors, costumed as fast food workers, burst into operatic songs about 'mustard on their pants' at a mall food court.

This is an art spiralling in ever more exciting ways - people had trouble wrapping their head around Christo! Students are way beyond me in this curve, but I think it is our job to help them discriminate on "what is good art?"

Studio: Photography and Emergent Technology - Blogging

I think that more and more artists are discovering the internet as a means not only to share their work, but as a means of expression in and of itself.

There is no telling where this will end!

I myself have a three blogs. This one, a purely craft oriented one, and one to document my husband's struggle during a (so far) 16 month labour dispute.

Whenever I want to access a new mixed media technique, my first source of information is always the internet. Mixed Media and textile artists are prolific bloggers, and are always willing to share their work to a world wide audience.

Studio: Photography and Emergent Technologies - PhotoShop for Dummies

I have been experimenting with Photoshop for a few years now.

With Kodak, and other manufacturers of traditional film closing plants, and moving into digital photography products, soon it will be impossible to even purchase new films, chemicals and paper for 'traditional' photography.

This does grieve my heart, make no mistake. I love being in the darkroom! The sense of producing a deep rich photograph is so satisfying. I don't think that digital photography, has of yet, produced that beautiful, deep rich depth of black and white prints that you hold in your hand and feel a sense of beauty.

However, I do feel it is only a matter of time before it will be possible to confuse a gallery patron between the difference of a digital print and a traditional photograph.

I tried to learn Photoshop on my own, with books like PhotoShop for Dummies, and I could not 'get it'. I took a course from Mohawk College, and have been experimenting with Photoshop ever since. Now, the book is a good companion because I'm used to the program, but at first it was not helpful.

There are so many possibilities with Photshop, that I always find myself learning something new. There are so many add-ons that the possibilities are endless.

Above are some digital scrapbook pages that I created.

Studio: Craft and Printmaking - Jo Moody's Making Bracelets

Jo Moody's books are great. She has a whole series of books for the beginner Making Bracelets, Making Earrings, and Making Necklaces. She has craft books for kids, and books for advanced crafters as well.

All of the books are well written, colourful, and simple.

These are an excellent resource set for a classroom, especially for a younger audience.

Moody's approach to crafting is one that I like, and can identify with. She creates jewelry from many found objects, and non traditional sources.

The above projects were created with inspiration from her books, especially her more advanced books. The altered puzzle pieces are lapel pins.

Studio: Painting and Sculpture - Cooper's No Experience Required Getting Started with Watercolor

These two cards are an attempt at Cooper's texture technique contained in the book No Experience Required - Getting Started With Watercolor.

After various pigment washes are added, you can compress the paper with plastic wrap, aluminum foil or cheesecloth, and then set heavy books on top, and let dry.

I loved the look of the examples in the book, and decided that these would make great backgrounds for cards. I even liked the leaf motif that she used in her book. I added gold and silver paint marker to stress the outline of the leaf, and added a charm with ribbon.

The blue card is plastic wrap, and the red card is aluminium foil. I think if I had the paper wetter, the results would be more pronounced, but I am happy with the result.

Studio: Painting and Sculpture - Roukes' Paper Sculpture

Roukes' book Paper Sculpture got me to thinking about some of the shapes paper is able to hold given its strength and shape holding abilities.

Above is my attempt to get paper to behave like sculpture. The slots were created with a Basic Grey Notch Tool, and the paper 'ribbon' was bent around and folded back on itself.

Studio: Painting and Sculpture - Cooper's No Experience Required Getting Started with Watercolor

In Cooper's book No Experience Required - Getting Started in Watercolor, there are a few basic lessons on colour theory, and colour schemes.

Above are some cards inspired by colour theory - monochromatic and analogous colour schemes.

Studio: Painting and Sculpture -Roukes' Paper Sculpture Mixed Media

All of these mixed media works were inspired by Roukes' book Paper Sculpture.

Studio: Painting and Sculpture - Roukes' Paper Sculpture

Roukes' book Paper Sculpture can be judged by its cover! The cover shows a paper sculpture so beautiful, I need to make my own version.

The book contains an interesting section on the history of paper making, and paper sculpture.

Most of the photography is in black and white to highlight the architectural qualities of the paper.

Now that I have had more time to consider the book, I appreciate it more and more. At first I felt that there was not enough mixed media work, but upon reflection, I see that there is an excellent section on mixed media, portfolio development and gallery examples of paper sculpture.

Roukes recommends using paper bags in one's art, as they are so versatile, and are able to stand up to so much.

The card at the top is made with a grocery store paper bag that has been crumpled, embossed and inked.

Studio: Drawing, Design, and Aesthetics - Mary Beam "The Creative Edge"

Since most of my studio activities for this assignment have centered around a DBAE approach, I would like to consider one VCAE approach to making art.

I would recommend Mary Todd Beam's work The Creative Edge.

This is an excellent resource for the older learner, or for the student who is afraid of their own ability to make art. With chapter titles like 'Claiming Your Creative Edge', 'The Soul's Edge' and 'The Human Edge', Beam's work is very much about 'going with the flow', and creating art , no matter what 'art' means to you. It is a means of self-expression.

The book is attractive, easy to read, contains humorous anecdotes, and is very personal.

Beam is careful not to neglect the elements and principals of design, or a practical approach to techniques for mixed media.

Studio : Design, Aesthetics, and Drawing - Betty Edwards

I was familiar with Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain before because we have been using her activity of Picasso's "Igor" for years, but my investigations for this course led me to another Edwards resource The Artist Within.

This is an excellent companion to her other book, and it was in our school library the whole time!

An activity I particularly liked was to divide a plain sheet of computer paper in to eight even sections by folding. Label each rectangle with one of the following words:anger, joy, peacefulness, depression, human energy, femininity, illness, and the last with a word of your choice. The choice word must be about the human emotion or endeavour. I chose 'competitiveness'

When the activity is completed by a student, there are follow-up activities to examine and extend the drawings further. These first drawings are the stepping stones to drawings that would extend each emotion further. The book shows many examples of the initial activity, and follow up examples.

After having completed the activity for myself, I will start including it as a hands on activity to demonstrate the human condition.

I think it works well for differentiated instruction, and would lend itself well as an introduction to a VCAE approach to studying other artists work.

Studio: Design, Aesthetics, and Drawing - Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

An activity that we start the year off with in Grade nine is from Betty Edward's book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

In this activity, students are required to recreate Picasso's portrait of Igor Stravinsky, but to do it upside down.

There is a small art history and elements of art lesson on the element 'line' to introduce the activity, so it is part of a DBAE approach. We also discuss the context of the original portrait, so it is (sort of ) a VCAE approach to art, although this is far less important to us at this point in the year.

Above is my attempt at the drawing. Like the students, I found this was very frustrating. Hopefully, I was slightly less vocal in my complaints about the difficulty level of the task! My husband wouldn't listen anyway.

Studio: Design, Aesthetics, and Drawing - The Three Aesthetic Theories

My Studio example Emotionalism

Studio Example Formalism Studio Example Imitationalism

In AVI3M1 at my school, we start the year off with a week or two of drawing exercises. One of the purposes of these activities is diagnostic: to see where the students are at. Some of the students in a grade 11 class will have both the grade nine and ten credits, others will only have one of these courses under their belt.

An activity to culminate the review is to complete a series of three drawings, all from life of simple objects in the classroom. The first drawing should be representational and demonstrate imitationalism. The second drawing should represent formalism, and the third should demonstrate emotionalism.

This activity came out of a course my department head completed that involved transformational drawing exercises.

This activity is discipline based, but a great differentiated instructional tool for aesthetic theory.

Studio: Design, Aesthetics, and Drawing - Nicolaides' The Natural Way to Draw

One of the resources that I chose to focus on is Nicolaides' The Natural Way to Draw.

I think this resource is excellent for teachers, and contains some great advice.

One of the most important elements of this text that teachers need to instill in their students is the need for practice, practice, practice. Nicolaides even suggests a very rigorous time table for practicing.

When a student is frustrated, they always seem to start their complaint with, "I can't...." I tell them, they are not allowed to start a sentence like that. They can only say, "I haven't practiced (insert technique here) that enough."

I think that the benefits of practice is very evident in my work (see earlier post - Early Sketches) Not only is the need for practice noticeable in my drawing, but it is also evident in my scrapbooking and card making hobby.

In the above pictures it is very evident how my work has improved through practice in this craft. The top card is my very first card. It employs three techniques: paper layering, a sticker, and a brad. The later tag employs three paper techniques, and four inking techniques.

Studio: Design, Aesthetics, and Drawing - Logo Design

I was asked to design a logo for an online scrapbooking community.

It is a varied group of women who love to craft, and to share their ideas. The women come from all over the US, Canada and Europe. They range in age from 17 to 65, come from all economic brackets and are always looking for inspiration.

This is the logo I came up with. I wanted it to be eclectic, memorable, and have an emotional presence for the three areas that are enriched by their community.

In Robin Williams' book The Non-Designer's Design Book, the author suggests that there are four qualities to keep in mind when designing a piece of work: proximity, contrast, alignment and repetition.

I think that these qualities are present in my work. The letters of each word are grouped closely enough together so that they are part of the same pattern, the 'a' of swap contrasts with the postage style lettering used in that word, alignment is used in conjunction with unity in the leaf motif that connects the three words. Finally repetition is used with the curving script element in 'inspire' and the curve of the leaf and the cursive letters of 'chat'.

My use of the postage stamp to highlight the word 'swap' is a clever touch because swapping is so important to these women. They trade their work to give one another inspiration. The postage elements broken by the plain letter suggests the back and forth nature of these trades.

Studio: Design, Aesthetics, and Drawing - The Scraplift

If you see good design USE IT!

There is a term in the scrapbooking world called "scraplift". The idea is that if you see an idea that you like somewhere, you can 'lift it' for your own work.

The etiquette of the scraplift is such that you can borrow any idea - design, layout, colour scheme...whatever, but that you give credit to the original source.

The above example is a card that I scraplifted from a promotional bookmark our school library was giving away to celebrate the winners for the Governor General's Literature Awards. I think the bookmark is brilliant, and I 'lifted' the layout (but changed to a landscape format), the colour combinations, the collage colour background, and the large, central black and ivory image.

My Five Year Growth Plan - Skill Building

A Recent scrapbook page
Journalling reads "Reach with your Heart"

Did I mention that I love the supplies for paper crafting?

"Create" An altered 8x8 canvas

An anniversary card for my husband

I will continue to experiment with new mixed media techniques, and this process will go beyond five years.

I would like to start expanding my techniques to include more of the fibre arts. There are many artists working with these techniques, and they tend to be prolific bloggers, so their work is readily available online. This experimentation is ongoing and will be explored over the next five years.

I would like to take a quilting course. There are several offered in my area, through Mohawk College, and fabric supply shops. I foresee this will be in the fourth year of my five year plan.

I would like to take the second part of the Photoshop course offered through Mohawk College next year. The course runs in the fall term.

I would like to get better at blogging, and increase the traffic to my blog. This is ongoing, and will primarily done through experimentation, and networking.

I would like to be published in a crafting magazine. The process is a little onerous, and magazines tend to be looking for very specific requirements. I have submitted work to Papercrafts magazine, and to Cloth, Paper, Scissors, but as of yet no takers.