TRIPLE-B* Countdown, Spring 2008!

Spring semester is about to mercifully slide into eternal oblivion and your blogs still S*CK! Can that be any clearer? Yes, probably so, but then  your parents would take me to court and I'd end up in jail. Hmmm... then I'd have lots of sketchbook time and plenty of source material, eh? It'd be like a 5 (to 10) year artist's residency.

By the final (May 10th- 8 am) your blogs MUST:

1. Link successfully from the class blog
   
2. Include images of all your finished work from the semester
   
3. Include brief but scintillating text along with your finished work
   
4. Include some process/sketchbook work (if you want to really look good)
   
5. Link successfully to your CafePress store (make the link obvious to us. Don't let it fall below the browser window)
   
6. Link successfully to your Flickr space (make the link obvious to us. Don't let it fall below the browser window and don't overwhelm your work with your family vacation pictures)
   

In turn, your CafePress store must have:

• Multiple items featuring your great artwork (and not just two)
  

In double-turn, your Flickr account must hold:

• Multiple images (not just two) of great work from your other classes or personal projects
  

In addition:

• Get more selective with the "look" of the blog. If your blog is still the default design selection that Blogger provides to you, well, change it! Look around, make some choices about layout, color, type and more.

This is not hard to do but you do have to make some time to do it. Now is the time. The blog counts as a project (which you already know. I'm just sayin'...). You need this in more ways than one:  Why you need this blog

*BIG, BADASS BLOG

Free and Faboolous Events!!

Want to see something interesting, fun and F R E E  (yes, F R E E) this Sunday?!

Go to the Co-Op at 3 pm. Author/illustrator Anna Dewdney will be there to talk about her work. While you're there...

Stick around and attend a reception for your friend and UConn IllustratioNation alum, Bonnie Sullivan, at 4:30 pm. She's done a mural for the Co-Op's Children's Section and they're celebrating! Go. After all, you're family!

R+E+A+D For This Week

Greetings, Studio Survivors,

Please do some research on Shepard Fairey and his work (conveniently, two great links are provided in the post from 4/18). In addition, you can add this gallery archive of work:  This is the gallery archive

A helpful hint: explore different areas of the Obey Giant website. Don't just land on one page and only look at that. You won't get a sense of his work that way and you have to be able to discuss this in class.

How is he making his work? What is he using for content? Why? How/why is this controversial?

From My Deathbed...

4/24/08: "Birds" studio time

Come with 8.5 x 11 piece as a dummy with values (gray marker set). Bring as many cards as you have done. Prepare to go forward great guns with both! More! More! MORE!

InDesign demo (if enough of our computers are working- all bets are off, as you know)

Scan your calendar pieces!
Calendar wrap-up information: where we can print and how

5/1/08: "Birds" due: critique on final art (we will pop into layouts during studio)
Calendars, continue; InDesign continues
Appropriation vs Plagiarism: "Obey Giant" or "Obey Plagiarist"

Final: You are online moguls! Everything will be online!
Individual blogs up and complete: all work from the semester with some genius text!
CafePress stores stocked!
Calendar specs for ordering!

This is AMAZING!!

I still feel lousy.

In the immortal words of one Dan Clowes, comic genius and author of "Art School Confidential,"   "Hope I die soon."

But, if not, I'll see you Thursday (that's actually my preference).

Birds and More Birds

I'm about to put some further directions on the blog along with a quick calendar of how our year is wrapping up (gasp!!). For this week you'll proceed to work in class on the 9 card series/set of images as well as produce the sketch/comp for the single, large piece. This might be tough, because you are working with mixed media. Do the best you can to indicate to me (the Art Director) what/how you are thinking.

If you want to branch out and have more blanks to work with buy some cards. There is not a limit on these small, immediate pieces. The flavor you get going in those will help inform your larger piece and vice-versa.

Here are the links we explored in class (among others):

Example #1
Example #2

These need to be mixed-media pieces, so mix it up! See you in studio this week- work day!

This Week- Big BIRD Doin's! And Who is Ustad Mansur?

Ok, campers, bring to class this week the following items, 'cause we're working up a STORM of visual BIRDNESS on the heels of our total immersion in "Ornithology" last week! Here goes:

Those markers we talked about last week (set of cold or warm grays, not mixed, and a black sharpie).

Bring your regular art kit with stuff to make color (pencils, paints, markers, and/or pastels, etc.), cut things (scissors, or X-acto knife), adhere things (masking tape, glue stick, or acrylic medium) and your notes from last week's activities.

Your genius text (you're writing this, remember? 1-2 paragraphs of intelligence, wit and/or profound musings on birds, birding, or another bird-related avenue you've been led down through your research).

For more inspiration, click here: CLICK HERE, or HERE, or HERE , or HERE, and so on. I mean, stretch your (bird)brain!