0 Gurney's Shanghai Journey

You have to be eternally dissatisfied with your first efforts, because there is something better waiting to be discovered. - James Gurney

James Gurney & the IB Art Year I class on our mini field trip.

When I first wrote this post about James Gurney's book, Imaginative Realism, I had no idea where it would eventually lead me and our classes here at the Shanghai American School.  As you might notice, that post is actually just about my intrigue with the concept of the book.  Since then, I've read devoured both that book and its follow up, Color and Light.   Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist is an absolutely critical text for any aspiring artist that is looking to create a realistic and believable things that don't exist.  In this book, Gurney goes into great depth in helping artists develop strategies for creating believable fantasy through combining careful planning, research and observation with a playful and creative approach in re-imagining the world around you.  Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter is a remarkably accessible resource for understanding and translating visual perception into actual painting.

Well, shortly after reading these books, the art department was in discussions about the possibility of bringing in a guest artist.  I immediately emailed James to see if there was any possibility that he'd be interested in coming to China.   To make a long story short (and it is a long story), James was indeed happy to come, and spent the last 6 days of school on our two campuses with a bunch of our students.

In the three days that he spent on our campus, he engaged our students with fascinating demonstrations, presentations, and conversations about the art of creating rich imaginative worlds through careful observation and thoughtful research.  His discussions focused on his the creation of the world and inhabitants of his Dinotopia books.  As he demonstrated for the students, he responded to their questions.  The quote at the top of this post was one of the great bits of advice that he imparted.

One of the most exciting days for the students (and myself) was on our first day, when our IB and AP art classes spent the day painting with James.   The morning started out with his presentation on painting what doesn't exist, and we spent the morning working on various painting projects and working from still lives.  James walked around giving advice and kind praise to the students as they worked.  As the day went on, it felt like we needed to get out and get some fresh air, so we headed over to the wet market across the street to sketch from life.  Here are some highlights from the day.  Click to enlarge and chose the 'titles and description' option for more info:



One of the tools James uses is the Niji water brush pen.  The IB Art students absolutely loved this tool. He often sketches in water color pencil (he recommends Caran D'Ache) and then goes over it with the water brush pen.  Its a convenient way to water colors on the go- and as he mentions, you don't often get stopped in museums with this method. You can read more about the tools he uses here.

On the first day that I met James and his wife Jeanette, we went out to the Water Town Zhu Jia Jiao. Joining us were a number of digital art students from Beijing University, with their professor, Mr. Wei Wang and his wife who is the editor of Fantasy Art Magazine.  They were so amazingly friendly and the students were so thrilled to talk about their own artwork.  Mr. Wang even offered to come back down to talk to our art students (hopefully that will be another post in the not too distant future). Below is a slideshow of James' sketchbook from his Shanghai trip, including a bunch of sketches from that day.  Click to enlarge and chose the 'titles and description' option for more info:




On the first day out, I have to admit that sketching with James, Jeanette,  and Wei Wang was, at first, intimidating to the point of paralysis. However, after three days with James I can say that in addition to being an incredible artist and author, he and his wife Jeanette are simply some of the nicest people I've ever met.

As for the students, they are excited to receive the copies of James' books that we ordered,  excited about the water brushes that that he introduced us to (we're doing a bulk order now), and excited to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from James.  I can't really say it better than one of my IB Art students did after their day painting with James.  "I wish every day could be like this".

Be sure to keep up with the further artistic adventures of James Gurney on Gurney Journey.

Detail: Gurney's Shanghai Journey

0 A New Perspective

We're back at our Perspective Towers project in our Foundations Art class, and just for fun, I showed the class Dick Termes' great explanation of 1 though 6 point perspective.  Until now, I've taught 1-3, and for fun I showed them how to do 4 this year.  To be honest, I'd never given 5 or 6 point perspective much thought, but one of my ninth graders, Esther, got really into the idea of pushing this project further and figured out 5 point perspective on her own.  In order to demonstrate it to the class, she found this fantastic video -which we'll watch tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Esther's on to figuring out 6 point perspective (which apparently involves drawing on a sphere).  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it, but she's determined...

Detail: A New Perspective

0 Comic Artists Do Perspective Better!

Tagging onto David's great perspective towers project... here is a great resource for teaching perspective. Vanishing Point: Perspective for Comics From the Ground Up by Jason Cheeseman-Meyer breaks perspective principles down into clear, concise steps, walking through one-point, two-point, and three-point perspective techniques, including complex forms and figures in each. My absolute favorite - and the one that is sure to wow your students - is the four and five-point curvilinear perspective techniques, which create a wide angle view like the one on the book's cover.

Goodbye, old, boring perspective manual. ...Perspective drawing just got a lot funner!

Detail: Comic Artists Do Perspective Better!

0 Towers Part II: Podcasts

This year, as part of my professional development I'm looking into assessment in art education as a research project. I've been modifying various approaches to self assessment over the past year, but have been struggling to find a method that I'm truly happy with- one that recognizes the growth of the individual student by their own progress and clearly demonstrates their learning.

I've been having students turn in written reflections for a while, but Kate (see this post about the project) suggested that we have the students create podcasts about their towers. I was blown away by how much more thought and detail the students were willing to put in the podcast than they had done in the past on paper.

For their assessment, students explained their sources for inspiration for the project and how it their creations were representations and reflections of themselves. They also talked about their aesthetic an creative choices in creating their work. Here are just a few samples:

Detail: Towers Part II: Podcasts

0 Not an Ordinary Perspective Project

Just before the winter holidays, our Foundations Art students completed their (not ordinary, but extraordinary) two and three point perspective towers. My (not ordinary, but extraordinary) new colleague Kate Wentworth and I collaborated on developing this idea from Ken Veith's fantastic book... (wait for it) From Ordinary to Extraordinary. This book was given to me, by the way, by the (you get it- not ordinary, but extraordinary) Kendra Farrell at ISB Beijing.

Veith's lesson involves having students design 3 Pt. Perspective museums. Our elaboration of his idea focused on the students creating buildings that were secret puzzles about themselves. After designing their structures, the students had to incorporate something about themselves into the towers using three of the following elements:

• A Meaningful Object
• An Animal
• A Pattern
• Text
• An Image of Themselves
• An Architectural Style

Each one of those elements had to be 'above', 'below', 'on', or 'inside' the tower. Here are the results:

Detail: Not an Ordinary Perspective Project

0 Post About Post Its

Donn Kenn creates these amazing monster drawings on post it notes. Post it notes.

Post it notes!

Detail: Post About Post Its

0 Share Your City: Shanghai

My friend Kate McCormick Torres recently organized this great student project, called Share Your City. Students from around the world submit images of their cities to her project, which she will then display on a Google Map, linking artwork and geographic location. This promises to be an exciting way to experience a global display of student work.

I had my IB students work on this project in the medium of their choice. In their workbooks, they described what they love and hate about Shanghai; what they think is amazing about the city, and what they think is bizarre. They thought about what medium would best express their ideas, and how to show the city from a perspective that was uniquely their own.

Detail: Share Your City: Shanghai

0 Portrait Party Redux

Rama Hughes recently posted about the portrait party that my foundations class shared with Melissa Woodland's class from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania last year. I had posted the drawings that my students had done, but just realized that I never posted the results that we received back a few weeks later (it was the end of the year and things get so busy).

Here's a link to her students' awesome drawings of my students.

Thanks again to Melissa and her students, as well as Rama for the inspiration!

Detail: Portrait Party Redux