Artist Research Project

Objective: Students will use POWERPOINT and the internet to create a slide show highlighting the life and work of an artist of their choosing from this list:



You may try http://www.artcyclopedia.com/index.html and http://www.artchive.com/

Slide 1:
Your Name
Artist’s Full Name
Country of Origin
Portrait or Photograph of artist

Slide 2

Biographical Info:

1. Place/date of birth:
2. Place/date of death:
3. Interesting/Personal information on the artist
4. Favorite Quote about or from the artist

Slide 3

1. Primary type of artwork (ex: painting? drawing? sculpture? printmaking? ceramics)
2. Media (what materials are use?):
3. Style or period of art?
4. Short definition of that style or period (see Artlex or Artcyclopedia):

Slide 4

1. Three other artists who work in this style (from the time period of the artist - or contemporary artists working in this same style). How is the work similar? How is the work different?
2. Timeline (include some key world events that may have influenced this artist) :

Slides 5 - 9

As you are doing your research SAVE FIVE (5) images of the artist's work to your disk (or folder on server). Place one image on each slide

For each image:

1. Title:
   Date: Media: Size:
   Location (museum/collection):
   URL/ site address:
   
2. Title:
   Date: Media: Size:
   Location (museum/collection):
   URL/ site name (or book source if scanned):
   
3. Title:
   Date: Media: Size:
   Location (museum/collection):
   URL/ site name (or book source if scanned):
   
4. Title:
   Date: Media: Size:
   Location (museum/collection):
   URL/ site name (or book source if scanned):
   
5. Title:
   Date: Media: Size:
   Location (museum/collection):
   URL/ site name (or book source if scanned):

Slides 10 and 11

Critique:

Choose one of those pieces of art and answer the following questions:

1. What is the subject matter?
   
2. Genres. Is this a still life (group of things)? a portrait (a painting, drawing or sculpture of a person)? or a landscape/seascape/cityscape (picture of the land/water/city)? other (explain)?
   
3. Style/form: Is this artwork realistic (as real as possible)? abstract (distorted reality)? non-objective (as far from reality as possible)? symbolic? functional? other (explain)?
   
4. Description. Identify the sensory qualities (art elements). Can you identify a color scheme? Why do you think the artist might have chosen the colors she/he did? Do they make sense? What kind of lines did the artist use? How does the texture add to the work? etc.
   
5. Discuss the formal properties - use of design principles.
   
6. Interpretation. What do you think the artists was trying to say? Why do you think he/she chose this subject?
   
7. What feeling does this artwork give you and why?
   
8. What part of the artwork is your favorite and why?
   
9. Judgment: Defend this as a work of art using one of the theories of aesthetics (or combination): Art as Realism - Art for Formal Properties - Art as Expression - Art as Functional

Slide 12

Biography Resources (minimum of three).

Photo Editing and Animation

Objective: Students will use online photoediting and iMovie to create a short animation of their artistic process.

Assignment:

1. Find an image you want to manipulate online or take a photo of yourself in Photobooth.
2. Go tp http://www.pixlr.com/editor/
3. Choose OPEN from computer (if you have there) or OPEN from URL (if found on web)
4. From LAYER, select Duplicate Layer
5. Delete or clear your background Image (white out)
   
6. From LAYER, select New Layer
7. On the new blank layer, use the Paintbrush at 2 pt to trace over elements of the photo (for example, in a portrait, trace one eye)
8. Unclick the check next to Background Copy. You should just see the traced element.
9. From File, Select Save
10. Name it 01.jpg to your desktop
11. Click the background copy to see it, and trace another element of the photo.
    
12. Repeat steps 8 and 9. When saving save as next number (02.jpg, 03.jpg, until complete)
13. You should have at LEAST 25 saved images to work with.
14. After photo is completely traced, you may add color or other elements. Continue to save your steps of the process
15. In iMovie, open all your saved jpgs of your photo, at half a second.
    
16. Play your animation of your artistic process. Save it as your name_animation.mov

See me with questions.