Nearing the End

Cody touches up the Valerie portrait

Well folks, our second project is coming to a close and everyone is doing their part to try and wrap things up. Some are working on touching up the borders, some are finishing the figures and some are working on the community share projects.

The teachers are nearly complete. All that remians are minor details such as finishing eyes or simply adding clothing details and depth. Some of our class is working on making the final touch: the "swoosh" that is linking all of our murals together. It is the bond that unites the boards. Nikki exhibits her mixing skills and shows off the lovely green she has created for the swoosh.

While those artisitc and talented students finish the murals, many of us work on our community share projects. The blog entry is looking promising as well as the SMArt board presentation. As for my group mates and I, our movie is coming together nicely. As a whole, this project is wrapping up quickly and perhaps will even be done before break. Only time will tell. Until next time.

~Sam the Boy

series

In this picture we have Alex, Lindsey, Lexi and Sean working on the Plaque. This plaque has the purpose of explaining the purpose of our project which is to honor the hidden heroes of Hopkinton High School.


This is an example of a series that is almost complete, This is Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan along with the other people honored in these paintings is someone who is liked by all and appreciated.

This all did not come easily. As you can see many people worked on it and had a helping hand.

In class today we all worked on something different. Ranging from the Bulletin Board to Plaques to finishing the series of certain staff members of Hopkinton High school. As well as the community sharing assignment which will incorporate an advisory class. This will be good to show our school what we are doing in SMArt.

The Grand Finale

After several weeks of working on propaganda art, promoting several of the school's leaders, the Scholars Making Art class has finally finished. In the class, students have learned about ancient propaganda and how civilizations used different forms of art to emphasize the power of important people. The class also learned about how people often choose to represent their leaders with symbols that encompass the appreciated values of their leader. With this knowledge, the students designed a way to demonstrate power throughart about leaders of our school. The class decided to represent Kathy,the lunch lady, who is valued for her comfort and nourishment. Larry, the Custodian, is valued for his organization and humor. Valerie, the Drama teacher, is valued for her safe place and creative expression. Mr. Sullivan, the psychology teacher is valued and appreciated for his critical thinking and philosophical wisdom. Ms. Welch, the wellness teacher, is valued for her wellness of body and mind.

The class learned about Ancient Assyrian propaganda that illustrated the power of the king. We learned how they would use hierarchical scale to emphasize importance of a specific object or person. Like hierarchical scale, contrast was also used to show power of an object or person in society. Gradation was used to focus attention on the important figure in each painting. The propaganda was made by the people and successfully portrayed their king as someone who was very important, almost God-like. Each leader represents a different symbol that we believe is important. Using the techniques si

milar to the Assyrian empire, our class designed 5 separate posters that try to embody the special characteristics of the chosen school leaders.

Gradation and Stenciling

Today in class most of the stencils were finally finished! Larry, Valerie, and Kathy were the only ones that I saw finished, but they look fantastic! Larry is pictured in the center on the top. Valerie is a bit further back in the picture, and Kathy on the bottom.

Most groups today also finished gradating the boards. It's really cool to see how different each of them look, and how each person interpreted their own way to gradate. The one to the bottom looks a bit more like a halo effect with a little less subtly. While the one on the top is more subtle and seems like light is more radiating from the person. They are both different but both have the same qualities of gradating.Valerie's group even finished their board! How awesome is it to see how this project will turn out? It really looks great!

Justine's Blog:

I obsrve scholars making Art class on Tuesday 12611. I noticed to activities. The fist was painting a picture from paper to mural. I painted on the board down below. We took pictures of the teachers. We also took pictures of a finished ar project Burt and Ernie. To get a picture from paper to mural you have to make the picture into squares, and then paint each square on the mural. We also took pictures of the teachers drawung with grid squares on it, You can see the picure with grid lines. To stencil, cut out stencils out of some boards and paper. Paint the stencils. Stamp the stencils onto the mural.

Fixing the Stencils!

We all set off into our assigned groups like everyday. The students working on the griding with the teachers we were using, put the finishing touches on their portraits. They then go ready to put the portrait on the actual board! This was exciting because they have been working on theportraits for so long.

While they were finishing up the portraits, the group that was doing the gradations started to put it on the board. To start this, they drew a circle where the persons head would be and went around that with a very light gray.

The stencil group ran into a problem. During the past classes when the stencils were being put on the board, the paper that the stencil was on started to come off on the board and ruin some of the designs. To fix this, we decided that the stencils should not be on regular paper but something that would hold up with all the wet paint. Ms. K. had some thick, plasticy paper that we used instead. We also painted over the mess ups on the boards so we can use the new ones to fix it.

Lastly, the group that was doing the ribbon for the background of the board that connects all the portraits together, finished it up and it looks great! We got a lot done today and hopefully tomorrow we will be able to put the actual portraits on the board.

The Series Project taking Shape!

This class period was very productive, and the class was able to take major steps on the road to the final product of the series project. We maintained the groups that were made 2 classes ago, but some new jobs were created and groups merged together since the priming process was finished. The stencil group continued to make stencils for the border of the boards, and some members (along with previous members of the priming group) had started to paint on the "H" border around the primed board so that we could get an a better idea and scale for both the size of the portraits and the impact the bold H border might have on each of the portraits.

Many groups did continue to work on their previous assigned projects, such as the gradient group, which continued to improve value and color gradient skills for the ribbon that would be flowing through each of the portraits.

The griding group continued to work on their drawings of the 5 people chosen for the series project and it was discussed the possibility that these drawings might be adhered to the boards and painted on, making these illustrations part our final projects. We are all very enthusiastic to not only see the final products and the incorporation of unity through the ribbion the flows in each of the portraits, but to see the reactions of the staff members that have been featured in our project!