Projects in progress

3D Design: The class cube projects are starting to be assembled. The paper they are using is not the quality I would have preferred, but I did develop the lesson in order to establish the concept of sketch, prototype and finish so the ones being created now can be considered the prototype.
Digital Arts: The Multimedia Project based on a Global History Regents is moving forward. The students were given several sessions to created symbols before adding captions that fit into scenes. They have also started their regular blog entries.

9th Grade: The classes are nearing or have neared the end of their basic study of 1 and 2 point perspective. Artwork is being assessed and the Contour, Continuous Line and Silhouette.

Workflow for Week 2

Digital Arts: The students have all been given a question from a 2007 or 2008 Global History New York State Regents exam. The students should get familiar with the elements of their question and create vector symbols in Adobe Flash.

3D Arts: Sketches will be approved for the 3-D Cube with designs on the faces and the project will move ahead accordingly.

9th Grade: The 9th Grade classes are working on their one point perspective exercises, where they will also both lead into two point perspective as well as contrast as they "ink" the drawings with a razor point marker pen.

The Moodle Portal has really been a great tool in setting the pace for the courses. It is PDF driven so I can simply print out handouts for the students that are not digitally based, and they can access the information as well anywhere they can get online as I have provided the link. The Digital Arts class have all been given logins and supplemental instructions on the next step in their project.

The Second Day of Instruction

The 9th graders were well reception to the contract in place as far as class rules are concerned, which brought us into our first studio session.

The first focus was introduced as "Working with Lines", which is an exercise intended to add detail into drawings after the composition has been worked out. Many of these exercises will be revisited when working with greyscales and tone next month.

Most of the classes finished the exercise, and many of the results were quite accurate to the inital goal set for the lesson.

The 3D Design class begun today as well, as well as the plan to integrate some of the subject material into Global History.

Workflow

The workflow for the first week of classes are as follows:

9th Grade: The 9th grade will begin to learn about the use of line to define form on a two dimensional plane. We will go over a couple of time techniques and go right into one and two point perspective. The classes will have a series of drills about how to draw with a vantage point as well as how to integrate those skills into what they see.

Aside from the class studies, students will be required to create a series of four drawings implementing the techniques gone over during studio classes.

Digital Arts: This class will focus on the power of dynamic vector animation as the mainstream tool for media in today's online and mobile community. We will talk a bit about creation of mobile applications as well as creating dynamic animation and slideshows for a variety of purposes. The class will begin the year by recreating many of the functions students normally look towards a PowerPoint slideshow for, but have greater control and authorability using Adobe Flash.

3D Design: We will begin our 3D Design class by going over the ways artists see differently when working with depth as well as height and width. After seeing examples generated on the computer, our class will begin by studying the basic Primitive shapes and how they might work together in future projects. Students will create these basic shapes using Card Stock and design the faces accordingly to line up with a topic found within the pages of their Global History textbooks. Theses shapes will be assembled by glueing pieces of cut paper on the faces of the basic forms.

If anyone has any questions please email me at 674@professorklein.com

New School Year

Greetings Students,

I am very excited about this school year as I spent much of the summer looking into transfer options for teachers of the Arts.

My name is Mr. Klein, sometimes online I refer to myself as "Professor Klein" as I have been an adjunct instructor for Mercy College as well as an Art teacher for the City of New York for a good many years now. I received a Master's Degree from Mercy College in Learning Technology in this very building!

Anyhow, I became a teacher after starting my career in the Animation Industry when I noticed that much of the Production Workflow was been send overseas to be produced, and the entire industry was revolving around "the end result" rather than "the process".

This is very important as we begin to work together. No line you draw is "bad" and nothing should be thrown out. The entire workflow is a study of our growth as a healthy Arts program.

Anyhow, I usually do mention that I was fortunate enough to be on the production team during the pilot show of Nickelodeon's "Doug", where I continued to work for a couple of seasons of the show before moving on to other projects that included clients like Sesame Street, HBO, Showtime, and more. I usually found a position that matched my interest in the process of created children's programming for television.

Hopefully my website is running smoothly for our digital needs but I will also run this blog in order to give everyone a clear understanding of what is expected of them on a weekly basis. For now please read the following important requests:

*Please generate one drawing a week in your sketchbook based on lessons presented in class and one of your own choice.

*Please act mature and attentive to all lectures and workshops

*Please handle all supplies with care

*Please clean up your work area as well as asking your friend if they need help as well if you finish early

*Please try to integrate your projects into Global History or Literacy themes when applicable

*Please let me know your expectations for this course and beyond

I'm sure I might have missed something but for now just try to synthesize the information that I have provided.

Thanks and again, I am looking forward to a wonderful academic year.