Digital Self Portraits

As I’ve said before, we are in our first year as a 1:1 laptop school, so I’m trying to incorporate more open source, digital art.  This seventh grade project uses Picmonkey (an absolute favorite of mine - and now a favorite of my students, too.) 

I give students my camera and send them to the blank brick wall near my room.  They take turns taking some photos in various poses and then bring them back to me to load on their computers.

I ask them to experiment with all of the tools available to them to edit their photo and INCLUDE 6 WORDS THAT DESCRIBE THEMSELVES. 

I try not to hover too much as they work on these - I give them the written instructions and have them follow them step by step (excellent practice for them!) 

Here are the instructions: (Just a warning: these tend to change a bit every time they update their site.)

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Go to picmonkey.com.  Have your photos on your desktop.  Click the “Edit” button at the top of the page and then choose “Computer” and upload one of your photos from your desktop.  

All of the tools you need are along the side.  Each symbol has several categories of tools associated with it.  Explore by going down through the symbols and trying out the tools.  If you ever don’t like something, hit “Cancel” or the “Back Arrow” symbol at the top of the page to go the image as it was one step before. 

Remember you need to add 6 words about yourself to this composition in some way.  You can change colors, sizes and fonts under the  “T” symbol.  Also consider putting a frame around it (under the “frame” symbol).

When you are finished, hit “Save” at the top of the page and save to your desktop (in “Pierce” mode) with your name and Self Portrait as the title.

DO TWO VERSIONS of this assignment.

To turn them in please use Gaggle and put them in the Assignment Dropbox for our class.

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The students had a lot of fun with these!  I did this as a "step 2" after they had created drawn self-portraits.  

They did a really nice job expressing their personalities through the editing process and it was neat to see what they came up with (even if they did make up a few words of their own...!) :-)  

Happy Creating!!

OLD SCHOOL and NEW SCHOOL: Part 2 - Picmonkey Inspirational Letter Art

Because we are now a 1:1 laptop school, I am always looking for ways to incorporate technology into my students’ art experiences.  After we created our collograph prints the “OLD SCHOOL” way...it was time to create some letter art the “NEW SCHOOL” way. 

Enter: picmonkey.com!    

I’m sure many of you are familiar with Picmonkey...its a fun photo editing site...addictive really...kind of hard to stop once you start playing...you get the idea.  

Anyway, through a fabulous tutorial from Tempting Thyme  and some playing on my own, I decided that this was the perfect thing for my 8th graders to use to create a digital version of the saying they used on their collograph letter prints.  I gave them a tutorial in print form and turned them loose!  There is nothing better for their little brains than to have to read and follow directions! (How do I do this? What do the directions say?  What’s my next step?  What do the directions say? etc...)

Here's my simple how-to:

8th: DIGITAL LETTER ART

 Go to picmonkey.com.  Click “CREATE COLLAGE” You will be using your printmaking saying to create an artwork.

Change the dimensions at the bottom to 1200 x 1500 px (which will make an 8x10).   Click Save. Save as “Pierce” to your computer.  Click the X in the upper right corner and it will take you back to the beginning.

 Click “EDIT A PHOTO” and upload the white “collage” you just saved to your computer.  This is your background and the base you will build on.

 Next:  To make your background:  choose the BUTTERFLY shape (along left side) then 

 GEOMETRIC, then RECTANGLE (first shape.) 

Then:  Fill the canvas with your color choice.  Stretch the shape to fill the entire canvas.  Now you have your background.  At this point you can click Merge (symbol: 2 papers/arrow) to keep the layers together. Click the “Magic Wand” button to play with textures/treatments of the background color.

 Next:  click the “T” along the left hand side and begin playing with fonts,

 placement.  Use the other buttons for colors, textures, treatments, etc.   

Play with it and see what you come up with.  Have fun!! 

 After my basic instructions, there were so many variations and options for them to play with - the possibilities are literally endless! The biggest thing I tried to help them with was knowing when to stop so their works didn't get "over picmonkeyed."   On the other hand, the nice thing about teaching kids technology is that you don’t really teach...you facilitate a learning experience and then get out of the way as they fearlessly explore, play and create. I love that!!:-) 
Happy Picmonkeying! 

Digital Art Game

This year we became a 1:1 school in our 4th - 12th grades. It has been so exciting for all of us!!  As we begin the journey of integrating more technology into each class, I am on the lookout for ways to use and create digital art using open source programs.  I’m also interested in reinforcing the hands-on creating we do in class with digital resources that get my students’ attention and highlight what I’m trying to teach in a fun and engaging way.

In my middle school and high school classes, we always start the year with drawing skills and shaded drawings.  One thing students sometimes struggle with is shading dark enough to give their drawings real power.  

I discovered a unique website that has several interesting “drawing games” on it.  (www.mrdoob.com/projects/harmony) The game I highlighted allows them to play around with shading and really see the difference those dark areas can make to a drawing.  After demonstrating this website, I asked them to create a nonobjective illustration.   They started out using “sketchy” in the toggle button, but they could also experiment with different “brushes.”  

We did a small critique and discussed how much more interesting their artworks were when there were a variety of contrasting values involved. The kids had fun experimenting and I was able to get my point across to them, which benefitted their drawing skills!  Win Win!!

p.s. To save your work, hit the save button and then right click (or control click on a Mac) and download to your desktop.