Peetz Creative Technology

2011-02-07T13:46:00.000-08:00

Doodle 4 Google

2011-01-21T12:22:00.001-08:00

What the chance to earn $15,000 in scholarships?

Here is your chance. Doodle a logo for Google’s homepage. Get creative and think about how you can incorporate the Google name and “What I’d like to do someday…”, register by March 2nd and turn in the doodle by March 16th.

You might just see your creative designs on Google’s homepage on May 20th, 2011!

The top 40 Regional Finalists will be honored with their artwork displayed in the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Photo Contest Winners Announced

2011-01-21T07:59:00.001-08:00

Our first ever Peetz High School Photo Contest “In Order” winners have been announced.

1st place: Emily Schumacher with photo titled “In Order”

She wins an 8x10” canvas print of her choice from www.CanvasPeople.com.

2nd place: Emily Schumacher with photo titled “ foreground background”

She wins $10.00 worth of photo prints from WalMart.

3rd place : Krista Adden with photo titled “in order 2”

She wins $3.00 gift certificate to Peetz Perks

Congratulations to all the winners and participants. Participants will probably get some treats and goodies next week in class. Maybe if I get really jiggy with things I will make some of those delicious lollipops again and the winner can choose to share or not share them.

Please leave a comment with the topic of our next photo contest if you would like to see one done.

All prizes were donated by Leslie Raffelson and are not promotions from companies or linked in any way with advertising.

Depth of Field examples

2011-01-12T11:21:00.001-08:00

.http://www.flickr.com/photos/flowers-of-the-sea/4327001650/sizes/m/in/photostream/

This picture is an example from www.flickr.com taken by Eric Bryan. It is a great example of a small or narrow depth of field.

Please comment with other examples we should look at. Provide the link to the website where we can see the images. 2 images required.

Depth of Field Defined.

2011-01-12T11:14:00.001-08:00

What is it? Read and research the internet and provide your own definition – that means write it yourself. Cite all the internet pages with a link of where you researched and found the definition information.

What Does Janessa See? Pt. 3

2010-12-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

I think this girl is so cute. The wrinkles by her eyes and her hand.

I appreciate the yellow too. Her dress and the flowers.

Yellow is a color of happiness and that is what this picture radiates.

How did she get down there anyway?

Is she lying next to the boy of her dreams?

Did he tell her something funny about their science teacher?

Did she fall? and in her bewilderment, she found the situation...humorous?

Was she acting out a play?

Was she Juliet in her flower-woven crown?

I have this weird eyebrow fetish...and this girl are awesome eyebrows.

Everyone knows brunettes have brains.

This girl has beauty, happiness, and laughter.

What Does Janessa See? Pt. 2

2010-12-20T14:22:00.000-08:00

Most people condemn smokers. I admit it causes horrid breath, yellow teeth, bad health, and the odor clings to everything. The ones who amaze me are people who think smokers are less than them because of one particular habit/choice.

Though you might see me as being irrelevant, I disagree. This picture ignites anger in me. Anger because ignorant judgments are the root to racism, genocides, and hate crimes. The same tiny opinion about smoking can lead to something as drastic as the Holocaust. Maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but that's how I feel about it.

You can tell by his body language that he is either having a rough day, or a rough life.
Shoulders drooped. Back hunched. Arms resting on his thighs.
Maybe he just lugged all those sacks of potatoes (and onions?) to the spot they now remain.
They're waiting; plain and lonely. Because let's face it, it's not like potatoes are...cheesecake or anything.
No one gets ridiculously excited to see potatoes.
Maybe that's how this man feels. Plain and lonely. Rough day? Rough life? Doesn't matter.
His cigarette there is his only ally for the moment. And until you're at the point where the only perk in your day is slowly inhaling a cloud of black, poisonous smoke to make you feel better, I don't think anyone has the right to judge.

Semester Tweet!

2010-12-20T14:08:00.000-08:00

http://twitter.com/#!/imjustcreative/status/16964464741982208

Isn't this just the funniest thing ever?! Besides Daniel Tosh and little kids playing sports.

I found this to be interesting because it depicts how far we've come.

From stone slabs and a chisel to pushing on plastic squares.

Evolution!

Though, with all the hype in Peetz School lately, it also reminds me how much we rely on technology for simple things like socializing. What ever happened to pick-up lines or "accidentally" bumping into someone?

Now you poke or message them, and to someone who was born in the wrong generation, it's repulsive.

While prehistoric homosapients were busy running from saber-tooth tigers and hunting mammoths,

we just disregard our school and career work to spend time watching other peoples' lives and wasting our own.

People dream of the Jetson Era but no one is even realizing that technology is as bad as it is good.

Semester Tweet!

2010-12-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

http://twitter.com/#!/abduzeedo/status/16919750093316097

First of all, I would like to point out that Fabio Sasso has one of the most interesting blogs in the history of the universe. He never fails to have awesome blog posts about awesome graphic designs. Kudos, Fabio.

This particular tweet is about...you guessed it! Vintage stamp designs. It caught my eye because kids have huge dreams. Disney Channel used to have little five-minute clips of kids across the country who collected stuff. Because Janessa is a huge dreamer, she thought she would start an awesome stamp collection and eventually be chosen to be on Disney Channel. Woohoo! My mom bought me an ultra cool Looney Tunes stamp collector book from our post office and she gave me one of every stamp she had: Disney Princesses, card deck kings and queens, and other random ones. I collected for about two weeks and abandoned the book under my bed.

When I saw "stamp", it instantly reminded me of my week of fame and begged me to look at them.

So I did. As I've said before, Mr. Sasso didn't let me down.

They're mostly from the 70's, which is just perfect because I love the 70's.

This would be my favorite one:

Mostly because it's purple.

But also because of this...teardrop-looking-bubble that dominates the majority of it.

The clarity of it...the reflections...it's so beautiful and perfect.

It's simply a collection of my favorite things and I like it.

What Does Janessa See?

2010-12-20T13:31:00.000-08:00

Well...where do I start? Top to bottom, I suppose.

To see this picture makes me feel a sense of...nostalgia. Like my aunt Janel, I am a pack-rat and enjoy keeping the smallest of trinkets. They're my favorite possessions because any random person can pick up my Jones bottle cap and not understand what was going on in my life when I read its fortune nor how much I appreciate it. Of course clocks go next to books. So maybe the shelf (or is a painting of a shelf?) is beautiful to me; it makes sense.

The next thing I'm drawn to is the little girl. So young and innocent. She reminds me of what my mother wanted. A sweet, passive little princess who likes kittens and pink. Instead, she got a reckless, obnoxious tomboy who wears her brother's suit jacket to school for months at a time and loathes pink. This little girl is the antithesis of Janessa Garvin. She doesn't understand the world, and quite frankly, that's how she should be. Also, I can't help but notice her hair. My impatience and my mother's poor hair-styling ability often led to a fussy, irritable hour. Life...youth...time...is so precious; that's how this makes me feel.

I don't know whether this little girl knows how to play piano, and grew up in a home that promoted hand-eye coordination like so and encouraged her to go to piano lessons. Or, maybe she's just pretending like she's Lady Gaga and singing her heart out. She could also simply be banging on it making a beautiful chaotic sound. Pianos are so elegant. As are cats. Like the Siamese one in the picture. I used to have a Siamese cat. She was so pretty. The way the cat is facing a different direction, I assume the cat is acting like every other cat in the world.

It approached the girl.
Perhaps she baby-talked to it and scratched its head for a minute.
Perhaps she neglected it altogether and continued to make her music.
Regardless, with much disappointment, it left, uninterested in the girl who refused to show it attention.
Cats are self-centered like that.

I think the carpet is pretty, too. I think this shows a house of immaculate cleaners. That, or the areas that aren't shown look like a tornado encountered it.

Typography of Self Portraits

2010-12-13T14:14:00.001-08:00

In our class, we were inspired by http://www.noupe.com/design/45-creative-typography-and-mosaic-portraits.html this blog post. Students then created a portrait of themselves using layers in Photoshop CS5. More images from our class can be found at http://www.flickr.com/groups/peetzga/

Landscape Paintings

2010-09-30T13:49:00.001-07:00

Please find a landscape painting that demonstrates the darker/lighter colors that were in the picture during class. Post the link in the comments.

Example:

Getting Perspective

2010-09-30T09:43:00.001-07:00

Find artwork that demonstrates Old School (no perspective) and New School (perspective). Post a link in the comments to each of your examples.

Help: Use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_(graphical)#Early_history to find some hints on what kind of art to look for and the time period.

EXAMPLES:

Old School: No perspective

Menna and his family fishing and fowling
Facsimile of a wall painting from the tomb of Menna, Thebes,
Dynasty 18, ca. 1400-1350 B.C., by Nina de Garis Davies, 1924
Tempera on paper, 74 x 39 1/2 in.

New School: Perspective:

Artist John Gipkyn (fl 1594–1629)
Title Old St Paul’s (sermon at St Paul's Cross)
Year 1616
Technique Oil on panel
Dimensions 43.5 in x 34.5 in

What do you see? (3)

2010-09-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

This picture is similar in composition to the previous post here. Describe the differences.

(Hints for writing: Describe the tone, color, composition, emotion, content, placement, setting and reasons for the picture in your description)

Apex: 1:History of Perspective: Bigger is Better

2010-09-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

Look at the image below. What do you think the artist was trying to communicate? AND what is the main subject of the painting?

What do you see? (2)

2010-09-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

Describe what you see in this picture. Should be 2 paragraphs in your comments.

What do you see? (1)

2010-09-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

I would like you to respond with a couple paragraphs about what you see, think, feel about this picture. What is the camera telling you? What does the photographer want you to see and feel when you look at this picture? What was the person in the picture thinking at the moment it was taken?

(photo taken by Aaron Favila, AP 9/19/2010)

What kind of Art?

2010-09-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

What kind of art do you like? What kind of art do you dislike? Why?

But What IS Art?

2010-09-08T15:58:00.001-07:00

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, painted ca 1503 is one of the most famous paintings in the world. It’s “art”, all right, but Why?

Google logo turns into animated particles

2010-09-07T14:12:00.000-07:00

Google logo turns into animated particles - USATODAY.com

USAToday story on the Google Logo.

10 Points extra credit for first Graphic Arts student who finds out the 'story' behind the graphic image creation.

Graphic Design and Clothing

2009-11-24T10:20:00.001-08:00

Over the holiday break, I would like you to take notice of peoples cloths. Specifically – the designs printed on their clothes. You see lots and lots of graphic elements on clothing these days and there is a job market for people to design these. Your next project when you come back from Thanksgiving break will be to design a shirt. We will be doing iron on transfers and hopefully we can even have a shirt printed for us at a site like www.CafePress.com. Your assignment is to take at least 5 pictures of clothing (yours, your friends, your families, strangers you pass in the WalMart isles..etc) and upload them to your Flickr account (no faces please!). Tag them with ‘clothing’.

2nd part of your assignment is to sketch out in your book 2 ideas for your t-shirt design. Upload those to Flickr as well.

Happy Turkey Day!

Couple of samples:

These were taken from Cafepress and Zazzle. Check out both those sites for ideas on what you can create! Be thinking about if you would like to create your own shirts here. We can order them during class – maybe create a class (2010 or 2011) t-shirt?

Digital Anorexia

2009-10-21T10:16:00.001-07:00

There is a great article on LA Times about the photoshopping that is happening in advertising for Ralph Lauren. Read the article as well as this one Ralph Lauren Photoshop Controversy Continues.

Please visit the comments for your assignment.

Inspirations

2009-10-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

I often go to the internet.. ok.. I should really say that I ALWAYS go to the internet for ideas and inspirations. I found a website a long time ago that had great artists on there. DeviantArt. There are some amazing pictures on there. Since your current drawings are self portraits, that is what I typed in. This first image really caught my eye. I love the concept of picture in pictures. Anyone up for the challenge of drawing something like this?

http://shamrocks.deviantart.com/art/Self-Portrait-in-Pieces-14066862
(Click on links to see larger image of this picture)

If you click on the link, you will see that this artist was inspired by someone else’s drawing. (Picture below)

http://genni.deviantart.com/art/Hold-Yourself-Together-12217672

This artist has done a nice self critique of the picture she drew and put in the description the tools that she used to draw it. You have 2 assignments from this blog. First, when you upload your self portrait drawings to flickr, please create in the notes a list similar to what Genni did for her drawing. Second, using DevianArt, find an image that inspires you and put a link to it in the comments and tell us why you like it and what you are going to do because of that inspiration.

Photo Manipulation

2009-09-30T10:41:00.001-07:00

Wikipedia’s definition:

Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception (in contrast to mere enhancement or correction), through analog or digital means.^[1] Its uses, cultural impact, and ethical concerns have made it a subject of interest beyond the technical process and skills involved.

June 1994: This digitally altered photograph of OJ Simpson appeared on the cover of Time magazine shortly after Simpson's arrest for murder. This photograph was manipulated from the original mug-shot that appeared, unaltered, on the cover of Newsweek. Time magazine was subsequently accused of manipulating the photograph to make Simpson appear "darker" and "menacing".

Question 1 – Using the rules that everyone created in the previous blog, which rule(s) would apply to this situation and would have prevented it from happening?

Question 2 – which magazine do you think sold more copies?

Ethics

2009-09-22T14:46:00.001-07:00

So in the 2 previous posts, we looked at a couple of examples of altered photos and you posted some of your thoughts on the ethics of it. I would like for you to think of a rule that you think photo editors should adhere to when they are using photos for publishing purposes. So what do you think is a permissible edit?

Example: Overall lightening or darkening of an image for better viewing purposes.

State your rule and give an example.

Ethics Photo Manipulation #2

2009-09-18T10:09:00.001-07:00

September 2006: A photograph of CBS news anchor Katie Couric was digitally altered from this original to give Couric a trimmer waistline and a thinner face. This photo appeared in CBS' in-house magazine Watch! CBS spokesman, Gil Schwartz, said the doctored image was the work of a CBS photo department employee who got a little zealous". Schwartz added, "I talked to my photo department; we had a discussion about it; I think photo understands this is not something we'd do in the future."

People have always said that “Photos never lie”. How does this type of photo journalism impact our society? What does it do for men and women’s body image?

Ethics in Photo Manipulation

2009-09-17T14:04:00.001-07:00

August 1989: The cover of TV Guide displayed this picture of daytime talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. This picture was created by splicing the head of Winfrey onto the body of actress Ann-Margret, taken from a 1979 publicity shot. The composite was created without permission of Winfrey or Ann-Margret, and was detected by Ann-Margret's fashion designer, who recognized the dress.

Ethical codes are followed in advertising and journalism. Do you think the above situation is ethical or not? Explain/justify your stance on the issue.

What are the social concerns relating to digital enhancement of photos and images?

Picture within a picture

2009-09-15T10:24:00.001-07:00

This was taken from Flickr’s blog and I thought it was such a cool idea. Let’s see what creative things you can do with Picture in Picture. Maybe Picture in Picture in Picture?

Your Assignment: Take a picture within a picture and print it out on an 8 1/2 by 11 paper. Post it to your Flickr account and add it to the Graphic Arts photo gallery.

Graphics - Research

2009-09-11T10:09:00.001-07:00

Can you find out anything about this picture? Post in comments what you find.

What do you see?

2009-09-08T09:45:00.001-07:00

Be descriptive. Think inside the picture as well as what is going out outside of what you see and what questions or conclusions you come to in your mind as you view this image.

Let your mind wander

2009-09-03T10:32:00.001-07:00

Ok.. so lets try it again with this photo. What do you see and think and question about when you see this image?

What thoughts does this picture evoke?

2009-09-02T10:54:00.001-07:00

I am looking for quick writing. Don’t think to hard, just write what this picture brings to your mind.

What Font am I?

2009-08-28T13:40:00.001-07:00

Pictures

2009-08-26T10:45:00.001-07:00

We are going to start a new project dealing with a lot of photography. Answer the following in a comment:

Why do we take pictures?

Due 8/27/09

What Font am I?

2009-08-25T13:22:00.001-07:00

First one who gets this right receives.. .um…a prize! and of course bragging rights. Will be graded on Friday 8/28.

Fonts

2009-08-10T14:42:00.001-07:00

Man.. we are almost back to school. I thought I would start the year off with a nice giveaway. The first person to post a comment with the correct type of font this is will win a prize! So.. what font is this? (only students in Peetz school will be eligible to win)

Go ahead..take your best guess!

Featured Artist - Kayllie

2009-05-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

Feature Artist - Kegan

2009-04-28T10:13:00.001-07:00

Poster for Gym
Color Poster

Popstar Poster

Liquified Face

Line Drawing

Cutout for the Out of Bounds poster

Animal creations

Bling

Popstar poster

Background

Featured Artist - Taylor

2009-04-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Smoke
Color Poster

American Popstar Poster

Face sketch

Computer background

Personal Logo

Animal Creations - Girlion or a Liraffe?

Glass effect

Sun spots on planets

Freaky Face

Feature Artist - Keith

2009-04-09T13:43:00.000-07:00

Featured Artist - Audrey

2009-04-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

Feature Artist - Angel

2009-03-31T14:02:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to feature each student's work that they have done this year over the next few weeks. Here is a sampling of Angel's work in Graphics I class.

Dylan's Creations

2009-03-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

Dylan 'painted' these in Corel Painter.

Libby

2009-03-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

Here are some of Libby's creations using Corel Painter. They look pretty awesome.

Awesome Work

2009-03-02T16:28:00.000-08:00

This was a tutorial that Dylan had presented to our Graphic's 2 class. He showed us how to create this from scratch and then insert the car picture. Pretty neat. You see the sunburt graphic element in a lot of advertising lately. If you look close, you can find a few pages in the 2008 yearbook with this element in there!
Graphics 2 has been working with Corel Painter. Here are some of Audrey's creations.

Learning from Online Tutorials

2008-11-20T14:02:00.000-08:00

One of the best ways to keep up with what you can do with Photoshop is to look for some tutorials online and in the Photoshop magazines that we subscribe to at the school. The students in Graphic Arts are required to find tutorials they want to learn, go through them and then teach them to the class.

Students in Graphics 2 were asked to walk through creating realistic ice looking fonts.

Audrey led us through creating a killer looking clown. Pretty isn't he?And Matt spent 3 hours doing this image from a tutorial he found. I hope we can do this in class! It turned out pretty awesome. Fire and smoke are some of the toughest things to create and to make look realistic.
Audrey spent some of her free time creating some art and I wanted to share this with everyone as well.

Student's Teaching

2008-11-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

Each student in class is required to find a neat tutorial online and then work through it and teach it to the rest of the class. Here is one that Audrey did for a 3-d effect. Anyone have 3-d glasses to test this out?

Abstract Paintings

2008-11-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

Libby taught the Graphics 2 class a tutorial she learned about creating an abstract light piece in Photoshop. Here are a few of the samples others created.

Blind Contour Drawings

2008-10-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

Today we did an exercise in trust, confidence and faith in yourself. The Graphics Arts 2 class was joined by 2 other students in online independent classes and they did some Blind Contour drawings. We took a detour from the technology world and into the art world and worked with sharpie markers and large newsprint paper.

The aim of this is to develop hand-eye coordination and observational skills. They were asked to study a chair that we had set up on a table. Once they had memorized the angles, lines, contours and details they closed their eyes and put their sharpie markers to paper and drew what they saw in their mind. The results are always surprising and fun to see. It takes a leap of faith to draw something blind and have confidence in your results. Thanks to those students for sharing their work here.

Blind Contour Drawings

We shared those as a class and then ventured into Continous Line Blind Contours. For this exercise you keep your eyes on the object you are drawing and don't look at your paper. You are also asked not to lift your marker from the paper.

Stay tuned next week for their Detailed drawings of objects of their choice. The students have the option to do these detail drawings using photoshop and their graphics tablets or pen/marker and paper. I am excited to see the results!

Halftone and Painting with Words

2008-10-17T09:33:00.001-07:00

Every now and then I find tutorials from http://www.photoshopuser.com/ that have really neat things in them. 2 of the tutorials that we did in class were Painting with Words and Halftone Designs. The Painting with Words tutorial shows how to take a word, create a brush from it and then using that you can mask out parts of a picture.
The Halftone Design is what you see sometimes that looks like newspaper print surrounding a picture. The image you want surrounded by it is masked out from the background and then the halftone 'dots' are applied in patterns around it through a simple filter in Photoshop.

Face Drawings

2008-10-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Everyone was required to do a line drawing of their face. These were created digitally using a trace feature kind of like using tracing paper only it is easier to fix mistakes. Once they had their original face drawn, they had to make 3-5 different faces from that one. Here is a sampling of some of the creative chagnes they came up with. Can you guess who they are?

Past Students still workiing!

2008-10-17T09:25:00.001-07:00

It is always nice to see what past graduates are doing with graphics and design. Here is a recent file sent to me by a graduate last year.

Any other contributions by graduates are welcome! Thanks.

Line Drawings with Graphics Tablets

2008-10-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

Graphics Arts 1 has also been playing with the graphic tablets and samples of their work will be showcased here.

Graphics Tablet Drawings

2008-10-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

These drawings were created using Photoshop and the new VisTablets we have this year. They are pen sensitive drawing pads that make drawing, editing and painting on a computer much easier than using a mouse. (Graphics Arts 2 Class)

Intro and Clones

2008-10-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

I hope to use this blog as a place to showcase the work that students are doing in all of my classes. A place for parents, other students, community members, family members from far away and anyone interested in what you can do with technology can see what we create here at Peetz with our technology. We turn out some pretty cool stuff that never gets seen, so, stop by often and check out what is current!

At a technology conference I attended this summer, I sat next to a teacher from a Denver School and we swapped ideas on what we do with students using Photoshop. One of his was a Clone project, so I used it in Graphics 2 class. The assignment was to incorporate yourself into a picture many times. Here are a couple of samples of what the students came up with.