Freshmen Illustrator Sept. 26, 2009

As the class started and we watched a video on Jackson Pollock, an abstract artist. He was one of the first artists to begin the style of art called abstract expressionism. We talked about what art is. Does it have to be from a real picture? Does it have to be an object? Then the students used Illustrator to experiment with different types and thicknesses of brushes to create a drawing inspired by Jackson Pollock's style. Eliza demonstrated the different types of brushes and did an example drawing on the screen.

Clara's Pollock drawing

Sophia's Pollock Drawing

Aubrey's Pollock Drawing

Then Chou showed the students how to grab free vector pictures from the web and use those pictures and turn them into symbols.

Eliza then talked about how artists use lines, not just straight lines, but all kinds of lines and how they can be represented on a art board. We looked at a neoclassical painting to see how horizontal and vertical lines express stability and then we looked at a romantic period painting to see how curvy and diagonal lines express stability.

After the break, Chou showed the students CSSZenGarden.com, where they can look at example designs. Then the students worked on creating their own designs for a website. Chou and Eliza asked the students to work on their own without assistance for the first 10 minutes . . . and the majority of the students started coming up with great designs all on their own!

Besma's web design

Juan M's web design

Everyone then blogged about what art is, and what they think about abstract art.