Routine

I really liked coming up with solutions to this problem - there are so many ways to interpret ‘routine’. I got stuck on the theater and dance concept, and decided that including text allowed me to extend the narrative. You’ll recognise references to Barabara Kruger’s and Roy Lichtenstein’s styles in this one.

Detach

A simple idea although I spent quite a bit of time thinking and trialing the solution. I hope it is obvious. Initally I was going to use letters and have two frames - ‘A - tach’ & ‘D-tach’. In the end I decided it was more challenging to limit myself by trying to communicate the word with the arrangement of shapes in space.

Sail
I began thinking about this little drawing problem by reciting the poem ‘The Owl & the Pussy Cat’ by Edward Lear. Since there is a great illustrated book of that already by Anne Morimer I settled on my own story. I’m not completely sure of the fine details; like whether the woman is in charge of the seas with those poor people on the bottom of the boat in her spell - siren style, or she might be just a free spirit unfussed by a bit of swell.

The magic of advertising “Poof!” - & the pig appears!!

This quote by George Orwell I found in Al Gore’s book The Assault on Reason. Quite a contriversial read but I am not finished yet. I was really taken with the Orwell quote and just had to try it for my interpretation of this weeks work. It is water color pencil and a little bit of shading in Photoshop. I’m back in Tokyo although a little jet lagged from switching time zones.

ciao

‘Canned’

Well, I am in SanDiego at an AP conference. I have been drawing peppers for the last two days. Here is a little adaptation of one of the sketches. I feel canned after last week because I have been at Ragbrai - the 500 mile bike ride across Iowa with the  most wonderful group of friends. (Thanks for getting us to go Steve.) The buzz I might ordinarily be feeling about an arty conference has been slightly overshadowed by the adventures of last week - hence I feel a little hemmed in - or ‘canned’ by being stuck inside for talks, grading and the like. Thank heavens we have been doing prac. work too!!

Fog at Mount Fuji

When I first read ‘fog’ I kept thinking about oriental landscapes shrouded in fog and mist.  Like Mount Fuji dominates the landscape, my creative ideas are dominated by my surrounds. A few years ago I saw some of Hokusai’s ‘Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji’ at one of Tokyo many museums. I can completely understand why he kept using the mountain as his subject-it really is a dramatic feature in the landscape. On a clear day I even see it when I ride down a particular hill on my way to work. Initially I hadn’t planned to include the temple but decided this was my homage to the great printmaker and just went with it.

I’ve been enjoying using the color mixing tool Kuler.Adobe (screen grab below). I have been playing with it to help sort out color options for some pattern designs I am working on. What I like about it that it offers you a selection of themes others have already come up with, as well as the option to create your own schemes. Colors specs are offered in HSV, RGB, CMKY, Lab and HEX. It is a neat tool to offer student too.

‘Sweet & Sour‘

Living in Japan means Friday starts on Saturday for me. What inspired this illustration? Today it is very hot - I’ve been sucking on ice cubes and soda water spiked with lime juice. The half lime sitting in my fridge was the obvious object that ’sang’ sour. Why include the ’sweet’ I hear you ask - well cherries are in season and I find that it is contrast that really makes a taste stand out.

chin chin

Summer…by week three I reach a point where I truly let go. Maintaining the drive to refine lesson plans for next year, to out sort files on my computer, to make examples I think would be helpful…all just slip away. In it’s place comes a blissful immersion into a day without set time periods, long lunches, sitting at the park with the dog, riding my bike no where particular, drawing for the sheer pleasure of doing so.

But can be truly fulfilled without my to-do list? without any goals or deadlines? Enter, Illustration Friday I signed up because I need a little bit of structure to my holidays and I love what these guys are doing.

I’ve teamed up with Karen Nolls (talented English teacher at ASIJ) on one of my favorite topics - Visual Literacy. We have been talking about how the lines that defined the domains of our disciplines have blurred. We’re both reading Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics again. Although he talks about the genre of comics – & how words and pictures work together – he also discusses the roles of artist and writer.

The goal Karen & I have is to refine our approach to teaching that honors both the visual & linguistic. English teacher’s (Karen says) are using more visual forms of assessment but shy away from evaluating the visual component because it ‘feels’ like it is outside their domain. Likewise my students write design briefs and statements about their work but I avoid assessing the quality of the writing.

I appreciate why using visual forms to convey understanding on a topic is helpful. It is a way to tap into emotional not just intellectual thinking. I know from personal experience that when I draw (for example while traveling) I have a much more vivid connection to places than if I don’t. There is something about the concentrated action of interpreting a place visually that does this. The same goes for writing - I recently read ‘The craft of revision’ by Donald Murray - when he said “I don’t know what I know until it is explored by writing” something clicked for me. Writing is process that orders thinking and uncovers what you didn’t know you knew until you engage with it in that way.

But back to the visual world we live in. Should we explicitly address ways student use and respond to visual language? The elements and principles of design are evident everywhere, from advertising to high art. Is the teaching domaine for visual understanding purely ‘arty’ or is it important for all disciplines to help students become literate in these areas? Hummm, summer thinking…