Web Design

Here's your assignment, hope you enjoyed your "Senior Skip-Day."

• Quick Check Questions 2-4, 6-7 on pg 209 (4.2)
  
• Quick Check Questions 1-4, on pg 230 (4.3)
  

Sub Lessons for Wed. Oct. 21

Web Design- Read pp.68-69 in DRM 4 handout. Create a sketch of the site layout (1-4 p.69) Also, answer Session 2.2 Quick Check questions on the bottom of p.69. Drawing- Read pp. 123-126, begining with "Choosing a Basic Unit." Answer the following questions;

1. What two questions does choosing a "Basic Unit" answer when beginning a new drawing?
2. Complete the sentence from the chapter- "This Basic Unit becomes the key that unlocks all of the _______________ within a chosen composition: All _______________ are found by comparing everything to the _______________."
3. In your own words, try to define a "Basic Unit" and explain it's importance.
4. On page 124, Dr. Edwards refers back to chapter 6 when she compares any realistic drawing to a child's jigsaw puzzle. Mr. Mallory has talked about how perceiving negative space shapes and using a "picture frame" has three major parts to that puzzle. What are those three major parts that make up any composition?
5. A basic unit can be a positive shape, a negative shape, or even just a single edge from point to point. Once chosen, what are determined relative to that Basic Unit?
6. In your own words, what is meant by "proportion?"
7. Initially finding and using a Basic Unit may seem forced, mechanical, maybe even a little left-brained, but eventually, what happens for artists, as demonstrated by the story about Matisse on p125?
8. What kinds of things does using a Basic Unit prevent?

If you have time after reading & answering these questions, you may follow steps 1-4 of the directions which begin on page 127 and/or read all of the directions pp.127-132, but we won't go beyond step 4 until Thursday.

MS Art- 11:30-11:45 DEAR time. Create 4 different artworks about yourself. You can use pencil, crayon, or marker. If you put so much effort into any one of these artworks that you don't get all 4 done, that will be okay. We'll use some time on Friday to finish them.

1. Draw as realistic of a self-portrait as you can. Just your face, fill most of a page.
2. Draw yourself as a cartoon character. You can be funny or serious, an animal or a superhero- just so long as you're a cartoon.
3. Create a trade mark logo for yourself, like the Nike swoosh, the Verizon check mark, the McDonald's M, the Pepsi ying-yang, or the iPod's apple. What symbols represent you?
4. Create a design using some of your favorite shapes and colors. Are you rectangular, rounded and circular, sharp and triangular? Edgy and rough? Sleek and smooth? Just make some random designs, maybe even a maze, but use lines, shapes, colors, or textures that say something about you.

Ceramics- Work on your skulls. Use the wooden or plastic tools to begin carving or smoothing them and adding details to make them more realistic. Be sure to use the scientific acrylic model skull as your example. You may also work on the wheel, or Amber can work on her shoe. Please clean-up. Tyler should not use computers 5th hour, he can help Laure with Quincey, help Amber with her shoe, or if Casey's back- help her start her skull.

Yearbook- Find examples of each of the 4 main headline types found on pp.68-69; Hammer, Kicker, Wicket, and Tripod. Magazines are in the drawers under the West counter by the windows. Please cut out each example and glue it to a sheet of paper. Label which of the 4 types it is and put your name on the top right corner of the sheet and turn them in. Once you're finished you may work on yearbook pages on yearbookavrnue.com. Many of the pictures on in the " //Server1/Archive" can be treated for red-eye and be resized in Photoshop and then uploaded to the image gallery.

MS Cheer- Sorry Ladies, please come back 7th hour Thursday- meanwhile please stay in study hall.

Example of a differentiated Lesson

Hand Drawings
Gauging student skills and abilities
Hands and faces are intricate and unique subjects, therefore they are good challenges for drawing students. At the beginning of the semester, I have students complete a series of pre-instructional drawings, sort of like pretests. One of which is ha hand, another is a chair and one is a face. During the course of the semester then, a more serious, substantial drawing of each of these subjects eventually serves as sort of a benchmark for each student's progress.

Toward the end of the first quarter I've been able to determine the ability level of my students from previous assignments in their sketchbooks as well as a number of other activities. On assessment I took this year was a Left/Right brain inventory survey, which allegedly can determine if students have an inclination toward particular thinking modes which would allow them to perceive visually more easily, or with more difficulty.

Direct Instruction
To begin the unit I give students an analogy for drawing from real life- simultaneously observing and recording those observations, I ask them to imagine a microscopic explorer traveling the terrain that is their subject (a hand, face, or still life object). Then I demonstrate the technique of blind contour drawing on the board.

Basically, for "contour drawing," you pick a point on the object where the eye can begin its slow journey around the contour or edge of the object. The eye is barely crawling as it begins its journey. When the eye begins to move, so should the hand holding the pencil. At no time should you look at your hand as it draws. Students try drawing the entire contour of the object without lifting your pencil form the paper. Part of the point of the exercise is to develop the student's perception of edges, "contours," or borders between shapes, AKA lines.

Next, students are asked to complete a series of blind contour drawings in their sketchbooks. First with the help of a paper bag to keep them from looking at their paper. Then, gradually the amount of time spent drawing increases and they are challenged to draw "blind" without the bag.

One step might be considered to incorporate cooperative , because instead of hands or shoes, students are asked to take turns modeling for each other, so that they can draw blind-contours of faces.

Information Processing/Discussion
Along the way we debrief. Sometimes one-on-one with each student, sometimes in small groups, and a few times as an entire class, discussing how their drawings are accurate records of their perceptions, not necessarily perfect representations of their hands (or shoes or faces). We discuss and try to evaluate both the process and the products. One of the things that is important is to have the students reflect on how the process felt. If they were focused, able to avoid distractions, "absorbed" so to speak, and lost track of time, felt relaxed yet alert, or generally became silent or wordless (both outwardly and better yet, in their own minds) then, hopefully they can recreate those feelings each time they attempt a drawing. This hones their perceptual skills, stretches their attention-spans, and ideally, shifts them from a typically verbal to a more visual/spacial cognitive mode which is beneficial to being able to draw accurately.

Once students have improved their blind-contour skills enough, we add back in the "check-back" or "modified" contour drawing, where students try to look at the subject more than at their paper, but are now allowed to check back periodically in order to correct for placement and proportions. Students are then given viewfinders and introduced to the concepts of selecting a composition within a format (picture frame) and the practice of some artists of imagining that whatever they are viewing is flattened onto a single surface (the picture plane). Finally, they are asked to tone a format on a page, pose their hands with the viewfinder, and spend a few days drawing a fully developed, realistic drawing of their hands.

Assessment and Evaluation of Student Progress
When their drawings are finished, students are given a rubric to score themselves on each of the 5 perceptual skills; edge, space, proportion, shading, and composition as well as on their effort and level of improvement. They are also asked to respond to a number of reflection questions. Later I score them on the same categories, and usually try to read and comment on their reflections.

Students also view all of the drawings in the class and discuss the accuracy of the contour drawings and how convincing the shading is and analyze the compositions. Students are asked to consider the sensual, formal, expressive, and technical qualities of each others drawings during this "critique session."

So the rubric may be a formal summative assessment, the critique session is more informal, and all along the way there have been deliberate as well as incidental informal formative assesments going on. In this way, even if a given student does not achieve the desired technical proficiency, their perceptual skills may still grow and/or they may acquire an understanding of the concepts of contour, modeling shading, and arranging/selecting composition.

Formal Writing Project; Professional Web Planning and Proposal

Read the 'Dreamweaver Tutorial 2' hand-out and follow the directions for each of the exercises, but instead of tailoring your work for the "Cosmatic" case study provided, customize your research and proposals for your own mock-company Web site, which you will be working on for the remainder of the semester. That site will constitute your final project.

Turn in each steps on the deadlines listed below but save your work because you will turn it all in together in a presentation folder at the end as your Formal writing project.

Here is a list of steps and deadlines:

First the Purpose

1. List of site goals (p.49 in DRM Tutorial 2 hand-out) Due Oct. 7
2. Target Audience (p.51) Due Oct. 8
3. Information Gathering (p.53)
4. Explore examples/"competition" (p.55)
5. End-User Scenario (p55) Steps 3-5 Due Oct. 12
6. Session 2.1 Quick Check Questions (p56) Due Oct 13

Next the Architecture

1. Outline (p.57) Due Oct 14
2. Flowchart (p58) Also Due Oct 14
3. Concept & Metaphor (p.60) Due Oct 15
4. Color Scheme (p.64) Due Oct 16
   

• Quiz over DRM Tut 2 Vocab on Fri Oct 16

• We will resume working in the HTML/HXTML book on Mon. Oct 19 with Tutorial 4; Designing with tables, but Proposal steps will continue to be due

1. 5. Font Choices (p.66) Due Oct 19
2. 6. Graphics (p.67) Due Oct 20
3. 7. Layout Sketch (p.69) Due Oct 21
4. 8. DRM Tutorial 2 Session 2.2 Quick Check Questions (p.69) Due Oct. 22

Professional Proposal Terms

Quiz on Friday, October 16

• accessibility
• additive color system
• client
• end-user scenario
• flowchart
• font
• font color
• font size
• font style
• generic font families
• hexadecimal color code
• information architecture
• layout
• market research
• metaphor
• monospaced font
• navigation system
• proportional font
• RGB system
• sans-serif typeface
• serif typeface
• site concept
• subtractive color system
• target audience
• user profile
• Web Safe Color Palette
  
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Tutorial 3; Color and Fonts

• Session 3.1 Quick Check questions 1-9 due Wednesday Sept. 30
• Session 3.2 QC questions 3, 4, & 5
• AND Session 3.3 QC questions 3, 4, & 5 due Friday Oct. 2
• Tutorial 3; Arcadium Web site due Thurs Oct. 8
• Tutorial 3 Test, Friday Oct. 9
  

Child Drawing Developmental Stages

• Scribbling (AGE 1 1/2)
• Symbols Begin (2-3)
• Adding Details (3-4)
• Telling Stories (4-5)
• Landscapes (5-6) Composition/Principles reign
• Complexity builds (Grades 5-7)
• Gender Differentiated
• Desperately Seeking Realism (ages 10-11) Details/Elements reign, at the expense of good composition.

The naturally developed left brained symbol-system eventually eclipses accurate perceptions.