ISO is a FESPACO Nominee!

Last year in the Spring of 2010, the French, Music and Art Departments at ISO worked collaboratively to produce stop-motion animation films with the Elementary students. The films were organized, directed, and edited by three Burkinabe' filmmakers. The filmmakers encouraged the students to figure out the story concepts; to write the French scripts; to sculpt the characters; to construct the props and backgrounds; to use technology and computer programming to shoot each scene; and to create the audio, including sound effects.

This year at FESPACO, the largest Panafrican film and television festival held in Ouagadougou, the films created at ISO are nominated for a youth award! CONGRATS!!!

MS Art: Ms. Clara Lawson Ames

• Clara Designs:

On February 7, 2011, the Middle School Art class had an amazing opportunity to have Ms. Clara Lawson Ames, a Togolese Fashion Designer, come and speak to them about her career. Clara was honest about her initial inspiration, her grandmother who was a tailor; her mother's disapproval, at the time, design was not necessarily appropriate for an African woman; her risk and sacrifice of a steady job to pursue her dreams; and, her triumphs of winning the prestigious African Diamond Award. 

Clara was inspirational in her attitude about hoping for what you want to accomplish, being committed and serious about it, and ultimately completely loving it!

Thank you Clara for coming to ISO! 

• Clara Links: 
• http://aclaradesign.com
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/CLARA-DESIGN-LLC-of-BURKINA-FASO/

• Photos of Guest Speaker: 

5th Grade Art: Art in Progress

• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Written by Judi Barrett, illustrated by Ron Barrett 

The first semester was spent learning about depth and space - overlapping, proportion changes, value drawing/monochromatic, emphasis through color, and watercolor technique. 

• Photos of finished artwork:

Raksha

Matthew

Shivani

• Frida

Written by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Ana Juan 

In the second semester, students are beginning a unit on Frida Kahlo; Frida was a Mexican artist who primarily painted during the Surrealist movement. They are learning about observational drawing (from a mirror), facial proportions, symbolism, and emotional experiences with art. 

• The photos below are examples of what they have been learning so far:

Nasser

Athina

Otto

Johan

Matthee

HS Art: Text as Texture

• In-Class Assignments: The Importance of Words and Font

Students learned that words themselves and the way they are visually communicated effect the outcome of how they are perceived. Students learned about how words form lines and how the orientation and direction of those 'lines' add subtle meanings, i.e. horizontal lines = landscape (horizon line), tranquility, sleep; vertical lines = power, strength, stability; diagonal lines = energy, and motion. They also learned about font: serif and sans serif and how text complied together creates an implied and sometimes an actual texture on the surface of an artwork. 

• Quick Description of Assignments:

1. This was a pre-insturction assignment, students were using their own ideas of how to generate art from previous knowledge and their natural intuition. Students were asked to write a 70 word essay, journal entry, poem, etc. (there were no boundaries about the subject matter.)  With their writing they had to create a piece of art on a 12" x 18" white paper that: used all of their words, repeated some of the words, and had an aspect that was overlapping another.
2. After students learned about font, they were asked to create an original font. They had inspiration from fonts found at www.dafont.com. 
3. With a part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech "I Have a Dream," which was given to them in various sizes and specific selections, students were asked to create a piece of art on a 18" x 24" paper that took advantage of black and white paper. 

• Drawings produced from above assignments:

Assignment 1, Lyse

Assignment 1, Deborah

Assignment 1, Ibrahim

Assignment 2, Lyse

Assignment 2, Deborah

Assignment 2, Ibrahim

Assignment 3, Lyse

Assignment 3, Deborah

Assignment 3, Ibrahim

• Photos of work time:

AP Art: Art in Progress

• AP Art students have been hard at work this quarter. Their primarily objective is to complete a total of nine works that will be submitted into their AP portfolio. Most of the nine works will be apart of the 'Concentration' category, which is a compilation of similarly themed works.

•  Photos of work time (and artwork in progress):

Liesbeth

Hannah

Liesbeth

Natalie

Close-up of Natalie's artwork (above)

Natalie

Hannah

Eva

Eva

Liesbeth

Close-up of Liesbeth's artwork (above)

AP Artwork - Amazingly Diverse!

MS Art: Figure Drawing and Fashion Design/Illustration

• Part 1: Figure Drawing: 

The students learned about naturalistic body proportions (8-head height), observational drawing, and the addition of color to create texture on a textile. 

• Part 2: Fashion Design/Illustration: 

Students are learning about the design process, elongation of the Fashion Croquis (9-head height body), and the implication of textiles on the human form through the use of different mediums (watercolor, marker, chalk, oil pastels, colored pencils, etc.).

• Drawings from a live model:

Ouwani

Achoura

Amanda

Close-up of Amanda's drawing (above)

• Photos of work time:

NEW! YouTube Page

http://www.youtube.com/user/ISOartdepartment