Final+Project+-+Student+Activities

This page contains detailed instructions for the Portfolio Final Project; as described in the Advanced Studio Art Syllabus. Each day students will work on a different portion of the final project. I have broken it up into 5 smaller projects to make it easier to complete and less daunting.

**Digital Portfolio Project**  Weekly Schedule

**Monday: Selecting artwork for your portfolio**

When you come into class, quietly retrieve your folder that contains all of the work you have completed this semester. Take it to your table.

Carefully go through all of your pieces. Look for a connection, or central theme, that ties together some of your artwork. Remember earlier in the semester when we went over the concept of theme? I asked you to keep this in mind when choosing subjects for your work. Follow this link to refresh your memory about theme.

You should have many pieces that follow, or at least loosely follow, the theme that you picked earlier this year. This is great! What I want you to do is pick the 10 best pieces you have. These can be your favorite pieces; the ones you believe best reflect your theme and your skills as an artist. They should be finished, ready to frame, pieces of art.

Once you have picked your 10, and have put away your folder in the appropriate area, you can move on to photographing them. You need to digitize your artwork so it can be turned into a presentation on the computer. For this, you will use a digital camera. I suggest bringing everything outside, if it is a nice day, laying it on a piece of black fabric on the ground and standing over it. You will find the pieces of fabric in a bin next to the door. This will give you optimum lighting and angle. Just make sure you stand in such a way that you don’t cast a shadow. I also suggest taking multiple pictures of each piece to ensure that you get a good one.

After you have your pictures, take your camera to a computer and upload the photos onto your USB storage device. There, you can choose the best photos out of the ones you took; you only need one good photo of each piece.

**Tuesday: Artist Statement**

Today you will be writing your artist statement. Go to a computer with your USB storage device, open up a Word document and record your statement. The file itself will not be submitted; it’s juts handy to have it typed out for the final part of this project. It should be about 250 words.

This is where you will describe your theme, your creative process, what media you worked with, which media you preferred, and all of the “why’s” and “how’s” of your portfolio. This is your chance to define your style and give your audience a little piece of yourself to go along with the imagery of your art. I found the “Artist, Emerging” to have some very handy advice in this matter.

The key thing to remember is that the artist statement is where you make it your own. This is your voice.

(note: Tonight, you may want to go ahead and take a look at some work from a famous artist that you connect/relate to ; in order to prepare you for tomorrow.)

**Wednesday: Comparing your artistic style to an artist from history**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Today when you come in for class you will be working on some research using one of the computers. I want you to pick an artist who’s work/ artistic style you can relate to. Here is an index of artists.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This list is very long, so I suggest using the search options on the left-hand side of the page. You can also pick from any of the artists we discussed in class throughout the semester. Most of you may have a good idea of which artist you wish to pick. You can chose an artist whom you admire, one you try to emulate or have tried to emulate in the past. Compare and contrast your artistic style to theirs and describe how you have developed as an artist.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">By the end of class you will have completed a minimum of 250 words describing the artist you chose and how you and your artwork are similar, dissimilar, or how they have influenced the development of your artistic style. This will also be recorded in a Word document.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">(note: You will want to have prepared for tomorrow a script that contains details for each of the pieces you have selected for your portfolio. This will help you when narrating your presentation.)

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: left;">**Thursday: Creating your presentation** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Today you will be creating your presentation. This will essentially be a narrated slideshow created in Windows Movie Maker that you will be uploading to YouTube, then embedding in your own page within the classroom wiki.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">When you come in today, you will need to have prepared a script of what you will be saying in the narration. You will use one of the computers. Go to the start menu and open up “Windows Movie Maker”. This will take you to a story board/project screen. Here, you can add your photos, and easily add narration using the microphone. Here ia good tutorial to help you familiarize yourself with the program.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Your video should be anywhere from 5-10 minutes long. I will accept a maximum of 15 minutes. In your narration you will be describing each piece. Tell me the title, the inspiration for the piece, what medium you used, what message you hoped to convey, etc. Offer pros and cons to the medium used. Was it hard to work with? What techniques did you find useful. Did you learn anything new about the medium and/or the techniques you use while working on this piece?

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">You may also experiment with the use of transitions and effects; just be sure to not get carried away and allow the effects to get distracting. Adding background music is optional.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Make sure that when you are finished, you select “publish movie” instead of just saving the project file. A published video is the only thing you will be able to embed.



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: left;">**Friday: Uploading your finished product for critique** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Today you will be bringing it all together. You will need you USB storage device that contains everything you’ve worked on so far.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">First, you will publish your video on YouTube. Use this login:

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">User name: MsCStudioArt <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Password: studioarts

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Click “upload” in the upper right-hand corner. You will then select your video file from your USB storage device. You can add a description and other details.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Then, in this wiki, you will select “New Page” from the box in the upper left-hand corner. You will title your page “Your Name – Portfolio”. Then you can embed your video by clicking “widget” from the toolbar. In the widget menu you will select video form the left hand side; then click YouTube. Follow the directions provided.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Once you add your video as a widget (it will appear as a big grey box while in edit mode) you can add your artist statement and your comparison. Underneath your video, copy and past these things from the Word document you prepared them in. once added, you can change fonts and such; just make sure to follow design principles (i.e. font consistency, etc.)

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">When you are finished, click “save” in the upper right corner of the editing window.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Now that you have successfully created your page, you will go to the discussion board and create an area where other students can critique your portfolio; providing comments, asking questions, etc. On your page, look to the right of the page title and you will see a “discussions” tab. Click on it, and then select “New Post”. I have provided an example on the “Final Project - Student Page EXAMPLE”. In the subject line you will write “Your Name: Portfolio Discussion”

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Once everyone has created their page and the discussion posting, you can get started on viewing each other’s portfolios. You are required to watch each classmate’s presentation, read their artist statements and comparisons, and provide your critique on their discussion posts. You will use the critique form provided in the wiki on the page titled “Final Project – Critique Form”. You will use this as a guide. You will only be required to turn in a fully filled out critique form for two of the portfolios you viewed. This can be turned in on loose leaf paper or in a computer file (in which case you can copy/paste the form into a word document).

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">It may take some students longer than others to create their pages, and some presentations will be longer than others, so you will most likely need to complete some of the critiques over the weekend. This is perfectly acceptable, and will give you some extra time to give a thoughtful, in depth critique to your classmates. Since it is all on the class wiki, you shouldn’t have much trouble accessing it at home or at a local library.