Bah Bah Black Sheep

This week we went through the rough drafts of our creative alphabets as a class. Before hand, Aileen handed out forms in order for us to decide together the grading perimeters of the assignment.  Although grading is a bummer...it is required. :(

Here is an example of the form we filled out and used as a guide:

What I liked, and plan to use, is that we decided together what the requirements should be.  There was dialogue, which makes the grading fair along with everyone being clear on what the expectations are.

The key proponents we chose for grading were:

• 4 letters created by the artist, mixed with the collaboration of letters made by peers.
• Title and credit page.
• Images are cropped and aligned proportionately on the screen.
• Color is correct and vibrant

Again during crit, there was a note keeper, time keeper, and crit leader.  And here we are doin' what we do:

After getting feedback, I realized some of my images needed to be corrected.  I also got some suggestions on the music I am using for the slideshow.  After experimenting, this is my final alphabet primer aka creative alphabet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Kds5HRReE

We then moved on to our books which is dealing with the theme of contemporary ruins and attempted to finish our covers.

The next step was to glue the card stock onto the wax resisted painted packing paper, and insert our folded white paper pages into the covers.  Sarah taught me a great technique for having the accordion paper line up crisply.  First, you fold the paper in half and then make folds on either side, as opposed to folding over from one end (If that makes any sense!)  Thanks Sarah!

As we continued along, Aileen stopped the group.  She said, sometimes you must regroup, get everyone back on the same page before students start getting ahead and possibly making mistakes.  I couldn't help but think of us kind of being like lost sheep, and she the shepherd making sure we don't wander off a cliff...to die...or glue our covers down incorrectly (maybe not that morbid)  Since one of her great childhood friends is now a shepherd in Scotland,  I think she may enjoy the analogy :)

The shepherd with her lost lamb, Jake :)

On a side note, this week while observing for my fieldwork class, I stumbled across this display in the hallway, made by the students of a Pratt Alum, Shervone Neckles at Brooklyn Prep, in Williamsburg.  I think it fits perfectly with our theme of contemporary ruins.

 

And Finally, here are my sketches from this week.  Really loving silhouettes!