3D Rotation in Illustrator

In Computer Art and Design class we've started working with 3D effects in Illustrator. Last week we created 3D rotations of bottles, created labels and mapped the art to the bottle so it matched the curve of the 3D rotation, and also created a glass or goblet or bowl to go with the bottle. This week we are working with the gradient mesh tool to use gradients mapped to the contours of the object to create that 3D illusion. Below are the bottles and glasses from last week's assignment.

Studio time

I thought you might like to see what some of the work in progress looks like. It's hard work and kind of messy to get to the beautiful final products that the audience gets to see after the fact! Sometimes a glimpse into the process gives another level of appreciation for what the artist had to go through to create the work in the first place. Note here that some of the sketches are for the sandblasting (the value scale tells which level to sandblast which areas), some are the continued design but in stained glass format. The work is in various stages of "getting there", and this was a week or two ago. Most students are now foiling their cut glass pieces (or finishing cutting), tinning the foiled pieces, and a couple are even getting down to soldering the sides whole! Comments and questions are, as always, welcome.

Impressionism in Art History

Art History has a different approach this year, and instead of starting back in the mists of time we jumped in mid-19th century with Realism and Impressionism. In addition to researching the artwork of the time, each student studied an individual artist, their work, style, palette, brushwork, etc. Then they chose one representative painting (or photo) to work from as an "inspiration" piece. Each student then took their own photograph of a related subject matter in a new, updated and personal way. This served as the source material to then create a painting (or photo!) "in the style of" their artist. With a small class of 7 we only covered a few of the artists that were prominent at the time, but painters Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cassat, and Cezanne were chosen, as well as pictorialist photographer Clarence White. Check out the artwork the students made in the slideshow below. Feel free to leave a comment for the students! Check back in a week or two to see student work reflecting the styles and values of Cubism and the beginnings of abstraction in Modern Art!

Sandblasting Glass

The 3-D Glass Art class has been working steadily on a major project for several weeks. The first component was designing a 2-4 value scale for a design they would then sequentially sandblast into a 6x6 square of glass. This square will then become one of three sides of a box - the other two of which are stained glass.

The sandblaster acted up a bit during the process, so we are just now finishing up most of the first component. Below are most (soon to be all!) of the sandblasted pieces. Note that each has been photographed twice, once with light on the front and a dark background, and again backlit so they are illuminated. It's amazing how a little light positioning changes what you see!

The students would love to have some feedback so feel free to leave comments for them on this post. Check back in a couple of weeks for the photos of the completed boxes!

Peeking in the window

Welcome! I hope you will stop by often, or subscribe to the RSS feed to get updates on the glass, ceramics, metals, art history, computer art & design, and web design classes here at ASIJ. A blog is a simple way to get some of the student artwork out there for people to see when they don't always make it into the hallways where the artwork is typically on display. This way we can share a bit about the processes and stages along the way in addition to sharing the finished artwork. It often takes weeks of work to create a final project!

Please feel free to leave a comment, it would be lovely to hear what you think about what the students are creating here at ASIJ, whether you are another ASIJ student, parent, faculty, or someone not connected to the school. Thanks for your interest!

To start things off, let's take a look at the first intro to ceramics projects: pinch pots with feet and lids. Here is the set of work at the greenware stage, before the first firing. At some point in the next week or two we should have the glazed versions up. Come back to compare the before and after!