Posts Tagged graphics
Safeguarding Digital Course Evidence with ‘Dropbox’
Posted by Jim Black in Advanced Higher Graphics, Digital course evidence on August 19, 2010
On average, at least two pupils a year, studying Advanced Higher Graphics here at The Royal High School, lose significant amounts of course work because it hasn’t been backed up somewhere.
This year, I’ll be encouraging pupils to use http://dropbox.com. Dropbox provides 2 GB of free storage on its servers (and up to 100 GB, for a fee). The smart thing though, is that the service enables a user to synchronise the content of his drop box with identical folders located on his desktop P.C., laptop, and smart phone. A user may have this folder duplicated on as many computers as desired. Dropbox runs in the background on your computer, ensuring that files are kept up to date.
It’s also possible to synchronise a folder on a ‘U3 enabled’ USB stick. U3 enabled USB sticks aren’t always recognised by computers, and this is the case at The Royal High School. In any case, Dropbox’s site is blocked within school.
I expect teachers in other schools are encouraging their pupils to use services that are similar to Dropbox. In the past, pupils here have used Sky Drive, which allows on-line storage. They’ve also used Diino, before its free service was discontinued. Neither of these offered the automatic synchronising of data over several computers / devices, however.
If you’re using an on-line storage / synchronising service, which is free for pupils to use, then let us know about it. Also, if you’ve been able to / allowed to get it running in your school, please get in touch.
More Pastel Drawings
Posted by Jim Black in Advanced Higher Graphics on August 4, 2010
I produced these drawings while preparing for the new session, when pupils in the Advanced Higher Graphics class will be using pastels to produce the ‘visuals’ for their desktop publishing assignments. They’ll also use their pastel drawings to illustrate their final pieces.
Each of the drawings is an exercise from the Pastel Workbook by Jackie Simmonds.
Another Pastel Instruction Book
Posted by Jim Black in Advanced Higher Graphics on July 26, 2010
Our Advanced Higher Graphics pupils will be illustrating their main desktop publishing (DTP) piece using pastels this session. As I’m a beginner myself with the medium, I’ve been practicing (see earlier post) and reading instruction books.
A few days ago I purchased:
Painting Beautiful Skin Tones with Color & Light, by Chris Saper.
In the introduction of her book, Ms Saper states:
‘Intuitive instruction – “just pick out some color,” “use color that expresses the way you feel” – has never helped me. But instructors who have taught me how to see – what to look for and why – have given me tools I can use for a lifetime. This book is designed to give you tools you can use, too.
The book is superb, and covers portrait painting with oils, watercolour and especially pastels, really well. It’s particularly strong on colour theory and colour use, and breaks it down in to clear do and don’t guidelines. These guidelines are relevant to any branch of painting, not just portraiture. The book is beautifully illustrated by Ms Saper, using step by step views of her own paintings, which are stunning.
Ms Saper’s web site is at:
As well as displaying examples of her work, she lists her fees for undertaking portraits. I expect she’s one of the few artists around who earns a living from traditional portraiture.
Ms Saper has written a second book and, interestingly, has chosen to publish it via Blurb.com, the same ‘on-demand’ printer we’ve used for our pupils’ children’s story books. It’s at:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/152139
Jim
Wacom Bamboo Graphic Tablets
Posted by Jim Black in Higher Graphics on May 8, 2010
A few months ago we bid for ‘Determined to Succeed’ funding to purchase twenty graphic tablets. We were granted funds to purchase ten, and advised to apply next time around for funding for another ten.
Our funding bid specified that the tablets would be a ‘whole school’ resource. This post is a review, with accompanying pupil work, for the benefit of other teachers here at school who may be interested in using them.
1. Make and model.
The tablets are the ‘Bamboo Pen and Touch’ model by Wacom. They cost around seventy pounds each.
2. Software installation.
Provided you have ‘administrator access’ to the computers at school, the software installs in the usual way from the disc provided. However, if you want to get the most up to date release of the software, visit Wacom’s site and download it, then install.
3. Use
Pupils took to them immediately and they’ve proved especially useful for digital drawing. They’re much easier to draw with than a mouse. It’s easy to set the two buttons on the pen of the mouse to left click, right click or double click; whatever you find useful. Pupils are very comfortable accessing the control options and doing this. Although the active (sensitive) drawing surface area of the tablet is quite small at around 160×110 mm, it is easy to achieve controlled pen strokes.
4. ’Pen and Touch’
Pupils didn’t find the ‘touch’ controls – similar to those on an i-Phone – of much use. I suspect that if our computers were a bit more powerful, and had graphic cards, there’d be less of a time lag evident when using the touch controls. Conversely, the pressure sensitivity feature of the pen works really well. Provided you’re using the tablet with a programme that recognises pen pressure sensitivity, pressing harder with the pen can be set to increase line width, or opacity, or rate of ink flow etc. Our pupils have been using the tablets with ‘Gimp’ primarily. Gimp is an open source (free to download and use) alternative to Photoshop. It’s good for digital painting and photo manipulation. The tablets have also been used with ‘Inkscape’, another free drawing programme, and with Serif PagePlus and Scribus – both DTP programmes. PagePlus is a commercial programme, but Scribus is free to download and use, and is our preferred option for Advanced Higher Graphics pupils laying out magazine articles etc.
5. Setting up and storage
The tablets plug in to any USB socket. When using with particular drawing programmes, experiment to find out if you need to plug the tablet in before launching the programme, or visa versa. The tablets appear to be reasonably robust, though the nibs of the pens may be liable to damage. This may be because of the pressure sensitivity feature of the pen. However, each pen comes with several replacement nibs. Our funding allowed us to purchase a few extra pens, in case of future damage. Each tablet has a small fabric loop that the pens slide in to, for storage. This is a very useful feature. Our box of ten tablets is small and light enough to transport around school. One pupil can easily carry it.
6. Summary
We’re happy with our purchase. The tablets have proved useful and popular and we’ll be bidding for another ten in future.
7. Borrowing the tablets
Check with us beforehand to confirm availability, then nominate one of your more responsible pupils to collect and return them. A second pupil should also be sent, to open doors. If you’d like a bit of initial instruction in using them, contact me. I’ll be happy to get you started.
8. Examples of pupil work.
In addition to the slide show included with this post, examples of pupil work created with the aid of a graphic tablet are available to view as follows:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1261007 – Robert Hackett
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1317051 – Rachel O’Donnell
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1259063 – Elliot Sutherland
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1277908 – Rebecca French
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1259414 – Kaitlin Pietersen
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1320058 – Ben Muir
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1267778 – Hamish Gentles
Advanced Higher Graphics ‘Visuals’, 2010 – 2011
Posted by Jim Black in Advanced Higher Graphics on April 10, 2010
Last year we were fortunate to have Myrna MacLeod visit us and deliver a talk. Myrna is the lead tutor of the Graphic Design course at Napier University. She made it clear that much of the content of Graphic Communication courses is not of use to her in deciding whether a pupil should be offered a place on her course. Since then, we’ve been looking at ways to satisfy her requirements, as a number of our pupils are applying for entry to this type of course each year.
The ‘visuals’ element of the Advanced Higher Graphics course offers the opportunity to produce portfolio work that may be more useful to pupils applying for graphic design courses. Over the years, the visuals that pupils have produced at Royal High have been a bit disappointing, and not to the standard that would allow them to be included in a portfolio. There have been highlights though -
http://www.royalhigh.edin.sch.uk/departments/departments/CDT/ahgc_2004_asuna_images/asuna_visual1b.jpg
http://www.royalhigh.edin.sch.uk/departments/departments/CDT/ahgc_2004_asuna_images/asuna_visual2b.jpg
http://www.royalhigh.edin.sch.uk/departments/departments/CDT/ahgc_2004_sarah_images/sarah_visual1a.jpg
http://www.royalhigh.edin.sch.uk/departments/departments/CDT/ahgc_0405/zoe/zoe_visual1a.jpg
http://www.royalhigh.edin.sch.uk/departments/departments/CDT/ahgc_0405/zoe/zoe_visual3a.jpg
In the coming session, I anticipate that pupils will combine drawings in pastel with tracing paper overlays, to create their visuals. Using a tracing paper overlay will allow the pastel drawing to remain a ’stand alone’ portfolio item as well as be a course visual. Pupils will scan their pastel drawings and actually incorporate them in their final DTP pieces, perhaps manipulating them in Gimp along the way. Pupils will set up still life compositions, photograph them and use the photos to help investigate composition. They’ll also use Inkscape to produce vector traces of their photos, to investigate tone / value, and produce ‘value’ sketches. As we have very little space to keep still life object groups assembled, I anticipate that pupils will work from their photos and value sketches to produce their pastel drawings.
Until a few days ago I had almost no experience in using pastels. I’ve now worked through some of the exercises in the ‘Pastel Workbook’ by Jackie Simmonds and found pastels to be relatively straightforward to use. It’s a quick process and it’s easy to produce strong colours, though finished drawings are going to be tricky to store, to avoid smudging.
As an alternative or addition to pastels, pupils who already have watercolour skills will be encouraged to utilise them in the coming session.
I’m also working on a clay modelling ‘visuals’ project that will investigate incised letterforms and calligraphy and may incorporate texturing work using a rapid prototyped calligraphic stamp. I anticipate that pupils will produce their own stamps in-house, modelling them in Pro/Engineer or Blender, then printing them on our (not quite assembled yet) Rapman. I’ll post info in due course.
Higher Graphics Children’s Story Books
Posted by Jim Black in Higher Graphics, on demand printing on April 2, 2010
This is a new project for session 2009 – 2010.
Just before the Easter holidays most pupils completed their story books, ready to upload to www.blurb.com for printing and binding. Most used a combination of Inkscape, Gimp and either Scribus or PagePlus to create the graphics and lay them out, ready for export to PDF format.
Many pupils used colour and pastel pencils to create the graphics, which they scanned, then further enhanced. Some took photos and enhanced / manipulated them, to illustrate their stories.
This is quite a departure from the leaflets that pupils have produced on the Higher Graphics course over the last few years. All pupils were given the option to create a leaflet instead of a book, but all opted for a story book. A considerable amount of extra work was needed to realise their books, but almost everyone rose to the challenge, and will have an unusual portfolio piece to take along to university interviews in future.
Those who opted to use open source software (Scribus, Inkscape and Gimp) instead of a commercial alternative (PagePlus), don’t seem to have been disadvantaged: their work looks equally good. They’ve been exposed to out-and-out raster and vector graphics packages – Gimp and Inkscape - and should now have an understanding of what each has to offer. Those pupils using PagePlus may be less clear, as PagePlus is something of a hybrid, which cleverly converts vector graphics to raster graphics as it sees fit.
One advantage pupils using PagePlus have had is the way the programme processes transparent images to then save them in to the PDF format required by Blurb.com. PagePlus handles this in the background perfectly, whereas Scribus converts any graphics with partial transparency to full opacity. This has happened when pupils have prepared images with partial transparency in Gimp and exported them as Portable Network Graphics.
Pupils have been tasked with uploading their PDF files to Blurb.com, then purchasing a copy of their book using (a parent’s) credit card. The books are due to be submitted for grading on the first day back in school after the Easter holidays.
We’re very excited to see the results.
Depending on how the books turn out, and upon pupil demand, we may decide to register the school as a publisher, assign ISBN numbers to books, and try to get them in to local libraries and on sale in book stores.
Here are links to pupil books, both Higher and Advanced Higher, that have already been uploaded to www.blurb.com for printing and binding -
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1259414 – Kaitlin Pietersen
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1232400 – Claire Mathieson
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1261007 – Robert Hackett
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1237007 – Michael Speirs
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1274579 – Matthew Connolly
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1274833 – Sam Wynn
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1259063 – Elliot Sutherland
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1317051 – Rachel O’Donnell
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1277908 – Rebecca French
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1320058 – Ben Muir
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1267778 – Hamish Gentles
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1288704 – Alison MacLellan
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1261506 – Jordan Dear
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1293879 – Blair Cowan
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1304641 – Jessica Whyte
Setting Deadlines for Pupil Work
Posted by Jim Black in Advanced Higher Graphics on March 27, 2010
Thursday 18 March was the Advanced Higher Graphics course deadline night, with most pupils working until the janitors threw them out of school at 9-30pm. Mid-evening, pupils phoned out for Chinese take-out, to keep us going. Despite the stress the evening was good fun.
We’ll have another late night on Tuesday 30 March, with Higher Graphics pupils.
At Royal High, school management doesn’t allow us to set ‘hard’ deadlines throughout the year: if pupils don’t bother about a deadline, they’re allowed to submit the work later during the course. The result is that most pupils allow themselves to fall significantly behind with submissions. By March, some still haven’t submitted work that was due in September.
In the past, I’ve asked school management to allow us to insist that if a deadline is missed, then the work may not be put forward to gain course credits – as is the case on design courses at university. I’m sure this would revolutionise pupils’ approach to deadlines, giving them a big incentive to keep up with work. Pupils would be less stressed in the latter stages of the course, and therefore would be less likely to fall ill, wouldn’t have their performance affected in other subjects, and crucially, would have completed asssignments available for the university interview season, which commences in February. With the new management regime here at school, perhaps I’ll resubmit my proposal.
As a reaction to the complete flexibility pupils have over deadlines, and to prevent myself being inundated with requests for support for all course elements in the latter stages of the session, nowadays I set cut-off dates for support in Advanced Higher Graphics. After a certain date, I no longer provide any support or input for a course element. This works for me, allowing me to concentrate on the work in hand. Pupils still have access to the extensive written, on-line and exemplar resources that I’ve put in place. Nevertheless, some do find themselves feeling a bit stranded, if they hit a problem with work that I’m no longer supporting.
How do other CDT departments approach deadlines? Does their school management team allow them to set ‘hard’ deadlines? I’m interested to know.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.Glasgow Study Trip
Posted by Jim Black in Advanced Higher Graphics on February 6, 2010
On Thursday 04 February, the Advanced Higher Graphics class visited Glasgow.
We departed from school at 08.00 hrs and travelled in the minibus to Kelvingrove, where the bus was parked for the day. We then spent an hour and a half in the museum before travelling in to the town centre on the underground.
Following lunch at three different venues – we couldn’t agree on a single one – we took a tour of the Lighthouse. We spent a considerable time on the sixth floor viewing deck, where several pupils tried out their Christmas presents – digital SLR cameras. Elsewhere in the Lighthouse there was the permanent Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibition, as well as a room given over to work created by Strathclyde University architecture students.
From the Lighthouse, we walked up to Sauchiehall Street, to the Willow Tearooms, where we took afternoon tea. There followed free time, then a meal in TGI Fridays. The final activity of the day was a nostalgic viewing of Toy Story 2, in 3D, at Cineworld.
We retured by underground to Kelvingrove, then back to school by 22.15 hrs.
The photos in the slide show below were downloaded from my camera. Most were taken by Hazel.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.Shameless Self-Promoters – Business Cards
Posted by Jim Black in Higher Graphics on January 30, 2010
A couple of months ago, former pupil Michael Chalmers visited us to deliver a talk about his film studies and photography – see earlier post at cdtlog. He brought along a pack of business cards he’d had printed by the on-line service Moo.com. Michael said he hadn’t imagined he’d ever need business cards, especially while still studying at art college, however he had in fact found them invaluable.
Suitably inspired, I assembled some examples of work I’d produced over the years to support pupils, and had them applied to a set of cards. A pack of fifty cards cost £12-99 including postage. One side of the card employs one of Moo’s standard templates and includes my contact details, along with the school crest. The other is a full bleed image.
The cards are gorgeous, printed on heavy weight smooth matt stock. The images have turned out a wee bit dark, so if I were to use the service again I’d lighten the colours before uploading. I’d probably also upload my own layout of the contact info, rather than complete one of Moo’s standard templates.
Pupils in our Higher Graphics classes are currently creating suites of business stationery, as part of the ‘display’ element of the Thematic Presentation. They have found the cards of interest and examples of their final work will be posted over at our main departmental site soon.
A couple of days after the cards arrived, our new rector, Mrs Frith, was visiting class and mentioned that until now she simply had business cards printed out in school, but that the Moo.com cards were superior. I suggested that she have a set done at Moo, each with a different piece of pupil work featured on the reverse. If she goes down this route, I’ll ask her if I may feature the resulting cards here.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.Booklet for ‘On Demand Printing’
Posted by Jim Black in on demand printing on December 30, 2009
This session, Higher and Advanced Higher Graphics classes are producing booklets and having them printed and bound by www.blurb.com .
Higher Graphics pupils are creating children’s story books (see earlier post) and Advanced Higher Graphics pupils are assembling portfolio booklets.
To learn about the process, Mr Black has produced a booklet that reviews 2009 in the CDT department. At the time of writing it has been uploaded to Blurb.com for printing. A preview of some of the book’s pages are available to view at Blurb’s site at -
http://www.blurb.com/books/1111890
Dust jacket design for book reviewing 2009 in the CDT department
Recent Comments