What are the barriers to creativity in education?

I spent the second summer in an IISME Fellowship working with Adobe Youth Voices this year. It was an amazing experience and has opened up so many opportunities for me. As part of the experience I worked on another ETP (Education Transfer Plan). For this one, I developed 11 video tutorials on how to do Digital Publishing to the iPad. I will be rolling this project out with my students later this year. Here is the first video I produced. The rest of the series can be found on my YouTube channel, along with many student produced animations.

In the Animation Lab

Finally I got a day to get into my school site and do some work in my animation lab. I love this space that I've built over the last few years. My students love it too! They frequently tell me how much they enjoy my class and how they wish they could spend more time here. I wish we could too. There is never enough time to teach them all I want, let alone spend enough time on our process and production. This will be the start of my sixth year teaching animation and the journey has been amazing. The person who helped propel me in my desire and ability to teach animation was my high school art teacher Nataha Lightfoot, who runs LightfootLtd. Animation supplies www.lightfootltd.com/. He told me when I was getting started that teaching animation would open doors to new opportunities, and he was certainly correct. In the time that I have worked on building this lab and teaching animation, I have had the chance to meet people in related industries, travel, and earn extra income.

Teaching and producing animation helped bridge my love of art/design and technology. I learn something new every day when working on my own, with my students, or with others. For my students, animation has been an challenge, both artistically and technically. Producing animation teaches my students how to manage complex tasks, think creatively, artistically, and work in production teams. It is an exciting way to teach students cross platform/software integration and workflows. They learn all about the various types of computer graphics that can be created, how to make them move, how to record audio, video, compositing, rendering, and file management.

So far in my classroom, my students learn to work with RETAS Pro,Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, Premiere, Soundbooth, After Effects, Audacity. All this is after spending six weeks focused on foundational drawing and composition skills. They write scripts, analyze animation, study art, cartoon, and animation history. They learn to critique their own work. They produce PSAs for their school television broadcast. They have been involved with Adobe Youth Voices for over three years now. If all goes according to plans, this year I will finally roll out the intro to 3d modelling and animation unit.

This blog post is essentially my testimonial to the power of animation in the classroom for myself and my students. By choosing this path six years ago, I have rekindled a passion and a love for teaching that had been ebbing. I am also fortunate to have the support of a good colleague, administration, and funding from the California Career Partnerships Academies. However, I do want to mention that it has been some of the hardest work I have ever done. It has required countless outside hours learning software, techniques, and skills, and it is never enough. There is always more to learn, which, I think, is great for myself and my students, because once you start learning this stuff you want to continue. And isn't that what we want out of education..excited and inspired lifelong learners.

There is a lot more I could say about this, and will continue to do so. My goal this year, like every year, is to raise the bar, for the work we produce, but also to showcase it. I will try and use this space and others to document, and promote the success and power of our CAST Academy Animation and Video Production strands.

If you are an educator interested in, or already teaching animation I would love to hear from you personally. Please feel free to contact me.

Summer Internship at Adobe!!

So, this summer I applied for and received through IISME, an internship to work at Adobe with the Adobe Youth Voices Program. I feel really fortunate, and honored to have this chance to do the kind of work I love the most, that is working with youth and making media. So far, I've had the chance to go to Philadelphia and present workshops on animation, flash, and integrating the Adobe Youth Voices curriculum in the classroom. I am also helping with the planning and organizing of the International AYV Summit at the beginning of August. Out of this experience I am also developing a lesson plan for students and other teachers to use Adobe Acrobat Pro to create ePortfolios for their work this year. I am also using Summer time as a chance to work on developing some of my neglected skill sets, like web desgin, 3d modelling, and hopefully some Action Scripting for Flash. My family has just moved and is settling into a new place, and the boxes are still piled high, but I am very excited about our new arrangements and everything that is happening. It's great being able to spend more time with my daughter and partner, and although I miss the old collective living arrangement at Praxis House in some ways, I have been wanting to live in a smaller arrangement for many years. This summer feels very rewarding in both personal and professional ways. Looking forward to the months to come. The picture attached is a rough layout for a poster I am working on. It's still in the earlly stages.

Jeff Larson on the Behance Network

Jeff Larson on the Behance Network

Grey Shaded World

Here's a landscape sketch I created a few months back using Sketchbook Express and a photographic reference. I'm posting it here and now as a way to get myself excited about doing some work over the next couple of months when school is finally over. Thought I would also throw it out there so maybe anyone who hasn't had a chance to see some of my work from over the last few years could check it out. Looking to spend some time working on my actual website and behance site as well. Lots of long term goals I'm working on. Hey, if anyone has any leads on galleries that might be a good match let me know.

Vector Luna Moth

In No Condition to Drive

Merav

Here is a drawing from the other night at my life drawing group. It's a good example of how sometimes the best drawings aren't the long ones. This was a ten minute pose from early in the evening and it is better than most of the twenty minute poses the rest of the evening. I've only got two more sessions this term and will then be taking a break as the new year begins and things get busier at school. I

Coil Cones

One of my all time favorite music groups is Coil. This Flash animation I was working on was inspired by the cover art on the live disc series Coil Live Four: Vienna and Prague. I recreated them in Illustrator and then brought them into Flash. I hope to keep expanding it piece by piece and then put it to some of their music. I heartworm COIL!

Blue lights..delights!

After years of being adverse to color in some ways, I found myself drawn to blue. Blue lights, variations of blue, blue flame, blue clothing, etc. I like the way blues can be warming and cooling. In some ways the color even became totemic for me. There is a strength and replenishing feeling that comes from blue light. This picture is a manipulation of a shot taken on an iphone, of a cheap,kids fiber optic flash light with sparkly dolphin. I also got some video footage of it that has since become source material for VJ visual effects background projections with quite wonderful results. The last stage of manipulation of this image was done on an ipad using Filterstorm.

Gulp!

Thrown off course as they entered our atmosphere, these extra-terrestrials find themselves plunged into the middle of a fierce electrical storm far from any land. A hapless pilot is trapped while the others can only look on in dismay. This oil painting was done a few weeks ago and emerged from a blue splattered masonite panel I have had sitting around for at least a year now. I had originally envisioned in a sketch a crazy rat fink style alien in descent, but came up with with this anxiety ridden cute alien splash down. The color scheme was somewhat dicated by the tubes I had lying around. I have deliberately tried to start working and pushing myself to work with and respond to color in less predictable ways.

Luna

Pencil drawing inspired by an old pin-up postcard, that I can't find anymore. I improvised on the clouds, hair, moon. Just a little sketch to post for your viewing pleasure. I like trying to draw from photos and pictures once in awhile. It's a very different approach than actually working from the figure in life. I want to take this into Photoshop and practice coloring and painting. If it goes well I will post it. I have a few more drawings like this that I will try and add to this post later.

Adger Bacid Video/After Effects Project

Here's a short video piece I'm working on with my good friend DJ Badger. This is a rough version of the initial edit, with more layering and tweaking to come. Just wanted to post it so he could see how it's going. I will update with newer versions as I progress.

I truly wish I had seen and understood the beauty and elegance of Graphic Design when I was younger. For the last ten years or so I have worked to teach myself as much as I can about Graphic Design, I can never give it as much time as I would like (like many of my endeavors), but I did get a chance to explore my developing sense of minimalism. I have been trying to work on projects and exercises that could stand as portfolio pieces. Here are my imaginings for a minimal techno singles series. It was fun working on this project for the cohesion aspect. I like how the text holds it together and that the play or variation is in the line work. I wish I had a bit more time to work on the size for display. I knew it was going to be small, but wanted to put it out there. I may revisit soon and try a different format. The piece on top started as a tiny grid sketch on a small Rhodia sketch pad. I scanned and then built the components for the piece in Illustrator. This is actually the second variation on the idea, where I selected and removed certain pieces. I am wanting to spend some time practicing layouts using grids.

How I learned to love fashion..

Over the last few years I have developed a fondness and appreciation for men's and women's fashion and fashion design. After spending years walking down the street and passing by the clothing places on 24th St. I began to enjoy the various window displays and arrangements. I took more time to notice the cuts, the shapes, the forms, the patterns. My favorite place is Ambiance. The window displays are almost always beautifully integrated arrangements of color, pattern, and form. This photograph was taken from a dress in one of their displays. I rather enjoy the scalloped shapes and the amazing contrast of the warms and cools. I took this into Photoshop and messed around with the color and saturation levels a bit. I always look forward to their new displays. Oh, yeah the Phoenix bookstore also has fun arrangements of books based on color schemes. This is always fun from a color and text perspective.

My only lament is that there are very few clothing places for men in this neighborhood. I do enjoy dressing up myself, especially for work or work related things. I still love my Carharts, black t-shirt, and baseball cap, but I have developed a fondness for nice button down shirts, ties, pants, and shoes. I was already headed this direction, and then after watching Don Draper and Co. on Mad Men for the last year or so, I really developed a stronger appreciation for dressing up. When I dress up I feel accomplished.
On the flip side of dressing up, I have also taken an interest in finding t-shirt designs. I found a couple that I really liked at the recent Threads fashion event in SF, and ordered another from BrassTack Apparel.

Now, after years and years of drawing the nude figure, I find myself interested in spending more time drawing clothed figures and clothing. I like looking through fashion magazines for interesting figures, portraits, styles, and trying to draw them, but would prefer to work from life. I am looking for any interested models, who may have some interesting outfits, or arrangements.

Minilogue - The Leopard (Extrawelt remix)

Here's another track I found recently that I really enjoy. I can't get enough of Extravelt, and this remix is one reason why. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Grumblebug

Illustrator is great for character design. This was once a quick sketch done with a Sharpie that I then scanned and built vectors over. It's also all set up for animation in Flash. I just added it to a bug filled street scene that I haven't touched since last summer. I was gonna leave my computer at home when I travel to Vermont next week, but have since changed my mind. I want to keep getting some more of my digital work done and the ipad/iphone just won't cut it for the serious work. I want to finish and animate the bug filled street before the end of summer, even if its only a short scene.

Praxis

Using the name of the anarchist collective I've lived with, in, around for almost fifteen years, I did this exercise in which I first hand drew the Old English letter forms by hand, then built the vector version of the letters in Illustrator, added flourishes with brush strokes and brush styles. Then I rasterized the whole mess and exported to a Photoshop doc and used drop shadow, outer glow, and emboss for final touches. I know layer styles are somewhat scorned by professional graphic designers for their overuse, but what the hey, I don't know about you but I'm always pretty happy when things are glowing and all soft around the edges.

Missing my Life Drawing Group

Here's a portrait drawing from sometime around Nov. or Dec. of last year. Probably one of the last decent drawings I made in that session. I stepped away from my figure drawing group in the Spring, as I was feeling too stressed about work and other projects. I was having a hard time relaxing and enjoying myself. Now, I am missing it very much. I am thinking about returning when the next session starts in July. I love drawing the figure! I hope to have a much bigger showcase of the figurative work up on my website in the next couple months. I also really want to work on some clothed/costume drawing sessions with models. Anyone got a fabulous/stunning/hot outfit they want to be drawn in? I usually need a couple hours to work with a model to get warmed up and get a accurate drawing done. If you are seriously interested let me know, maybe we can work something out. I would love to draw people I know sometime, as opposed to the models at my drawing group (who are by the way some of the best life models in the Bay Area). I have been drawing at Michael Markowitz's drawing studio (http://www.users.interport.net/m/c/mcm.dnai/) at 23rd and Chattanoga, SF for many years now. Michael has run the place for nearly two decades now. I really appreciate and admire Michael's dedication and artistic output, and can't thank him enough for providing such a quality experience when it comes to the drawing from the figure.