The Visual Arts

VISUAL ARTS DEPARTMENT AT ASM

The Visual Arts Curriculum provides students with both the foundation to become active and effective members of their community and with the foundation for continued artistic success. To this end, the curriculum is designed as an integrated approach to creating two-dimensional and three-dimensional art, art criticism, and art appreciation. Course offerings include both traditional and digital art mediums. The Visual Arts program stresses the development of critical thinking skills, the cultivation of an aesthetic sensibility, exposure to diverse ideas, and awareness through art of the relationship between oneself and others, and society. ASM offers a variety of traditional and digital arts courses.

DRAWING AND PAINTING

Drawing and Painting is a year-long course that provides the students with a foundation in traditional and non-traditional two-dimensional drawing and painting skills. It has been modeled around the five art department standards.  A range of drawing and painting skills will be explored. In addition, students will be exposed to some art history and art criticism. This course is designed for students who think they cannot draw or paint and for those who think they have some skill and wish to learn more. Each student will have an opportunity during the last trimester to create independent projects that will be coached by the instructor. The student will present a plan for independent work for the last third of the course that reflects the art department standards.

Credits: 1

Length of course: 1 year

Text: None

Grade Level: Grades 9 - 12

Prerequisites: None

VISUAL ARTS

Visual Arts is a year-long course that has been modeled around the five art department standards. Students will have hands-on practice and learn key concepts that are essential to the visual arts. Students will use a wide variety of media in the course. They will have opportunities to practice photography, drawing, painting, collage, video, and 3D media. Students will acquire a greater understanding and improved practice of the elements of art and the principles of design. These building blocks of visual art support creativity and are key to being expressive and understanding the visual language of aesthetics. Students will engage in them through art production, critiques, investigations, and art appreciation. Students will engage in multidisciplinary art production, critiques, investigations, and art appreciation. There will be a focus on building skills, techniques, art materials, idea development, and creativity. Each student will have an opportunity during the last trimester to create independent projects that will be coached by the instructor. The student will present a plan for independent work for the last third of the course that reflects the art department standards.

Credits:1

Length of course: 1 year

Text: None

Grade Level: Grades 9-12

Prerequisites: None

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Digital Photography is modeled around the five art department standards. Students will use their own cameras and ASM´s digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR). Edited, non-edited, and manipulated photographs will be explored and worked on using Industry-standard software where necessary. A wide variety of technical and conceptual information will be explored in this course. Each student will have an opportunity during the last trimester to create independent projects that will be coached by the instructor. The student will present a plan for independent work for the last third of the course that reflects the art department standards.

Credits: 1 credit

Length of Course: 1 year

Grade Level: 9-12

Prerequisites: None.

DIGITAL ARTS

Upper School Digital Arts explores the major Commercial Art areas of Digital Photography and Manipulation, Digital Compositing and Illustration/ Graphic Design, 3D Modeling and Animation, Virtual Reality and Video Production/Post-Production. This year-long technology-based course provides the student with a solid base and exposure to contemporary Digital Arts in all its forms. By blending traditional approaches with a thorough grounding in the elements of art and principles of design, the course provides the student with a wide range of both artistic and technical tools in order to prepare them for a variety of Digital Arts -related careers. Students are encouraged to have a portable, external hard drive/ pen-drive for extra back-up and saving of their work on a daily basis.

Credit: 1 credit

Length of course: 1 year

Grade level: 9-12

Prerequisites: None

Resources: Digital Art Masters – 3D total.com

3D DIGITAL ANIMATION

The class is designed to give students introductory skills in the field of 3D computer animation and short film production. The three general topic areas to be covered during the first two trimesters are: 

Classical principles of animation timing, acceleration/deceleration, anticipation, follow-through, arcs, squash and stretch, exaggeration, secondary actions, staging, and personality.

Animation and film production work pipeline, pre-production, modeling, rigging, shading and texturing, animating, lighting, rendering, post-production.

Technical training in 3D software and 2D digital manipulation

The final section will be spent designing and developing a major project, using the concepts and skills developed during the initial part of the course, coupled with post-production involving editing and compositing software.

Credits: 1

Length of Course: 1 year

Grade Levels: 9-12

Pre-requisites: None

VIDEO ART

This year-long technology-based art course provides the student with a solid base in and exposure to artistic video processes. The class is designed to expose the student to concepts involved in filming pre-production, scene blocking, staging, lighting, camera moves, green-screening, editing, compositing, and post-production. It provides students with a thorough introduction to digital video production including the use of video cameras, projectors, and video editing software. Students will gain the technical and conceptual understanding to produce resolved video artworks that can be presented in a gallery/ installation and public-viewing contexts. It will also allow students to gain an understanding of the genre of video art within contemporary fine art practice.

Credits: 1

Length of Course: 1 year

Resources: Video Art: A Guided Tour by Catherine Elwes, University of the Arts London

Grade Level: 9 – 12

Prerequisites: None

UPPER SCHOOL FILMMAKING

This yearlong technology-based art course provides the student with a solid base in contemporary filmmaking and cinematography. In this class, students will produce a short film after first being exposed to the principal concepts of filmmaking. These include: screenwriting (from concept creation to finished script), pre-production (economics of film, planning, casting), production (directing, sound recording, acting, scene blocking, lighting, cinematography, green-screening), post-production (editing, music, sound mix), as well as entry of the film in film festivals and screenings around the world. This project-based class provides students with a thorough introduction to screenwriting, digital film, and cinema production techniques, pipelines, and processes, including the use of digital video cameras, production equipment, and video-editing software. Students will gain the technical, theoretical, practical, and conceptual skills and understanding necessary to produce their own short films.

Credits: 1

Length of Course: 1 year

Resources: The Filmmaker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age (2013 Edition) by Steven Ascher and Edward Pincus; On Directing Film (1992) by David Mamet

Directing: Film Techniques & Aesthetics (Fifth Edition, 2013) by Michael Rabinger and Mick Hurbis-Cherrier; How to Shoot a Feature Film for Under $10,000 (And Not Go to Jail) by Bret Stern (2002); On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director (2005) by Alexander Mackendrick, edited by Paul Cronin; In the Blink of an Eye (2ndEdition, 2001) by Walter Murch

Grade Level: 9-12

Prerequisites: None

IB VISUAL ART 1 (SL AND HL)

Course description and aims Visual arts are an integral part of our daily lives. They have social,

political, ritual, spiritual, decorative and functional values. The theories and practices of visual artsare dynamic and e ver-changing, connecting different areas of knowledge and human

experience. Visual arts enable us to make sense of the world, to explore our place within it, and to transform our individual and collective ways of being in and with the world. In this visual arts

course students learn how to create, communicate and connect as artists. Students engage in

creative practices and processes working with a variety of art-making forms and creative

strategies, and learn art-making as inquiry. Teachers and students can adapt the curriculum to

their unique contexts, interests and passions. Together, they are invited to transform the classroom into a contemporary visual arts studio. This becomes a collaborative, inclusive, creative and conceptually rich space where students develop their art through personal lines of inquiry guided by artistic intentions. The course encourages students to engage with the world through individual and shared experiences, imagination and action, and it fosters creativity, communication, critical thinking and collaboration—skills essential in a variety of rapidly evolving fields and professions. The syllabus supports learning through authentic art-making experiences and student choice, encouraging teachers to support their students in becoming progressively more independent art practitioners.

Teaching and learning of conceptual and material skills and methods allow students to think and work like artists. During the course they develop a personal visual language and learn to

communicate artistic intentions to different audiences, connecting with the work of other artists

and considering the significance of context(s). Students learn that by making art they are

empowered to engage, transform and emerge, both as individuals and as members of a

community. These positive and creative approaches will stay with students after they complete

the course, enriching any of their future pursuits.

Credits: 1 per year

Length of Course: 2 years (for IB 1 and IB 2)

Text: None

Grade Level: 11

Prerequisites: None

IB VISUAL ART 2 (SL AND HL)

IB Visual Art 2 is the second year course of a two-year course of study. The second year of IB Art focuses on refining their art practice in order to have a coherent body of work. In September the students will submit a selection of work from each of the three components that will help the instructor gauge a predicted score. Students will also refine the completed comparative study. They will submit process portfolio pages, artworks, exhibition material, and a comparative study for examination in IB Art 2 for their final score for this course. 

Self-reliance and the ability to work independently are essential. The general aims of the IB Visual Art curricula are to:

• provide opportunities to develop the aesthetic, imaginative, and creative faculties.

• stimulate and train visual awareness, perception, and criticism of the arts of various cultures.

• enable students to discover, develop and enjoy means of creative visual expression.

• encourage the pursuit of quality through training and individual experiment.

• exemplify and encourage inquiry and informed attitudes toward all art and design forms, both in history and today.

Credits: 1 per year

Length of Course: 2 years (for IB 1 and IB 2)

Text: None

Grade Level: 12

Prerequisites: IB Art 1