Resources for Teaching || Computers for Art Teachers

National Art Education Association

Computers for Art TeachersAuthor(s): James D'AngeloSource: Art Education, Vol. 41, No. 5, Resources for Teaching (Sep., 1988), pp. 41-44+47-48Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193077 .

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COMPUTERS FOR

ART TEACHERS James D'Angelo

nce in a great while a technological advance comes along which is so undeniably extraordinary

that it demands the attention of the artist and the art educator. Such a technological advance is here now! It's the computer!

The computer, you say? Isn't that mostly for math and science? Or maybe business and word processing?

What once may have been no longer is.

Today, throughout the art world, the impact of computer technology is already being felt. Everything from design and illustration to typesetting and page layout to total desktop pub- lishing and desktop video is revolution- izing the way our world handles and manipulates information! And you, as an art educator, are an important part of that world!

The computer for the artist (or art teacher or art student) is as valid as the computer for the writer, scientist, or mathematician. However, instead of using the computer to manage and

manipulate words (as in word proces- sors) or numbers (as in spread sheets, scientific and mathematical calculation programs), the artist uses it to manage and manipulate graphic images, shapes, and colors as well as textual information.

Unfortunately, to many art educators the computer is something to be apprehensive about - it is something which may be okay in a math or science class, but keep it out of the art room!

Why is this? One reason for such apprehension

may be the art teacher's perception that high performance graphics computers are very, very expensive.

Sophisticated graphics have always been an expensive proposition for computers, mostly due to the enormous amount of memory they require. However, thanks to lower memory chip costs and innovative hardware and software design, today's new breed of computer can handle graphics better and

Art Education/September 1988 41



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PHOTO 1: A typical graphic oriented screen ready for drawing

or painting. A menu bar, extending across the top of the screen, is

activated by depressing one of the mouse buttons and holding it down.

As the mouse is moved across the table top, the small arrow is moved

across the menu bar, revealing various submenus. By moving the

pointer so that it is over the desired menu or submenu and releasing the

mouse button, that particular function can be activated.

On the right side of the screen are located various drawing/painting

options such as drawing point size, shape selection, symmetry on/off,

color selector, enlargement device, cut/paste gadget, etc.

PHOTO 2: The mouse, a hand-held palm-size device which is rolled

across a table surface while its pointer moves correspondingly

across the computer screen.

PHOTO 3: A digitized full-color painting with selected text below,

seen here in black and white. Such digitized images can be of art work,

artists, art tools, techniques, step- by-step instruction, human figures,

animals, botanical forms, etc. The list is endless.

Once digitized, these images can easily be arranged sequentially

according to chronology, artist, title, media, technique or anything else

the user may have in mind. In addition, not only can close-ups be included to show specific areas in

greater detail, but specified compositional or color/value

patterns can also be highlighted. When the images have been

sequenced, they can be "played" back either singly, or in their

entirety once or repeatedly. The sequence can also be videotaped and played back on any VCR and TV set.

cheaper than equipment costing at least twice as much just a few years ago. Computers such as the Amiga, Atari ST, and the Macintosh offer unsurpassed graphics capabilities in low to moderate price ranges.

Anotner reason tor the art teacher's reluctance to enter the computer world may be his/her concern that as the new computer technology invades the art room, it will detract from that highly cherished notion about creativity.

The computer in the art room can actually enhance the creative thinking and output of student artists. It can do this, in large measure, due to the speed with which it can respond to the artist's desire to alter images. In a few mere seconds, a single visual idea can be altered by the artist in many ways until he or she finds what best suits his/her ultimate vision. The idea can then either be finished on the computer or trans- ferred to more traditional media for completion.

Such image manipulation would take many hours and many class periods using more traditional approaches. Thus more ideas can be tried out quickly until a "just right" solution is found. The speed of such graphic manipulation can result in not only a more effective visual idea but also higher level of motivation for the student.

But perhaps the most pervasive and serious concern for art teachers with

42 Art Education/September 1988



regard to computers in the art room seems to be his/her lack of knowledge (or fear of lack of knowledge) about computers - how they work, what they can do, and how they are programmed!

Simply put, you don't have to know how the computer works nor do you have to have any programming knowledge to use today's new breed of computer!

It's as basic and simple as this: if you can do it on paper, you can do it on a computer. It just takes getting used to the new drawing instrument. Traditional concepts - new techniques! In effect, the computer becomes an extension of the artist. After all, haven't artists throughout the centuries embraced advances in technology? The computer becomes merely another tool with which the artist may work to further explore and visualize his personal vision.

Because today's computers offer high speed processing, high resolution pictures, and modest price, they are ideal for doing everything from making preliminary sketches and drawings to producing finished, full color designs and paintings to creating informational and instructional picture/text resources and data bases on topics as wide ranging as tools and equipment, techniques and procedures and art history to maintaining budget, inventory items as well as student grades.

Unfortunately, reading and talking about such computer technology does not do enough to stir the enthusiasm and interest needed to become involved with computers. By far the most compelling factor in encouraging involvement with

PHOTO 4: Perspective can also be achieved on the computer. When this function of the software program is activated, the user can place any image into perspective simply by cutting the area desired, typing in the desired angle of perspective and pasting the image back where desired on the screen.

By Selecting one part of an image at a time, a full multiple-point perspective picture can be achieved.

PHOTO 5: Radial and cyclic symmetry can be created with great ease and speed by using the symmetry function. Once the symmetry center and the number of points desired have been selected, it's a simple matter to create a symmetrical design using the mouse. On the left is an example of cyclic symmetry and on the right an example of radial symmetry.

PHOTO 6: The color control palette allows the user to select and change any color using RGB (additive primary colors) slide controls, enabling control over hue, value and saturation. The user can also select a specific "spread" of colors between two end colors. For instance, by selecting red at one end of the color range and blue at the other end, a graduated scale of colors will automatically be created in between, providing for a range of red, red-violets, violet, blue-violets and finally blue. The same can be done for gray scales or value- intensity variations of one of several colors.


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PHOTO 7: The digitized Mona Lisa (left) is edited at close range using

the magnify mode (right). By selecting the degree of enlargement,

the artist can effectively edit each colored pixel on the screen.

PHOTO 8: Lettering of all types, colors and effects can be achieved

on the computer. Here, in the word artistic, airbrush-like metallic

letters were achieved by using a dithering technique to mix various values into a gradient. Below this,

block letters were extruded by "pulling them down and at an angle using the mouse. The word "glow"

was achieved by sequentially changing the size and value of the

word from large to small. Virtually any effect that the user can think of

is possible.

a computer is hands-on experience. The old adage, "seeing is believing," is applicable here.

Sitting down and actually working with a computer and seeing all of its capabilities can be overwhelming at first. However, with a little practice it becomes routine and allows access to a powerful tool with which new graphic visions may be explored.

Unfortunately, many art educators may have little or no access to computers. And if they do, it is likely that such computers (in a school setting) are primarily equipped for word processing or scientific-mathematical problem solving. All of this does not give a true picture of the computer's total capabilities. And, of course, as with everything else in technology, some computers are better suited to graphic imagery than others.

Computers such as the Macintosh, the Amiga, and the Atari ST have gone a long way to make working with computers easy and simple. In conjunc- tion with sophisticated software programming, they create a visual working environment, what some call a "graphic interface" or "window" system. This visual environment takes ease of computing far ahead of the traditional keyboard (word-oriented) approach. And, because this system is so visual, it's perfect for the visually-oriented individual - the artist, art teacher, art student

In this visual environment icons and images are moved on the screen to select procedures or processes with which to work. But such selections are generally not done with the keyboard (options may allow that). Instead, a gadget called a mouse is used.

This palm-size device is rolled along a desk or tabletop surface by the hand and allows a small pointer to move


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correspondingly across the computer screen. By pressing one of the buttons located at the top of the mouse, many drawing, painting, and image-altering functions can be activated, such as drawing tools and techniques (size of drawing point, straight or curved lines), shapes (circles, squares, polygons, ellipses), grid, color palette control, color cycling, color blending, airbrush effects, cut and paste, repeat shapes, distort/re-size shapes, cyclic or radial symmetry, perspective, magnify and more ... the list is limited only by the user's abilities and imagination.

The mouse, in addition to function- ing as a selector for various tools and techniques, also becomes the drawing instrument itself, replacing the pencil as the means by which lines, shapes, colors, etc. are drawn onto the screen. It's simple. It's direct. It's like drawing on paper. And, while the feel of the mouse may seem a bit awkward at first, in virtually no time it becomes second nature and can handle as easily and as controllably as the pencil. It offers the flexibility and control necessary to perform just about any visual function.

But there are other methods of entering information besides the mouse. Information can be entered via the keyboard (a very non-visual approach but good for!entering text information), or with an electronically sensitive drawing tablet and pen (expensive and unnecessary except insofar as it provides a more traditional "pencil- paper" drawing relationship, an approach easily overcome with a few "mouse" sessions) and digitized imagery, perhaps the most exciting and interesting, in which any visual image, from life or photographs, in black and white or full color, can be electronically scanned and placed onto the computer screen to view as is or to modify with a drawing/painting program.

PHOTO 9: Here effects such as the undulating musical staff (vertical bend function), the cast shadow (paste brush) and the value variation within the staff (dithering or gradient fill), time-consuming techniques with traditional media such as paint and ink, are com- pleted in a relatively short time and with considerable ease on the computer.

PHOTO 10: This simple still life makes use of functions such as line drawing, dithering (gradient fill) and smoothing (mixing adjacent values for a blended effect).




PHOTO 11: Simple black and white designs, cartoons and comic strips

can be done cleanly, easily and quickly on the computer. Because

the computer takes care of alignment, assuring true verticals

and horizontals, the artist can concentrate on his ideas rather than

the technicalities of measurement.

PHOTO 12: This simple landscape painting was produced using effects

such as line drawing, airbrush, gradient fill and cut/paste.

Once the art work is finished, it can be saved to disk and retrieved for later viewing or further editing. The com- pleted image(s) can then be displayed in several ways.

LIVE DISPLAY. The image can be viewed "live" directly on the computer TV screen as soon as it is finished. It can also be loaded from a disk and displayed "live" at any other time. With script-based software, such as can be found in page-flipping and animation programs, many images can be programmed for display in specified order and at a specified rate of speed to achieve "slide show" or cel-type animation effects!

VIDEOTAPED DISPLAY. The image, either single or in sequences (as slide-show or animation) can be videotaped directly and shown through any VCR on any TV set.

PHOTOGRAPHED IMAGE. The image can also be photographed, either with color slide film for large projection or color (and black and white) print film for prints.

PRINTER HARD COPY. With a dot matrix or other graphic printer, computer art can also be printed out as hard copy, either in black, white, and gray or full color.

The computer is, indeed, an extraordinary technological develop- ment. Its versatility, ease of operation and ability to manipulate graphic information in an extremely rapid and controlled manner make it an important enhancement not only for the art room, but for the artist and the art teacher as well. D-

NOTE: Photos are actual, James D'Angelo is a high school art unretouched screen shots taken off teacher in Hawthorne, New Jersey.

of an RGB color monitor screen. The program used was DeLuxe

Paint II (tm) and was created on a Commodore Amiga 2000 (tm)

computer. Digitized images were created using New-Tek's Digi-View

(tm) digitizing hardware and software.


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