Category: Portraits

Simple Animated Portraits that Blink

10/17/2018

Here is a simple idea for an animated portrait using two apps: Keynote and Ezgif.com
I wrote a post over the summer about how to use keynote for making portraits: explore it here. This will help you go through the steps of importing a photo, tracing over it, and using transparent color shapes to fill the portrait with color.

Step one: draw a portrait

Import a photo into a slide in Keynote, trace & color a portrait. Delete the photo.

Step two: duplicate and blink

Copy your drawing, click + for a new slide, paste. Redraw the eyes to make them close. Use the "..." to export slides as images to the camera roll.

Step three: make the gif

Go to https://ezgif.com/maker to make a gif from your two images. (You use this website from an iPad or desktop/laptop computer.) Click the "copy" button under the image with the eyes open until you have 9 copies and one of the image with eyes closed. This will make a nicely timed blink. Make the animation and save it (if on an iPad, click the save icon, click and hold on the gif, choose "save image" to put it in the camera roll.)

More examples of Animated Portraits

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DonorsChoose 3D Lego Portrait Grant

8/29/2018

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Donate to our Grant

Years back our art room received an ABC/25 Foundation grant for a lego wall. We've done some amazing collaborative pieces over the years like our Black History Lego Portraits, Rotational Symmetry, and Character Counts murals. Now we would like to try to make 3D lego portraits individually. This will require more plates and more legos. I wrote a DonorsChoose.org grant to help get the supplies we need. Please consider helping us with any size donation. Thank you!

Support our 3D Lego Portrait Grant

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Using Photoshop Fix to Animate Art

7/14/2018

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I've been playing with the drawing feature in Keynote ever since I learned about it at ISTE18. See my post with steps and a tutorial here.
I also have been working on animating robots lately too. Now the two ideas are coming together. At first I started thinking about making a portrait then trying to make it move through redrawing it in stages using the Brushes App. You can see below that I redrew the eyes by moving the irises and making them blink. These drawn, saved as steps, and complied in EZGIF.com to make an animated GIF.

After I shared this on twitter, Donna Robards shared her idea for animating the keynote drawing in Photoshop Fix app using the liquify tools.

Love how you can modify the KeyNote Drawing using paint in Photoshop Fix for blink & open smile (hadn’t tried that), then use liquify options scaled down to finely adjust facial expressions like cross frown. pic.twitter.com/ZN2hOawSlr
— Donna Robards (@donna_robards) July 14, 2018

That made me super excited to explore. I dowloaded the app, but found that it wanted a sign in. I wonder how that will work on my art room iPads? (May be a deal breaker) But, meanwhile, I'm going to play a bit. I found that if the app recognizes a face, you get tools specific to the face to help you "liquify" the drawing to make changes. It's really easy to go overboard. Here are a few of my attempts.

The process of changing a face's expression requires a different set of observational skills since the change needs to happen in multiple places gradually and sequentially. I haven't perfected this, but I'm seeing what I'm missing and it's forcing me to study expressions closely (which is great for my young artists).

I loaded the Keynote drawing into the Photoshop Fix app and saved it (just in case the format changed. All images have to have the exact sizes to blend nicely as a GIF.

1. Original drawing made with keynote drawing feature

2. slight upturn of lips, cheeks, eyebrows

3. Nudge up again on lips, cheeks, eybrows

4. Nudge again at lips, cheeks, eyebrows

I uploaded the images to the GIF MAKER tool on EZGIF.com (works on iPads-just fine).
This is where I can adjust the speed, crop, and duplicate frames to customize the GIF.

I copy frames to make the sequence loop smoothly: 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2 and slow the speed to 50

One drawing modified 3 times and turned into an animated GIF

The Blink

When I first started trying to animate my portrait I was using the Brushes app to redraw only the eyes. I thought it would be the most effective and easy feature to move in a portrait. So, I erased and redrew each stage of this animation, saved it to the camera roll and used EZGIF to make the animation.

Trying to combine Brushes and Photoshop Fix didn't work since the different apps resized the image slightly differently. This made the GIF jump awkwardly. I manually corrected it, but I will need to re-think this for my students. If all the animation can happen in one app, the problem would be solved. Need to explore photoshop fix some more. If you can draw in the app, then no need to use brushes.

I tried drawing over the eyes to make a blink in the middle of the sequence

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Keynote for iPad: Drawing Feature

6/30/2018

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Drawing of Alodie Gossh using Keynote Drawing feature on iPad

I just started playing with the apps that I learned about during ISTE18 in Chicago. One that I'm really drawn to is an updated version of an old Apple app, Keynote. As of spring I learned from @karlyb that keynote had added a drawing feature to their iPad app. As I was searching this topic on twitter I found Mrs. Kellenberger's twitter feed showing student drawings like this one made using Keynote. She shared her tutorial that she made for her students (below) demonstrating a contour line drawing over a photo.

1. Bring in a photo in a new presentation in the Keynote iPad app. I like to go to the image editor and change the opacity to 50% so I can see my black lines better.

2. After I create a contour line drawing (see our funny Fugleflick about this kind of drawing) scoot the photo off to the side as a reference. Change it back to full opacity so you can use the eye dropper tool to select the actual colors for your portrait.

3. I used the fill tool for adding colors. I set the colors to semi-transparent so I could layer in base colors, highlights, and shadows. I like how the tool requires you to make a shape then it fills. Once you get the hang of it it's very quick and creates a loose painterly look. If I make a mistake I could hit undo or use the select tool to find the stroke and delete it.

4. You can export your project in a bunch of ways. What I like is the high quality png format for a still image. It looks like a vector drawing with clean edges that enlarges nicely. You can also export as a movie. To make the app replay your drawing you have to first click on the drawing, choose animate, and choose line draw then export.

Variation: Keep it simple

I really like the clean and loose look of the fill tool. I like the little edges of white that occur naturally when you try to make a shape to fill. I also like that when you keep the color semi-transparent, you can simply make shadows by layering the same color again over the shapes you had already made. It becomes darker the more the color is layered. It's fast, easy, and very effective.

You can make your art layered and detailed in this app or you can keep it simple and cartoonish. I like both. I think I'll be aiming towards portraits like these below with my students, at least at first.

Resource: Learn about Contour Line Drawing from Grandpa Pencil (Fugleflick)

Drawing From Experience from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

UPDATE: #KeynoteDrawingChallenge

Mrs. Kellenberger and I challenged Twitter folks to surprise people with a portrait using the drawing function in the Keynote app and challenge others to give it a try as well. I've been collecting their drawings in this Twitter Moment. Check it out!
Join in anytime and tag your art with #KeynoteDrawingChallenge & @fuglefun

Keynote Drawing Challenge

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Realistic George Washington Portrait

10/5/2017

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Learning to draw realistically:

This step-by-step lesson is available for download here on TPT as a powerpoint.

Second graders are learning how to map out a face, measure for the place and size of each feature, and look closely at each line as they draw a contour line drawing of George Washington in a three-quarters pose. Their portrait is based on the painting by Gilbert Stuart who sat in front of George Washington to paint. His accuracy helps all future generations know what the "father of our country" looked like.

Amazing Sketches:

The sketches were SO amazing that I photographed them (applied a high contrast filter to make them purely black and white) and uploaded them to Artsonia. We will start painting these next. View the gallery of sketches here.

I love their expressions so much I made a "FEELINGS CHART from them for fun.

Another feelings chart from these cute expressions

Finished paintings:

Finished paintings are in our Artsonia gallery here.

Learn about George Washington:

While students are learning to draw George Washington, it's a great time to learn about who he was. Below are links to some of the resources we use.

Click to view the BrainPop Jr Movie

16 minute-kid friendly DVD of GW

Students can take note while learning about George and reflect on what they would do as president

Digital Extensions:

This George Washington Portrait lends itself nicely to a bunch of digital extensions.

Click to go to Festiste and upload your art to the dollar bill template

Ipevo + magnifying adaptor to view dollar

Dollar bill etched drawing of GW

Students learned about masking and layers as they replaced their portrait face with their own using the Green Screen App by Do Ink. View the gallery here.

Students used my custom photo booth effect to talk through George Washington's portrait and share a fact about him they learned while creating his portraitto make this.

Facts About George Washington from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Download this template and import into Do Ink Green Screen app

Students can download the template of GW without a face to speak through the Gilbert Stuart portrait and share one fact they learned about George Washington and explain what they would do if they were president using the Green Screen app by Do Ink.

We can print stamp-sized copies of their art and practice labeling an envelope

Try animating the expression on your George Washington Portrait. See this post to find out how you can do this using a free app Brushes Redux and Ezgif.com to make a GIF.

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MAKE IT then MOVE IT: animated GIF

7/7/2017

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A long time ago I responded to Ian Sands on twitter asking for digital images of children's art that he could offer to his high school students to play with as they learn to animate. Some of his students selected my students "He Came with the Chair" paintings. The animations turned out SO adorable and inspiring-see example below or check them all out here. It has been one of my goals to figure out an elementary level lesson with a straightforward app that would give my students the experience of animating their own artwork in the same style. I think I might have figured it out. This technique isn't perfect, but, it will work.

If we had Procreate app: like photoshop

The Brushes Redux app (free) allows you to work with layers like photoshop; select and match colors, use different textured brushes, and save each layer individually-all things needed to make these animations. However, the app does not allow you to select parts of the image. That's how the feet were moved in the animation below. The artist selected the feet, rotated them a bit, and redrew the surrounding space to match. This is the element my students would need to work around unless we purchase Procreate app for the classroom which has all the tools we would need. Sounds like I should write a grant.

Original artwork by a Dryden 2nd grader

Animated using Photoshop by HS student

Alternative plan: Brushes Redux (free)

This alternative solution for making animated GIF using Brushes Redux is to redraw each change in the piece of art. You need to choose a piece of art that has colors, textures, and elements that can easily be REDRAWN since you can't select and move. So, let's look at these portraits of George Washington by second graders. They each have clear and solid black marker lines and a clean opaque paint. It would be easy to redraw the eyes, mouth, nose, or even the wig or shoulders. Here is my first run through:

Original drawing #1

redrawn irises and corners of mouth #2

Redrawn irises, mouth, eyebrows rise #3

Eyelids shutting, blush & smile increase #4

Changed blush, eyelids, mouth #5

These are the five drawings I sent to my camera roll after redrawing some changes to eyes, mouth, eyebrows, and skin color. One trick to make your colors match is by holding and pressing down over a color until the "circle of selection ring" shows up. You can drag that ring over any color you want to match from the painting. Lift up and touch down again and you're ready to paint. It's really quick and easy in this app. If I had trouble making the blush effect blend nicely in #4-#5 so I had to switch brush styles to something more transparent to airbrush it in. I didn't choose white or black to draw with, I chose the white-ish/black-ish color in it for consistency.

Screenshot of George Washington Painting in Brushes Redux

After importing your original image into a layer of Brushes Redux, you need to size it and never change it again. Consistency is really key for making the art look like it is moving. I deleted the extra transparent layer and chose the DUPLICATE button (double square +) from the top bar in the layers. I could only see the top layer so the bottom one didn't distract me, but to make sure I didn't draw on the wrong layer, I LOCK the bottom layer when I'm done with it (touch the lock symbol next to the image layer). I can use the eyeball feature to reveal and hide layers to check on how my changes are looking from one layer to the other. I would try to keep this animation simple by not exceeding 5 layers/drawings. It's hard to see all the layers in the app at one time when you get beyond 4. That can confuse your little artists. When you're ready to save your work: 1. close the eyeball on each layer expect your original (bottom layer), choose save to photos. 2. Open the eyeball on second layer and save to photos. 3. Repeat this until finished. This makes the images in the camera roll stay in order.

Screenshot from ezgif.com preparing animation sequence with duplicates

Now students can go to ezgif.com on their iPads and upload their images into the GIF maker. You'll see above that my five images are made into a sequence of 8 so that it will loop nicely. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are the drawings. I copied 4 and placed it after 5 so I could start reversing the sequence, followed by a copy of 3 and 2.
Let's spell this out clearly for little artists:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2 (sequence for 5 images in animation)
1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2 (sequence for 4 images in animation)
1, 2, 3, 2 (sequence for 3 images in animation)

Here is how it looks: (I used the crop tool to trim off white edges)

Quick Video Overview:

Use this video to introduce the project and help students see what the process requires.

MAKE IT then MOVE IT: ANIMATED GIF from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Thinking this through: (my notes)

Now that we went through the process, I'm trying to think about the age group that would do this project. I think that we could make this work for almost any age if I helped with file management. Brushes Redux will save their work from week to week in their gallery. So this could be a long term drawing project. When students are ready to save, we could upload their image sequence to a folder I make for them on dropbox. The dropbox app gives you the chance to rename a group of files. It becomes their name followed by the number. At this point, the files are safe and ready for uploading to the GIF maker in Ezgif.com. This could be done the following week. I could have them download the images into the camera roll in correct sequence with duplicates included as spelled out above.

Turn in art in order with help of Dropbox

screenshot of Wild Thing- layers in Brushes Redux

Another approach I might go with is to add structure the process since everything about it would be new to young learners. We could all work from the same gallery of images so we can tackle similar problems together. If we worked on, for example, these Wild Things from 1st grade, I could demonstrate how I would animate the eyes, mouth, and the horns. They might make other creative choices, but the problem-solving I demonstrate would transfer easily to their creative solutions.

4 drawings in this sequence: 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2 so it loops nicely

Examples:

The fifth graders' 3/4 pose portrait paintings are perfect for this animation lesson by making subtle changes in the expression. It forces the artist to think about what faces do to express emotion and map out a sequence of drawings to create this expression. This is a different form of expressionism (HA! Art teacher humor).

The fifth grade Light Up Robot painting is fun to animate with moving and blinking.

This 5th grade robot painting didn't have very much detail for me to animate. But, through the magic of digital drawing, I was able to add blinking lights, a moving lever, and a rotating gauge as I animated (see middle robot below).
Going through these steps made me wonder if knowing you are going to animate your robot digitally as an extension to the project would change the way you create it initially.

Added elements as I animated the robot

These first grade Lima Bean Monsters are perfect for this idea with their big features.

Animated Lima Bean Monsters by 1st graders

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Realistic and Abstract

4/25/2016

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My second graders had two very different portrait experiences this year. First they learned all the rules for creating a REALISTIC self-portrait with features drawn in the correct places with correct proportions. We carefully measured and studied the face to make these beautiful winter self portraits. View the gallery of finished work here.

Then, these same students were given cardboard, foam board, puzzle pieces, and odds and ends. They were shown examples from this School Arts article by Donna Staten and images of Picasso's cubist portraits. They were then told to go ahead and break all the rules to make ABSTRACT portraits. See the growing gallery here.

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Portraits with LED Accessories

1/30/2015

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I've developed a couple ideas in my quest to find ways to incorporate paper circuits in art work for my elementary students.
Above are two portrait paintings on paper that have paper circuits with copper tape, button cell batteries, and an LED light. When you push the button on the man's shirt or the broach around the woman's neck, the circuit is completed and the LED lights up. See the video below.

Click to enlarge

battery and copper tape

Paper circuit on back of art

Paintings with #papercircuits #Steam #artsed LED accessories

A video posted by Tricia Fuglestad (@fuglefun) on Jan 29, 2015 at 4:47pm PST

UPDATE: I tried adding the concept of paper circuits to a canvas painting. In this light up interactive painting there is no "button" to close the circuit. Instead there is a spring behind the painting over the cell battery. When you find and press the "sweet spot" the circuit is complete and the LED lights up the engagement ring.