Fandom High School

The Wonderful World of Art [Tuesday, 3rd Period]

2025-06-24T14:49:44Z

Posted by: jedigrammarians

There were brilliant white overalls set out for people to wear today, as well as equally brilliant white drapes set up all over the class room, including over several bucket shaped objects. None of this was at all suspicious.

No doubt it would come completely as a surprise when with a utterly terrifying warcry of "ART ATTACK!" Aphra leapt in a conveniently open window and started throwing waterbombs filled with food dye at random. Isabela made a slightly more dignified entrance (if only because Aphra was drawing everyone's attention) with an actual sneak attack from behind.

Needless to say, those drape covered buckets were also full of dye-filled balloons.

Unlike other dye adjacent activities today, there would be no winner. Or rather, you would all be winners. Colourful, colourful winners.

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The Wonderful World of Art [Tuesday, 3rd Period]

2025-06-17T13:58:40Z

Posted by: good_for_six

Various crafting stations wear set up around the classroom today, filled with various kinds of beads, cords, wires, and various other bits and bobs.

"Today we're looking at a kind of art very close to my heart," Isabela said. "Literally. It's jewellery. Which is very important to Rivaini in general and Rivaini pirates in particular. We like to wear our wealth." That Isabela's taste in jewellery happened to draw the eye to her other assets was an extremely welcome side-benefit.

"Of course, our budget doesn't really go towards actual precious metals," Aphra added, mostly because they had spent it on...other things. "But we've got a heap of tutorials and we're sure you'll find something that speaks to you, maybe you'll find you have a gift."

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The Wonderful World of Art [Tuesday, 3rd Period]

2025-06-10T14:09:13Z

Posted by: jedigrammarians

The projector was set up at the front of the class again.

Once everyone had settled, Aphra started. "Sometimes the thing about art is that there is no 'why?', just a 'why not?' and that's beautiful."

"If occasionally worrying," Isabela added. "Are the Australians okay?"

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The Wonderful World of Art [Tuesday, 3rd Period]

2025-06-03T13:42:45Z

Posted by: good_for_six

There were easels set up around the room, and in the centre of it was a display of fruit. Very suggestive fruit.

"We're going back tot eh basics for this one," Aphra told the class. "Drawing from life."

"We were planning on doing actual life drawing, to give you the experience," Isabela added. "Unfortunately the only person responding to our ad for a model was Tino." And despite what some might think, Isabela did have standards.

"So, fruit."

"Fruit. That was once alive, so technically it counts."

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The Wonderful World of Art [Tuesday, 3rd Period]

2025-05-27T14:40:45Z

Posted by: jedigrammarians

"Conceptual art," Aphra announced to the class. Almost randomly. "The most abstract of abstract art."

Not that they'd explained abstract art. Or post-modernism, or even just plain modernism. You know, the kind of things that might give the class some background here.

"At its best, it challenges ideas about culture, politics, the idea of art itself," Aphra continued without care in the world. "At its worst, it's random nonsense. And sometimes the the only difference between the two is your ability to spine a line convincing people your random nonsense has meaning." She did not sound like she thought this was an entirely bad thing.

"And how much you're able to con out of someone with too much money and too little sense of aesthetics," Isabela added. Helpfully.

"So today we'd like you to pick out a random medium, create something, then swap art with a classmate and explain your new artwork's deep and meaningful meaning."

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The Wonderful World of Art [Tuesday, 3rd Period]

2025-05-20T15:17:26Z

Posted by: good_for_six

Even more inevitably than death and taxes, Isabela and Aphra had the movie projector set up.

"Now that you've introduced yourselves to us through art, it's time to introduce you to one of many forms of art that some of you may not be familiar with."

Look, sometimes it took more effort than other times to justify why exactly they were playing this.

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The Wonderful World of Art [Tuesday, 3rd Period]

2025-05-13T13:49:48Z

Posted by: jedigrammarians

The class had received instructions to meet in the art room, which would indicate that whatever Aphra and Isabela had planned, they were planning on easing the class into it.

In the art room itself, there were all kinds of various arts supplies laid out, mostly the kinds of things you'd use for painting or sketching, but also the odd, more esoteric media as well.

"Art," Aphra declared. "It's great."

"And valuable," Isabela added, then quickly followed up with "For self-expression."

"Which is why, instead of introducing yourselves to us with your words, we want you to do it with your art." Yes, Aphra thought she sounded deep.

"Pick whichever medium speaks to you and create something that tells the class about how you are." In Isabela's not at all humble opinion, they sounded so deep.

Also how else were they supposed to get an idea of what they were working with. They needed to know if any of you had valuable skills.

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Renaissance Art & Engineering, Friday, October 27, 2023

2023-10-27T14:31:36Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

Well, it was Renaissance class time again, and your teachers were surrounded by art.

Well.

"Art."

Ala Walmart. Mona Lisa costumes, posters of statues, "Pull-My-Finger" riffs on the Sistine Chapel art, dress me up David refrigerator magnets...the piles of stuff were overwhelming.

Steve looked a little green around the edges.

"Well."

Apparently what's going on had effected our orders for class " Tony said, tilting his head at what was delivered.

"And it's horrifying," Steve added.

"Let's just... call this a wash," Tony suggested. "Head back to the dorms. Hope that we can get this fixed for next week."

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Art is for Everyone, Wednesday, April 19, 2023

2023-04-19T14:01:54Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

"Today's our last class together," Steve said with a smile, "and since the entire purpose of this class was to find joy in creativity, today's a free-for-all."

Which explained why Dum-E was in the corner with a fire extinguisher.

"Personally, I suggest finger painting," Tony said because it had less chance of being foamed by Dum-E over there.

But never zero. "I'm going to sketch," Steve added.

"Hopefully you've all learned something here," Tony added. "Have a great summer."

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Art is for Everyone, Wednesday, April 12, 2023

2023-04-12T13:50:55Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

You had two teachers who were teacher-shaped today, so there was that going for you, and they were already snacking on half-priced Easter candy, so there was another win.

"Today we're making pinatas!" Steve said excitedly.

They hadn't been inspired by a streaming service's contest, how dare you.

"We did paper mache and now this is just a logical extension of that," Tony said. "With candy as the reward."

Weren't you glad to be in this class?

Steve nodded. "Because art can be playful and fun," he said. "We've got cardboard, paper, stuff to make frames out of, all the good stuff. Make a pinata that reminds you of Fandom: a gremlin, a teal deer--" a giant whackable Dean Skywalker face, whatever, "--even the castle if you're feeling ambitious."

"Use your imagination and do whatever you can think of," Tony added.

Maybe not the moose. He was surly.

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Art is For Everyone, Wednesday, March 22, 2023

2023-03-22T14:53:03Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

Today's classroom had been set up with safety in mind--there were coveralls, eye protection, and heavy shoes for everyone. There were also sheets of metal and blowtorches.

"Today I'm going to let Tony take the lead," Steve said with a proud smile, "since this is his area of art expertise."

"It's metalwork day," Tony said cheerfully. Because, yes, this was his sort of art. "Now this can be dangerous, so Captain Rogers and I will be keeping a closer eye on you guys for it."

With that caveat, he went into the possibly too detailed explanation of the process and equipment being provided to the class.

There was the sound of banging on the door and Steve opened it to the sight of Dum-E, Tony's helper robot, wielding a fire extinguisher. "Oh no," Steve said before he could stop himself.

"And... also Dum-E to help supervise," Tony said, sighing as he just knew the flame retardant was in his future.

"Make something simple," Steve said, "like a bookend. Get a feel for the equipment and the metal. Don't burn anything or anyone."

"And the safety equipment is mandatory!" Because Tony was allowed to get burned a little, but the students weren't.

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Art is For Everyone, Wednesday, March 15, 2023

2023-03-15T15:23:27Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

There was a large pile of rubber chickens in the classroom this week. Just go with it, okay? Just go with it.

"So this week is on modern art," Tony said, eyeing the pile.

"Modern art's not always incredibly weird," Steve felt compelled to add, "but sometimes it gets a little...out there."

"And we had a surplus of these, so..." Clearly it was the best solution! "You can cut them up, paint them, do whatever it is that you want," Tony said. "But the chickens must be in your project."

"And then you have to explain it," Steve said, nodding.

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Art is for Everyone, Wednesday, March 1, 2023

2023-03-01T15:26:59Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

Well, one of your teachers still looked pleasantly tanned from your trip abroad, class. The other looked very much like he always did, which was part of the deal with super serum: amazing healing ability but also no lasting suntan. Since Steve was Irish, he'd never had a lasting suntan anyway, so he didn't feel like he was missing out much. "We promised you pottery before our break," he said with a little smile, "so today we'll...pot." No, that wasn't right. "Sculpt! Today we sculpt."

"Sculpt," Tony agreed with a laugh. "We have pottery wheels if you're feeling dangerous, but today will be more about getting a feel for the clay and what you can do with it."

That phrasing definitely would've gone badly during pollen week. "Think of it like Playdoh from when you were a kid," Steve advised. "Make lots of long snakes, then stack them up to make a vase. Once you have your basic shape, we'll let them dry and you can paint them next week. If you finish early, feel free to sketch out your plans for what the final piece will look like."

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Art is for Everybody, Wednesday, February 15, 2023

2023-02-15T15:04:38Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

If the teachers at the front of the class looked slightly more rumpled than usual, they weren't going to mention it and they would appreciate you also not noticing.

"So, we were going to try out pottery today but decided that seemed like a bad idea this week," Steve said, blushing.

"So, instead, we're onto watercolors," Tony said, not blushing at all. Because he was Tony Stark, thank you. "We'll try again with pottery soon, though."

"We have a landscape for you to try out copying," Steve said, flipping the most boring photo he could find onto the wall for them. Waving grasses, placid lake, nothing remotely phallic.

"Calming. Relaxing," Tony said with a zen smile. "All very helpful here this week."

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Art is for Everyone, Wednesday, February 1, 2023

2023-02-01T15:26:13Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

"Tony's feeling a little under the weather today," Steve said with a smile to the students as they arrived, "so we'll do a project without him just this once."

He gestured to the white wall behind him where he'd hammed a series of nails into it. "Today we're going to explore string art. We'll arrange colored thread between points to form geometric patterns. Even though we're forming straight lines are formed by the string, the slightly different angles and metric positions at which strings intersect gives the appearance of curves, which is fun and mathematical. String art has gotten much more complex thanks to artists using computers to design their works--you can even make photorealistic string art these days--and because string is a three-dimensional media, you can make really interactive displays."

He pushed a few buttons on the Danger Shop controls and one of the corners of the room filled with giant tape art displays. "Go for a walk through that display, get inspired, and then come back over here and work on a project of your own," Steve said.

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Art is for Everyone, Wednesday, January 25, 2023

2023-01-25T15:18:03Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

Today there were very attractive painting coveralls for the students to put on before they entered the white space with a giant, ten foot tall and wide canvas hanging on the wall.

"Today we're exploring splatter painting," Steve said, looking excited.

"So, a bit of a mess," Tony said. "But a fun one! Like the finger painting, but to a much larger scale."

Something like that.

"And it also serves to show that making a painting like this look like something nice is a lot harder than it seems," Steve said. "There's a reason a Jackson Pollock goes for millions."

Did Tony own one? Probably.

"Let's get changed into the provided coveralls and give it a try!" Tony suggested. "Everyone take a portion of the canvas."

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Art is for Everyone, Wednesday, January 18, 2023

2023-01-18T15:00:06Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

Today there were charcoal pencils of various sizes and those same two still life models of Avengers Tower and a fruit basket.

It was a new fruit basket, though. Fresh fruit and all.

"Welcome back," Tony said. "Today is, the medium is charcoal. Which is about as messy as engine grease, I've found."

Steve had a swipe of charcoal going from the side of his nose, along his cheek, and into his beard that he hadn't noticed yet, so he chuckled and shook his head. "I don't think it's that messy. This is a little like playing with the fingerpaints earlier in that it's much more tactile, but it combines what we did with the pencils because you only have one shade of color to be working with."

Tony hummed and would decidedly not be telling Steve about his smudges. Because he was far too polite for it. Or something. "Again, feel free to play around with it and get a feel for the material before starting."

"And remember that half the fun of this medium is using your fingers to smudge the lines," Steve added. "It shouldn't feel too precise."

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Art is For Everyone, Wednesday, January 4, 2023

2023-01-04T15:26:24Z

Posted by: heroic_jawline

Did the classroom the students walked into look a little elementary school adjacent? Maybe. It was bright, colorful, and full of smocks.

Steve wasn't wearing one. He was in a white t-shirt and a pair of khaki pants. "Hello!" he said, beaming at them as they arrived. "We're going to have so much fun this semester."

Tony was wearing one, but mostly because it was the vibe and not out of real concern for his clothing. Because so much of his casual stuff had engine grease stains or burn marks from soldering. "With art! That everyone can do," he added. "Even me."

Tony looked adorable. Well. Steve thought so. "Art is an excellent form of stress relief," he said, "as long as you don't get stuck in your head worrying about the right way to do things. This class will not be about stressing over technique. This will be about enjoying being creative."

"As such, our intro to the class will start off with fingerpainting," Tony said. "You can make whatever you like. But to fit in with the first day theme... aim for what you think expresses you best."

"Tony and I will be making art, too," Steve said with a smile, "and then before class is over, we'll all talk about our paintings."

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Art, Thursday, Period Three

2018-04-05T18:45:48Z

Posted by: geniuswithasmartphone

After being one of the few teachers to hold class last week, Hardison didn't feel all that guilty about canceling this one.

I was gonna have us practicing Life Drawing. That seems like a terrible plan and I've been too distracted to come up with a better one. Go home, do some art, call it good.

Sorry not sorry, kids.

[My apologies, though! It somehow never registered that today was Thursday!]

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Art, Thursday, Period Three

2018-03-29T07:22:39Z

Posted by: geniuswithasmartphone

Hardison was not exactly thrilled to have to dodge his way through the town-wide snowball fight. The gremlins were ambush masters and when they couldn't peg you with a snowball, they did their best to bite you. But Hardison could run when he needed to and had managed to make it to the school unscathed--and if the gremlins had brought their snowball fight up here to the school, they hadn't made it all the way to this little patch of grounds near the art classroom.

The snow here was still heavy and wet and mostly untouched. Perfect. He went around marking off mostly equivalent sized squares, while waiting for the class to show up. They'd find a note on the door telling them not to take off their winter gear and to head around to the outside.

"Hey y'all," he said when the class had mostly assembled. "So, we've talked about various other kinda sculptin', but today we're goin' with snow sculptin'. There are huge festivals every year where folks get together an' sculpt giant sculptures outta snow, mixin' fine art with performance art, as they do it in front of folks over a span of hours to days. Now, we ain't got the time or resources to do huge sculptures like that, but we got plenty of snow--" more than seemed reasonable, really "--an' an hour, so we can at least play around a bit."

He went over some quick instructions on different ways to build a snow sculpture. He had any number of potential ~~moddable~~ tools with him: sand buckets, jello molds, coolers, chisels, shovels, trowels, plywood boards--pretty much anything they might need to shape the snow.

And hopefully no gremlins would come along and ruin it.

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Art, Thursday, Period Three

2018-03-22T05:14:21Z

Posted by: geniuswithasmartphone

"Sometimes," Hardison said, "you wanna make art but you don't have the supplies. No oils, no paints, no pencils, no brushes, no cameras, not even pens or pencils to doodle with. But so long as you got even a single sheet of paper, you can make art."

Not that Hardison was going to limit them to just a single sheet of paper. Every table had several boxes of paper in various thicknesses, colors, and even designs. "I'm sure most of y'all know origami, the Japanese art form of paper foldin', though China an' Korea have their own versions as well. One German artist, Simon Schubert even uses small folds and creases in his art to create images that almost look painted on."

He started passing out books with patterns for people to copy if they wanted to get a start on paper folding.

"There's also the art of quillin', which takes strips of paper an' then rolls, twists, or folds 'em and then glues 'em down into patterns an' shapes to create a three-dimensional picture. These often to lead to bright an' colorful images as several different colors of paper are used. One popular method of quillin' involves using paper that has different colors an' images on either side, so as it's twisted, you get flashes of both sides throughout the pattern."

All right class, get to folding.

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Art, Thursday, Period Three

2018-03-15T05:57:21Z

Posted by: geniuswithasmartphone

A few years ago, when Hardison had been teaching a slightly different class, he'd called his old friend Mike to bring the class into his studio to watch him blow glass sculptures. And last week, he'd called him again to see if Mike would be amenable to another group tour.

...It turned out the answer was yes, because Mike had made a decent bit of money over the years hosting tours for other groups, but he was willing to do this one pro bono since Hardison had been the one to make the suggestion originally.

Hardison met his class at the front of the school, a portal ready to whisk them away. "Ready to go learn somethin' cool?" he asked. "One thing--where we're goin' is dangerous an' can be kinda expensive. Be careful an' respectful while we're there, especially when you're at the hands-on section of the class, a'ight?"

And with that, he gestured to the students to go through the portal.

The other side was the exact opposite of the cold they'd come from. Furnaces dotting the room put out enormous amounts of heat. There was a place for them to hang up their heavy outer gear and then they were being hustled into the center of the room, out of the way of anyone briskly walking about. "Welcome to a glass blowin' studio," he said as a man came over to greet them. "This is my boy, Mike, who's agreed to give y'all a demonstration of how to blow glass an' let us use his studio for a bit to mess around. Mike's a professional glass artist, been doin' this for years." And had taught Hardison to blow glass for a con, not that Mike had known that at the time.

...Or now, really.

Mike stepped forward and began to explain how to blow glass, complete with a demonstration.

"Y'all got that?" Hardison asked when he was done. "Awesome. Cause now it's your turn to make somethin'. Folks from Mike's studio are around to help an' offer advice, but y'all have free rein to look around an' experiment with a couple different items to create."

[First link to wikipedia, second to a Youtube video with narration.]

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Art, Thursday, Period Three

2018-03-01T18:38:21Z

Posted by: geniuswithasmartphone

"Yo, next week is spring break and I know most of you ain't really payin' attention to classes today," Hardison said. "So we got a movie about one of the greatest artists of the modern era, Frida Kahlo. A Mexican artist, her work explores identity, culture, postcolonialism, gender, class, an' race. She'd planned to be a doctor, but an accident at eighteen nearly killed her an' left her bedridden for months. That was when she began truly paintin' in earnest."

He gestured for the class to take seats in front of the screen he'd rigged up. "Get comfortable an' let's do this," he said.

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Art, Thursday, Period Three

2018-02-22T09:56:44Z

Posted by: geniuswithasmartphone

Hardison was glad Spring Break had fallen late this year; it meant he got to talk about one last black artist before Black History Month was over. "Barkley L. Hendricks is probably one of the most famous African-American oil painters to date. While he worked in many different mediums, including photography an' landscape paintin', he was best known for his life-sized oil portraits of African-American life. He blended together American realism an' post-modernism in order to create works intended to show that black folks were just as worthy of portraiture as well. He painted celebrities, leaders of the Black Power an' Civil Rights movements, protesters an' victims of police violence, as well as himself, friends, family, an' strangers. But he just depicted them as people, them all the same dignity in art that others had been awarded for years." Hardison handed out several prints of Hendrick's portraits for the students to examine and pass around, including one print just to shove the scale Hendricks worked in. "Lawdy Mama was painted in 1969, after Hendricks toured Europe, falling in love with several artists' styles but not seein' himself or his people represented in art there. Other paintings like Passion Dancehall an' Blood show modern, funky subjects while playin' around with color. He was also not afraid to get political, like his mixed-media work In the Crosshairs of the States. Hendricks died just last year in his home in Connecticut, havin' elevated both the art of oil paintin' an' the place of black folks as subjects in modern art."

That lecture over, he directed the students' attention over to the tables, where easels were set up. "So, oil paintin' is probably the most archetypal of the fine arts. It evokes the works of the great masters, of portraits of royalty an' nobility, of any number of museums you might have been to. Wanna make someone look intelligent an' refined in media? Hang an oil paintin' on the wall somewhere in their house. Wanna shorthand to show that someone is a real artist? Let 'em work with oils or have oil paint detritus in their house. Either way, the audience instantly realizes who this character is meant to be. However, oil paints are expensive, finicky to work with, an' take forever to dry. That's why oil sticks were invented; they're blocks of rich pigment in stick form, lettin' you draw an' color right on the canvas. You can also blend sticks to get different colors an' add layers for shading an' texture, just like you could with regular oil paints."

Even as much as Hardison loved to paint with his oils, there was just no way to get a painting done in a single class period.

"Today, you're gonna experiment with portraits. Use each other for models or one of your photographs if you took any of people, or snag a selfie on your phone an' use it for the basis of a self-portrait. Go nuts. You might wanna experiment with the sticks first, just to get a feel for how they work. Another great thing about oils? If you make a mistake, you can just scrape the pigment right off the canvas and try again."

Try doing that with watercolors!

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Art, Thursday, Period Three

2018-02-15T19:42:58Z

Posted by: geniuswithasmartphone

"I was originally gonna talk about another black photographer today as we learn to develop film," Hardison said as the students came into the darkened art room. There were blackout curtains over every window and a series of red lights were strung around the room for when he turned the overhead light off as well. "But history was made the other day with the unveiling of the Obama portraits. Not only are these the official portrait of our first African-American president and First Lady, but also these are the first official presidential portraits painted by African-American artists. President Obama's portrait was painted by Kehinde Wiley is an established portrait artist, his work had been in demand for over a decade an' recently been featured on Kingdom, that TV show about a black media mogul. Previous subjects of Wiley's have included LL Cool J, Michael Jackson, and Notorious B.I.G, an' he's known for paintin' them in similar poses to fancy historical figures. His work is known for its rich use of color and general homoeroticism, though the latter is missin' from Obama's portrait. Mrs. Obama's portrait was done by Amy Sherald, the first woman to win the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, in 2016. Still, she was a relatively obscure artist until she won the commission for this portrait. So, in case anyone tries to say that African-American excellence in art is a thing of the past, y'all can understand that, no, it's still thrivin'."

( Dark Room fun times )

And now Hardison was holding a picture of Eliot and Parker in the kitchen of their home, Eliot cooking and Parker laughing, both looking relaxed and happy. "By the time class is over, you should have all your pictures developed an' can pick out the best fifteen to submit."

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