Lesson video

Hello, my name is Simon, and I'm going to be delivering you this brand new course on Oak for new media.

And that means we've got.

New media, it's quite a strange thing, and it's quite a new thing.

And therefore, it links not just with art, but with contemporary art.

When we talk about contemporary art, we're talking about art that is made today, art that is made now, and in this time and era.

So it's quite an exciting thing to get stuck into.

If you like computer games, and you like robots and that type of thing, then new media is very much up your street.

So let's get stuck in.

Okay, so what we're going to be doing for this lesson in the first of five lessons on the theme, new media, we're going to first understand what new media art is, and then we're going to create some pixel art.

Now, don't be worried if you're thinking to yourself, "Well, I don't have this digital thing," "or that digital thing." You can do everything with colouring pencils, if that's all you've got.

If you've got paint and you've got some other more advanced materials, you'll find a way that you'll be able to use them as well.

But don't be put off by the nature of new media.

This is about learning about what new media is and creating art pieces that link with that theme.

So don't worry.

Let's move on.

We're going to be understanding what new media art is and creating pixel art.

In today's lesson, we are going to describe what new media art is.

We're going to look at examples and artists of new media.

We're going to consider a choice of media for new media art, and then we're going to create a pixelated work of art.

I think you're going to really enjoy this.

And I think if this is something.

If you like computer games, and that type of thing, then pixels is not anything new to you.

But of course, we're going to find out more about it as we move on in this lesson.

Keywords today.

The first one is new media art.

And that is art that has been created using non-traditional media.

And non-traditional media means not necessarily paints or pencils, something a bit more modern and a bit more technological.

Contemporary art is a new term.

And that is about art that is made in the present time period.

We're not talking about art pieces that were made 100 and 200 years ago.

These are pieces that a lot of artists work with now, currently, in today's world.

And a lot of people who aren't even artists but work for companies as artists kind of helping them design things, they use a lot of these kind of new media styles as well.

Pixels.

They are the smallest controllable element of a picture represented on a digital screen, and they're often very small squares.

Now, when I was younger, you could literally see each square and each pixel.

Whereas now, computer games are so advanced, you can barely even see a pixel at all.

But they all, nevertheless, digital media, digital games all use pixels, sometimes very, very small, and sometimes very big, but they all use pixels.

The equipment you're going to be using today.

You'll need a sketchbook, to work in.

You'll need a paint, paintbrush and a paint pot.

Now, of course, you can use colouring pencils, if you haven't got paint.

That's not a problem.

But my example, that I'll be showing you will be using paint.

So if you've got paint, do make sure you use it.

First question.

What is new media? And I'm going to go through a lot of different words and terms here, and I want you to think to yourself "What do they have in common?" 'Cause all of the things that are going to come up on your screen are new media.

Digital art.

This is art created digitally and technologically, using a laptop, using a PC.

Art as biotechnology.

This is interesting.

This is art, when you're using things like skin or nails or different kind of parts of the body even, for a kind of art form.

It does happen.

Not something we can do, but that is definitely an art form and would be considered new media.

The next one, interactive art.

And this is where you, as a kind of viewer, experience the art.

So if you were to walk into a room and it could sense you, and the colours in the room changed, because of where you stood in that room, that would be an interactive art piece.

Computer graphics.

So designing things for computer games or computer graphics on different websites.

That would be considered new media.

Computer animation.

This is where we start thinking about Disney and Pixar and DreamWorks.

That's animated designs.

And of course, that would be considered new media too.

Computer robotics.

This is when you're controlling something, using a computer, with a kind of robot.

You type something into a computer, and a robot would do it for you.

You can obviously type something into a computer and get the robot to create an art piece.

That would be a new media art form.

Cyborg art.

And this might be where you have a robot who has been instructed to create something.

That would be considered art too.

Sound art.

We're going to get to this more in the next two lessons, but sound art is about using sound as your main art form.

You might be thinking to yourself, "But isn't that just music or noise?" And you may be right, but we'll talk about that more in the next few lessons.

3D printing.

Many of you might know what a 3D printer is.

It's often a printer that uses plastic and print things out in a 3D fashion, so they make little sculptures almost sometimes.

They can also make all sorts of advanced things as well.

Video games.

So of course, you think about all the computer games you play, there is an artist somewhere who has designed and created that game.

And again, it's worth remembering that every single visual thing you see from album covers, to computer games, to things on television, to things on the Internet, there is an artist somewhere who's designed them.

Art really is everywhere.

Virtual art.

So of course, if you put on a kind of head kind of device that covers your eyes.

And therefore, when you look around you will see things in a different way.

That's virtual art.

And Internet art.

And this might be where you use the Internet to inform your art piece.

So for example, you might use the results of a search, to kind of come up and create your art piece.

So there's lots of different things.

You can see all these things.

And what do all these things have in common? There's something that they all kind of have together.

That's right.

A lot of them are to do with new technology.

So when we're thinking about what computers and the Internet and technology is doing today, a lot of these connect in with that.

Even so, these are new things.

These are 21st century kind of items and designs and things that will change art in the future.

Okay, on your screen now, you've got five pictures.

I want you to think to yourself, "How do these link to new media art?" We've just talked about lots of different forms. Can you see how they connect? Well, you could say that you've got that one hand there, which is cyborg art, where we've using robots, or even computer robotics.

You could see the big screens there with all the data on.

That might be taken from the Internet.

So of course, the use of the Internet might be one part of that.

Computer graphics and pixel art.

You can see from those designs, where it says, "Game Over", and you can see those red designs.

They might be a pixelated version of it.

And of course, the inside devices as well.

You could use them in arts too.

Let's keep going.

What about these ones? Lots of different designs there.

Well, you can see the one with the silhouettes, with what looks like colour, moving around him.

That's kind of what looks like light.

I can't help, but think about sound art and how the sound kind of surrounds you, if you are experiencing sound art.

You've got two there, with virtual art, where you can see they've got those kind of virtual reality headsets.

And in one case, they're even sitting in different cars.

You've got a 3D printer at the bottom there, which is kind of midway through 3D printing.

And finally, you've got a pixelated art piece, on the right-hand side.

Now, we are going to do some pixel art today, and there are so many ways that you can create pixelated art.

You can check out the pixel art website, to try yourself.

You've got to make sure you do ask permission from a parent or carer before accessing.

Now, there's lots of different websites that do pixel art.

And if you are keen to do that, by all means, have a look, find a way to look online for those pixelated art forms. You can see those little pictures there on the screen.

These are pixelated art forms. You can literally see the little squares that make up the image.

And of course, go find out how do you create art, using pixels? And these are all available at the touch of a button on your technological device.

But our activity today is going to be using some more traditional forms, 'cause we're going to be using paint ourselves.

Now, not everyone will have access to digital software, so all you need today for your art activity is a sketchbook.

There's a handout, which has got a 22 by 22 grid, and that's for you, if you are copying me and my design, which you'll see in the demonstration soon, but you could just use squared or graph paper.

As long as they are pixel squares, that's the main thing.

You might even want to create a pixelated character, or a landscape, or a logo, something similar to the images on the right.

So you can see there are different kind of mountain-scape.

Of course, you could try and create something like that.

I'm going to be demonstrating a kind of abstract version of a kind of pixelated image.

So that's something which we're going to play towards later.

You might want to do a kind of pixelated plumber.

or a kind of hedgehog character.

It's absolutely up to you what you would like to do.

But of course, pixelate-ing, or creating pixelated images, you can do it digitally.

But you can also use colouring pencils, and you can also use paint.

The sketchbook activity.

As you can see on the screen there, you can see the grid, the 22 by 22 grid.

And you can see behind that, the example of the piece, which I will demonstrate.

I'm going to create a pixelated abstract image of water.

Now, you need to take your time and use a flat-headed brush, if you're copying my work.

You'll see more explanation of that during the demo.

Now, this is an abstract image, so it's not an actual thing.

It's not a face or something very obvious.

It's supposed to give a sense of water, but it's obviously quite abstract.

It's really only the colours that give that sense of water away.

You got to take your time.

And as long as it imitates water by the choice of the colours, then you're going to be on the right track, because you're not going to have to get it all in the exact same spot.

[Simon] Okay, for your pixelated image, you have to remember that you are painting each square individually.

Now, that seems like quite a lot of things in the first instance.

But you have to remember as well though, that you can obviously paint the same colour multiple times.

You don't have to stick to different.

You're not painting every single square a different colour.

So you can see, when I kind of fill this in like so, and kind of go round, just bit by bit, fill it in.

Now, you can obviously do this with whatever materials you have available.

You could do this with colouring pencils or felt tip pens.

But of course, the main thing is, that as with pixels, you're trying to recreate that kind of computer-generated look to your picture.

Now, of course, we're not just going to use one colour, but you're trying to do as much as you can.

Now, you can see I'm not keeping perfectly in the lines, but you'll be surprised that if you're trying really hard to get it close and in the lines, it will work, it will still come together and look similar to those pixelated images.

You'll be very surprised.

So again, just take your time, bit by bit, fill them in.

And again, you can be a little bit random.

If we're imagining this as pixelated water then of course, you know that water is pretty random.

Sometimes you'll even get maybe two colours together, just from time to time.

You can see how much further I've got now, with these different tones.

It's really worth remembering that when you're mixing up your colours, you want them all to be different shades of blues and green, to get that kind of more watery look to it.

So you can see here, this pixelated image, where every single square is painted a different shade of blue or green, so you get this kind of watery, pixelated effect.

And that's what you should have when you finish your piece.

So now it's your turn, and you're going to create a pixelated art piece.

Now, remember if you have access to digital software, you're welcome to experiment using that format.

But as artists, you could always create a pixel image, using paint or colouring pencils too.

So pause the video to complete your task, and then we'll move on.

Well done.

Now, you can see the finished design there.

Now, this type of art could be changed with your choice of colours.

If you wanted to create a more kind of lava effect, you can imagine different shades of oranges and reds and yellows would help, and obviously, a little black.

If you wanted to create grass, what type of colours would you use there? Different greens, maybe a little brown.

What about sand? What colours? Different yellows, maybe a bit of orange, maybe a bit of brown.

So again, you can see how computer animators, and obviously, in these digital designs, you have to get right down to these individual pixels.

And this is what makes all the difference, when you're designing computer games, or if you wanted to just create an abstract art piece, as we have done today.

Now, our keywords are on the screen as well.

New media, contemporary art and pixels.

Do you remember what they are? New media art is art that has been created using non-traditional media.

We saw from all the examples, that these are all digital formats, often using modern technology.

Contemporary art is art that is made in the present time period.

This is all these new styles, which we've talked about today.

And pixels are the smallest controllable element of a picture represented on a digital screen.

Well done.

Do try and share your work with Oak National.

And of course, make sure you run it by your parents as well in advance.