A bit of help, please.

[Rye]

(x-posted from GHF and LJ because I'm desperate for help!)

Okay, so seriously, I still haven't thought of a theme for AP Art, and it's almost September. This is baaaaad.

So I need you guys to help me brain storm up a theme for AP Art. By theme, I mean I have to make 12 pieces this year following a theme so I can make a portfolio and send it to the AP Art folks to be graded. The AP Art folks are strict. All my photographic sources have to be taken myself, I can't go on the interweb and print photographs, which killed my original awesome idea for a theme.

I like drawing people a lot. I fail at drawing trees, ropes, chains, ruffles, and basically anything else that follows a specific pattern. Of course, for my summer project for AP Art, I picked a picture with chocolates in ruffly wrappers because I'm dumb, but that's another story.

Oh, and for examples of acceptable themes, one of my friends is doing things that represent Korea and America in her life, since she was adopted from Korea. One girl had a theme of things wrapped in things that represented her life, which was the best theme ever.

Any ideas? I'm kind of desperate here. :kaobeg2:

[JKTrix]

First off, I'm confounded by your acronyms. I don't know what GHF, LJ and AP are supposed to be, but I suppose those are less important than the 'art' part.

If you were to go on the 'net and print photos, what would they be of? So I/we have an idea of what kind of eye you have.

[Rye]

I do photography, so you could check my Deviant Art page if you needed to see what kind of eye I have, but I think it's a bit beside the point. I just need ideas for themes. :]

I like the idea of it having to do with NYC and people in it. That one just came to mind. But I need to think more on that and how to make it a specific theme.

[Fonzie]

All the different cultures in New York?

[Tavrobel]

First off, I'm confounded by your acronyms. I don't know what GHF, LJ and AP are supposed to be, but I suppose those are less important than the 'art' part.
Acronyms, my friend, acronyms. I don't know GHF; probably something similar to LiveJournal.

LJ = LiveJournal
AP = Advanced Placement (this is the equivalent to college or university course)

The best advice I can provide is to take a walk. Alternatively, you can dance and prance and sing about Pokemon all day, wonder just how badly MissingNo. is going to mess with your save file, or just why Pikachu won't evolve using that Thuderstone.

Your self-admitted desperation kind of reminds me of Super Troopers. Do something about that.

[JKTrix]

I hear the phrase 'melting pot' used fairly often when it comes to New York. Are you in an area where there are several different cultures (or could you find them)? Perhaps one part of this project could be showing a piece of how the cultures are different, and then another part showing how the different cultures are similar and linked.

Maybe even expand/narrow it to the different generations in each culture: how the older generations are culturally different from one another (sometimes not even speaking English), but as the generations go down all the cultures mix together.

Don't know how you could do it in photography, but I'm not the art student :P

Edit: Thanks, the acronyms make sense now upon further investigation. I R clueless.

[Miriel]

Wait, wait.

Is your project photography or a drawing of a photograph? And if it's a drawing, it has to be based off a photograph that you actually took?

Do you have to use a photographic reference?

That limits things quite a bit, I think.

[Rye]

Wait, wait.

Is your project photography or a drawing of a photograph? And if it's a drawing, it has to be based off a photograph that you actually took?

Do you have to use a photographic reference?

That limits things quite a bit, I think.

II have to use my own photography as a drawing reference or draw from life, preferably the former since I'm better at drawing from a reference, I believe. AP Art folks are rather strict about what they will accept and what they feel is plagiarism.

[Miriel]

Well aside from echoing what everyone else has already said about the culture thing in New York, you could always do an hierarchy of class sort of theme. I'm pretty sure New York has everything from super rich folks to bums sleeping on park benches. You could take pictures of the rich, poor, and everything in between and work off that.

[Rye]

Well aside from echoing what everyone else has already said about the culture thing in New York, you could always do an hierarchy of class sort of theme. I'm pretty sure New York has everything from super rich folks to bums sleeping on park benches. You could take pictures of the rich, poor, and everything in between and work off that.

That's actually a really awesome idea. I already have pictures of people who go out and street perform to make extra cash, though I'm not too sure if that's very indicative of class. I'll think about that one, I like it.

[JKTrix]

Branching off of that, you could do things on what people do for money, and what people do with money. Even what people do without money. For one particular idea in the semi-near future, Halo 3 is coming out in September. I'm sure there will be lines of people at strange times leading up to the release. It could be a part of this idea.

[rubah]

PROTIP: don't pick 'people', that's a fasttrack to getting a 2 :cry:

You'll want to pick something that has "artistic meaning", or something you can portray with "Artistic meaning".

We had a guy who drew abandoned farmhouses and barns and got either a 4 or a 5, so that apparently had artistic meaning.

[Resha]

I'm ripping off an A-Level drama group here (but hey, they had artistic meaning!) -- they basically worked using this stimulus some guy'd taken from a moving car in France. And the whole countryside was a blur. And then they got on to the idea that people're always rushing through life without appreciating the beauty yadayada.

I dunno; but in my mind it seems like that theme has so much potential with a city like New York. The people on the streets and a few people stopping and staring sort of thing. I'm not very good at getting my ideas across though :p solly.

[Rye]

PROTIP: don't pick 'people', that's a fasttrack to getting a 2 :cry:

You'll want to pick something that has "artistic meaning", or something you can portray with "Artistic meaning".

We had a guy who drew abandoned farmhouses and barns and got either a 4 or a 5, so that apparently had artistic meaning.

That's the part of AP Art I'm not crazy about. The AP part. xD I wish I could just draw people all year without having to worry about what the AP folks are going to consider "meaningful."

I had an idea just an hour ago. I'm thinking of maybe doing people/ sights & scenes around the city that represent my hopes for the future/my lifestyle. Then I could still draw people (I really want to use my pictures of the saxophone player on the street, for example!), but I have still have leeway to draw other things as well.

But I'll think on this some more, and see if I can develop it differently.

Thanks for your help so far, guys. :]