Would You Like to Join the Art For Homeschool Flickr Group?

I have created an Art For Homeschool Flickr group. Click here to go to the group. The purpose of the group is to give K-12 homeschool students a place to display their artwork. The students will also be challenged to submit work following specific themes which will change throughout the year. The work in the group can be viewed by the public.

Here are the two requirements to join the Art For Homeschool Flickr Group:

1. Get an account with Flickr.

2. Be an email subscriber to Art For Homeschool. One email subscription per family. You can easily subscribe by clicking the envelope in the upper right hand corner of this page. Just send the email address in the message to me when you ask to join.

Once your child/student is a member of the group, they can upload their work. I am allowing one piece of artwork per week. I may change that later. Work submitted can be photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, pottery, etc. If you have a scanner, you can scan the work (if the size is right). You can also photograph the artwork. Flickr requires each photograph be less than 10 mb in size. You are also limited to uploading 100 mb per month. Those uploads would be in your child’s photostream and would not all necessarily be placed in the AFH group.

When you take photographs of the work, try to have the work on a flat surface and in natural light. You might want to take the artwork outside. Don’t put work in direct sunlight as that will make the work appear washed out. A covered porch area usually is a good place to take pictures of artwork. Also, notice whether there are shadows falling across the artwork from tree branches, your arms, etc. Take many pictures. That way you just might get one good one.

It may be difficult getting the image of the artwork lined up exactly with the camera format. You may need to crop part of the photograph in photo editing software. If you have a digital camera, you should have some kind of photo editing software. It is important to cut out anything that doesn’t belong as a part of the artwork. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements.6.0.

At the moment there are two student members in the AFH group. No work has been uploaded to the group. I hope my first two members will upload work soon. It takes time to get everything worked out. I know most homeschool students are busy with numerous projects such as
4-H, music lessons, community projects, volunteering, etc. It is hard to find time to do art projects when there is history, math, english, and science courses to study. So, the Art For Homeschool Flickr Group will begin slowly. That is okay.

So, how will this group work?

Here is the plan:

I will call for art entries once a month for a themed art show. There will be a deadline for entries submitted to the AFH group. The work will be judged by artists or possibly homeschool parents that do not have a student in the group. The winning work will be placed on a post at Art For Homeshool. Eventually I plan to have sponsors that will donate awards to the winners. In addition, some of the themed shows will come specifically from things I write about on Art For Homeschool posts.

Here is an example of how it will work:

Next month, I might ask for entries that fit the theme “Spring Has Sprung”. Students upload their work with the theme as a tag and submit to the AFH group. When the deadline has passed, judges will pick out first, second, and third place winners. Those three pieces will be showcased on a post at Art For Homeschool. Those three students will receive some sort of award such as a gift certificate for art supplies.

Obviously, I do not have all the details worked out. But, I am very willing to listen to ideas from parents, students, teachers, artists, etc. I am also very anxious to hear from anyone that would like to donate awards to the art show. All ideas and comments are welcome.

I think the Art For Homeschool Flickr Group will be a worthwhile and fun project. If you are a K-12 homeschool student you might want to give the group a try.