ART, ACADEMIC, and BUSINESS CLASSES


Educator/performer Robert Gluckson

Classes and Art Activities Offered on the Big Island, Hawaii!

Educator/Artist Robert Gluckson provides entertaining and educational classes for all ages and abilities. "Playshops" offer creative fun while meeting traditional educational goals, including improving writing, drawing, and critical thinking skills. Classes and workshops can be one to ten sessions, 90 minutes to a half-day. With two Master's degrees (Communications, Popular Culture) and seventeen years teaching experience (schools, museums, and recreation centers), Robert creates classes that meet a range of educational goals.


Make An Animal Mask

Make a mask of your favorite beast and see life from a new perspective. Explore several ways to draw animals: cartooning, working from photographs, using cardboard stencils, and drawing from our imaginations. Masks can range from simple painted pie-plates to complex multi-media 3-D sculptures. Take home a handbook with a variety of animals and techniques.

Art Games for Student Success!

Art games make learning fun while developing visual intelligence. Students explore: brainstorming and thumbnails, to produce many ideas quickly; mind mapping, to organize writing or projects; cartooning, to communicate actions and emotions; and storyboarding, to break-down movies, comics, video games, and multi-person or multi-media projects. The results: end writer's block; develop organized essays; and deliver better classroom presentations.

Calling all Journal Writers and Book Artists!

Put your life in a book! Tell your stories in a hand-made dream book or diary. Play writing games and have fun decorating. Scrap-book with colored papers and glitter, trim with special scissors, and decorate with rubber stamps. Collage with flowers and landscapes, knights and dragons. See book-art demonstrations then do your own thing! All supplies provided; bring personal pictures and souvenir.

Cartooning!

Play cartooning games. Learn to draw funny faces and tin-can people. Create your own characters and comic strips. Draw your favorite animals, dinosaurs, and cartoon or anime characters. Discover storyboarding, the art of picturing an action sequence, for a comic book, movie, or video game. Develop layout, penciling, inking, and lettering skills. Then complete a page to be published in a class comic book.

Cartooning for Parents and Teachers

Entertaining characters demonstrate skill-building cartooning games and exercises, encouraging youthful viewers to participate. Parents and teachers can demonstrate these activities with the aid of these audio-visual presentations, step-by-step instructions, a handbook (available as an e-book or printed handbook) and online resources. Kid-proven games make learning fun while building complex skills that improve academic performance. Visual and thinking abilities benefit visual, literary, and group presentation projects.

Comics and Stories Extravaganza!

Picture yourself in a world of comic art. See great illustrations that demonstrate a range of storytelling techniques, from the earliest cave paintings to the latest graphic novels; then draw your own. Play cartoon games and create storyboards for comics or video games. Experience the link between comics and today's top web sites and animated film blockbusters.

Circus Arts and Theater Games

Play theater games and develop your circus persona. Are you the clown, ringleader -- or an elephant? Play theater games to make-up stories and skits. Conduct the Sound Orchestra, build the People Machine, and bring out your inner Clown. Learn parade arts and face painting. Juggle after one easy lesson. Make an animal mask or wave a banner for the circus parade. Learn as you play -- no special skills or experience required.

Clown Playshop

Discover your inner clown and your imagination takes off! Play theater games and develop your clown persona. Learn parade arts, the joy of the squeaker, "twisting" balloon animals, and face painting. Conduct the Sound Orchestra, build the People Machine, and develop your schtick ! Bring a funny hat. Zippedy the Clown (also known as Robert Gluckson) leads the parade.

Film Making

Learn to "see" the language of film -- like close-ups and establishing shots -- and the language of storytelling. Brainstorm a premise and theme; create storyboards; and shoot a film. Actors, set-designers, and camera-operators welcome! Writers, directors too! We'll work with community mentors to produce a finished show.


Arts and Science of Harry Potter Magic

Play with language, poetry, and acting to make spells seem real. Do science experiments that look like real magic -- colored fountains, "slime" that pulls apart and comes together, and invisible ink. Create your magic tools: a magic wand, with crystals, feathers, and beads; and a Magic Journal for dreams and spells! Then put it all together to perform your science experiments like magic spells.

Laughter Club

Laughing is fun, and you don't need a sense of humor to do it! Play laughter games and everyone starts laughing at each other -- no jokes required! Stretching, breathing, and laughing are good exercise, too. Acting out silly games leads to laughter and new friends, feels good, and is good for you.

Make Murals

Create giant murals in this collaborative drawing class. Learn to draw our favorite animals and natural elemental forces. We'll explore several ways to draw anything: cartooning, working from photographs, and from our imaginations. Discover perspective tricks with character and background to make the mural seem more real. We can use markers or paint on paper or go directly on to a wall. No art experience necessary.

Mandala Art

Rediscover your inner artist as we play with color and picture our worlds drawing mandalas. See yourself in the center of a map of your life by drawing a Mandala, an ancient art-form used for self-discovery and meditation. Explore many cultures' use of mandala art in a multi-media show. Includes a class handbook, step-by-step instructions, and all art supplies. All levels of art experience welcome!

Parade Arts

Parades are community celebrations where people gather to share art and symbols, performing a group ritual for special occasions; to celebrate historic events (Fourth of July), holidays (Halloween), and values (Earth Day). Parades inspire people to tap into their creativity and build community. Through artistic expression, they honor the special occasion for the celebration. Parades create shared memories that build a sense of community. Unlike theater, with its carefully delineated audience and performers, the parade involves everyone. See related classes Animal Masks and Circus Arts.


Professor Op Presents Optical Illusions

Can you believe your eyes? Mad scientist Professor Op demonstrates optical illusions that illustrate the science and psychology of seeing. Black and white patterns turn to colors as they spin, moires seem to spin by themselves, and pictures transform as we stare. Students create their own illusion toys and while they see how illusions work.

Pirate Treasure Hunt! Yo ho ho!

"Yo Ho Ho!" Calling all Pirates! First we'll create our game: make our costumes (choose eye patch, sword, or hook), and a pirate flag. Learn songs and pirate lingo. "Arrgghhh! Shiver me timber, matey!!" Then we follow the pirate map with the magic compass to the buried treasure.


Puppet Plays

Discover the magic world of theater while making your own puppet. As the puppets play, we'll discover their characters; then collaborate on a script, build a stage, and present a show. Create your characters from paper and felt, then paint and decorate them with fabulous trim, sequins, glitter, or fake fur. All experience levels welcome.

Storyboarding

Cartoon games make drawing fun, inspire creativity, and develop writing and group presentation skills. Storyboards are cartoon breakdowns used to visualize animation, video games, and movies. Brainstorming and thumbnail drawing techniques generate ideas, fast. The same skills can be used to start essays and outline group presentations. A slide show and handbook present masterpiece drawings and step-by-step instructions.

Academic Courses

Advertising and Propaganda: Ads present persuasive messages that use stories that address our deepest needs. We can become aware of these techniques to think more critically about these messages and their consequences. Our tool bag includes several critical thinking tools. We look at the pictures to observe the techniques of great illustrators and photographers. We look at the words and stories to see the propaganda techniques and sales strategies. Psychology, sociology, and art history help us to "see" the meaning behind the ads.

Introduction to Mass Communications: Explore the history and impact of the mass media, from hieroglyphics through print, advertising, radio, TV, movies, and the Internet. You'll have the opportunity to explore the roles of media in your own life and learn to critically read media "texts." You'll apply your critical thinking skills to analyze the ways media affect individuals and cultures around the world.

Media Literacy: What do the stories we see tell us about who we are? What influence does the mass media have on us? How can we be aware of media influences, especially when we're presented with values we don't support? Media literacy presents ways to see into the media: how television, movies, advertising, and video games present their truths, and how to understand their deeper stories.

News writing: From features to press releases, news writing presents a relatively simple way to express the most important aspects of any event. Human interest, sports, and business news offer opportunities to promote local people and businesses. Writing for newspapers and magazines offers opportunities for part-time work.

Photojournalism History: expose yourself to the technical and persuasive techniques used in masterpiece photographs. See how these visual communications tools have been imitated in every visual medium. Explore career opportunities and the business of photo-communications.

Photojournalism Ethics : Are there topics too offensive to print? Are there messages sent by photographers, editors, or publishers that make lies out of what we see? Who's to blame, and what can we do about it? How can we make appropriate decisions as citizens when, contrary to popular belief, photographs often lie?

Visual Communications exposes students to some of the most powerful images of all-time, providing a historical review and bag-of-tricks for every new multi-media and web design professional. Most important for those looking for media careers, the course provides a communications techniques background that everyone in digital information design should have. 

See more detailed academic course outlines at http://vizcom.info

Work Skills Training

Business Communications : Business is all about communication, and basic skills can go a long way. Step-by-step instructions show how-to write cover letters, memorandum, and email. Strategies also apply to leaving effective answering machine messages.

Interviewing: Techniques for communicating effectively: finding out what you need to know; creating a personal bond; and presenting yourself professionally.

Resume Writing: present your skills and education professionally. Learn how to relate your experience to meet employers' needs.

Robert Gluckson, M.A.
Phone (808) 278-2151 / Email robert.gluckson@gmail.com

 

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