J.Riddell Matte. Goldfinch & The Three Bears (2021)
Truth?
This project still  feels a bit like a free-fall, even with Mr. Scheffler’s trio of tips, which have been extremely helpful in keeping me on track, I am often overwhelmed about where to even begin with interpreting a children’s story.
In an effort to find more guidance  (+ a smidge of calm),  I decided to take Adolfo Serra’s course on Domestika, “Introduction to Children’s Illustrations”.  I am almost done, and it has been amazing!! In his course Serra breaks down the process of story illustration.  He provides tips and homework that  encourage both creative thought around your chosen story,  as well as experimentation with different mediums, and the art he makes as demonstration is fantastic!
Doing art for this project is happiness for me right now, which is not something I am taking for granted.
So far, I have discovered that I like having the framework of a familiar story. I like considering which are the most interesting bits and how they should be illustrated. I like thinking about whether to layer images on a page, or not. I like reminiscing about the books that I loved reading to my boys when they were little, and I adore thinking about & making art.
This week, I am starting to illustrate Goldilocks & The Three Bears. I am not sure how successful I will be but…I am also not sure that matters so much anymore.
Note: In order to share my art for this post, I wanted to find a collaging program/app that would allow me to combine my paintings into to one image. I looked into a number of programs & Â settled on the Adobe Spark. It’s a free, online program that allows you to add your photos and provides a number of options for design – it was fun & very easy to use.
“Donât settle for the world from just your angle, remember that weâre all part of one giant dream tangleâ â Brad Montague
In learning more about the Web Accessibility Guidelines (WAG) this week, I expanded my understanding of accessibility, as it relates to the internet and broadened my perspective on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Â In my opinion, this is an important concept for pre-service teachers to consider if we hope to effectively support and engage each of our students.
One of the few social media platforms that I engage with is Instagram.  In a previous version of this life I was a stay-at-home-homeschooling mama, with jewellery making as a side hustle. Instagram was a way for me to connect with the local art community, as well as promote the markets and the shops that were kind enough to host my work.
Over the past couple of years there has been noticeable movement towards making this platform more inclusive. Â Instagramshares that they have created an âautomatic alternative textâ, as well as âcustom alternative textâ with each providing an expanded capability and a variety of new text fonts that allow users to include descriptions of the images they post, which enables those using screen readers to engage with the individual post, and to a greater degree with the platform. If you are curious to learn more about screen readers, the website NOMENSAhas a great overview.
In trying to gain a better understanding about what the WAG means in terms of students and teaching, I found this video on âWebsite Accessibilityâ to be extremely helpfulâŠ
In the video Ran Segall discusses;
Color, Contrast & Text size
Apps that can assist with implementing WAG guidelines for example the MDS Contrast -which supports designers in ensuring their websiteâs color + contrast is accessible
Design Focus States â for people who use a keyboards + tab to engage with the web
Form Labels â asks that you include the labels above for the form field vs. within the form field
Alt tabs for images â ensuring that designers place a description explaining what an image is that can be read by a screen reader
This article, âFont Legibility for Students who are Blind or Visually impairedâ  by Carmen Willings, is aimed primarily at the accessibility of paper resources, but discusses many of the same requirements that Ran Segall unpacks in the above video and goes into greater detail around what, for example, text accessibility involves.
In the article Willings shares that the most legible fonts are; Â Arial, Verdana, Tahoma and Sans Serif, Â that contrast is more effective at setting text apart than color and that size is better at creating differentiations in text when compared with the use of italics, all caps, no caps or the other more flourishy fonts, which can all be challenging for the visually impaired to navigate.
Some of the above were quick fixes, like experimenting with color contrast for my links but others, such as differentiating fonts, sizes and underlining text, were trickier and required that I wade into the world of HTML coding.
After a little research, and as a basic place to start, I have compiled some simple HTML codes from W3Schools that I found helpful  in customizing  text font,  size and color.
Font:: <p style=âfont-family:font name here â> your paragraph.</p>
Text Size::Â Â <p style=âfont-size:size#pxâ>Â your paragraph.</p>
Text Color::Â Â <p style=âColor: color â>your paragraph.</p>
Note: Although it uses âyour paragraphâ to highlight the text you want to adjust, from what I understand they can be used to highlight a full document, certain paragraphs or single words,
This is obviously not an extensive list, but for me it offers a solid and practical place to start. Â I experimented with coding, in an effort to customize the text of this entry, but ended up with my text jumbled on a black background – so frustrating!!
I will continue looking into this because I am committed to figuring out how to code, at the very least, for the three aspects listed above, Â I am really unimpressed that the standard âblock quoteâ format gives such little contrast between the grey background and the slightly darker grey text (!?) and I am still confused about how to underline. (tips are welcome!)
I really enjoyed this week’s material and am inspired to learn more about accessibility as a foundation for applying  UDL across my practice.
“Like birds in a murmuration creating figures in the sky, maybe one day we’ll understand, we all help each other fly”. – Brad Montague
Additional Resources
Apple Accessibility â the Apple page that links various apps designed to address accessibility for vision, mobility and hearing differences
This week’s movie RIP! A Remix Manifesto by Brett Gaylor focused on music, specifically the eclectic musical  mash-up’s of  Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk and the legalities of ‘Fair Use’ as it applies to this, in discussion with lawyer Lawrence Lessig.
But,  it got me thinking about another form of art, in relation to my inquiry topic, that also combines the pieces of  other’s work to make new art….Collage, which dates back as far as 200 B.C China and coincides with the invention  of paper. [Wikipedia, 2021]
The Tate defines Collage as  “the technique and the resulting work of art in which pieces of paper, photographs, fabric and other ephemera are arranged and stuck down onto a supporting surface”
I love looking through old magazines for images, and taking my time cutting them out, usually with giant scissors that are completely inept for the fine work that this often requires. Â But after this week, I am wondering where the line is between ‘Fair Use’ and copyright violation? Is it similar to making musical remixes? And what side of the line I am on?
In looking into this, I found an article on The Legal Artist that specifically discusses Collage, and from what I understand there is a sweet spot where if you are not using the images for profit, and you are changing the image in a transformative way (this, however, is a complicated thing to prove) you should be ok?
It is when you starting using the images for profit, that things get risky. Ultimately, the collage that you have made becomes a ‘collective work’, which means that the pieces of art that have been combined are now considered to be a new work of art and this is eligible for copyright on its own  merit, as a unique piece. Yet, the law also says that this creation of new work does not give you right or ownership over the work of the other artists that you included in this new design….I guess as Greg Kanaan, the author of The Legal Artist article says, in the end it really is  just “better to ask for permission than to beg for forgiveness”.
Additional Resources
The Jealous Curator – The  web-home of the brilliant collage artist and author Danielle Krysa, includes podcast & book links
Kolaj Magazine – An art magazine featuring contemporary, international collage artists, as well as book lists and the inspiring art prompts for  Februllage, a month long collage challenge!!
