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Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ: User Guide for Creativity Express Online:

FAQ: How do I launch Creativity Express Online?

FAQ: Is there a logical format in which the lessons should be completed?

FAQ: I can't move on to the next lesson.

FAQ: Activity Responses Guide

My video playback stutters and/or the animation appears grainy or fuzzy

How do I earn Artist Cards and Puzzle Pieces?

How do I import or delete artwork in my online portfolio?

Is there a file size limit for images in the Portfolio?

IMPORTANT NOTE: Madcap Logic, LLC no longer sells either the Home or School CD-ROM editions of Creativity Express. If you are having difficulty with your initial installation of a CD-ROM please contact us at support@madcaplogic.com. Proof of purchase may be required for technical support. We are unable to provide technical assistance with any new installation issues if the CD-ROM has been previously used and/or installed on any computer. Please contact us at info@madcaplogic.com if you wish to speak with a representative concerning switching over to Creativity Express Online.

Table of Contents

1. Art as a Language

Overview: Students learn about how symbols have been used throughout history to communicate ideas.

Principles: Sequence, storytelling, language of art, media, symbol, hieroglyphics

Creativity Builder #1 - Create Your Own Language
Design symbols that make up a new language.

Creativity Builder #2 - Make a Comic Book
Create a comic book that tells a story without words.

2. Messages In Art

Overview: Students learn how messages and storytelling have been communicated in works of art throughout time.

Principles: Sign, warning, message, storytelling, emotion

Creativity Builder #3 - Warning Signs
Create a sign using only images to convey a message.

Creativity Builder #4 - Monkeying Around
Make a caricature of someone as an animal to reveal some of their personality traits.

3. Emphasis

Overview: This lesson reviews how artists use emphasis in art to place the viewer's focus on a particular part of their composition.

Principles: Emphasis, emphasized element, secondary element

Creativity Builder #5 - Let's Go Out to the Movies
Make a movie poster emphasizing a particular element, while de-emphasizing the others.

Creativity Builder #6 - Rockin' With the Beetles
Create an image of a bug rock band, placing emphasis on one bug over the others.

4. Value

Overview: This lesson reviews the artistic principle of value and how dark and light values can affect art and the world around us.

Principles: Value, hue, light, dark, focus, under painting

Creativity Builder #7 - Scramble Your Hues
Cover a black and white image with colorful dots while maintaining the underlying values in your new image.

Creativity Builder #8 - This Sounds Shady
Experiment with different shading techniques.

5. Color

Overview: In Color, students learn how different colors work together to blend, contrast or create new colors.

Principles: Color, color wheel, harmony, hue, saturation, value, pigment, analogous, complementary, unity, monochromatic, contrast, emphasis

Creativity Builder #9 - Anything But Plaid
Create a chameleon using different color combinations to make it blend in or stand out with its surroundings.

Creativity Builder #10 - Make Up a New Holiday
Use complementary colors to create a logo for a new holiday.

6. Making Paint

Overview: Students learn how paint is made, how it has been stored throughout time, and how the invention of paint tubes has made painting easier, more accessible and portable.

Principles: invention, en plein air, time

Creativity Builder #11 - Become An Inventor
Create a design for a new invention, and then make an image that shows your new invention in use.

Creativity Builder #12 - Design a Sarcophagus
Design a sarcophagus using paint colors similar to those the Egyptians made.

7. Warm & Cool Colors

Overview: This lesson discusses how warm and cool colors affect the mood and feel of works of art.

Principles: warm colors, cool colors, color wheel

Creativity Builder #13 - Colors In Your Cart
Make a package for a new product using warm and cool colors, based on the product's characteristics.

Creativity Builder #14 - Colors In Tights
Design a superhero using colors that best represent their super power.

8. Line

Overview: This lesson covers line and how it can convey emotion in art.

Principles: line, emotion

Creativity Builder #15 - Lost In a Maze
Create mazes using different types of line.

Creativity Builder #16 - Edgar's Further Adventures
Draw Edgar the Mouse participating in an activity, using lines appropriate to the activity that he is doing.

9. Portraits

Overview: This lesson discusses how portraits reflect a person's characteristics and personality, and how they have been used in different cultures throughout time.

Principles: portrait, symbols, self-portrait

Creativity Builder #17 - Looking Into the Future
Create a portrait of yourself in the future.

Creativity Builder #18 - Caricature to Wear
Make a mask with exaggerated features.

10. Movement

Overview: This lesson discusses how different techniques are used to show movement or stillness in a work of art.

Principles: movement, stillness, line of action

Creativity Builder #19 - Movement in Art
Create marionettes that will help you add motion to your artwork.

Creativity Builder #20 - Mind the Gap
Draw inbetweens, or the animation poses that fit in between two other key poses.

11. Time

Overview: The Time lesson is a discussion about how art can capture moments in time.

Principles: time

Creativity Builder #21 - Something Old, Something New
Make a copy of a famous work of art from the past; yet add modern updates to change it slightly.

Creativity Builder #22 - A Voice From the Past
Create a work of art showing a glimpse of your life today, but with some made up aspects.

12. Eyes

Overview: In this lesson, students learn how eyes affect the emotion and story behind a work of art.

Principles: eyes, emotion, expression

Creativity Builder #23 - Animated Expressions
Create a face with changeable eyes to see how they affect the expression.

Creativity Builder #24 - A New Kind of Eyewear
Make different pairs of paper eyeglasses with varying eye expressions on them.

13. Shape & Form

Overview: The difference between shape and form and how shading and volume affect both are discussed in this lesson.

Principles: shape, form, volume, shading, closed, not closed, line, silhouette

Creativity Builder #25 - Shape Into Form
Make an origami frog, showing how a shape can be turned into a form.

Creativity Builder #26 - Standing Tall
Create a model sheet from which you will make a sculpture.

14. Museums

Overview: This lesson discusses the importance of museums in showing us different art and artifacts throughout history and how they are preserved.

Principles: museum, time, exhibit, curator, conservator, restore, docent, varnish, artifacts

Creativity Builder #27 - You're the Designer
Create a floor plan for a museum of your choice, and decide what objects will be on display.

Creativity Builder #28 - Forgery
Choose a famous work of art and copy it, changing some subtle things to make it your own.

15. 0+1+1+2+3

Overview: This lesson discusses how math relates to art.

Principles: math, Fibonacci, grid, pyramid, golden rectangle, golden ratio, proportions

Creativity Builder #29 - Gridlocked
Copy an image accurately onto a sheet of paper using a grid.

Creativity Builder #30 - Get Your Proportions
Make a series of measuring sticks to help you recognize proportions in the things you draw.

16. Inspiration

Overview: This lesson discusses where artists derive their inspiration for their artworks.

Principles: inspiration, influence

Creativity Builder #31 - The Director's Chair
Create props, lighting and a unique style for a movie that you envision.

Creativity Builder #32 - Show Off Your Style
Let your personality show through by creating a work of art in your own unique style.