My wife Kim has often done a few variations of a "hybrid project", in which students imagine new animals through mixing and mashing real ones (actually, its probably more mixing, less mashing). Its a great project because its both imaginative, and it touches on the cross cultural experience of mythic creatures, from the Mayan feathered serpent to the egyptian Sphinx or Chinese Chimera. In one version of the project, she had high school students explore this idea as they learned to combine various Photoshop tools.

Here is a useful tutorial that would have been great to use with that project:



I found this tutorial at Visual Progression - a learning community of digital and graphic artists who are looking to share their experiences with their colleagues and peers. These professional learning communities to me, are a critical new development of social networking and 2.0 tools. Certainly, Art Ed 2.0 was one of the best things to happen to art teachers last year. Here we've found a space to exchange ideas, collaborate on projects, and keep ahead in the vital ways that technology is transforming the art room.