Mrs. Smith’s Artbeat

Expressive Cross

10-9 to 10-22: You will create a cross with vertical and horizontal lines on vellum bristol board. The center of the cross may be anywhere and the lines should extend off the boarders of the board. Using scissors, you will cut creative geometric shapes from contact paper and fill the insides of the cross you have created. Using an analogous color scheme, you will watercolor over the entire page. When dry, you will peel off the contact paper to reveal the cross underneath. Brainstorm ideas that relate to the Jesus, or Creation or other biblical events. Fill the watercolored areas with tiny pen and ink images inspired by your ideas.

Fantastical Treehouses - Illustration in Colored Pencil

10-23 to 10-31: We will look at many examples of treehouses, both real and imaginary. You are to draw a tree with a treehouse, and a horizon with sky and ground. The rest is up to you. Decide what you want your trunk and branches shapes like as well as the size and orientation on the paper. The treehouse may be designed to be in the treetop, inside the tree or anything thing your mind can imagine. You must decide what the house is constructed of as well as the roof shape, door shape and window shape. You may want your house to have more than one room or building. You may also add balconies, turrets, chimneys….there are no limitations. Plan the landscaping and environment your treehouse is found in and draw those details in. You may have mountains, pathways, more trees, etc. Next you will fill every area of your paper heavily with colored pencil. Both real and imaginary colors may be used. Each person’s treehouse should be unique and different from any other.

Deadline: 10-31

Backpack Still-life Painting

11-3 to 11-7: a still-life of various student backpacks. Students will study the backpacks and carefully draw contour lines to represent them. Attention to straps, pocket, zippers and labels is important. Overlapping of shapes must be present and some lines must go off the edges of the paper to create a cropped look. Thin line markers will be used to go over all contour lines. You may use any colors you like. Fill in the labels, zippers and small shapes solidly, but leave the others. Finally, you will pick either a warm, cool, or analogous color scheme and watercolor the entire piece including the backpacks, table and background.

Deadline 11-7

Landscape Collage

11-10 to 11-11: You will select a sturdy piece of matboard and several decorative papers such as metallic, handmade and patterned papers. You will create landscape showing a sky, horizon line, and ground. Beginning with the top, you will add layer after layer of paper overlapping each one and gluing firmly to the board. You may want to select papers that would convey the idea of the land area you are representing…such as green patterned paper for mountains, or a textured earthtone for rocky areas. Once the entire board is covered, you may add details with other papers. Consider what might be in that particular landscape such as the moon, sun, stars, rocks, trees, grasses. No paper must be curling up off the page.

Deadline: 11-11

Linoleum Prints

11/12 to 11/18: You will create an abstract design on a 3′ x 4′ sheet of paper. The design must incorporate positive and negative shapes. To do this, all shapes must be filled in solidly or left blank until all lines are gone. You will transfer this design with pencil to a 3″ x 4″ linoleum block. Using a linoleum cutter, you will carve away all shapes that were left blank on your original sketch. Using a brayer, you will apply ink to the surface of your block. You will then lay a sheet of paper over the inked block and rub paper using a barren until an adequate amount of ink has been transferrred to the paper. After this test run, you will then repeat the process on a large square of print paper multiple times to create a pattern. You may wish to turn the block different directions to vary the patterns. Finally, when the ink is dry, you will use colored pencils to fill in various negative spaces to make your patterns more complex.

Deadline: 11/18

Notan Design

11-19 to 11-20: We will discuss the concept of Notan in Japan which means the juxtaposition of dark and light, or positive and negative space. We will create a Notan design from square paper. Start by drawing shapes on each side of the square. The line must start and end on the edge of the paper for each shape. Shapes may not overlap or be too complex. You will then carefully cut out each shape and flip over, aligning the positive shape with the negative space left behind to create a symmetrical design. Glue the square down onto black paper and then glue all shapes down, being sure to flip and align first. Make sure all edges are glued securely.

Deadline: 11-20

Landscape - Colored Pencil on Black Illustration Board

8-14 to 9-24: Using previous knowledge of the color wheel and color theory, you will use both Prismacolor and Fantasia (soft and hard) colored pencils to create a landscape on black paper. Choose a photo of a landscape with strong colors. You may use your own, but if you choose someone else’s photograph, you must crop, re-arrange and vary the colors to create your own image. You may choose to combine elements from multiple images, which is called synthesis. Begin by drawing out the contour lines in pencil on the board or you may grid the image off. Work on small sections at a time. For example, rather than lay a color across the entire sky, work out your colors and textures lightly on a one or two inch section. Once you have determined that the colors and color blends are correct, then you can layer heavily and repeat the technique across other similiar areas. You can always go heavier, but you can’t lighten up, so start lightly. The entire board must be covered with heavy layers of pencil…no black from the board may show. You will be required to present your work in class for a critique. Be prepared to communicate your processes as well as what you feel your strengths and weaknesses are in this piece.

Critique: 9-24

Nature Illustration

9-24 to 10-24: The intent of this assignment is to study the minute details that make one object different from all others of its type rather than just grasping the totality of an object. Find an interesting object or photos of an object. It should have an intriguing shape made of several parts and lend itself to being studied. Make several studies of your object at various stages of either physically or visibly dissecting the object. Once have a good understanding of your object you may begin your final illustration.

Compose your page in an interesting way by showing several views of your object, detailed observation of it’s pars and drawings or diagrams that show construction. Create movement in the composition by analyzing shapes, building unity between parts, and trying to reconstruct the entire process of the dissection. Create variety using varying sizes. Your composition must have at least one precise image of the subject in its entirety, but you may also include diagrams, details, parts of the object and the way it looked in various stages of dissection. Do not include any text; the viewer should be able to understand your organic object from the drawing alone. You may also want to incorporate a patterns or visual reference to something usually associated with that object. You will use graphite/ebony pencil, colored pencil, fine line black ink pens, or a combination of these materials. You may also vary the colors of paper for a “collage effect”.

Lyrical Painting

10-27 to 11-17: Choose a song that you especially like or that has some meaning or memory attached. We will create a collage incorporating paint, photoshopped images, lyrics and three-dimensional items. You will start by choosing the song and then searching for images on the internet that relate to the song. Then work with the filters to create unique images with them and save them to my drop box. Be sure to resize them appropriately for your masonite board. Acrylic matte medium will be used to adhere the images to the board. Use paint to add further expressive lines, shapes and images to the piece. Find a creative way to incorporate your lyrics into the piece. Lyrics may be painting or applied as a collage element. Finallly add three-dimensional items to the canvas to further emphasize the meaning of the song and add a textural element.

Critique: 11-12
Deadline: 11-17

Still-Life Drawing

11-17 to 11-20: You will draw a still-life using conte chalks for portfolio purposes. Contour lines and value will be your area of emphasis.

11-25: Digital Photography Assignment Due. You must bring your photos and your black or white mat board on the 25th.

12-12: Signed Scholastic Forms Due.

Figurative Portrait Painting:

We will view a PowerPoint presentation of various examples of contemporary figurative portrait paintings. You will then need to take various photographs on your own of the chosen subject. Be sure to make the photographs candid, in a wide variety of positions, and in different lighting conditions. Transfer the photographs to your thumb drive and have these ready for Lab on Friday, November 21st. In lab you can choose your photograph, crop and work with lighting, contrast, and color filter effects. Monday, the 24th, you will stretch your canvas. When you return from Thanksgiving break, you will gesso and sand your canvas. You will sketch your figure onto the canvas and begin painting with acrylics. I will do several group demonstrations and individual demonstrations to assist you in painting accurate skin tones and values. Cool tones will be used the shadows and warm tones in the highlights. The mid-tones should be the most intense. Try to keep a very expressive style going and avoid tight brush strokes.

Critique: 1-19
Deadline: 1-23

Landscape - Colored Pencil on Black Illustration Board

8-14 to 9-23: Using previous knowledge of the color wheel and color theory, you will use both Prismacolor and Fantasia (soft and hard) colored pencils to create a landscape on black paper. Choose a photo of a landscape with strong colors. You may use your own, but if you choose someone else’s photograph, you must crop, re-arrange and vary the colors to create your own image. You may choose to combine elements from multiple images, which is called synthesis. Begin by drawing out the contour lines in pencil on the board or you may grid the image off. Work on small sections at a time. For example, rather than lay a color across the entire sky, work out your colors and textures lightly on a one or two inch section. Once you have determined that the colors and color blends are correct, then you can layer heavily and repeat the technique across other similiar areas. You can always go heavier, but you can’t lighten up, so start lightly. The entire board must be covered with heavy layers of pencil…no black from the board may show. You will be required to present your work in class for a critique. Be prepared to communicate your processes as well as what you feel your strengths and weaknesses are in this piece.

Critique: 9-23

Mythical Portrait

9-24 to 10-24: You will take a close-up photograph of a family member or friend. A careful study of the person will be rendered in graphite pencil on a previously oil-washed board. The contour drawing must be accurate. The shadows and highlights must be properly place and a full gradation of values must be present. You must then decide how to make this portrait have a mythical or fantastical feel. You may want to use personification of an emotion, element or season. You may also integrate with an animate object such as an animal or an inanimate object, such as a type of architectural structure. Creativity is a must for this project. You may also choose to add accents of color in a dry medium to enhance various parts of the composition.

Critique: 10-24

Lyrical Painting

10-27 to 11-17: Choose a song that you especially like or that has some meaning or memory attached. We will create a collage incorporating paint, photoshopped images, lyrics and three-dimensional items. You will start by choosing the song and then searching for images on the internet that relate to the song. Then work with the filters to create unique images with them and save them to my drop box. Be sure to resize them appropriately for your masonite board. Acrylic matte medium will be used to adhere the images to the board. Use paint to add further expressive lines, shapes and images to the piece. Find a creative way to incorporate your lyrics into the piece. Lyrics may be painting or applied as a collage element. Finallly add three-dimensional items to the canvas to further emphasize the meaning of the song and add a textural element.

Critique: 11-13
Deadline: 1-17

Still-Life Drawing

11-17 to 11-20: You will draw a still-life using conte chalks for portfolio purposes. Contour lines and value will be your area of emphasis.

11-25: Digital Photography Assignment Due. You must bring your photos and your black or white mat board on the 25th.

12-12: Signed Scholastic Forms Due.

Digital Imagery Painting

11-21 to 1-23

You will need to put several interesting photos that you have taken on your thumb drive. You will spend the 21st and the 24th in the lab working with these images in Photoshop. Experiment with various filters and effects. You should then choose one of these photos to paint. Realize that some photos are not appropriate for painting because the effects are too complex. Monday, December 1st, you will begin stretching and gessoing your canvas. You will then sketch the contour lines of your chosen photograph onto the canvas. Use paint expressively to paint your digital image. The image is merely for inspiration and you should feel free to change things. The primary purpose of this painting is to give you experience with mixing various color values, tints and intensities.

Critique: 1-19
Deadline: 1-23

Slice of Life Drawing

10-20 to 10-24: You will choose a 2″ x 6″ picture cropped from a magazine photo and xeroxed showing an abstract image with a full range of values. You will transfer the contour lines of the image to a larger sheet of paper using a pencil. Then you will carefully fill in matching values with your pencils. Your ebony pencil is soft and therefore you can lay the graphite down more darkly and you will used this pencil for your darkest values. You will use an HB pencil with harder lead for your lighter values. Using both, you will be able to create a full range of values. This will help prepare you for drawing from life to create 2-D drawings with the illustion of the third dimension.

Deadline: 10-24

Abstraction and Metalworking/Embossing - Contemporary Art

10-27 to 10-31 : You will create a glue line design on a sturdy piece of 8″ x 8″ square matboard. Be sure to add an extra layer of glue. When the glue has thoroughly dried you will be given a sheet of heavy aluminum sheet metal to wrap around the matboard. Using a wooden flat edge tool, emboss the metal by running the tool evenly over the surface multiple times. When the image has become clear, continue pressing deeper until the edges of the design are raised and sharply embossed. Then, antique the surface with India ink and a soft cloth. After completion, glue the square to a 12″ x 12″ sheet of black construction paper. Finally, use oil pastels to create extensions of the design onto the black border in colors of your choice.

Deadline: 10-31

Architecture Monoprint

11-3 to 11-11: Select one or two house elevations from a house plan book for inspiration. Study the basic shapes that make up the structure. Draw and cut out various shapes on thin cardboard to represent various part of a home design of your own. You may wish to have gables, overhangs, cupolas, columns, walls, windows, shutters and other structural elements. Cut these out and glue securely onto a piece of matboard. It is important that the shapes are side-by-side with spaces in-between and not stacked or overlapped. The more detailed, the better it will look. You may wish to create certain walls out of stone or brick shapes. These too much be glued side-by-side with spaces in-between. Once the piece is complete and dry, it will be used as a printing plate with which you may create monoprints. Using a brayer, you will roll ink across the plate. Then, lay a sheet of printing paper on top of the plate and use a barren to burnish the surface of the paper well. Then pull your print. You may do this multiple times and choose the best to present for a grade.

Deadline: 11-11

Still-Life Drawing

11-13 to 11-14: You will select an object in the room to set on your table and draw. You will then focus on a contour drawing. Rulers are allowed for symmetrical objects. Once complete you will study the lights, darks and midtones. Using ebony pencil, you will carefully shade your object showing a smooth gradation of values.

Deadline: 11-14

Portrait Drawing

11-14 to 11-20:

See the visual arts blog on the secondary art webpage for information about field trips, guest artists, NAHS and Art Club.