MID-TERM PROJECT: Due Wednesday January 28
MID-TERM PROJECT: Family
History and heirloom Still Life: AP/
Drawing and Painting Assignment: by Paul
Martin
Sometimes when you look at a blank page, your mind goes blank too. You want to draw or paint, but what? You will use your family history and heritage as inspiration for this drawing, painting. Once you get started, you'll find that one idea leads to another. Try picking one theme to explore consistently over several days or even weeks, adding written notes about your thoughts and feelings to your sketchbook.
Everyday Objects: Select at least 2 family Heirlooms, interesting artifacts or historical items. Old family Christmas or holiday ornaments or decorations may fit this bill.
Some of the most beautiful works of art focus on everyday life. A simple mug, or a piece of fruit can be inspiration for a simple and beautiful drawing. You can concentrate on accurate shapes and values, or explore expressive line and atmospheric tone. Try drawing and painting one object in various ways and with different mediums. Do a scrapbook or sketchbook page with a sketch of your favorite items on your kitchen table; add a photo and a note about why you love it. Choosing family objects or heirlooms gives your painting so much more personal significance and meaning.
Yourself, Family and Friends: Ask your parents or grandparents/aunts or uncles about their childhood and past.
3. Tell me about this object/heirloom, when/where was it acquired and why is it important. What does it mean to you today?
Select at least 1 old family photograph; identify the people and ask about them.
Forget trying to draw portraits from washed-out, glossy-magazine celebrity photos. Draw real people. People you care about. Family portraits guarantee you a willing model, and are a time-honored way for artists to express their deepest feelings. Friends and family can be sketched as they go about their day, or drawn in detail posing. These drawings can become treasured mementoes, even family heirlooms.
1. Combine several family heirlooms/objects with at least one old photograph in a pleasantly arranged still life. They can be placed on an old piece of furniture or significant family furniture piece. You want more than 3 objects but not too many, keep it simple! Think about several objects that span many decades and generations. Not every object in the still life has to have significance, but try to give each object some meaning or symbolism.
2. Choose your location: a good, directional light source is the key to a strong drawing or painting. A lamp for artificial light or bright window for natural lighting is perfect.
3. If room lighting is diffuse, use a board or shadow box to control the lighting that falls on your subject. You might need to be creative - blankets draped between chairs (on table!), umbrellas, appliance boxes... a little effort can make a big difference to the fall of light, and allows you to draw what you see instead of using guesswork to try and tweak the drawing.
4. Think about your background. Architectural features such as a window frame or door can add direction to a composition. A tone that contrasts with the subject is useful. Drapery can be a bit cliche, so use it carefully. How does it relate to your family?
5. A wood-grain table can look great, but only if you're confident with handling the detail - shortcutting on textures can really weaken a drawing. A beginner might be better using a tablecloth - choose a plain one if you don't want any extra detail, or a broad check or stripe to add color and pattern. How is it part of your family history?
6. Choose your objects carefully: Make them meaningful! Avoid oddly shaped objects that might look 'wrong' even when you've got it 'right'. Machine-made objects demand an accurate rendering of form and perspective. However, a casual or distorted look can work, when handled with confidence.
7. Arrange the group. When arranging, consider compositional elements, avoiding bland central postitioning and symmetry. Don’t just piling fruit in a bowl - let it spill from a bag, or be half-eaten on a plate. Give flowers a history - tucked in a hat, strewn in the gutter, or by a headstone.
8. View your arrangement through a viewfinder - an empty slide frame (make one out of card) to assess the composition and consider its placement on the paper. Create several thumb nail sketches and compositional variations.
Tips:
1. If using natural light, take photos to refer to once the light starts to change.
2. Transparent and reflective objects, such as bottles and metal objects, can be challenging but are an excellent exercise in detailed observation.
3. Fruit is a great start, as the natural shapes are a little more forgiving, and give you interesting textures to work with.
4. Take photographs if using perishables, especially flowers, or where your work may be disturbed.
Sometimes when you look at a blank page, your mind goes blank too. You want to draw or paint, but what? You will use your family history and heritage as inspiration for this drawing, painting. Once you get started, you'll find that one idea leads to another. Try picking one theme to explore consistently over several days or even weeks, adding written notes about your thoughts and feelings to your sketchbook.
Everyday Objects: Select at least 2 family Heirlooms, interesting artifacts or historical items. Old family Christmas or holiday ornaments or decorations may fit this bill.
Some of the most beautiful works of art focus on everyday life. A simple mug, or a piece of fruit can be inspiration for a simple and beautiful drawing. You can concentrate on accurate shapes and values, or explore expressive line and atmospheric tone. Try drawing and painting one object in various ways and with different mediums. Do a scrapbook or sketchbook page with a sketch of your favorite items on your kitchen table; add a photo and a note about why you love it. Choosing family objects or heirlooms gives your painting so much more personal significance and meaning.
Yourself, Family and Friends: Ask your parents or grandparents/aunts or uncles about their childhood and past.
- How were holidays, (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) celebrated in
your family? Did your family have special traditions? Tell me about this
ornament or decoration.
3. Tell me about this object/heirloom, when/where was it acquired and why is it important. What does it mean to you today?
Select at least 1 old family photograph; identify the people and ask about them.
Forget trying to draw portraits from washed-out, glossy-magazine celebrity photos. Draw real people. People you care about. Family portraits guarantee you a willing model, and are a time-honored way for artists to express their deepest feelings. Friends and family can be sketched as they go about their day, or drawn in detail posing. These drawings can become treasured mementoes, even family heirlooms.
1. Combine several family heirlooms/objects with at least one old photograph in a pleasantly arranged still life. They can be placed on an old piece of furniture or significant family furniture piece. You want more than 3 objects but not too many, keep it simple! Think about several objects that span many decades and generations. Not every object in the still life has to have significance, but try to give each object some meaning or symbolism.
2. Choose your location: a good, directional light source is the key to a strong drawing or painting. A lamp for artificial light or bright window for natural lighting is perfect.
3. If room lighting is diffuse, use a board or shadow box to control the lighting that falls on your subject. You might need to be creative - blankets draped between chairs (on table!), umbrellas, appliance boxes... a little effort can make a big difference to the fall of light, and allows you to draw what you see instead of using guesswork to try and tweak the drawing.
4. Think about your background. Architectural features such as a window frame or door can add direction to a composition. A tone that contrasts with the subject is useful. Drapery can be a bit cliche, so use it carefully. How does it relate to your family?
5. A wood-grain table can look great, but only if you're confident with handling the detail - shortcutting on textures can really weaken a drawing. A beginner might be better using a tablecloth - choose a plain one if you don't want any extra detail, or a broad check or stripe to add color and pattern. How is it part of your family history?
6. Choose your objects carefully: Make them meaningful! Avoid oddly shaped objects that might look 'wrong' even when you've got it 'right'. Machine-made objects demand an accurate rendering of form and perspective. However, a casual or distorted look can work, when handled with confidence.
7. Arrange the group. When arranging, consider compositional elements, avoiding bland central postitioning and symmetry. Don’t just piling fruit in a bowl - let it spill from a bag, or be half-eaten on a plate. Give flowers a history - tucked in a hat, strewn in the gutter, or by a headstone.
8. View your arrangement through a viewfinder - an empty slide frame (make one out of card) to assess the composition and consider its placement on the paper. Create several thumb nail sketches and compositional variations.
Tips:
1. If using natural light, take photos to refer to once the light starts to change.
2. Transparent and reflective objects, such as bottles and metal objects, can be challenging but are an excellent exercise in detailed observation.
3. Fruit is a great start, as the natural shapes are a little more forgiving, and give you interesting textures to work with.
4. Take photographs if using perishables, especially flowers, or where your work may be disturbed.
What You Need:
a directional light source
a good surface and background
interesting objects to draw
ideas about composition
thoughts about light and shade
imagination
Your medium choice: paint, pencil, mixed
Color, B&W, Mixed
a directional light source
a good surface and background
interesting objects to draw
ideas about composition
thoughts about light and shade
imagination
Your medium choice: paint, pencil, mixed
Color, B&W, Mixed
EXAMPLE: by © Grace Janzow, 2007-2011
Medium: Graphite
• Assignment: Draw a family heirloom still life, composition of your own creation
• What I like about this piece: I like that each of the elements in the piece has meaning to me: the baptismal gown, the 75 year-old Italian coffee grinder and other objects from my great-grandparents, my great uncle's WWII foot locker. In terms of technique, I like the differentiation between the baptismal gown and the background fabric. I cross-hatched the background, but made the gown smoother.
• Challenges: This was the first piece I began for my AP course. Creating a unified composition, despite the wide variety of objects was difficult. Several of the line drawings were tough, and I'd love to rework the bowl in particular. I'm not entirely happy with the lettering on the foot locker either.
Medium: Graphite
• Assignment: Draw a family heirloom still life, composition of your own creation
• What I like about this piece: I like that each of the elements in the piece has meaning to me: the baptismal gown, the 75 year-old Italian coffee grinder and other objects from my great-grandparents, my great uncle's WWII foot locker. In terms of technique, I like the differentiation between the baptismal gown and the background fabric. I cross-hatched the background, but made the gown smoother.
• Challenges: This was the first piece I began for my AP course. Creating a unified composition, despite the wide variety of objects was difficult. Several of the line drawings were tough, and I'd love to rework the bowl in particular. I'm not entirely happy with the lettering on the foot locker either.
Upcoming Art Exhibits and entry deadlines:
Artoberfest! Garner Arts Festival Student Art Show: Saturday, October 11, Noon-10:00 PM. Sunday, October 12, Noon-5:00 PM
Saturday, October 18, Noon-5:00 PM. Sunday, October 19, Noon-5:00 PM
Special Student Exhibition reception: Saturday, October 11.
GARNER Arts Center55 W. Railroad Avenue, Garnerville, New York – 10923
Phone: 845-947-7108 Email - [email protected]
Saturday, October 18, Noon-5:00 PM. Sunday, October 19, Noon-5:00 PM
Special Student Exhibition reception: Saturday, October 11.
GARNER Arts Center55 W. Railroad Avenue, Garnerville, New York – 10923
Phone: 845-947-7108 Email - [email protected]
DRAWING
AND PAINTING II CO602 1 year = 1 credit
This is a full year study of a variety of drawing and painting techniques. Emphasis will be on creativity and compositional decision-making through a concentrated study chosen by the student. This focus on a particular subject matter or point of interest will allow students to take a closer, more personal look at who they are as artists and what they need to express themselves and how to do that successfully. Recommended as a prep class for AP Studio Art.
Requirements: Students will be expected to use the design process to develop their artworks. Students will plan, execute and reflect upon completed artwork. Outside research and independent planning is needed to supplement work in class. Students need to make good use of studio time and put in any extra time needed to complete assignments. Class culminates with a final exam.
Offered: Fall
Credited: Core Prerequisite: Drawing and Painting I
This is a full year study of a variety of drawing and painting techniques. Emphasis will be on creativity and compositional decision-making through a concentrated study chosen by the student. This focus on a particular subject matter or point of interest will allow students to take a closer, more personal look at who they are as artists and what they need to express themselves and how to do that successfully. Recommended as a prep class for AP Studio Art.
Requirements: Students will be expected to use the design process to develop their artworks. Students will plan, execute and reflect upon completed artwork. Outside research and independent planning is needed to supplement work in class. Students need to make good use of studio time and put in any extra time needed to complete assignments. Class culminates with a final exam.
Offered: Fall
Credited: Core Prerequisite: Drawing and Painting I