Monday, January 31, 2011

Geometric and Organic Cityscapes with Paul Klee







































DISCUSSION: Geometric shape vs. Organic Shape we just went over geometric shapes
what are organic shapes?
where do we find them?
in math class?
in nature?
where do you hear that word ORGANIC?
farmer’s market
grocery store
City Scape: What is it? 
Look at Paul Klee’s Castle and the Sun
What are his Buildings made up of?
What Colors do you see?
Are there any Organic shapes?
Foreground: Front of the picture; bottom of your paper
Middle ground: middle of your picture; horizon line in a Landscape; middle of your paper
Background: The back of your picture; above the horizon line; the TOP of your paper
Overlapping: one object being on top of another
The Buildings in the foreground will have no overlapping
The buildings in the middle ground will be hidden slightly behind
the foreground buildings
The buildings in the background will be hidden behind the foreground and 
middle ground buildings
ARTIST: Paul Klee
(1879 – 1940) 
Swiss painter of German nationality.
His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism
Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually mastered color theory, and wrote extensively about it. 
His works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes child-like perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality. 
He and his friend, the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the German Bauhaus school of art and architecture.
for additional information, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee
PROJECT: Construct a City Scape using Organic and Geometric shapes
Step1: Pencil: Draw your cityscape starting at the bottom of your page (foreground)
Draw geometric and organic shaped buildings (3-5)
Step2: Draw the next set of buildings in the middle ground. Remember to have the buildings in the foreground overlap these buildings. Draw at least one organic shaped building
Step3: Draw our last set of buildings in the background. have them be overlapped by both of 
the first sets of buildings
Step4: fill in your buildings with windows (geometric or organic), lines, tops anything to make
your buildings unique like Paul Klee’s
Step5: Fill in with chalk pastels in primary and secondary colors like Paul Klee. 
Step6: the background could remain white or you could make it brown like Paul Klee’s work.
MATERIALS: White paper
Oil pastels
Pencils


Additional photo's of student work:



Op Lines with Victor Vasarely


Discussion: Line
what is a line?
how important do you think it is for art?
let’s name a few lines: Diagonal, Curved, spiral, think, thick, wavy,etc...
             want to see drawn lines on paper begin to move?
show Victor Vasarely’s work, then begin to rotate it. 
Op Art: Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in only black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping.
Op is short for optical illusion. Thinking we see something that we don’t. 
Victor Vasarely, (vah-zah-RAY-lee)
1906-1997
born Hungarian:
was a Hungarian born French artist: sculpture, painter printmaker 
He led the development of the op art movement
Op-Art: an artistic style that uses geometric abstraction
Began painting in 1943
Style is characterized by BRIGHT VIBRANT COLORS geometric forms and suggestive movement
Style influenced by KANDINSKY and KLEE
Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art
Vasarely died in Paris in 1997
for additional information, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Vasarely
PROJECT: 
Create an Op Art Pice using Black lines
Step1:Draw three or more rounded shapes anywhere on your paper
Step2: Add concentric lines around each original shape
keep them close together but not touching
Step3: Add another concentric line around each original shape and continue until 
you fill the space. 
Step4: remember to have the lines be as close together without touching
Step5: hold up your piece and see if it moves to you. Rotate it to add movement
MATERIALS: 
White paper
Black Pens or sharpies

This wonderful lesson plan was found in Arts and Activities for more information visit their site: www.artsandactivities.com.  This lesson is perfect for a first day activity. Additional photo's of student work:



Thursday, January 13, 2011

ASAP: Chuck Close Pattern Hand


DISCUSSION: All Student Art Project (ASAP)
what is it?
How does it work
All Student means that every student that takes art class has participated in some way in the final product. Often times in art class the final project is used to generate funding for art supplies, etc.
Other Discussion topics: Pattern, printmaking, warm and cool colors
ARTIST: Chuck Close
Born July 5, 1940, American Artist
He is a painter, photographer, and printmaker. 
Close is a builder who, in his words, builds "painting experiences for the viewer." 
Close is also a master printmaker, who has, over the course of more than 30 years, pushed the boundaries of traditional printmaking in remarkable ways.
Almost all of Close’s work is based on the use of a grid as an underlying basis for the representation of an image. 
This simple but surprisingly versatile structure provides the means for "a creative process that could be interrupted repeatedly without…damaging the final product, in which the segmented structure was never intended to be disguised." 
It is important to note that none of Close's images are created digitally or photo-mechanically. 
All his work is made the old-fashioned way—by hand.
While a painting can occupy Close for many months, it is not unusual for one print to take upward of two years to complete. 
Close has complete respect for, and trust in, the technical processes—and the collaboration with master printers—essential to the creation of his prints. 
The creative process is as important to Close as the finished product. "Process and collaboration" are two words that are essential to any conversation about Close’s prints.
For additional information visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Close


PREPARATION: 
Step 1: Pick a hand drawing of one of the students and blow it up on a canvas
Step 2: Draw a grid over the whole canvas numbering the same # of students


PROJECT: 
Step 1: Students should pick their grid piece.
Step 2:Have Chuck Close’s work on hand for students to look at when deciding how to fill in their grid. 
Step 3: First, Draw in the pattern with pencil
Step 4: when the student is ready to paint: Warm Colors should make up the inside of the hand and cool colors should make up the background. 
MATERIALS: 
Canvas
Acrylic paint

This project was completed with students from K-8th grade. I did encourage the little ones to pick grid pieces that were either warm or cool and not both. I saved those for the oldest students to complete.  We sold this piece during our annual art show. It was done as a silent auction. 


2011 example of a chuck close Cheetah done by the students at LDV for the Cheetah Wildlife foundation
this is the same piece in progress



Blind Contour Cubism Portraits with Picasso

































Discussion:   
Contour line
Cubism
Blind contour
Still life
Portrait
Line
Geometric Shape
Organic shape
Complementary colors
Cool colors Warm Colors
Rules of Blind Contour

Do not look at your paper
Start at the top of the object
Follow the object with your eyes and move your hand as your eye moves
Do not pick up your pencil for the duration of the drawing time
If you finish go over the shape again until time runs out
Picasso: 
1881-1973
Spanish painter, sculpture, printmaker, ceramicist, and illustrator
Father of cubism
Father was an art teacher
Attended academy of fine arts in Barcelona
Left for Paris a year after and painted the poor on the street is blue tones
1904 began to paint happy circus performers in pink tones
Studied Gauguin’s work, began experimenting with distortion
1907 collaborated with Braque to produce Cubism
Cubists try to show all sides of an object at once using geometric forms
PROJECT: 
Draw blind contour cubist style portraits
Spend thirty+ minutes practicing blind contour several times with time limits
      use the rules of Blind Contour listed above
Step1: draw a blind contour drawing of a front facing portrait
Step2: ON THE SAME PAPER: draw a blind contour drawing of the profile right on top of the front facing portrait
Step3: Finish this piece next week by filling in with colors in the shapes created.
Materials: 
Pencils
Oil pastels

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Rouault Stain Glass Portraits





DISCUSSION: 
Portrait: drawing of the face
Go over the face and where things fall on the face
Proportion
Complementary Colors? what are they? where do we find them?
what do they create in a work of art?
ARTIST: GEORGES ROUAULT (born May 27, 1871-Feb. 13, 1958, Paris) 
French painter.
His apprenticeship in a glazier's shop restoring medieval stained glass (1885 – 90) influenced his mature style as a painter. 
After an early academic period, his style evolved toward Fauvism before he established a highly personal form of Expressionism
An ardent Roman Catholic, he painted subjects apparently fallen from grace tragic clowns, and pitiless judges. 
After 1914 his subject matter became more specifically religious, with greater emphasis on redemption, 
He shifted from watercolor to oil. 
His layers of paint became thick and rich, his forms simplified, and his colors and black lines reminiscent of stained glass.
In the 1930s he produced a splendid series on Christ's Passion, while reworking many earlier paintings. 
His series of clowns in the 1940s are virtual self-portraits. 
He also produced many engravings as well as ceramics, tapestry designs, and stained glass.
PROJECT: 
Step1: gather supplies
Step 2: draw a portrait on your page do you best to place thing s accordingly
Step3: begin by mixing complementary colors and see what new color you make add in some flour
Step 4: lighten and darken those new colors by adding in white and black
Step 5: Use your new colors to color in your portrait
Step6: color in your background
Step7: fill in your line in black so your portrait gives of the appearance of stained glass
Step 8: clean you mess
MATERIALS:
Brown paper
Pencils
Paint
Water 
Brushes
Flour for paint

Pop Art Hands with Andy Warhol






























TWO WEEK PROJECT:

First week practice drawing the hand in Blind Contour:
DISCUSSION: 
Contour line: what is it? 
Blind Contour drawings? What does blind contour mean?
Rules of Blind Contour
Do not look at your paper
Start at the top of the object
Follow the object with your eyes and move your hand as your eye moves
Do not pick up your pencil for the duration of the drawing time
If you finish go over the shape again until time runs out
PROJECT: 
Practice Using charcoal sticks draw your hand with blind contour 
Step 1: place your non drawing hand on the table in a fun position using a portion of it to hold your paper down
Step 2: start at the top portion of the hand and begin to move your eye around your hand
Step 3: using charcoal let your drawing hand move along the paper without looking at the results until the end
MATERIALS: Charcoal sticks
Paper 
Stop watch
WEEK TWO: 
DISCUSSION: Color DRAW A COLOR WHEEL ON THE BOARD
Analogous Colors: colors next to each other on the color wheel
Monochromatic: one color: page 60: What do you think of this art work?
Complementary: opposite on the color wheel: 
Neutral: All grey tones: page 72: what do you think of the art B ? 
Do you see texture?
Do you see the dewdrop?
What makes it look wet?
Andy Warhol: 1928-1987: POP ART
American born in PA
Love to paint popular culture of the moment
Painted Campbell’s soup cans
Painted the famous
Social commentary about excess
Worked in a studio called The Factory.
PROJECT: 
Step 1: pick four of your charcoal hand drawings
Step 2: finish one in charcoal creating your neutral ¼
Step 3: with pastels finish one in complementary colors
Step 4: finish the next in analogous colors
Step 5 finish the last in monochromatic color scheme
MATERIALS: 
Pastels
Charcoal
Hand drawings and hairspray