Wayne Thiebaud Inspired Cake

Our next project is based on the work of New Realism Artist Wayne Thiebaud. Born in 1920, Thiebaud became known in the 1950s and 1960s for his paintings of cakes and pastries.  Some say his work influenced the Pop Art movement of the 1960s (think Andy Warhol).

This is another step by step drawing to make the 3D looking cake. We start with the top oval, find the center, make some lines on an angle and you have a cake with a slice cut out.

 We will talk about tints (mix of color and white to increase lightness) and shades (mix of color and black to reduce lightness).  We will talk about a light source and how a shadow or darker area is present.  For my example, the light source is on the left side of the cake so the left side and inside right of the cake appear lighter. The inside left and outside right sides of the cake are darker because they are shadowed.  This balance of light and dark give the cake a 3 dimensional look.  For this project we will be using oil pastels.  The finished piece will be cut out, sit on a "plate" and glued on black paper for a dramatic effect.

Koi

A new session of home school art begins tomorrow. We are going to be painting Koi fish. We will talk about the symbolism of the Koi in Asia and look at photos of real fish as well as art work.  Students will work on watercolor paper, outline in sharpie and then paint with watercolors. We will use different shaped lines to draw the fish and work on controlling the light and darkness of the paint.

This looks complicated but I will go over step by step how to draw. It uses curved lines, little "C" on the mouth and eye area, a big "L" for the fin.

This is an easier version that students have the option of choosing.