2/25 - City - Creating Space & Perspective

"Space the final frontier..." I couldn't resist a Star Trek quote.  The "space" I am referring to today is one of the seven elements of art.  Space refers to the emptiness (negative) or area between, above, below or within and object (positive). It can be two dimensional which creates "shape". It has height and width and is used in drawings and paintings.  Three dimensional is referred to as "form". It has depth, width and height.  This is found in sculptures, weavings, architecture.  Our project is two dimensional. We will use perspective to create the illusion of depth and volume using lines and color.

We will be creating a simple cityscape using an arrow as the starting point.

Vertical lines are then added.  See how one side of the building bottom is angled?  This is how we will create the depth in our project.

By adding more buildings with angled sides as well as smaller ones in the background, the city begins to create an illusion of being three dimensional.

Details and color are added.  We will create more depth by adding value (light and dark) to the buildings.

One Point Perspective City

We will be starting a one point perspective city/buildings project.  One point perspective is defined as having one vanishing point on the horizon. It is used for images of roads, rail road tracks, hallways and buildings.  The vanishing point is the point on the horizon where parallel lines appear to meet.

We will start with a horizon line and add an "X" from corner to corner.  The vanishing point is where the lines all meet/cross.

Next we will add trees on one side and buildings on the opposite. The objects will be larger in the foreground and get smaller as they get closer to the horizon.  I will demonstrate how to draw the buildings and trees.

Students will have the option of outlining in sharpie before adding color with colored pencils and/or crayons.

If students do not feel confident doing the above project, here is an easier version of perspective.

Warm/CoolWoven Hearts

Looks like NO snow for tomorrow. This has been a crazy weather month.  We are starting our session with a Valentine inspired project. We will talk about color theory and specifically warm and cool colors which will be used for our project.  I will also give students the option of using complimentary and analogous colors.  Working in oil pastels, students will draw a large heart, pick warm colors (pictured) and fill in the heart with a pleasing design.

A second heart will be drawn and colored in cool colors.  We will give a quick wash of color with paint on the background.

Part two is weaving.  One heart will become the warp. Long slits will be cut to about an inch of the paper edge.

The second heart will be the weave.  Long strips will be cut and detached from the paper.

The two will be woven together for a very cool result.  Note: this is not the above example.  I will cut my example up in class as a demo.

2/4/14- Mola Inspired Work

We are starting out our snowy winter session with a Molas inspired heart painting.  Molas is based on traditional clothing of the Kuna women, an indigenous people of Panama.  The designs are appliqued on cloth. An outline of the object is filled in with color and pattern.  Geometric patterns are traditional. The art form was developed from ancient body painting designs.

Students will be working in watercolors.  They will create a colorful background for their hearts.

They will be given a black piece of paper and draw hearts that are open and connect to the outer edge of the page.  These are carefully cut out.

If the student wants a second layer of color, the black is laid on top of another piece of paper and outlined larger than the black cutout.  This color is then cut out.

Both pieces are then glued together and glued on top of the painted background.