9/17/13 - Tessellations

A tessellation is a pattern of repeating shapes that fit together with no gaps.  It is a good lesson to introduce line, shape, pattern and color.  Tessellation comes from a latin word meaning small stone cube.  Very early tessellations were in the form of mosaics.  Modern ones come in all different shapes, but they still interlock and have no space in between.  Artist M.C. Escher, born in Holland in 1898, is known as the "Modern Father of Tessellations".  He became obsessed with filling surfaces with pictures that did not overlap or leave space.

For today's project we will start with a pre-made tracer. It will require some tracing, cutting and taping to have a working piece.  Students will also have the option of cutting their own organic shape. I will walk them thru it.

The shape will be traced across the page and continue on each row, making sure the pieces interlock.  The photo below show examples of the shapes the students can pick from.

Here are the birds interlocking on the entire page.  We will talk about color families (warm, cool, primary, secondary) to help with color selection and how the same color should not touch each other.  If students feel confident, they can try and add some value to the project (light to dark).

9/10 Class - lines

We will start our fall session using lines.  Today we will only use curved lines.  Students will trace circles onto their paper and then connect the circles with curved lines. The goal is to draw interesting shapes to create a visually pleasing composition.

We will be using oil pastels. They lay down smoothly and blend well. We will discuss color theory - primary, secondary, analogous, complementary) and will work on adding value (light to dark).  The finished result is a rather cool abstract piece of art!

Art Journaling Workshop - July 2

Looking for a creative way to get your kids to write this summer or to record vacations or events over summer break?  I am offering an art journaling workshop on July 2 at Leidy's Church. I have a few spots left in the 9-12pm class and space available in the 12:30-3:30pm class.  Cost is $25 and includes a 44 page 5.5"x8" journal. This is appropriate for kids 6 and up.  Adults are also welcome to join.  I have two moms currently enrolled.

Art journaling is the best of both worlds; art and words. It is a place to practice different art techniques.  A place to record your thoughts or write a poem. There are no rules, no mistakes, just creativity.

In this workshop we will be learning to make different backgrounds that will be ready to add ephemera (post cards, maps, brochures, tickets), stamps, collage or paint.  We will make pockets, doodle, rip, cut, paint, color, collage to create fun pages for your journal entries.

Here are some examples from a previous workshop:

A few backgrounds:

Using ephemera collected on trips:

A few examples from my journals:

Wrapping paper background.

Photo copy of my hand.

Line & Pattern Landscape - Romero Britto

Our lanscape project is based on the bold, playful style of Brazilian Neo Pop artist Romero Britto.

We will be working with line, pattern & color while designing a whimsical landscape.

Foreshortening

Foreshortening is a perspective technique used to create the illusion of an object receding into the distance or background.  Objects closest to you appear much larger than other parts, sometimes looking distorted.

For our next project we will be using our hands and feet.  Students will trace their shoes with their hands positioned on top of the shoes.  We will look at the patterns on our shoes and try to duplicate them on our drawings.  We will add a small head and body - going over proper feature placement so we don't have eyeballs at the top of the head - to complete the foreshortening.  Students will further personalize their projects by adding patterns and color to their clothes and creating a scenario for "falling".

1st Step - hand and feet

2nd step:  add head and body

3rd Step - add color, patterns and falling scenario

Results from class today.  They look great!!

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.