Dear class:
As per your request, I'll be grading portfolios before our final class of the semester so you can take them with you at the end of that day. My grading day (and therefore your deadline to turn them in) will be Sunday, April 29th at 3pm. Please plan to leave both your portfolio and your notebook in the classroom racks clearly visible and clearly labeled with your name at or before that time.
Your portfolio should contain all the homework drawings from the semester except for the midterm and final projects, which are graded separately. Be aware that a sloppy portfolio will affect your grade, as will a missing assignment.
Independent Study Projects: If you did an independent study project at the end of this semester, this should also be included either in or alongside your portfolio.
Here's the list of assignments from this semester:
1. Cubist collage
2. Paper cut-out drawing
3. Monochrome pastel
4. Altered masterpiece pastel
5. Movement drawing (or flip book)
6. Informational image drawing
7. Unconventional tool drawing
Friday, April 20, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Homework: Final Project
Your homework for next week is to begin working on your final scroll drawings. Please take this opportunity to do a LOT of experimentation with different media, tools, and methods of application. I expect to see lots of notebook activity around this project when I check your books on the final day of class!
AND DON'T FORGET TO PICK UP YOUR SCROLL PAPER IN 102C TOMORROW (TUESDAY) SOME TIME BEFORE 3:30PM.
AND DON'T FORGET TO PICK UP YOUR SCROLL PAPER IN 102C TOMORROW (TUESDAY) SOME TIME BEFORE 3:30PM.
More Works on Paper by Kandinsky
Dear class,
Below are a few more images for your perusal. I hope looking at Kandinsky's works on paper today will inspire you to always look in to famous painters' works on paper! Too often, we only know artists by their paintings.
Below are a few more images for your perusal. I hope looking at Kandinsky's works on paper today will inspire you to always look in to famous painters' works on paper! Too often, we only know artists by their paintings.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Homework Assignment #10
UNCONVENTIONAL TOOL DRAWING:
Taking our cues from Nam June Paik's "Zen for Head" (pictured above), in which the artist used his own head as a brush for his sumi ink drawing, this week's assignment is about exploring alternative ways of making marks with ink. Begin by doing some experiments with various kinds of objects or parts of your body and seeing what kinds of marks each one makes when dipped in ink and applied to paper.
Using sumi ink and your chosen "tool," make an abstract drawing using only this tool. You may apply the mark just once (as in Paik's drawing) or a number of times, using layering and mark density to create an interesting composition. Whatever you do, be sure to practice your mark a lot on scrap paper before applying it to your final drawing, and give great consideration to its (or their) placement on the paper. Keep Chinese calligraphy in mind as you go about this, and recall the importance of "emptiness" in the Chinese and Chinese-inspired images we looked at today.
Below is another unconventional tool drawing, this one by the artist Robert Rauschenberg. His tool was a tire.
Taking our cues from Nam June Paik's "Zen for Head" (pictured above), in which the artist used his own head as a brush for his sumi ink drawing, this week's assignment is about exploring alternative ways of making marks with ink. Begin by doing some experiments with various kinds of objects or parts of your body and seeing what kinds of marks each one makes when dipped in ink and applied to paper.
Using sumi ink and your chosen "tool," make an abstract drawing using only this tool. You may apply the mark just once (as in Paik's drawing) or a number of times, using layering and mark density to create an interesting composition. Whatever you do, be sure to practice your mark a lot on scrap paper before applying it to your final drawing, and give great consideration to its (or their) placement on the paper. Keep Chinese calligraphy in mind as you go about this, and recall the importance of "emptiness" in the Chinese and Chinese-inspired images we looked at today.
Below is another unconventional tool drawing, this one by the artist Robert Rauschenberg. His tool was a tire.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Final Project Guidelines and Samples
PLEASE NOTE: Not one, not two, but THREE relevant posts below!
Dear class,
Here are the guidelines for your final drawing project, which will be due on Monday, April 30th (our last day of class). Following the guidelines are some samples of previous students' work.
SCROLL DRAWING:
For this project you will be creating a “scroll” (or a drawing with dimensions that suggest a scroll) that is a visual interpretation of either a piece of music or a literary work of fiction. Beginning with a piece of music or a book that holds some personal significance to you — and preferably one that you’ve listened to or read again and again so that you’re intimately familiar with its nuances — the challenge will be to translate the invisible into visual form without relying on representational imagery. In other words, the idea is not to illustrate a narrative but rather to convey through the language of abstract form the essence of a non-visual work of art.
On the scroll format:
The scroll format is important for several reasons. First, because it is long and narrow, it requires that the viewer “read” it from one end to another as he/she would a piece of writing. This is a nice way to incorporate the element of time into a drawing (and time is the “medium” through which music and fiction move). As the viewer scans your piece, the development of the music or narrative and its temporal changes will be evident. Second, when oriented horizontally, the elongated format strongly suggests a bar of musical notation (as in a score). By the format alone you will already be suggesting time (or temporal succession).
The aspect ratio of the format will be 1:8. I will be providing each of you with a piece of 10” x 80” sketch vellum the week before the project deadline. If you’d like to use a paper or surface other than the one provided but with the same dimensions, you may do so.
You may choose either the horizontal or the vertical orientation for your scroll. Be sure to give this some thought, since the different orientations read very differently.
Selecting your piece of music or literature:
Because the idea is not to rely on representational imagery to illustrate a story, it is suggested that if you are working with music you select a piece without lyrics. However, if you decide to use a song with lyrics you’ll have to make an effort to stay focused on the formal and emotional content of the music rather than on its narrative content. Working from a piece of literature will make this challenge slightly greater and will require that you stay focused on the “shape” of the narrative and on representing your characters with abstract forms.
Analyzing your selected piece:
After selecting your piece of music or literature, the next step will be to analyze it (literally: to break it apart) by separating its different components conceptually. Drawing/sketching is an excellent way of figuring things out conceptually.
a. Instruments or characters: If working with music, your first step will be to figure out what kinds of instruments are being used to make the different sounds and to make a series of sketches exploring different kinds of marks to convey each sound. If working with fiction, your first step will be to come up with a “cast” of abstract forms to represent your major characters.
b. Overall structure: Next, you’ll want to make a sketch or diagram that breaks the piece down into its various “movements.” For example, it might start off slow and calm, then progress into something loud and dramatic, then return to slow and calm (three movements). In fiction, this overall structure is generally referred to as the “arc of the narrative.”
c. Emotional range: Finally, you’ll want to think about what kinds of emotions your piece evokes and come up with a palette that accurately reflects them.
Choosing your materials:
You may use any drawing materials (including ink washes and other watery media) for this project. However, restraint is advised! More than anything else, you will want your drawing to be a coherent piece of visual art that can stand alone (i.e. without the music or story that inspired it).
Presentation:
For our final class of the semester we will be doing an all-day critique of your scrolls. At the beginning of your presentation you will have the option of either playing a few minutes of your piece of music or briefly summarizing your book.
Some samples of student work from past years (in the following order: Alan Tung, Jessie Tsai, Darragh Rosenberg, Kanae Hatanyama, Yasmin Malki, Inkyung Park, and Alexi Burns) (Click on images to enlarge):
Dear class,
Here are the guidelines for your final drawing project, which will be due on Monday, April 30th (our last day of class). Following the guidelines are some samples of previous students' work.
SCROLL DRAWING:
For this project you will be creating a “scroll” (or a drawing with dimensions that suggest a scroll) that is a visual interpretation of either a piece of music or a literary work of fiction. Beginning with a piece of music or a book that holds some personal significance to you — and preferably one that you’ve listened to or read again and again so that you’re intimately familiar with its nuances — the challenge will be to translate the invisible into visual form without relying on representational imagery. In other words, the idea is not to illustrate a narrative but rather to convey through the language of abstract form the essence of a non-visual work of art.
On the scroll format:
The scroll format is important for several reasons. First, because it is long and narrow, it requires that the viewer “read” it from one end to another as he/she would a piece of writing. This is a nice way to incorporate the element of time into a drawing (and time is the “medium” through which music and fiction move). As the viewer scans your piece, the development of the music or narrative and its temporal changes will be evident. Second, when oriented horizontally, the elongated format strongly suggests a bar of musical notation (as in a score). By the format alone you will already be suggesting time (or temporal succession).
The aspect ratio of the format will be 1:8. I will be providing each of you with a piece of 10” x 80” sketch vellum the week before the project deadline. If you’d like to use a paper or surface other than the one provided but with the same dimensions, you may do so.
You may choose either the horizontal or the vertical orientation for your scroll. Be sure to give this some thought, since the different orientations read very differently.
Selecting your piece of music or literature:
Because the idea is not to rely on representational imagery to illustrate a story, it is suggested that if you are working with music you select a piece without lyrics. However, if you decide to use a song with lyrics you’ll have to make an effort to stay focused on the formal and emotional content of the music rather than on its narrative content. Working from a piece of literature will make this challenge slightly greater and will require that you stay focused on the “shape” of the narrative and on representing your characters with abstract forms.
Analyzing your selected piece:
After selecting your piece of music or literature, the next step will be to analyze it (literally: to break it apart) by separating its different components conceptually. Drawing/sketching is an excellent way of figuring things out conceptually.
a. Instruments or characters: If working with music, your first step will be to figure out what kinds of instruments are being used to make the different sounds and to make a series of sketches exploring different kinds of marks to convey each sound. If working with fiction, your first step will be to come up with a “cast” of abstract forms to represent your major characters.
b. Overall structure: Next, you’ll want to make a sketch or diagram that breaks the piece down into its various “movements.” For example, it might start off slow and calm, then progress into something loud and dramatic, then return to slow and calm (three movements). In fiction, this overall structure is generally referred to as the “arc of the narrative.”
c. Emotional range: Finally, you’ll want to think about what kinds of emotions your piece evokes and come up with a palette that accurately reflects them.
Choosing your materials:
You may use any drawing materials (including ink washes and other watery media) for this project. However, restraint is advised! More than anything else, you will want your drawing to be a coherent piece of visual art that can stand alone (i.e. without the music or story that inspired it).
Presentation:
For our final class of the semester we will be doing an all-day critique of your scrolls. At the beginning of your presentation you will have the option of either playing a few minutes of your piece of music or briefly summarizing your book.
Some samples of student work from past years (in the following order: Alan Tung, Jessie Tsai, Darragh Rosenberg, Kanae Hatanyama, Yasmin Malki, Inkyung Park, and Alexi Burns) (Click on images to enlarge):
Friday, April 6, 2012
Materials for Monday's class
PLEASE NOTE: Two relevant posts below!
Dear class,
Please bring with you on Monday a bottle of Sumi ink and at least one brush. You may also want to bring an ink pen with various tips, but this is optional.
Unless you'll be pursuing an independent study project, please also bring a magazine or newspaper clipping of a recent event that captivated your attention. Stories without accompanying pictures are preferable.
Dear class,
Please bring with you on Monday a bottle of Sumi ink and at least one brush. You may also want to bring an ink pen with various tips, but this is optional.
Unless you'll be pursuing an independent study project, please also bring a magazine or newspaper clipping of a recent event that captivated your attention. Stories without accompanying pictures are preferable.
Monday, April 2, 2012
New Classwork Policy
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please see post below for this week's homework assignment!
Dear class,
I've decided to issue a new policy for our in-class studies that I'm calling the Independent Study Option. For those of you who are feeling frustrated with the issue-specific nature of our short in-class studies, I'm going to give you the option of pursuing a set of longer-term drawings (i.e., drawings you can continue to work on from one class period to the next) for the remainder of the term. For these more in-depth pieces you will be permitted to pursue any subject -- abstract or representational -- and to develop it in any medium of your choosing. I will continue to give a brief presentation before each drawing session, but its implementation in class work will from now on be optional.
If you are interested in pursuing an independent drawing project, please bring to class next week several sheets of watercolor paper (22" x 30" -- the standard size, which you can easily purchase at DaVinci) or some other drawing surface so that you'll have something nicer to work on than your newsprint. You can store these drawings in the classroom racks alongside your newsprint pads.
I look forward to seeing some exciting work emerge over the course of the next few weeks. I will, of course, be available for feedback as always. The idea here is to give you more freedom to challenge yourselves in new ways for the rest of the year. BEING BORED IN DRAWING CLASS IS NO LONGER A VIABLE OPTION! Please use the remaining class time to work on artwork you care about deeply and will be happy to save.
Dear class,
I've decided to issue a new policy for our in-class studies that I'm calling the Independent Study Option. For those of you who are feeling frustrated with the issue-specific nature of our short in-class studies, I'm going to give you the option of pursuing a set of longer-term drawings (i.e., drawings you can continue to work on from one class period to the next) for the remainder of the term. For these more in-depth pieces you will be permitted to pursue any subject -- abstract or representational -- and to develop it in any medium of your choosing. I will continue to give a brief presentation before each drawing session, but its implementation in class work will from now on be optional.
If you are interested in pursuing an independent drawing project, please bring to class next week several sheets of watercolor paper (22" x 30" -- the standard size, which you can easily purchase at DaVinci) or some other drawing surface so that you'll have something nicer to work on than your newsprint. You can store these drawings in the classroom racks alongside your newsprint pads.
I look forward to seeing some exciting work emerge over the course of the next few weeks. I will, of course, be available for feedback as always. The idea here is to give you more freedom to challenge yourselves in new ways for the rest of the year. BEING BORED IN DRAWING CLASS IS NO LONGER A VIABLE OPTION! Please use the remaining class time to work on artwork you care about deeply and will be happy to save.
Homework Assignment #9
EXPLORING ABSTRACTION WITH "INFORMATIONAL IMAGES":
This week’s assignment is about exploring an approach to abstraction that takes its cues from the world of information. “Informational images” are non-art images that can be anything from maps, charts, diagrams, and scientific photographs to musical scores and other forms of written notation. Your task for this week is to make an abstract drawing that is based on one (or a combination) of these images.
Source material: Using either the web or the library, begin by looking at a variety of images that fall outside the category of art and somewhere inside the category of information. Some suggestions to begin with are: astronomy photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, microscope images of cells, molecules and bacteria, maps of any kind, Or the scientific photographs of the photographer Felice Frankel. Since most of these images will be visually abstract (although they certainly represent various things), what you’re looking for are intriguing shapes, lines, forms, rhythms, textures, etc. From these images, select between one and three to base your drawing on.
Your drawing: Using the source material as a point of departure, make a drawing that incorporates the forms from your image/s into a dynamic and interesting abstract composition. You may, of course, deviate substantially from your source material; feel free to select, omit, distort, alter, exaggerate, colorize, etc. At a certain point you may want to abandon the source material altogether and let what’s happening in your drawing determine your moves. Be sure to bring an image of your source material to class next week so that we can understand your process and the evolution of your drawing.
Materials: You may use any materials for this assignment, and your drawing can be in either grayscale or color.
This week’s assignment is about exploring an approach to abstraction that takes its cues from the world of information. “Informational images” are non-art images that can be anything from maps, charts, diagrams, and scientific photographs to musical scores and other forms of written notation. Your task for this week is to make an abstract drawing that is based on one (or a combination) of these images.
Source material: Using either the web or the library, begin by looking at a variety of images that fall outside the category of art and somewhere inside the category of information. Some suggestions to begin with are: astronomy photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, microscope images of cells, molecules and bacteria, maps of any kind, Or the scientific photographs of the photographer Felice Frankel. Since most of these images will be visually abstract (although they certainly represent various things), what you’re looking for are intriguing shapes, lines, forms, rhythms, textures, etc. From these images, select between one and three to base your drawing on.
Your drawing: Using the source material as a point of departure, make a drawing that incorporates the forms from your image/s into a dynamic and interesting abstract composition. You may, of course, deviate substantially from your source material; feel free to select, omit, distort, alter, exaggerate, colorize, etc. At a certain point you may want to abandon the source material altogether and let what’s happening in your drawing determine your moves. Be sure to bring an image of your source material to class next week so that we can understand your process and the evolution of your drawing.
Materials: You may use any materials for this assignment, and your drawing can be in either grayscale or color.
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