Surrealism

Surrealism started in the 1920’s as a movement in painting, writing, dance, film, and all aspects of art.  It was known for its element of surprise, imagination, and unexpected juxtapositions that make its audience question art.  In visual art, its images are usually ugly, confusing, fantastic, subconscious; not usually ‘pretty’ images.

Artist Rene Magritte, a surreal artist, was known for combining objects that don’t go together.  He would paint an umbrella with a glass of water, raining men with bowler hats, a man with a pumpkin for a head, or a train leaving a fireplace.  Confused by these images and ideas?  Exactly!  The students were not told the lesson, but told to write down some nouns that DON’T go together on a scrap of paper; bumble bees and coffee, rocks and pencils, soda and dandelions, unicorns and toenails.  Brainstorming together is challenging, but produces great results. Combining these images is a way for the students to create and understand surrealism. The students were asked to pick their favorite images and draw them with pencil.

Cartooning

The students requested cartooning and I love to accommodate.  This lesson is so much fun because the students can really be silly and funny with their ideas and drawings.  Their imaginations are filled with great ideas.  They just need help to get it all on paper.

I had the class “cartoon” an object.  They had to pick an inanimate object to draw first, like a water bottle, and add humanoid traits.  Cartooning is a form of abstracting, so the class had to draw the object correctly before they were to abstract it to a cartoon. The art of abstracting the object is quite fun!  The students were making things too big, too small, adding props, and creating strange situations, making fun and interesting characters.

We also has the student take turns teaching the class the cartoons they knew how to draw...Snoopy was a big hit.

Hand Drawings

This week the Art Club drew from life.

Art colleges and schools usually have a life drawing class where a model holds still for 15-20 minutes.  The students are forced to draw very fast and observe quickly.  I considered having us draw in partners, but holding still is so hard for middle school students!  Instead, each student drew their own hands. 

We talked about common gestures for our hands and how our hands can hold objects. Observing your skin, bones, fingerprints, and fingernails are strange sometimes.  Hands are not beautiful subject matters to draw, like flowers, and it is difficult to attain realism.

These 5th and 6th graders were brave to work on a new subject.  Drawing from life is extremely hard. I gave the class only one hour to draw their hands and told them not to shade.  I wanted them to get the size and proportion correct.

I am very proud of them and their results!

5th Grade

5th Grade

5th Grade

5th Grade

Drawing Ideas

High School Student work, pencil

High School Student Work, colored pencil

"I don't know what to draw..."
This statement happens so often!  Students feel as though they have to draw 'something pretty' or at least 'something identifiable'. 

I will continue to post drawing ideas each week.  Feel free to post some of your own ideas or drawings...


Draw a necktie and design an interesting pattern on it.
Draw a medal for yourself. It must be designed for the thing you do best.
Draw a city on another planet.
You are a toy designer; draw your new toy.
Draw a logo for a t.v. show

Pointillism

Pointillism is our next project...

Pointillism
What is Pointillism?

Pointillism is a technique of painting in which a lot of tiny dots are combined to form a picture. The reason for doing pointillism instead of a picture with physical mixing is that, supposedly, physically mixing colors dulls them. Most of the painters of Seurat's time blended the colors to make a picture with a smoother feeling than Seurat's bright, dotty works.

Seurat

Student work

Student Work

Student work

When two colors are right next to each other your eye mixes them in a process called, "optical mixing." Using optical mixing rather than physical mixing can create a brighter picture. Painting a pointillist piece is a slow and painstaking process. Seurat's famous "A Sunday in the Park on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (more commonly known as "Sunday in the Park"), which covered a wall (81 inches by 120 inches), took him two years to complete. He was known for amazing devotion and concentration. The dots in a pointillist painting can be as small as 1/16 of an inch in diameter! Based on these measurements, "Sunday in the Park" has approximately 3,456,000 dots!

From Wikipedia: Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small distinct dots of color create the impression of a wide selection of other colors and optical blending. Aside from color "mixing" phenomena, there is the simpler graphic phenomenon of depicted imagery emerging from disparate points. Historically, Pointillism has been a figurative mode of executing a painting, as opposed to an abstract modality of expression.

The technique relies on the perceptive ability of the eye and mind of the viewer to mix the color spots into a fuller range of tones and is related closely to divisionism, a more technical variant of the method. It is a technique with few serious practitioners and is notably seen in the works of Seurat, Signac and Cross. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists and is now used without its earlier mocking connotation.

Drawing Ideas

"What should I draw?" 
"I don't know what to draw..."
These are some of the things that budding artist struggle with when designing artwork.  Here is some ideas that you can start off with.  Remember: not all art is 'pretty'...

1.      Draw a vase and a beautiful arrangement of flowers
2.      Draw a picture of the inside of your stomach and the food in it after a big meal
3.      Draw your idea of Paradise
4.      If animals could draw, what would their artwork look like? Draw their artwork.
5.      Why are people afraid to visit cemeteries at night? Draw it.

Working on Black Paper

These girls are working on our black paper project.  They started with scrap paper to work out the design first, then they are drawing their design again on the final paper.  Looks Great!

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Do the Gelly Roll! (working on black paper)

I love this project! This project is a large size 'doodle' on black paper using metallic 'Gelly-Roll' markers (available at scrapbooking stores and Michaels). High quality black paper works the best with the roll markers. Black construction paper is too textured and is not acid free. I usually give an assignment as an ideas starter, for example, a pet or flower to start. The students are to 'doodle' in the background of the initial drawing, using repeating patterns and connecting objects. These markers have to be held at a 90 angle, and can be tricky for beginners. Sometimes we use light colored pencils and experiment with how the colors show up on the dark paper.  We talk about repeating designs and balance during this class.  Each student is required to show me their ideas on a scrap paper before they get a piece of black paper. The designs look best when most of the black paper is filled in and the colors are bold.

Winter Cardinals

For our second class, we drew winter cardinals on colored paper. This project is great for the winter! I give the students a funny shaped template that is just the outline of the bird. Most students don't know what the shape is. I have them draw the side wing, tail, and legs. The branch is added with pencil and the berries and leaves were the students ideas. The sky and bird can be colored with colored pencil or crayon, making sure to press hard when coloring the branch. I usually give students inspiration in the form of printed images of cardinals and branches.

There is very few rules for the projects.  For this one, the class had to draw a winter scene, a cardinal, and branches....Students like to push limits and break boundries...

There were a few drawings of Angry Birds, and other silly things.  I loved it!