Thursday, February 18, 2016

Creative Sentences

This exercise from Josten's Digital Classroom really illustrates the importance of variety in sentence structure. You will be required to complete this exercise by  Wednesday March 3.                    
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

 “This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I will vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I 
will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals — sounds that say listen to this, it is important.” — Gary Provost

Considering the caption from above, write about one of the photo's below.  Make sure you vary sentence length, use creative descriptive words, and correct grammar and punctuation.

Seniors first day, getting lockers,

BHS Administration Als Bucket Challenge

BHS Football.   


(from Jostens Digital classroom)

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

PICASSO!

Advanced Drawing and Painting


We will be looking at works of art by Pablo Picasso in the next couple of weeks.  I first fell in love with the work of Picasso when I was in Barcelona and visited the Picasso Museum.  Up until then I hadn't realized that as a teenager he was painting stunning realistic oil paintings, rendering fabric like Da Vinci.  I always thought of Cubism when I thought of Picasso, not realism. My limited exposure to Picasso didn't make me feel like he was an artist that I needed to discover more about...was I wrong.  His work was constantly evolving...his critics and the world loved him for that.

At the age of 76 Picasso said, "Everything I have done is just the first step on a long path. It is only a preliminary process, which must be developed much later on.  My works must therefore be considered each in relation to the others, always taking into account what I have done and what I am going to do."


Picasso!!!

Advanced Drawing and Painting




We will be looking at works of art by Pablo Picasso in the next couple of weeks.  I first fell in love with the work of Picasso when I was in Barcelona and visited the Picasso Museum.  Up until then I hadn't realized that as a teenager he was painting stunning realistic oil paintings, rendering fabric like Da Vinci.  I always thought of Cubism when I thought of Picasso, not realism. My limited exposure to Picasso didn't make me feel like he was an artist that I needed to discover more about...was I wrong.  His work was constantly evolving...his critics and the world loved him for that.

At the age of 76 Picasso said, "Everything I have done is just the first step on a long path. It is only a preliminary process, which must be developed much later on.  My works must therefore be considered each in relation to the others, always taking into account what I have done and what I am going to do."


Picasso, thinking outside of the box!



Advanced Drawing and Painting

Now that we have studied the art work created by  Picasso in class and discussed the amazing evolution of his art, it is time to create a work of art based on the portraits he painted during and after the birth of cubism.  Your portrait should somehow combine 3 views of a face.  How do you do this?  Work it out in your sketchbook.  Overlap different views of a face you have already drawn or someone you want to draw.  Combine the faces by connecting them with lines, omitting some features, emphasizing others...experiment.
Picasso painted hundreds and hundreds of original creative portraits of people.  Some were realistic, expressionistic, cubist...etc.   Even though you are using Picasso as inspiration your portrait will be an original because you will put your twist on it.

Color:  Choose an analogous or monochromatic color scheme for the portrait  then decide if you want the background to stay within that color scheme or clash with it.  

Movement: Create movement within the piece by placing like colors in different areas of the artwork or by drawing lines that connect the faces or areas of the artwork. 

Emphasis:  Where is the focal Point? Is there an place that you want the viewer to go to in your piece?  How can you lead them there? Maybe with color or placement of shapes and lines. 

Balance:  When deciding your composition weight the areas evenly.  Notice below how negative and positive space are balanced. 




By Jane B, 2012






Clare H, 2012
Clare H, 2012



Brooke D, 2011

Sebastian Fryer 2015





Picasso's sketches of James Sabartes.

Final painting, notice the references to the details in the sketch.







Thursday, February 11, 2016

http://resources.yearbookavenue.jostens.com/photo-techniques/

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Value Drawing Exercise

             Value Drawing Exercise

Complete the following value drawing exercises to help you become acquainted with the different types of pencil leads.  This exercise will also help you focus on the gentle, mindful touch you need with drawing subtle value changes.  Due Monday February 1, counted as a sketchbook assignment to be done outside of class or when you are completed with coursework during class.

                 DRAWING EXERCISE WORKSHEET


Sky, Land, Sea...

Advanced Drawing and Painting




"Each of these luminous and mysterious images of trees against sky, field, and river evoke a subtle variation of light and atmosphere. The arrangement of the trees - whether standing in solitude or in pairs or in large groupings seem at once inevitable and yet surprising, formal yet accidental. All of these paintings are comprised from memory, imagination and thumbnail sketches from my beautiful basement studio in my home in Connecticut. I work on wood board, paper and canvas using several layers of gesso before priming the surface with cadmium red base, a quick sketch using charcoal is used to lay out the design then the paint is applied. I work in layers using thinned down oil color, building on these layers with glazing techniques the colors are adjusted and brought up to completion before final coats of varnish are applied. Light has come to play an important part, and when I look back over this body of work, I feel it speaks about spiritual places, places that contain a quiet inner light, radiating an ethereal whisper, the places we see every day."
- William McCarthy



Your next assignment is to create an acrylic landscape that experiments with the layering of color to create a luminous atmosphere.   William McCarthy takes photographs and draws thumbnail sketches of landscapes that have an appealing composition or beautiful lighting.  He then goes back to the studio and creates a landscape that may or may not be representational.  Some artists would prefer only to paint outside looking at the natural world and how the sun affects it, there are many ways to create a landscape or seascape. You can be inspired by a sunset, but not want to duplicate it.  There is no right or wrong way to approach drawing a natural setting it would be ideal to pause the perfect sunset so you can paint what you are seeing, but you can't.  
View Assignment HERE