I’ve been talking about this with my students in our ongoing discussions of Impressionism and post-Impressionism (i.e. van Gogh). Here’s the graphic:
Articles from April 2013
A Different Perspective. . .
In Art I, we moved into the Italian Renaissance, really a vital and fascinating time in art. One of our discussions focused on Brunelleschi and his discovery of linear perspective, and the effect this had on art. Rather than focus on one-point perspective for a project, we worked with two-point perspective to create art galleries (a cute idea I saw in, I believe, School Arts magazine). This required lots of practice and lots of patience! Here are a few of the results. . . great job, and thanks to everyone for all your hard work!!
Found paintings…
I found these two small paintings hanging on a narrow wall upstairs in my grandparents’ bedroom a few months ago. I saw them and thought, those look familiar; where did they come from…? and realized I had painted them a long time ago, between 20 and 25 years ago I’d say. Watercolors…not really my thing, I think (my mother’s thing, more). But I sort of like them. They’re just simple, and quiet, dark, calm.
Mini van Gogh interpretation…”Starry Night” Pop-Ups
Advanced Painting students are studying the life and art of Vincent van Gogh. As a prelude to a larger van Gogh – inspired painting, they created these small interpretations of Starry Night. Some students chose to paint a different artwork, which was really neat. These landscapes turned out beautifully, and were lots of fun!
To This Day Project…WATCH. THIS.
To This Day Project is a project based on a spoken word poem written by Shane Koyczan called “To This Day”, to further explore the profound and lasting impact that bullying can have on an individual.
This video, based on Shane Koyczan’s spoken word poem, not only has a great message but is also amazing graphically.
Do watch.
Illuminated Letters…Medieval art
During their study of the Medieval period, Art I students had a comprehensive lesson on illuminated manuscripts. We began with the 7th and 8th c. insular manuscripts of the Celts and Anglo-Saxons and continued through the texts of the Gothic Age (1500s).
Students looked at the entire process of creating illuminated manuscripts and how they functioned in Medieval society, as well as many examples, including modern ones.
Drawing inspiration from sources such as the Romanesque period Winchester Bible, Books of Hours, and other manuscripts, students produced some lovely results.
We focused on producing an “historiated initial.” Criteria included the following:
- Letter itself must be decorated
- Letter must be surrounded by a border
- Letter must contain a miniature — small, independent painted scene (we rendered in colored pencil)
Students were to create an artwork that expressed their interests or personalities. In order to help them understand how to put a miniature inside their letter, we looked at lots of examples, and I explained that their picture should be a narrative, or tell a story.
The PowerPoint I created to go with this lesson can be found on the Art Resources page.
I hope you enjoy these beautiful Illuminated Letters. . . they did an amazing job! 🙂
Mona Lisa. . . SMILES?!
In Art I, we are studying art of the Italian High Renaissance. We’ve discussed how da Vinci’s Mona Lisa,, besides being the most famous painting in the world,, is also among the most parodied.
Art I students, here’s your extra-credit opportunity! In the comment box below, post your favorite Mona Lisa parody. Give the title and artist, or the website, so that I can look it up. To receive credit you must explain why this is your favorite, because there are so many to choose from! The caveat: you cannot post one that has already been posted.
Anyone is welcome to post. . . extra credit notwithstanding!!
Here are a few favorites of mine…
Monochromatic Pop Art Portraits
Advanced Painting students recently finished these fantastic celebrity portraits! This lesson focuses on a monochromatic color scheme, and the Pop Art movement of the 1950’s and 60’s – particularly the graphic art of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and the like. I closely followed Kim Bartel’s great lesson on The Incredible Art Department’s website. After a couple of years doing this project, I’ve found that a few things factor into students’ success:
- Students should complete a painted grayscale and a monochromatic value scale. I tell them they need to experiment with the color they are planning on using for their portrait because mixing it with black or white will alter it considerably, especially black.
- after students have worked with mixing colors and creating values and are comfortable, they should begin their portrait. it’s best to work from a black and white photo — if they don’t have this, a grayscale copy should be made. We generally tried to crop photos to about 5″ x 7″. We were working on 14″ x 21″ paper, so this worked out almost perfectly. Students simply gridded up from 1″ boxes to 3″ boxes.
- Students first outlined all areas of value in their photo. I worked with them quite a bit on this, getting them to “see” areas of value rather than simply a nose or an eye, etc. Sometimes I would suggest turning the picture upside down so they would be freed from their conception of what they were drawing. Once they began to think of these faces as just different shapes of value, the project began to click.
- The next step was to grid this up onto their large paper. They started with a light outline drawing and then laid in all the amoebic looking shapes for the different values. They numbered these from 1-5 on their photo (1 – lightest value; 5 – darkest value) and then put the corresponding numbers on their large drawing. ready to paint.
by Katee G. 
by Hannah C. 
by Shelby B. 
by Cortney M. 
by Amber R. - Now the fun part! Each student needed simply one color of paint, plus black and white. I had them paint a 5-box value scale to correspond with their numbered portraits. This way they had a reference as they painted, and for each new class period.
- It was neat to observe how, even in the context of this uniform assignment, each student had his/her unique style and technique. It was a lot of fun, and produced some awesome results!! 🙂