Friday, January 30, 2015

Create > Album: Unnatural Silhouettes

Create > Album: Unnatural Silhouettes

Goal:  Make three (3) double exposure silhouette images

Studio Activity:
  • Stage a series of images that emphasize silhouette shapes.  
  • Capture other images that metaphorically represent the individual in the silhouette image.
  • Follow the tutorial below to exploit a double exposure effect.

Trigger Mechanisms:  Contrast, Metaphor, Analogy

Visual Examples:

Tutorial:  



Thursday, January 29, 2015

Respond > Joseph Albers on Design

Design Systems - Design is Order


Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, 1965 > http://goo.gl/lOsWX8 

  1. Below is a poem written by master teacher and artist Josef Albers
  2. Below is also an image of Josef Albers with something he said. 
  3. Respond > choose one question below and respond to it in the comment section.
    • Does the concept of design qualify a man's thinking and doing? 
    • Do you believe the basic rules of language shift or alter after awhile?


To design is

to plan
and to organize
to relate and to control.
In short it embraces
All means opposing disorder
and accident.
Therefore it signifies
a human need
and qualifies man’s
thinking and doing.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQkbv-LZxEpfJAfyMC4UJLtSGcHHjn4NQrUJvmwGB783hy6KkqwaA

Monday, January 26, 2015

Create > Album: Object & Its Shadow


Create > Album: Object & Its Shadow
Photograph an object (or part of it) along with its shadow.

Goal:
Learn to place both an object (or part of) and its shadow effectively into a rectangular frame.


Studio: 
Explore how an object's shadow can add visual interest to a photograph.

Tips: You'll get the best results early or late in the day (from dawn to mid-morning or mid-afternoon till sunset), when shadows will be nice and long. Be sure your subject is well-placed to cast an interesting shadow. It's best if the shadow is cast on a fairly simple surface —a complicated surface tends to reduce a shadow's impact. Pay particular attention to negative space. Try to achieve visual tension between the object and the shadow. This can be done by placing the object over to one side of the frame and letting the shadow stretch to the far side (a corner to corner stretch can be especially effective).



Create > Album: Manipulated Portraits

Manipulated Portraits




Create > Album: Manipulated Portraits
  • Create a series of at least 10 portraits that are nontraditional portraits.


  • At least 3 portraits in which the face has been distorted because of external forces such as tape, cellophane, rubber bands, windtunnel or push your face against the scanner or window.  

View examples


  • At least 3 portraits in which the face has been covered with paint, make-up or found objects.


  • at least 3 portraits that are reconstructions of printed pieces that have been manipulated.
  • Album covers and Portraits > http://goo.gl/u14d















Create > Progressive Zoom

Create > Studio Activity: Progressive Zoom

Picture15.jpg

Goal:  Create a progressive sequence depicting the magnification of a focal point.

Select a ‘still-life’ or place to serve as the subject for this progressive magnification composition.  Start by dividing your drawing paper into at least four (4) panels.  Beginning in the first panel, make a realistic drawing that shows the entire view of the subject.  In the next panel sequences, make a series of realistic drawings that captures you actually moving closer to the subject.  For the last panel create an image that is so zoomed in on it appears as if you used a magnifying glass.

Trigger Mechanisms:
Repeat, zoom, scale, combine

Materials:

Paper, pencil, drawing board

Create > Organizational Geometrics


machine-element-1924.jpg!Blog.jpg


Topic: Design is Order


The Big Ideas:
A system is a structure of interacting, intercommunicating components that operate individually and jointly to achieve a common goal.  

Designing is creating conceptual and visual unity by giving order to diverse but interrelated and interdependent parts.

Standards:
As an art student, I will understand and demonstrate the ability to...
  • Understand and apply media, techniques, and processes with skill and confidence
  • Use design principles and functions to accomplish specific visual art problems
  • Choose and evaluate subject matter and ideas
  • Reflect upon and assess the characteristics and merits of my work
  • Make connections between my art and other aspects of life

Goal Concept:
Artistic activity involves conceptual, visual and psychological order.

Access Prior Knowledge:
“There is no work of art without a system.” ~ Le Corbusier

Dialogue > Le Corbusier on Art

New Information:

Design
The term design can be used either as a noun or as a verb.  Design can refer to either an object or an action.  As a noun, it can denote a plan, a drawing or a representation.  As a verb it can refer to a way of thinking and doing or a way of applying organizational principles, or of endeavoring to achieve a conceptual and aesthetic gestalt.  John Ruskin said, “Design is not the offspring of idle fancy; it is the studied result of accumulative observation.”

A good design must have a strong foundation or underlying formal order behind its visual content.  To emphasize this, painter Christopher Pratt said, “A work of art has to stand on its own merits which are independent of its source.  A geometric structure should be engineered, stressed, proportioned, calculated, and balanced with the same care we would bring to the design of a bridge or the cutting of a diamond.”

02-albers_notext.jpg

Master teacher Joseph Albers wrote a poem about design.

To design is
to plan
and to organize
to relate and to control.
In short it embraces
All means opposing disorder
and accident.
Therefore it signifies
a human need
and qualifies man’s
thinking and doing.


Artist Reference:


Instructional Strategy
  • Identify > Similarities & Differences
Learning Activity

basic_shapes_3rds.jpg

Apply Knowledge and Skills:

DSC_0646.JPG


Create > Studio Activity: Organizational Geometrics

Goal: Create a well organized composition by substituting geometric shapes and form for figurative images.  

Go to  the Art Institute Chicago’s Modern art online > http://goo.gl/63vdFJ and select a reproduction of a representational art work.  Reinterpret the composition using only geometric and free form shapes in place of the original figurative images.  Maintain the compositional order and proportions of the original work but feel free to manipulate the shapes and forms with value ranges, textures, patterns and colors. View the process here > http://goo.gl/g83ORM

*Alternate > If accurate rendering is what you want to do, this studio activity’s goal can still be achieved by doing something similar to the works of Giuseppe Arcimboldo.  View his works here > http://goo.gl/Uxh37p



Trigger Mechanisms:
Abstract, repeat, transform

Materials:
Paper, paint, markers, mix-media


the-snail-1953.jpg!Blog.jpg

Create > Studio Activity: Design by Chance

Goal: Create a random ordered design using serendipitous or chance methods.

Cut and tear colored construction paper into various geometric and organic shapes.  Without consciously controlling the placement, drop the shapes, one by one, onto a larger sheet of paper.  Glue the pieces exactly where they fell.  Repeat the procedure until all of the shapes are attached to the surface.

Next, make an adjustable viewfinder by cutting out two “L”-shaped pieces of tagboard and clipping them together.  With the  viewfinder, search the collage for an aesthetically pleasing composition.  
Finally, replicate the collage composition in the form of a painting.  The goal is to match the shapes, colors, tones and textures of the collage as accurately as possible.

Trigger Mechanisms:
Combine, transfer, render

Visual examples

Materials:
Paper, pencil, paint, viewfinder


the-maritime-wildlife-1950.jpg!Blog.jpg

Generalize, Publish and Reflect:

“The details are not the details.  They make the design.” ~ Charles Eames

Instructional Strategy
  • Providing Recognition
Learning Activity
Notes

Instructional Strategy
  • Providing feedback
Learning Activity