Create > Extreme Angles Album

Create > Extreme Angles Album

Goal: Make 10 images of everyday things and people from unusual vantage points.

Studio Activity:

Emphasize extreme vantage points by getting into extreme locations and positions.  Get on the ground and take a shot from a worm’s eye view.  Get up on a ladder or balcony and shoot down from a bird’s eye view.  Understand that shooting subject matter from extreme angles produces distorted forms and foreshortened perspectives.  Look at the visual examples and notice the foreshortening (a large head (because its closer) and smaller legs diminishing away) or just the opposite when the photograph is taken below (large feet with the body diminishing away).

Trigger Mechanisms:  Point of View, Extreme, Exaggeration

Visual Examples:

Alexander Rodchenko > http://goo.gl/51FmGb

Create > Block Patterns Self Portrait

Create > Block Patterns Self Portrait

Goal:  Break down a photographic image into geometric value/color patterns

Studio Activity:

Take a black and white photograph of yourself.  Tape tracing paper marked in a 1/4” grid over the image.  Study each segment of the photo carefully through transparent paper.  In pencil, render each square with a solid gray tone that represents the average tonality of that square.  Continue rendering all the component squares until the composition is complete.  

*As an alternative, put your digital self-portrait into Pixlr Editor > http://apps.pixlr.com/editor/ or Sumo.fm > http://sumo.fm/#create go to > Filter > Pixelate and adjust accordingly.  Print out the pixilated image as well as the original.  Work the image as a matrix filling in the individual squares with patterns or solid values that equal the tonality of the pixilated image.

Trigger Mechanisms:  

Value, Reduce, Abstract, Texture

Visual examples > http://goo.gl/lKlIFu

Materials:

Drawing paper, collage elements, colored pencils, ebony pencils, etc...

Create > Design from Industrial Systems

Create > Design from Industrial Systems

Goal: Create an artwork using an industrial system or structure as a creative stimulus.

Studio Activity:

Organize a photo walk to collect images of unusual industrial structures.  Photograph such things as communication towers, construction rigs, plumbing, heating and electrical systems, mechanical devices, machines, etc…  

Select one of the images as a stimulus to produce an art form.  Analyze the subject, paying particular attention to the parts, configurations and connecting factors.  Make some preliminary drawings based on your analysis.  Simplify and abstract the components as you desire, and rearrange them to produce a new integration, one that does not look like the original subject, but in some way maintains the spirit of its system or structure.  Render this work in either 2D or 3D.  

Trigger Mechanisms:

Analogy, simplify, substitute, transfer

Visual examples - Stella > http://goo.gl/GxWJuM

Visual examples - Feininger > http://goo.gl/HHfiI

Materials:

Paper, pencil, paint, found objects, wire etc...

Create > Surreal Interior in perspective

Create > Surreal Interior in perspective

Goal: Create a fantasy interior space using linear perspective and surrealist influences.

Studio Activity:

• Emphasize the imaginative powers of the subconscious.
• Show a strange and unreal-like imagery in the collage.
• Create a perspective drawing in pen & ink based on your collage.
• Use a variety of ink shading techniques.
• Use compositional principles like balance, center of interest, and harmony.

1. Take a photo of the space you’ve chosen to depict and print it in black and white.
2. Find the vanishing point(s) by lining up rulers with the lines in the room. Draw a few of these lines directly on your print in red pen.
3. Fantasize your space to trigger surreal, preposterous, outrageous, bizarre thoughts.  
• Topple mental and sensory expectations.  
• How far out can you extend your imagination?
4. Think:  “What-if” thoughts: What if automobiles were made of brick?  What if alligators played pool?  What if insects grew larger than humans?  What if night and day occurred simultaneously?
5. Quickly create a collage by gluing images found in magazines, online etc. to create a fantasy environment inside your room. *You will use this collage to make a drawing, the collage will NOT go in your portfolio, it’s just a guide for your drawing.
6. Use the collage to create a drawing. Sketch in pencil first, starting with the vanishing points and major parts of the room. Then add shading using various pen & ink techniques.  *Remember, you CANNOT just print out one picture from the internet and copy it. YOU should take the photo yourself, or use a collage that combines several different photos.

Trigger Mechanisms:  Fantasy, Space, Surrealism, Dreams

Visual Examples:

> http://goo.gl/2ZawUc

The old masters:

Salvador Dali > http://thedali.org/collection/collection_highlights.html

Remedios Varo > http://serandipity.50megs.com/inform.html

Rene Magritte > http://www.magritte.be/

Georgio de Chirico > http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=1106

Max Ernst > http://www.theartstory.org/artist-ernst-max.htm

New masters:

Josh Keyes > http://www.joshkeyes.net/paintings.htm

Greg Simkins > http://www.imscared.com/gallery/

Bob Dob >  http://skywalker-terraincognita.blogspot.com/2010/05/bob-dob-visual-storyteller.html

Watch > Destino (Dali & Disney) > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dIznsAdTOE

Examples of interior spaces and rooms by master surrealist artists.

Examples of surrealist collages of interior spaces:

Examples that use hatching, cross-hatching, etc to create shading and a sense of depth.

Student examples

These AP student examples are in color and are completely random. Many of these are the surreal bedroom homework assignment.

HOW TO DRAW A ROOM IN PERSPECTIVE:

This isn’t easy and it takes a real understanding of how perspective works. First, you’ll need to figure out if your photo is in ONE OR TWO POINT perspective. I can help you with this, but the easiest way is to line up several rulers (or pencils or anything straight) along the horizontal receding lines in the photo, like the edge of the wall & ceiling. If they all line up with one point (which may be waaaaay off the edge of the paper), then it’s one point perspective. Or if they seem to be going in different directions, then it’s probably 2 point. BE SURE YOU KNOW WHICH YOU’RE DEALING WITH before you start your drawing!

Below are some 2-point interior perspective samples- also simple, no surreal stuff… Just basic images that will help show you how to tackle 2-point perspective!

Some of the earliest and finest examples interior spaces using linear perspective. These examples also show you HOW to find the vanishing points in a photograph.

Here you can see how the vanishing points were found on a photo by lining up two or three lines going the same direction. I often do this using two rulers.

If you’re doing 2-point it’s often best if your vanishing points are FAR away from each other, even beyond the edge of the paper. Feel free to put them on the drawing board. Just be sure they’re level by using a yardstick to make a horizon line.