Semester 1 Assignments

CALENDAR

Quarter 1 (Aug. 31st - Nov. 3rd)

Focus: Traditional & Non-traditional Drawing Techniques

Essential Question: How can you use different drawing approaches to best express your 'voice'?

Drawing is an essential part of an art portfolio; we will focus on this medium for quarter one and you will create 4-6 portfolio-ready drawings.

Sketchbook

In this on-going project, we will investigate the personal relationship of the artist to his/her sketchbook, how to 'mine' one's sketchbook and the practice of experimentation.

Student Example Lauren B. (sketchbook excerpts from her first year in college)

Incredible Sketchbooks:

Moleskine
Moleskine II
Sketchbook Gallery
Irina Vinnik
Vasiliy Grino

Resources

Moleskine.com

Drawing Skills

Rubric

BLIND CONTOUR

Create a semi-blind contour drawing using either a water-soluble graphite pencil or charcoal pencil that is a minimum size of 9" x 12".

The drawing should:

• show a variety of line weights
• suggest ONE, CONTINUOUS, UNINTERRUPTED LINE
• show an interesting POV (point of view): Bird's eye? Worm's eye? Eye level?
• that you have considered composition (or the placement of the subject on the page)

You are required to:

• Pick a subject (something to draw) that is personally interesting to you: it has an emotional or physical resonance for you
• Do a small 'practice' blind contour in your sketchbook before beginning the 'final' drawing
• Keep your eyes and hand moving at the same, slow pace

GESTURE

The drawing should:

• show the overall structure of the forms
• not show any detail
• show the spacial relationships between the forms
• take up the whole page
• have some indications of shadow

You are required to:

• remain loose
• work quickly

IMAGE OUT-OF-FOCUS

The drawing should:

• start with a gesture drawing using vine (willow) charcoal
• show a range of values
• show your willingness to revise
• use the whole page

You are required to:

• measure, using the different techniques learned in class
• step back from your drawing to evaluate your work often

Book Cover Using Drawing!

Can use a technique learned in the Drawing Skills unit to create an eye-catching cover for a non-fiction book cover?

DUE: Monday, Sept. 26th at the end of class

To READ:

1. Assignment
2. Rubric

RESOURCES:

Blank Book Template
Inspiration: real examples from professionals
Generating Ideas: Researching, coming up with ideas, revising your ideas and becoming 'unstuck!'
Color palette generator
List of downloadable font sites

Still Life

Can you draw from life?

Learn: different measuring techniques, how to make thumbnail sketches & what they are used for, how to create a value scale, use the erasure as a drawing tool, check angles and analyze your work.

How to set up a successful still life vignette
Skull + other items
Charcoal
18 x 24
Measuring (grid, pencil & locked arm)
Correcting (deny erasure first couple of days)
Proportion
Scale

Erase-Into Drawing

Drawing Prompts/Experimental Drawing

How big is your drawing vocabulary?

In this in-class exercise, you will learn how to use some traditional drawing materials in some non-traditional ways. We will be working from life and drawing prompts to create new and original work.

To DO:

HOMEWORK: Due: Tues., October 18th Homework: REFLECTION

The Bizarre & Unlikely

Adobe Photoshop + Wacom Tablet
Working from your imagination and from reference images

X2: Concept Exercise: Unlikely partners

X2: Concept Exercise: HANDOUT

Exquisite Cadaver

1. Examples on Behance.net

Gore, Ghouls and Creatures

Can you turn a picture of yourself into a Halloween-inspired spectacle?

In this 3-day Halloween hiatus project, you will take a picture of yourself with a digital camera. Then, using the magic of Photoshop, you will turn yourself into a scary or sweet mythical creature or being. We will also be joining the other Art & Humanities programs in the Career Center to make fake blood and do some special effects makeup, Halloween style!

You will receive a Process Grade for this project.

Vew Rubric
Make sure you can do the following:

• Create a layer mask and blend
• Select an area using the pen path tool and refine the edge (feather/smooth, etc.)
• Copy, paste and warp a selection to fit areas of a face
• Apply an fx layer (such as color overlay, blending options, etc.)
• Burn and dodge and sponge
• Apply a layer mode (such as overlay, multiply, pin light, etc.)

To DO:

1. Adobe Fotoshop Video Inspiration
2. Review Worksheet
3. Post your work to the wiki site. Format it correctly and Name it Halloween_Yourname.jpg

RESOURCES:

'40 Spine-Chilling Horror Effects': Photoshop Tuts+
Tom Cruise Alien How-To: Worth 1000 Tutorial
Halloween Tutorials: Royal Tutorial

Quarter 2 (Nov. 7th - Jan. 19th)

Focus: PRINTMAKING and COLOR

Essential Question: How can you use color and approaches in printmaking to convey emotion?

Printmaking Resources

CD Cover & Advertising

To READ:

Assignment

To DO:

1. CD Dissection Worksheet
2. 'Getting Started' Worksheet

RESOURCES:

1. CD Face Sticker
2. Photoshop Album Cover Template
3. QR Code
4. FBI Anti-piracy logo
5. T-Shirt model pictures can be found in Lisa's Public folder (G21)

BEYOND the classroom:

1. Threadless.com: submit your design to Threadless (minus the band name!)

Color Activities

You will receive one process grade for the following activities:

Color Mixing Lab
Using only the primary colors and black and white, mix 50 different swatches of color

Color Theory
Complete the following using digital media:

1. Color Wheel
2. Color Worksheet

Color Schemes in Mass Media: Identification activity (groups of 3)

Color Analysis

To READ:

1. Assignment
2. Rubric

RESOURCES:

1. Color Analysis EXAMPLE
2. Use the Tools/Resources menu (Graphic Design - Color) to access information about color psychology

Stencil on Canvas

Monoprinting

REDUCTIVE MONOPRINT

DUE: Thursday, De. 15th (with your 'flat')

To READ:

1. Reductive Assignment
2. Reductive Monoprint Instructions

ADDITIVE MONOPRINT

Relief

Portrait of an artist: high-contrast
Connect to Artist Research

To SEE:

Relief Examples: Styles and Composition

Greeting Card Contest

To READ:

1. Gallery Collection: Rules & Submissions Page
2. Rubric
3. View Power Point for Design

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Mid-Term 'Exam'

Your Mid-Term Exam will be your in-progress, hard copy portfolio grade (your D & I binder). At the end of the year, the best portfolio in the class will be submitted to the HCC portfolio review committee.

What should be included in your hard copy portfolio binder?

• Create a simple, attractively designed cover page and place in the front plastic face of your binder
• Create a Table of Contents page. This should be the first thing that people see when they open your binder
• Create sections for your binder labelled:

Gallery (this section will be examples of your work, properly labeled)
Career Documents (this will include: Resume, 1-9, W-4, Job Application, Accuplacer and/or SAT/ACT scores, copies of letters of recommendation [optional])
Writing (this section will include: CCV business letter, final draft of your art response essay from Shelburne Museum, any college-related essay concerning art that you've written [optional])
Accolades [optional] (this section will include: any certificates, awards or honors that you have received while in high school such as: Honor Roll certificates, sports awards, perfect attendance awards, NAHS nomination letter, etc.) If you do not have any accolades, then do not include this section.

What should your portfolio look like?

• It should be clean
• All required documents should be put in plastic sleeves (if it is not listed above as [optional], then it is required)

For DETAILS about the above, visit the portfolio section of the web site: Go to that section NOW!