Ending the Semester for Art 1

I just wanted to share a few notes for you, my wonderful Art 1 students.

As the semester draws to an end, everything seems busy. This is true for teachers and students both.

I know there are due dates coming up (Ch. 3 on 12/10 and 12/11...pay attention to this as black/orange days are flipped here!), but there is time to get your work finished.

I cannot strongly enough suggest that you use tutorial time - especially for your sketchbook. Not only is the sketchbook due before the painting, but you will need all of the available class time you can get to finish your painting sufficiently.

On average, in the past, the tempera painting has taken - with brainstorming, working on the color wheel worksheet, and through the entire rough draft process - 14 or 15 class periods. If we go from the beginning of the project to the published due date, there are 13 class period for your work this semester after the pen and ink due date.

I know I know, what about another one or two class periods? I get it. It stresses me out too.

But first, a little tangent.

Some of your ideas and designs are so amazing. Even if you did a so-so job on the execution I know it will look fantastic, and some of you that I see this in...you’re already painting as I write this. Wow!

However, some of you aren’t even on your large rough draft yet. And you are most of the same people who (basically) never come in to work at tutorial or before/after school. Sad face.

So here is what I am “changing”. We will have an “extension” of the due date… with some caveats. While you will get the finals class period to work on your painting, you will not have quite all of this time. During part of this I will have you filling out a self-reflection about your painting/process before you actually finish your painting.

You MUST have all of the requirements in the painting before the due date. This means all of your completed value scales, neutral, tints, tone, etc. have to be in the painting. You also need to show your ability to get clean/crisp edges, as well as smooth/blended transitions.

Your painting should, basically, be finished. By this, I mean at least 90% finished.

However, I do want to show a few things along the way and at the end that will help refine your image, add some textures, etc. It is possible that this will take us into a day or two of next semester.

You will receive an assessment for your project after you give it to me during finals, but because it will be the end of the semester you will not have your normal window to make any adjustments or have a do-over in any section. This is just what happens at the end of the semester.

Remember that you should, essentially, be finished with your painting (you need to have paint everywhere, but you may have some small details that could still be added). If you aren’t at this point, you won’t have given yourself the opportunity to show what you have learned this semester, and in this process.

The thing I am most concerned with is that there are some of you that aren’t painting yet (as I finish writing this on the morning of 12/5 (that earlier bit was written yesterday)). You just won’t have time to finish this painting if you do not use a significant amount of studio time outside of your normal class period working on your painting.

It will be a tight finish, but I believe in you, and I’m here to help you along the way. I’ll keep what I have to say/show to a minimum so as to maximize your time, but you also need to help your own process by giving it as much time as possible. As always, let me know I can answer any questions.

Daily Sketchbook 4/2

Good morning!
I'd like to walk backwards a little bit today and look at the week as a whole as we get started.

Friday: mindful moment; wrap up and self assessment of current painting; looking back at what we have created during the month of March (this will require you to have all of your independent practice or self-directed pieces here this week (I would bring them earlier vs later). You'll need to have your sketchbook here on Friday as well.
Remember you should have been doing one or the other during March.
Hopefully we have time to begin towards our next work.

Wednesday: daily sketchbook - this will be our self assessment at the end of the grading period as we typically do; finish and turn in painting

Monday: daily sketchbook of which you have two options today. Option One: continue working on the negative space you began with your blackbird last week. Option Two: get a mirror from the tool cabinet and create a contour line drawing of your face resting on your hand (not a blind contour drawing).
Please spend a min. of 8 min. and a max. of 11 min. on this.
Continue working on your acrylic painting - due Wed.

Thoughts About Your Thoughts

After reviewing and discussing some of my thought process/thumbnails yesterday in class I was really happy to see some of you going through - and appreciating - the paintings that students have done in the past.
That's rad. I'm happy some of those are appealing.

So I have a few additional thoughts.

First, remember that you can do a "collage" - be it old school cutting and pasting photos together or new school digital style in photoshop or procreate. I'm happy either way.

Second, not everything has to be "deeply personal".
Yes, you need to address the topic (memory), and be able to back up your decisions. I would go a step further and say that your focal point needs to be what addresses the theme.
However, sometimes you need seemingly random items that help balance and unify your painting. You could even use those seemingly random items to help create a series if you have used certain subjects often in the past (as I have with sloths or donuts, for example).

Next, really (really!) think about composition.
It can be silly and fun and all sorts of other things in terms of the content, but as you are creating your own composition, think about focal point and rule of thirds and depth and overlapping and having variety of sizes and...all that stuff we have been trying to give you practice with since the tempera painting first semester of Art 1.

Subsequently, yes, you should be considering value, texture, etc. Those are all part of the Elements of Art and Principles of Design that you should be more than just intuitively aware of.

Finally, have fun!
There does need to be a personal connection with this, and you need to be able to verbally articulate your decisions and why you have made those decisions. "Because I like..." is NOT going to be a good way to start any of your explanations, so be aware of that.
With that said, though, you can still have fun, so let yourself enjoy the process!

Art 3/4 Volunteers Needed

Hey all.
I need your help. The first request is really for you, but the second is definitely more for me (though you will get something out of it too).

First, I presume that you all would like a waffle day, so now is the time. By now I mean next week. And specifically I mean next Friday, 1/26.
As usual, you need to sign up to bring the stuff to make everything (link below). If not everything is covered by next Wed. we will have to cancel.
Sad face. Please don't let that happen.

Sign up to contribute to waffle day HERE. Please.


Second, the 8th grade electives fair is Tuesday 1/30. I think it officially goes from 5:30-7. Can you be one of approx. 4-6 awesome and diligent students that can work on your project and/or independent practices here in the studio from 5-7ish?
I will provide some Pizza My Heart for you to eat if you can come in and work.
There is a small caveat with this. There will be families and prospective students coming through the room to check everything out and I need you to be able to tell them how valuable and fun and important the Art sequence of classes are (and how ideal it is to start as a freshman in Art 1).
Primarily they will be asking me questions and want to talk to me, but to see students working in the room is highly valuable.
Plus, it gets you some work time while also getting a free dinner. Please follow the below link if you are able to do this. I don't need 20 people, so first come first serve on the 30th.

Sign up to work in the studio on Tues. Jan. 30th (and receive free pizza for dinner) HERE.


Last, and I'll remind you of this later, there is a public reception for our painting show over in the Council Chambers on Feb. 1st. It also goes from 5:30-7.
No, you don't have to stay the whole time. Even coming to support your peers for 15 min is great.
There are a variety of oil paintings from Art 2, 3, 4 in the show and it is always great to see the pieces outside of the studio (and guidance office).
Please mark your calendars.

Daily Sketchbook 11/14

It's another art history day but I want you to follow a few directions.

Please read all of the directions before you begin.

• First, you'll need to go to The Lonely Palette website and begin THIS VAN GOGH EPISODE and skip forward to the 3 min mark.
• Next, set the timer for 13 minutes. (yes, I want each of you to set your own timer on your own ipad)
• While you are listening to the first portion of this podcast, draw the first image* you see at the bottom of the page in your sketchbook 
• Yes, you need to use headphones
• When your timer goes off, take a photo of your drawing and upload it for your daily sketchbook
• I would love for you to finish listening to this episode, but you can do that as you work on your painting as well

You do not need to listen to all 22 minutes of the episode, and I do not want you to take the entire episode length to draw and upload. However, I do want you to spend the above referenced 13 minutes to draw, so please get started asap and draw for the entire time until your timer goes off.
Smile. Art is fun.
Oh, sorry Sabine, I know you don't like her voice, but I do think it is an interesting podcast.



*I mean the below image

Daily Sketchbook 10/24

First, watercolors.
Second, mix up a bevy of monochromatic colors in your palette.
Third, make sure they are not very dark (so add a decent amount of water).
Fourth, with your big brush, create a regular series of brush strokes (each one separate from the other(s)) across a single or double page spread.

Make sure to cover the entire space.

Do not put this on top of something else, and please do not draw on top of this until you are asked. This is a precursor to another activity later - which is why we don't want it to be that dark.

Fifth, if you have questions because you don't feel like the directions are clear, please ask.

Per the Perspectives Ideation

I was thinking about your brainstorming for the "perspectives" topic from NUMU and then I was leafing through a book from the de Young (a great museum in the city if you've never been) and I saw the below painting from Aaron Douglas.

I'd never heard of him before, and I quite like this painting. I enjoy how the composition is dynamic in its use of scale and color, and then I noticed the shapes that radiate out from the seated figure. Those are cool.
This may not be the ideal way for you to show off your painting skills for a large project like this since there is, essentially, no modeling of form, but the idea works quite well. Especially if you take the time to read the snippet from the book you'll see how there is a lot more going on in this image than meets the eye.


On p. 95, the following is said about the above piece (titled, Aspiration)
"During the 1920's, African Americans created a thriving culture of jazz, theater, literature, and visual art in New York/s Harlem district. Known as the Harlem Renaissance, this artistic explosion fostered a cultural community of people who set about celebrating the opportunities of modern urban life in a language that drew inspiration from their common heritages as people of African descent. Aspiration is one section of a four-part mural cycle that Douglas created for "Hall of Negro Life" at the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas. The cycle reflects the optimism among African Americans that lingered well after the halcyon days of the Harlem Renaissance. In this mural Douglas organizes his visual image of African heritage according to a highly rationalized, didactic scheme: the shackled hands reach up in a gesture that links them with the experience of slavery, while the monumental figures represent the transformation from forced labor to a community of modern workers inspired by leaders trained in literature, science, and engineering, as symbolized by the book, beaker, globe, and compass and right angle. As a further celebration of African heritage, Douglas uses and Egyptian inspired figure and the pictorial conventions of Egyptian representation, which combine frontal and profile images. In this way he unites the flattened, abstract language of avant-garde modernism with the visual vocabulary linked to ancient Egypt and, therefor, African origins."

I also like this image.
 
I want you to push how you think with your thumbnails and think about ideas and feelings and perceptions that you could convey. Even if you know you are doing a master oil copy, this is a good process to go through. Besides, it will help you think of ideas for Independent Practice and daily sketchbook pieces as we go through the year as well.

Daily Sketchbook 10/2

A wee bit o' art history time.

First, go to THIS PAGE in Safari.
You'll be able to listen to The Lonely Palette podcast about JMW Turner's painting, The Slave Ship there. You could, alternatively, pull up that podcast in the podcast app on your ipad and listen to it there. Maybe even subscribe from your ipad (hint hint).

While you are listening, sketch out the below painting in your sketchbook or in procreate. Feel free to use any color you want, but sketch up until the episode is over, but when all the extraneous talking and ad type things begin a few minutes before the end is when you can begin photographing/exporting and uploading your image.



Additionally, on your own time, you might find THIS interesting.

Daily Sketchbook 9/20

Remember that bird you began drawing in ink last week?
Go back to that page and spend some time adding watercolor to it some how to make it look better/more interesting/more complete.
Don't forget to photograph the entire page when you are done (without a shadow) and upload it!


Alternatively, you may continue inking if you don't feel like you got as far as you would have liked. Please just spend at least 13 min. working on this.

Art 3 & 4 Independent Practice Due Dates

So there's a bit of weirdness for the schedule this semester because of certain dates that we do not have classes. The independent practice pieces are due on the following due dates. There is only ONE PLACE to upload them for the entirety of the semester.
Please mark these dates in your calendar.

9/1
9/22
10/4
10/20
11/3
11/16
12/1
12/15

Have fun!

Daily Sketchbook 12/16

It's a short class period today so we need to be super duper efficient.
It is AOTM time, so let's do this.
You've heard me mention his name before, and he's one of our table group artists, so let's learn something about the inimitable Lucian Freud!

Art 1's Please Read

I am keeping the due date for the color wheel tempera painting as tomorrow, 12/8.
However, I am extending the time that you have to get your painting to me without penalty as outlined below.

You will have until the end of tutorial on Monday, 12/12 to get me your painting. Please note that you may NOT use class time on 12/12 to work on your painting.
This will give you after school time on Thursday, tutorial time on Friday, after school time on Friday, and tutorial time on Monday to get additional time on your painting.

Please do not rush the last 10% and make your painting a wreck in order to just get it done. Please don't do this.
I'm really enjoying some of the work you have already done and am looking forward to seeing your end results.

Keep in mind your probable need to have more than one layer on most areas in order to have opaque and smoothly applied paint. Please keep in mind the need to cover your pencil lines completely. Don't forget the color/value requirements either.

Smile. Have fun. I'll see you in class tomorrow.

Daily Sketchbook 12/1

Continuation!
Go back to the same ipad you had on Tuesday and open up procreate. Continue working on your sandcastle drawing to make it better and more accurate.
When you have finished 12 minutes of working on it, export it as a jpg and upload that image to Canvas please.

Flesh

Many of you are dealing with painting faces, and many of you are making really good choices in your paintings. I do want to throw out a few notes and jumping off points just in case you desire/need them.
I mean, I know the basic recipe I tend towards when painting a portrait (white + burnt sienna with dabs of cadmium red light, ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow medium), but there are so many recipes out there.
One of the things I know is that if you find a flesh color that you like, and only deal with adding different amounts of white to it to create varying values, you tend to have a painting that lacks complexity and depth.
I also know that for many of you, putting vivid colors in your painting of flesh makes you feel uncomfortable. So what are you to do?
First, I did a quick search for "painting flesh in oil" or something like that, and then started to look at some of the content that came from there. There is so much interesting information out there that is only a search away.
If you find that you aren't getting the color(s) you desire, and you haven't used the books in class as guides, or the chart near the back door in class, or asked your peers, I strongly recommend you visit some of the links in this post.

Cheers!

Daily Sketchbook 10/12

Get your watercolors out and get the best and most interesting colors and techniques you can get in 13 minutes on your sandcastle drawing from a few class periods ago.
Don't forget about textures!

Continued Painting Ponderings

I know I spent a lot of time talking about the thumbnails and compositions and...well, I just spent a lot of time talking on Thursday. I hope it helped spark some ideas and (maybe) get the mental juices flowing. It did for me, I know this.
I have some images and thoughts below that have come up for me since then. That happens a lot, something happens, or I see or read something, and then I start seeing things in that vein everywhere.

So here goes. First I saw this image while going through the explore feature in instagram. I think it's interesting. Something like this could easily be a great self portrait. You can get different angles, and/or different emotions. You can have it representing different parts of you or how you are. You don't even have to think so much about space and depth. If you look closely it also has some crisp/clean/defined corners amongst the very organic aspects of the human head. This can be very interesting compositionally.

Then I saw the below image at the Kaleid Gallery in downtown San Jose yesterday when the fam and I went to the MLK Library and to get some Philz Coffee.

That image has some interesting use of color and brush work in it. That's initially what pulled me in, but then when I saw the organic elements (person, plants) mixed with the origami (which is a man made element) I started thinking.
Well, with that boat...that is kind of a representative element regarding a journey - or travel at the very least, but the plants...those are grounded...rooted...and need a place to grow. They need to be fed and watered and tended to. If you tend to those plants they take care of you. They give you oxygen and food - assuming it is that sort of plant/crop.
But there is so much to learn from getting out and seeing the world as well.
You are at this point of ending one journey and starting another.
How do you stay grounded with what you know and what you have learned while also getting out there and exploring and seeing what else there is?
How are you transitioning from one place to another?
How do you decide to stay or go? What does that even mean?
What else could you use to represent rooted versus moving?

(actually, it isn't origami, I was just remembering incorrectly; I used some origami boats in my drawings last spring, so that's probably what I was thinking of, but I hope you get my point...it's still a boat.)

Then I saw the below image that I linked to from another link from a totally different image that was posted in a facebook group for high school art teachers that I am in.

I love the playfulness of this image. Immediately I thought back to the spring of 2008.
This is when my son was a senior here at lghs. I remember he and his friends hanging out at our house and one day I had this massive thought that came over me.
There in the living room were these 17 and 18 year old "young men" who were getting ready to graduate and go off to college at places like Santa Clara and Berkeley and Boulder and Arizona. They were smart and well educated and articulate.
They looked like "adults" for most intents and purposes. But they were being so goofy and funny as they were teasing each other having fun and playing guitar hero right there in the room next to the kitchen.
They were kids.
They should be kids.
They should hold on to that for as long as they can.
That care free spirit and goofiness and joy and FUN.

You all have so much on your plates, and everyone expects so much from you - including myself. Is that the most fair?
Well, yes.
And no.
You are capable of exceeding our expectations, but at least for myself, I want you to retain that image and essence of playfulness.
I know it is integral to your existence and your future joy.

So yes, that is a lot of what went through my head when I saw that stack of lego that had a t-rex perched atop it. That's what happens when you have a richness of experience to pull from.
I also thought about a series of drawings I did this summer for a class that I was in, which will come below.
But that lego image. It made me think of this transitional period you are all in of being kids, but becoming adults.
How do you hang on to the sense of wonder and play that you are expert at as a child while also undertaking the journey and transformation into responsibility and adulthood?


So here are the images from this summer. I was tasked with creating a series of work that could be any topic I wanted. I think the first two are pretty interesting drawings, and the third one - of lego - is by far the least successful.
Well, in my opinion anyway.
But it probably helps with why I was drawn to the above lego image...because I had used them in a recent drawing of mine.
I don't love the outcome, but I do think the idea is a good one.
I was in Sonora at a "vacation" house that my wife and her sisters grew up going to. It isn't fancy, and it is definitely dated, and it isn't in an amazing location such as Tahoe.
Her family just didn't have the kind of money for something like that. Or even for a "traditional" vacation. This is all they did for vacation when she was growing up - go to this A-Frame house and swim in a lake. There were no flights to Hawaii or Europe or even the Grand Canyon.
This is a similarity she and I share, we didn't have much except for a very low key middle class upbringing.
But I am digressing...actually, I'll share something else.
I had to write a statement that discussed the three images I made (an "artist's statement", if you will), so I'll paste that below.
It isn't edited in the best sense, but I do think that it communicates some interesting sentiments. Don't judge, just take from it what you will. It's below the third image.
Oh, this series was called "In The Days of My Youth".

As an artist and educator I am almost immediately asked, “Well, what kind of work do YOU do?” by those that are just meeting me and the inevitable question of what do I “do” arrises. I always find this odd because there have been zero times my colleagues in science have been asked, “What kind of science do you do (at home)?” or in English, “What do you write (in your free time)?”

I never know how to answer this. I do everything - or at least what feels like everything. Today is different than one year ago, and certainly different than five years ago. I make marks. I make beauty. I make happiness. As creators know, you just do things and the ideas come. The opposite can also be true.

For this body of work I began with joy and memory. While on vacation at an old family retreat (well, my wife’s family, that is) I was more in tune than in the past. I kept my eyes open as I worked in my daily sketchbook and as I watched my step-daughter play.

This place, in Sonora, CA, is a relic of the past. The majority of the A-frame’s contents were there when the place was bought, and have remained for more than 35 years. Everything has a story, and because of use and love, everything has character.

While I don’t know if any of the toys there were Made in America, undoubtedly some were. They arrive with chipped paint and the hard clank of metal as they are dumped out of the cardboard cylinder that houses many of them. They sound old. The look loved. They are, in every sense, relics - of when they were made and the memories they carry.

On top of this, they are living on as the daughters of the mothers that once played with them give them new life. After all, there is no wifi and no tv and no way to pass the time save for games, toys, nature and family.

Could I take these perfectly imperfect toys and give them a new life? A new story? Or at least be part of the story/history myself? What happens when you bring them to the table in a different way? Celebrating not what they can do but how they look; celebrating the beauty that is easily glossed over and the imperfection that is their beauty.

I took the memory of childhood, and an era that is no more, and existed there for a while. I took fleeting moments of fury and fun and extended them into hours of new work. I focused on the basics not just of childhood - where you create your own stories without help from electricity, but the basics of art as well, and created using composition, line, and shape to focus the viewer’s eyes and attention.

I hope to grasp a gaze for long enough to bring a smile - through memory - to a day that exists still, somewhere in all of us.


This is along post. I know. If you made it this far, thank you for your time. Enjoy having tomorrow off school! See you Tuesday!

Daily Sketchbook 5/11

Step one: go get an ipad
Step two: get your watercolors out
Step three: follow THE SAME LINK FROM LAST TIME
Step four: add awesome watercolor to the same image you were drawing last time

Visual Update April 14

I took just a few photos in class yesterday so you can see what some of the process looks like.

Daily Sketchbook 3/25

Get out your pen again.
Or...
get out some of your acrylic paint or watercolor paint.

Go back to your sketchbook page from Monday and Wednesday and add more to it.

Will you draw something additional? Will you lighten something with white paint and color? Will you make the the whole scene look like it is under water?

Photograph your third and final installment of this image and upload it to Canvas.

Daily Sketchbook Excerpts

There is a lot of good that comes out of the daily sketchbook, and I see a lot more than most do since I am the once looking at each photo online to "grade" them. Today was a day when a lot of that goodness was happening on the third day of working on the same page.
In my view it is/was a good way to take something that is already in existence but make it personal by having a "random" background.
Here are some of the in-process images from this morning.
Enjoy.