Representation - DP

OVERVIEW OF THEME

SUMMARY

Each of the quarter themes offer a conceptual focus within which students of different media maintain a conversation about their goals and challenges. More specific project ideas will develop out of classroom discussion and personal investigation within each theme. Moreover, project ideas develop out of exploration of materials. Development of students' art and ideas are anchored in study of art history and contemporary artists.

Using the concept of representation in art, students explore works that create the illusion of reality but implies more than what is visually there, thus making a statement. Teaching emphasizes how to create 'realistic' works of art and using chosen media with expertise.

Central inquiry questions:

  • Why is building skill in ‘representing’ important?

  • What is the relationship between craftsmanship and impact of resulting work?

  • When we ‘represent in art,’ what function does that serve in the culture?

  • What are a variety of ways artists have made powerful representations?

ASSIGNMENTS:

All students will have 3 weeks to prepare a variety of works to address the concepts and questions taught with regard to making representational art. They will have to investigate various process and materials in order to make a mini-portfolio on this theme. The types of works and quantity will be arrived at through class discussion of the central issues in representational art-making.

DP

Artists/Movements/Topics studied: Dali, Courbet, Rembrandt, Rivera, Caravaggio

Possible Project Types: Still Life, Figure/Portrait, Landscape & Nature, Veristic Surrealism, Pop art

Media choices: Pencil, watercolor, conte crayon, acrylic paint, linocut printmaking

STUDIES - REALISTIC FORMS, TEXTURES, & SPACES

Sketchbook

QUICK IDEAS for REPRESENTATIONAL DRAWINGS
  1. Animal Drawing
  2. Landscape
  3. Architectural
  4. Back to Basics - simple forms, shading
  5. Portraits.
  6. Shadows Only
  7. “One-dunk portraits” or continuous line, whole object
  8. 10 texture & variety of interest.
  9. Make a “space template” 5x7 or other size… to mark off spaces in sketchbook for smaller drawings. MAKE QUANTITY of drawings.
  10. Catching the moving figure OR anatomy studies
  11. Illustrator’s sketch story

  • SET A TIME TO WORK

  • SET A TIMER & WORK FAST

  • AIM FOR QUANTITY OVER QUALITY

sketchbook

SHADING TECHNIQUES

Here are two really good videos to lay down some basic good habits with shading. Watch both and show me your results in the sketchbook.

7 SHADING TECHNIQUES... DRAWING A SPHERE WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF MARKINGS:

HATCHING CROSS CONTOUR CROSS-HATCHING STIPPLING

SCRIBBLING CIRCLING RENDERING.

Observational sequential sketch of something you’re eating like an apple or donut or sandwich. Show 6-8 sequence sketches of what you ate. You can organize the sequences however you like.

DRAW WHAT YOU'RE EATING, AS YOU EAT IT

“One-dunk portraits” or continuous line, whole object

PEN DRAWING OF YOURSELF (OR SOMEONE ELSE)

TRY TO CAPTURE A SPECIFIC MOOD

PAINTING STUDIES

Painting studies are usually quick and focused on a limited goal. What do you need to practice? Practice it!

Media choices: conte crayon, pastels, watercolor

nyssa paz

color theory

LINEAR PERSPECTIVE (coming soon)

object observational drawing

landscape observational drawing

portrait drawing

watercolor

printmaking (at home?)

acrylic

portrait painting

UNIT PROJECT PROMPTS

Design mural to respond to a social problem

PREP: Watch the short videos about a project where young men made a mural in response to the bad relations between police and their community in NYC.

THEN YOUR TASK: design a mural for our school or community on an issue you think is important.

PANDEMIC PAINTING... VISION OF THE FUTURE

How might the world permanently change? (economically, educationally, religiously, politically, etc.)

Or just make a landscape, seascape, or cityscape you'd like to go to...

Out the window:

Windows are often described as the eyes of a building. They are a symbol of pondering, an aperture through which we can experience the world outside while remaining inside — an important feature now that millions of New Yorkers have had to move their lives indoors.

We reached out to 17 illustrators and artists currently sheltering in place in neighborhoods across the city and asked them to draw what they see out of their windows, and to show us what it feels like to be in New York at this rare moment in time. (CLICK TITLE FOR MORE EXAMPLES...)

Katherine Lam

A LITTLE ART HISTORY AND ARTISTS WHO EXCEL IN THIS THEME

PRECISIONIST PAINTING

http://joesantosstudio.com/ CROPPED SCENE/OBJECT (emphasis on surface development)

STILL LIFE

PORTRAIT

LANDSCAPE

ANIMAL

Michelangelo Caravaggio - Baroque

Salvador Dali - Surrealism

Diego Rivera - Muralism

Gustav Courbet - Realism

Rembrandt van Rijn - Baroque