This course is designed to show you how to paint. It gives you a container to learn different painting methods. I cannot teach you to paint. That is not a guaranteed outcome, I will show you how to paint. You have to choose to learn, and take responsibility for your education.
Anyone and everyone in here can paint, just put paint on a canvas and that’s a painting. What matters is that you want to become a better painter and do certain things with this medium. Don't take these methods on faith, don't believe they'll work. Be scientific about them, see if they work by doing the prescribed set of steps. I will tell you what to do, when to do it, and why. If it works for you then it doesn't really matter how it works or how well it works, only that you were able to do something you weren't able to do before. If you aren't able to do what you wanted to do, it’s still in you, you should still want to do it. Time grants all things you are willing to work on. You will not work towards a definitive change, the end result is never guaranteed. The only thing that is for sure is that you will have opportunities to change and they may not turn out quite like you expected it to look, but that’s life.
This class is yearlong, I’ve been painting and drawing professionally for upwards of six to eight years. Please give me your full attention and commitment and I will show you some great techniques to help better your abilities, outlook, and understanding of painting.
The other objective of this class is to equip you with all of the skills necessary to communicate visually through the art of painting. You do not need to consider yourself an “artist” this class’s intent is to give you the skill of painting with the intention of becoming an artist. It is a preparatory course for college or AP Art.
The way I hope to run this class is to flip it. A flipped classroom is one where the students watch the lectures and demonstrations at home, then come to school prepared to complete the assignments with the teacher as a guide. Just imagine if instead of going home to complete some baffling math homework you had the teacher there helping you every step of the way. At home you could just sit and watch a short video of the concept the teacher was trying to teach you, no distractions, you could rewind it and pause it at will, or you could search online for other ways to learn the same concept. That’s kind of what I hope to do with this class. When you come to school, you should be ready to do the work, and you’ll one hundred percent of the time in class to complete with a teacher there to help you in case you get stuck.
I know that some students do not have access to the internet at home or at all times. If that’s the case I’m more than happy to accommodate you. Come in before, after, or during school hours whenever you are free to watch videos. Talk to me, I want our time spent in class to be productive, first and foremost.
For my painting class, I want the class to be a studio. Studio time is precious, time to be an artist is rare and exceedingly difficult to come by. When you come into my class, you better know what project we’re working on, or at least arrange time to know what we’re doing. Get straight to work, and when you’re working, listen to my advice, talk to your peers, and have fun making artwork. It is rare that this much class time is devoted to a single skill. Relish it. My role is as a facilitator of your progress in your art, your style, understanding, and skill. Sometimes you might get in the way of yourself when you’re too social, or a little careless with time, and sometimes it just isn’t your day. But I, Mr. Turek, have tried to remove myself from the list of distractions so that you have the most available time to become a better you. Make the most of it, please, and help this class become a success.
This is a tentative list of projects. Due dates will be given in class but will probably fall within the range of about half to two of the class finishing the project. This means students are able to work at their own pace. Even if a project is due and labeled as missing in Skyward, the student can hand it in at any time to receive full credit. The next assignment will not be marked as missing until it has been started. You should end up with about four to seven well made paintings by the time you are finished with the course.
Due dates will change depending on snow days, and the pace of the class. For each project group you will get to pick an assignment, if there is only one choice you will have to do that one project. If you take more time than is allowed to finish your project that takes time away from the next Project Group. Also keep in mind that handing in projects early is different than handing in projects that are well done. Use all of the time allotted for you to create a quality project.
Each portion of the syllabus is hyper-linked to resources for the class. The PowerPoint presentations include the project criteria and objectives for each project along with student examples and professional artist examples of the style or method I wish you to engage in. Please understand that I may change the criteria of the assignment, the official assignment is always posted in my room on the Criteria & Objectives board. When and if we are able to maintain a choice based structure I may take it upon myself to update assignments digitally but when all else fails always check the physically posted assignment criteria in class. Project choices below have hyper-links that are linked to project resources such as packets and handouts. At the very bottom is each unit folder too if the links are broken or not working. Each project has a lecture and demonstration video linked in the syllabus below.
Below is the syllabus, a sequence of projects in the order you will compete them for the class. To follow the syllabus is simple, just start at the top. The first project group is "Painting theory" and the only project available for this group is the "Painting theory poster". Here is how each item is hyperlinked and what those links correspond to.
Number: "1 video" is a link the project's lecture and demonstration, watch this video prior to class so that you come to class ready to work. Sometimes links for videos are next to the project names, sometimes they are at the start of the Unit. If you see the word "video" that's my attempt to indicate it's a video you need to watch for class. The official order will be below in the video section if you are confused by the syllabus.
Project Group: These are hyper-linked to each project group's PowerPoint presentations. Should the video lecture go to fast, check out the actual presentation to read the text and view the examples at your own pace.
Project Names: If an individual project name is hyper-linked that will bring you to it's individual PowerPoint presentation or some other related handout or resource.
The syllabus, after going in sequential order, has a sideways order as well. The project names that are next to each other are choices for each project group, you can pick any of them to demonstrate the objective for the project group.
Below is a simplified list of each video lecture and demonstration for each project in sequential order. Once you have finished a project proceed to watch the next presentation during or after class so that you come prepared the next day. The only excuse for not watching the video is that you do not have access to the internet at home, if so please arrange to view videos before, after, or during school (a study hall or lunch) with me, Mr. Turek, I would be happy to accommodate your needs.
Break the stretcher frames or Large scale collaborative painting
How to make a canvas (you must make a canvas prior to pursuing projects in unit 6 or 7)
Unit 6: Traditional Painting Overview or Unit 7: Contemporary Painting Overview
In addition to the links above, below is a Google Drive folder full of the same presentations I will give for each project group throughout the year. Even though these are the same presentations this is just a different way of presenting them and making them available to you, the student. Keep in mind these presentations are not updated via Google Drive so they are often not the definitive versions. (I usually use Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite to make my files which are then uploaded to the Drive, so what you see here is what I start the year with.) Always check in with the official posted set of Criteria & Objectives in class for each assignment.
Often when I'm stuck I do some more visual research, or I look at artists and artwork that inspires me. If you click on the following link you'll be brought to a Google Drive folder filled with over a thousand or so links of various artists. To view a link from Google drive, download it, then open it from your download folder. I recommend you do this all in the Google Chrome web browser that way you can save links to your bookmarks bar.
The list is nearly endless. It took me hours to compile from resources I've gathered over the past few years. Don't get overwhelmed by it. I'll try and post a few of my favorite artists below when I get the chance.
A couple of warnings about the link dump:
Not necessarily all of the links are accessible on the school's network or are appropriate for school. Some artwork may be considered not safe for work or school use by the school's filter. I happen to think that students should expand their horizons and see as much art as possible. There are a handful of blocked links even though on the whole you can find information about the artists through other searches or avenues. The ones that are blocked may have been blocked for having nudity in them. It is fine art so it's perfectly fine to be viewed as such on your own computer even if the school disagrees. The filter is far from perfect and even if it does mislabel something it's doing so for the better of the school as a whole organization. Please do not work around the filter to view a block site, just search what is searchable and you'll find what you need to know about an artist another way. Most all of these art links are pretty tame and I've made sure of that. Only a handful of these artists have caused a stir for dealing with graphic material, those artist's searches have modified to include their tamer work. Ask me, your teacher, if you want to know more about an artist whose work has been blocked.
The other thing I do not guarantee is if gallery site links will stay permanent. Galleries frequently change exhibitions and their web presence can often shift depending on the needs of the artist so those links will probably be outdated quickly.
Problems could arise from a link no longer being hosted on an aggregation site, or an artist updating or shifting their site entirely. Search parts of the url like the artist's name if you want to find anything on them again. Sometimes, if the name is generic you might need to add modifiers like "artist" or "painter" to the search.
Most all of the artists in the link dump are contemporary artists. Some of the older masters are present in this link dump, masters who have been around may go by one name, such as "Rembrandt". Not all of the masters are in this link dump. It is important to remember that if you want more relevant searches or want to more about an artist that you search their full name and potentially understand a little bit more about them than just their work if you truly want to understand them. For older artists this is possible, especially artists that are referred to by a single names like Titian or Ingres. For contemporary artists you may not have much to go on, so don't be surprised if all's you will find is a simple gallery page with a handful of works. Keep searching and you will find the relevant information. The links to artists in this collection are by no means perfect or well made, they're mostly Google image searches. Please keep in mind that the links to certain artist are not definitive representations of those artists, you'll need to keep searching if you truly want to understand their work.