D.I.E.--Artist Statement formula:

Describe: What did you do? How did you create it? What materials did you use?

Interpret: Why did you choose the approach you used? colors? mood? Does it have meaning to you?

Evaluate: How do you think you did? Would you try a different way next time? What is your favorite part? What will you try to get better at or improve?

This should be written in the artist statement of the Artsonia site when you publish your work. Complete sentences please. Aaaaand "Cuz my teacher told me to" is not an ok response.

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Assignment: The "I can't draw" Unit

My favorite excuse next to "I can't even draw stick figures" is the "I can't draw" lament. Many people think that drawing is an innate ability that one is born with. Much like hitting a baseball, scoring a basket, aiming a hockey puck, serving a volleyball,; drawing is a learned skill that gets better with PRACTICE! So now we have the gift of time to enable all of us to practice and learn drawing skills so we can for once and for all banish the "I can't draw" mantra from our vocabulary.

I am going to post a number of challenges and exercises in drawing. You will be able to do most all of them in your sketchbooks. I am using the theories of Betty Edwards, whose series "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is a great learning tool to dispel the scary Drawing demons. Her idea is that you need to engage the RIGHT side of the brain-the linear side, not only the Left side which is the creative side, in order to draw. If you have access to a library and want to take a look at her book wow, do it. For now, when you do these exercises, turn off your left-vocal side of the brain and work silently in a quiet place.

Assignment 1-Continuous Line

Set up a simple still life. The simpler the better. Or make a view finder (index card or paper with a 1"X1" square cut out in the middle) and look for an interesting close up section of your room.

Supplies:

sketchbook

pen or Flair- no pencil or eraser for this one! Yikes!

Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnJGKkd1JB0

Please post your results on Artsonia! Have your parents sign you up.

Lesson 2-Bring the Mall Home-Your next art challenge

Since you can't go out to the mall, ballpark, hockey rink, whatever; here's a way to draw these places in one-point perspective. In this technique, everything sort of grows out of a vanishing point. If you look at a photo of daVinci's Last Supper on the 6th grade page, you see the artist used the vanishing point from behind the head of Jesus. This technique was discovered during the Renaissance. If you want to expand your art history knowledge look up some landscape paintings from the 14th, and 15th century. Note the difference in how things are seen in the distance once the artists began using perspective.

The Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci

1472-75 Finished in his early 20's

The Annunciation by Botticelli-1498

The Annunciation 1487

Piermatteo D'Amelia

Compare the three images above. Use your ruler to try to find the vanishing point on each. Really only in the last one is that possible. Way down the hall. The others look a little awkward. Get it?

My unfinished version from the video.

Watch this ^^^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46OCXFVqRg4

WATCH THIS^^^^

This week, watch this short film about filling your creative bank account. As you go about your week, begin to SEE things. Make some deposits in your creative bank account by listing things you've see, heard, noticed, on a page in your sketchbook.

Field Trip Day April 15, 2020

Today we are going to take a virtual field trip to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

https://www.nga.gov/

We are going to see the new exhibit: "Degas at the Opera Virtual tour"

Edgar Degas is one of my favorite artists. He was a French Impressionist from the time of Monet, Renoir, Cezanne. These artists went out into the world and depicted what they saw around them. They were not the traditional stiff portraits of rich people or art for churches, but real life. They were also masters of showing the way light effected their surroundings. Monet went so far as to study and paint the same view of haystacks at different times of the day and different seasons to record the changes in how the light effected these objects.

Edgar Degas painted people, especially ballet dancers. He loved the opera and depicted many views of the opera inside the public spaces, and backstage. One of my favorite works id the sculpture, THE LITTLE DANCER AGED FOURTEEN. I have a reproduction of it in my home. My daughter was a ballet student and it reminded me of her years studying ballet.

You will also see some works depicting horses. I guess Mr. Degas spent some time at the race tracks. What I would like you to notice is how the artist shows movement. His figures are not rigid. He shows the bending and stretching of the figures.

Once you have taken the virtual tour, have a snack, wash your hands and write a few sentences in your sketchbook about your "impressions" of the exhibit. Maybe add some stick figures of some of the movement you see in the figures. Take a picture of your page and send it to :

katherine.piquette@swsaints.org

WWII Propaganda Posters

Looking at WWII propaganda posters really gives you a glimpse of the climate of the country during that time in history. Posters were a method of encouraging people to be patriotic, to volunteer; a call to action to do anything they could for the war effort.

Really look at these posters and try to determine what makes them stand out; what grabs your attention. In creating your own poster use these elements to be successful.

Clear message-brief, not too wordy. What are you saying?
Color. Large image-no tiny pictures. Bold, colorful. Catch the eye.
Consider your audience-who are you trying to reach?
Format and structure. Map it out before you start to write so you don’t end up squeezing the words at the end.
It should be readable from a distance-most people see posters as they are walking or driving by. They don’t usually stop to read them.

Interesting note: Minnesota grew almost 40% of the nation’s food in their victory gardens during the war.

-source WCCO news

The Propaganda Posters of WWII-April 29

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