Your assignment, should you choose to accept:

Just kidding... it's for a grade, soooo....

You will be using the oil pastel techniques and drawing an abstract composition in which objects you draw are distorted and abstracted in some kind of way. Things you will pay attention to:

• the composition... always, always, always the composition... HOW are the pieces arranged? Lines? Textures? Highlights? Colors? All of it... think back to the rules of creating an effective composition. How will you arrange all of those basic ingredients of the elements and principles? How will you abstract the objects? Will the lines be wavy, fractured, broken, enlarged and foreshortened, etc.?

• the layout of the values... When you are viewing your object, pay attention to the highlights and shadows and how they interact with each other. 

• the realistic rendering... this is something we tend to focus on more than necessary, and I say this because we think we know what any particular machine looks like because we've seen it before. But, unless you literally study it every day for a long extended period of time, you will always need a reference photo. To be honest, if you focus on the composition and the layout of the values, the realistic rendering (making it look like the thing it's supposed to be), will just come naturally.

Suggestions for objects:

• Mirror with its reflection

• Pipes

• Musical instrument (trombone, flute, tuba, violin, drum, harp, etc.)

• Phone surface

• TV screen

• Transportation (car, tractor, truck, quad, roller skates, boat, airplane, etc.)

• Face Glasses

• Drinking Glasses (metal, ceramic, glass, plastic, etc.)

• Kiln in the art room

• Silverware

• Statues (marble, metal, etc.)

The list goes on and on... plan out your ideas with your thumbnail sketches so you can prepare for what the composition will look like. Remember to consider all that's stated above: lines, colors, values, textures, balance, unity, etc.