Sketchbook Assignment: Enlarged Figure

To practice drawing the figure, it's helpful to have a good model, in this case, one that doesn't move.

Look around to find a photo of a figure in action. This might be from Sports Illustrated, or a fashion magazine, or even from a digital photo you took.

Print this image out, it should be no larger than 4x6" or so. Cut this figure out, and then glue this image onto one page neatly. Then, using a drawing media of your choice (graphite, colored pencil, etc.) Draw this figure again, but larger, so that it fills the entire page. For an added challenge, choose a figure that shows foreshortening (showing an extreme angle that hides parts of the body, or makes them appear much larger, like the example above). Your drawing must be at least twice the size of the original, no tracing, carefully observe your example!

Grading Criteria:

Objective: Choosing an image that shows the entire figure, cut out, neatly glued in.

Scaled Up: Your drawing should be at least twice as big as the original.

Proportion: Focus on the size relationships between parts of the figure.

Design: Your drawing should go off or touch two sides of the page.

Studio Skills: Should show line quality, shading, use of value to show form and texture.

Craftsmanship; Should demonstrate at least an hour of focused study.

This assignment is due: Wednesday, April 21st.

Sketchbook #6: Doodle for Google

Doodle for Google is an annual contest that spans the entire country. Each year, students are given a challenge, to illustrate a theme within the letters of the Google logo itself. This year's theme is "If I Could Do Anything, I Would..." So think a little bit about your dreams and ambitions for the world, and create a design that modifies the Google logo to illustrate them!

There's a class link to the Doodle for Google website that explains the rules and shows winners from previous years!

I would like everyone to test their problem-solving and design skills with this assignment. Visit the website to get ideas, and think about how you'd like to solve this problem. Here's what I will be looking for:

1) Brainstorm at least 3 simple ideas first on a page in your sketchbook before you decide on one idea. The theme is very open to interpretation, so think carefully about how it relates to you personally before you begin to sketch.

2) Using one entire page in your sketchbook, create a final version of your drawing in pencil. You can download a large copy of Google's logo at the contest link for a reference. Substitute meaningful pictures for letters, and transform the logo into a picture that illustrates your idea.

3) Use colored pencil, markers, or other art materials to add color to your design, but do so neatly! Remember to use Google's color scheme. Add black outline to make your design stand out against the white background.

4) Check out the hints and tips from the original Google doodler, Dennis Hwang, recommends for strengthening your design!

I will grade this assignments based upon: How well you follow the directions, how well you integrate your idea and design into the original logo, how well you use your materials, and the amount of time and investment you put into it. Good luck!

DUE: Tuesday, March 9th

Expressive Text

For our next classwork, we will focus on how art and text can be combined together to create a form of graphic design called expressive text.

We see text everywhere in designs, billboards, television commercials, magazine covers, etc. Graphic designers are artists who work with text, imagery, and layouts to create advertisements and design.

Below are a few examples of expressive text, found in designs that are new, or you may have seen before. Check out how these artists and designers combine words and imagery in unique and creative ways!

Sketchbook #5: Word Play

"Butterfly"

A compound word is made when two independent words are joined together to make a new word. Select a compound word that interests you and will work for this assignment.

For example - "butterfly, pigpen, quarterback" (DO NOT USE THESE!)

You can find a list of compound words here.

1) Brainstorm several different ways you could illustrate this word if you were to base it upon the words used to make it, (see the illustration above).

2) Find and collect source imagery (in magazines, online, or other places) you can use to base your illustration on, but be careful: do not directly steal another artist's idea or concept!

3) Make a collage, trace elements of your source imagery, (like we did in class for our painting compositions), or draw your own elements that illustrate this compound word in a new, playful and creative way.

4) Your drawing should have an interesting composition: (use the entire space of the page, touch two or more sides), and should show strong studio skills, (shading, form/value, and craftsmanship). The drawing media you use is completely up to you!

DUE: Wednesday, Feb. 3rd

Personal Journey Painting

Now that you have created a "blueprint" composition for your personal journey with your collage, it's time to personalize and transform this event into a painting!

This painting will not be a simple "paint-by-number," but rather a painting with a color scheme that uses complimentary, analogous, and various other color qualities of value, temperature, and intensity to both emphasize and unify parts of your composition.

Your painting must demonstrate the following in it's final form:

1) Have a planned color scheme that uses both analogous and complimentary colors to both unify and emphasize parts of the composition.

2) Use modified colors, (no straight reds, yellows, blues, blacks, or whites) that have their value, temperature, and/or intensity altered in some way.

3) Neatness, care, and craftsmanship in your brushwork and paint application!

Final painting DUE: Wednesday, February 3rd.

Midterm Study Guide

Below is the study guide that outlines all of the elements of art, the principles of design, the three aesthetic categories for categorizing an artwork, and additional vocabulary words you will see on the exam. Please know these terms for the mid-term exam next week!

Mid-term Study Guide

Homework Assignment: Illustrate a Personal Journey

In preparation for our next unit, I would like you to think about an important journey, experience, or trip you have taken in your life. It may have been a trip that was to a far away place, or it may have been just down the street. Regardless, it should be an event that you remember well, and has left a positive impression on you.

First, complete the "Illustrate a Personal Journey" worksheet by responding to the questions with complete sentences. It will help you brainstorm and remember trips you may have taken in the past.

Illustrate a Personal Journey Wksht

Then, go on an image search. Find 8-10 photos, souvenirs, keepsakes, or other imagery that you still have that documents your trip. Gather this "visual evidence" together in a ziploc bag and bring them to class next. Thursday, 12/10, along with the worksheet.

DUE: Wed. 12/9