Project:
Using acrylics, paint a still life comprised of at least three objects of personal significance.

Objectives:

• Improve observational accuracy
• Build a strong composition
• Notice (and recreate) subtle color changes
• Mix colors with specificity and accuracy
• Establish form via chiaroscuro and color changes
• Improve your ability to create a rich range of tonal value
• Become skillful with painting
• Learn proper maintenance of painting tools

Materials:

• Objects
• Drawing paper
• Pencil or charcoal
• Canvas or canvas panel
• ​Bristle brushes
• palette
• acrylic paints
• water container
• paper towel or rags
• brush cleaner
• (Easel)

Parameters
At least three objects and a backdrop (cloth).

Grading Criteria:

• Composition
• Accuracy
• Recreation of nuances of color and value
• Color Harmony
• "Completeness" - Craftsmanship

To Start:
Draw thumbnails and/or rough drafts of the composition, in pencil or charcoal on paper, blocking out the basic arrangement of lights and darks

Self Critique Questions
What questions do you need to ask yourself on an ongoing basis to improve your chances for success?

Create a still life arrangement consisting of your family members’ shoes: more than a single pair; at least two or three pairs. Arrange them to overlap each other and to fill the picture plane. Try to convey the different personalities of your family members through the rendering of the shoes. Be creative and have fun! This will be done in color, using any medium, technique and style you desire (including oil pastel, color pencil, or watercolor, or a combination).


**Include a photographic snapshot of your set-up when you turn in your final piece.**

Graded on:

• Composition - Design of page
• Accuracy/realism
• Composition
• 3D form
• Craftsmanship with the medium (Refined)

Helpful Resources: Before doing the assignment, study as many still lifes by master paintings as you can, and apply what you know about placement, composition, lighting, form, texture, etc. If there are complex surfaces, inscribed of printed patterns, textures, etc., all the better.

Assignment: 
A value drawing of a still life, comprised of five objects with local value changes. One of these objects must have a reflective surface (metal). An additional challenge would be to include an object that is transparent (glass or clear plastic).

Directions:
Select five objects which are different from one another in tonal value. At least two of these objects must have local value changes within the objects themselves (ex. A design on the package which breaks up the image into different colors). Arrange the objects on the surface of a table into some aesthetically pleasing and natural-looking composition. Your view should be looking down and across at the set-up (a ¾ angle). From your view, some of these objects should be overlapping others. Place a single light-source on the set-up. 
*(A good selection would be a dinner setting, with different colored plates, cups, bowls, soda cans, napkins, etc.).

Medium:
Graphite (Use 2B, 4B, and 6B pencils)

Objectives: 

• Improve accuracy in capturing contour, proportion, and scale from an observed set-up.
• Indicate how local value affects the value changes of different forms
• Create a well-designed composition from an observed arrangement of forms

​Self-critique:
As you draw, ask yourself if you are doing the following (You should be!):

• Fill the page.
• Consider the entire page as a composition. 
• Consider the relationships of objects re: size and placement.
• Consider the observed relationships between the positive and negative shapes, particularly the spaces between objects.
• Get the lines and shapes right. Your objects should stand straight and tall, not lopsided. If you have round shapes, get the ellipses right.
• Use a full range of tonal value and good contrast. Reserve white for the highlights.
• Use blacks for the very darkest tones.

Grading Criteria:

• Realism of contour, proportion, and scale
• Realism of form and structure
• Realism in rendering of local value changes
• Realism in spatial relationships between objects
• Strength of composition

Project Description:
Using primarily "reds" and "whites" from magazine clippings, create a collage of an apple on a table. It is necessary that you do this from observation. Notice the subtle changes in color as you see highlights, mid-tones, shadow edges, reflected light and cast shadows on the table surface. Make the form look three-dimensional and believable.

Medium:
Collage​

Objectives:

• Improve observational accuracy
• Indicate how light affects color value, hue and temperature
• Notice the subtle changes within local colors

Grading Criteria:

• Realism of form
• Realism in rendering of changes in color (hue, temperature and value)
• Strength of composition.

To Start:

• Study master paintings (such as still lifes by Paul Cezanne) and view student exemplars up close.
• Collect envelopes of various red and white clippings

Self-Critique:
As you work on this, ask yourself if you are doing the following:

• Using a full range of tonal value and good contrast.
• Creating a sense of three-dimensional form through chiaroscuro.
• Noticing subtle color changes (hue, value and temperature)

AND When you believe you are close to completing this, ask yourself:

• In its present state, is this something you can put in your portfolio for college applications?

​

Project:
Create a color pencil drawing of an orange or oranges, partially peeled and set on a table surface.


Medium:
Color pencil

Objectives:

• Create a well-designed composition from an observed arrangement
• Improve observational accuracy
• Indicate how light affects color hue and temperature
• Render convincingly realistic surface textures

Grading Criteria:

• Accuracy/Realism of contour and proportion
• Realism of form -- three dimensionality using chiaroscuro (values)
• Realism in rendering changes in color (hue, temperature and value)
• Realism in rendering surface textures
• Strength of composition.

To Start:
Start with a light line, using the 2B pencil, to capture accurate contour and proportion exactly as you observe them.


Self-Assessment:

As you draw, ask yourself if you are doing the following (You should be!):

• Consider the entire page as a composition.
• Use a full range of tonal value and good contrast. Reserve white for the highlights.
• Creating a sense of three-dimensional form.
• Noticing subtle color changes (hue, value and temperature)
• Rendering textures.

AND When you believe you are close to completing this, ask yourself:

• In its present state, is this something you can put in your portfolio for college applications?

Project:
Using oil pastels, "paint" a still life comprised of squash or gourd(s) on a table.

Due:
Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Objectives:

• Improve observational accuracy
• Build a strong composition
• Notice (and recreate) subtle color changes
• Establish form via chiaroscuro and color changes
• Improve your ability to create a rich range of tonal value
• Become skillful with oil pastels

Materials:

• pencil and eraser
• oil pastels
• sketchbook or larger drawing paper
• squash or gourd(s)

Grading Criteria:

• Composition
• Accuracy
• Recreation of nuances of color and value
• "Completeness" - Craftsmanship

To Start:
Draw thumbnails and/or rough drafts of the composition, in pencil or charcoal on paper, blocking out the basic arrangement of lights and darks

Project Description:
A value drawing of a bell pepper (green, red, orange, or yellow), sliced in half, from observation. 

Directions:
Cut a bell pepper in half. Show both halves of a pepper as they sit on the surface of the table. The first half should be positioned to show mainly the interior, with part of the exterior in view. The second half should be positioned so that you will be drawing the exterior. The two halves should be positioned so that they will just slightly overlap each other in your drawing, but so that they will both be clearly in your view. Place a single light source on the set-up. Include an environment, real or imagined or both.

Objectives:

• Improve accuracy in capturing contour and proportion of an observed object.
• Render form through chiaroscuro (“lights and darks”).
• Emphasize the structure of a simple organic form.
  • (In this case, the structure of the pepper will be most obvious from the “skeleton” of the interior, but also from the bends and creases on the exterior.)

Materials:

• Graphite (Use 2B, 4B and 6B)
• Pink eraser
• Kneaded eraser
• Pencil sharpener
• Drawing paper - sketchbook size (11 x 14", 60 lb. paper) or larger

Parameters

• Use the entire picture plane.
• Make this a "portfolio-worthy" drawing.

Grading Criteria:

• Realism of contour and proportion
• Realism of form and structure
• (Design of the page)

To Start:

• Start with a light line, using the 2B pencil, to capture accurate contour (line) and proportion exactly as you observe them.

Tips

• Use a full range of value, working up the darker tones by gradually building up from the 2B to the 4B, and using the 6B pencils just for the darkest values.
• Reserve whites for the highlights. Use deep blacks and a full range of gray tones.

Self Critique Questions

• As you draw, ask yourself if you are doing the following (You should be!):
• Fill the page.
• Consider the entire page as a composition. Add value to the negative space as necessary.
• Consider the observed relationship between the positive shapes and the negative shapes, especially the spaces between the halves.
• Start with a light line, using the 2B pencil, to capture accurate contour (line) and proportion exactly as you observe them.
• Use a full range of value, working up the darker tones by gradually building up from the 2B to the 4B, and using the 6B pencils just for the darkest values.
• Reserve whites for the highlights. Use deep blacks and a full range of gray tones.

AND When you believe you are close to completing this, ask yourself:

• In its present state, is this something you can put in your portfolio for college applications?

Design and construct a wearable (full head) mask representing an animal. 

Media:

• Cardboard
• Oaktag
• Masking Tape
• White Glue 

Steps:

1. Before beginning, research ritual masks from various cultures, masks and mask-like artwork from modern and contemporary art, and masks from movies and popular culture.
2. Google search "cardboard sculpture mask"
3. Collect cardboard.
4. Collect visual references of the animal.
5. Do reference sketches of the animal from various angles, using collected photographs and a visit to the Burlington Science Center.
6. Draft your design from various angles using pencil on paper
7. Plan your mask's construction. Think of this as a sculpture made of planes (flat surfaces).
8. Research "paper engineering" and paper/cardboard attachment techniques, such as tabs and slots.
9. Build.

NOTE: You will eventually designing an illustrated "how to" booklet explaining the steps in the construction process.

Grading Criteria:
Studio Habits of Mind

Watch the video below (just one of many good demonstrations), then make a refined graphite drawing of your own hair. Draw large, to fill a page of your sketchbook. Draw from life, and use a single light source. Use a full set of pencils and replicate the tonal values exactly as you see them in the real three-dimensional world. 

Make this a finished, refined artwork.

(There are countless other videos about the process on Youtube and time-lapse demonstrations. Look for one or two that show how to address your specific type of hair.)

Remember to use a FULL RANGE OF TONAL VALUE. You may want to practice creating different tonal values first, ​using the scale below. Use H and low B pencils for your lightest tones, 2B and 4B for your middle tones, and 6B for your darkest values.

Due:
One week

Project:
Using graphite, make a figure drawing of a family member that includes the following:

• local value changes
• ​form through chiaroscuro
• suggestion of environment (figure/ground relationship)

Spend 2 - 3 hours on the drawing. It is expected to be much more detailed and refined than the figure drawings you created during class.

Objectives:

• Improve observational accuracy
• Establish accurate gesture, proportion and tonal value
• See the figure as a unified whole, and not separate parts
• Establish figure/ground relationship

Grading Criteria:

• Realism of gesture
• Realism of proportion
• Quality of line
• Variety of local value
• Sense of form through value
• Composition using figure/ground relationship
• Sense of space