Due:
Three Days

Project Description:
Draw a still life comprised of 3 - 5 boxes or wooden blocks. This is to be a full value pencil drawing from direct observation (life, not a photograph).

Materials: 

• Sketchbook (for thumbnail sketches
• Viewfinder
• White drawing paper (12 x 16")
• Graphite (drawing pencil set and/or ebony pencil)
• 3 - 5 blocks
• Mini-easel or small drawing board
• Optional: lamp for strong light source

Graded on:

•  Strength of Composition
• Observational Accuracy:
  • Placement / spatial relationship of shapes
  • Proportion
  • Direction of lines
  • Value -- Full range of value and strong contrast
• Overall Quality / Craftsmanship - fine mark-making to strengthen sense of form

Steps:

1. Set up 3 - 5 blocks on a piece of tagboard
2. Work out compositions by making 2 - 3 thumbnail sketches in sketchbook.
3. On a 12 x 16" paper, establish proper placement and proportion using a light pencil line. Use an HB or 2B pencil for this stage.
4. After you've double-checked your proportions, placement, and direction of all lines, begin rendering tonal values to match what you see in real life. Use your full pencil set and/or an ebony pencil.

Due Date:
One week

​Project:
An artistic, sculptural carving of a pumpkin

Objectives:

• Explore three-dimensional art-making
• Analyze the structure of a human head.
• Exercise your creative thinking

Materials:

• Pencil
• Sketchbook (for generating ideas)
• Two pumpkins (The first is for practice.)
• Knives and other sculpting/carving tools

Grading Criteria:

• Inventiveness
• Ambition
• Quality

To Start:

• Study the structure of the human head
• View the following website:
  • http://villafanestudios.com
  • View the videos below and on the Villafane website

VIDEO: 

Alternative: Still Life Drawing with Pumpkin

As an alternative to sculpting a pumpkin, you may instead make a full color observational drawing of a pumpkin as the main subject in a scene, considering the entire picture plane as a composition.

Medium: Color Pencil or Oil Pastel

Size: 11 x 14" (sketchbook size) or larger

Objectives:

• Form (Illusion of three dimensions)
• Texture
• Composition
• Refinement

Drawing by Irina G.

Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. Although the genre was popularized by avant-garde​ artists in the early twentieth century, similar motifs have been used in art since ancient times. (Wikipedia)

Read and View:
Geometric Abstraction - essay and images, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

​
Project:
Create a geometrically abstract artwork employing the full color palette of the master landscape painter you studied for your mix-to-match grid (If you'd like, you can swap palettes with a classmate.). Use as many of the colors from that master painting as possible.

This should be a refined, finished work of art. Consider the best materials to use (It may be a combination of media.) and work on fine craftsmanship.

Review the principles of design before beginning.

The rules of this design challenge:

1. Use only geometric shapes, including perfect circles (You may trace from templates - jar lids, etc.), triangles, perfect squares, and rectangles. You may also use trapezoids.
2. Overlap many of the shapes.
3. Use the entire picture plane. Some shapes should go off the paper edge.
4. Wherever there are overlaps, there should be color changes.
5. The design must be balanced.
6. The design must be dynamic (Diagonals = Energy/Movement!)
7. The design must have an emphasis / focal point.

Before beginning, look at the work of these artists:

• Kazimir Malevich
• Wassily Kandinsky
• Jai Kwan Kim
• Fernand Leger
• Paul Klee

Media: 
You may use paint, pastel, oil pastel, color pencil, or collage (with color tissues, construction paper, and any of the other materials listed).