Genre works, also called genre scenes or genre views, are pictorial representations in any of various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes.
(The above entries are taken from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer )
Due:
One week
Project Description:
Using oil pastel or another rich color medium, draw a traditional self-portrait in the style of Johannes Vermeer's genre paintings.
Medium:
Oil pastel OR a color medium of your choice
Objectives:
- Draw figure with accurate proportion and gesture
- Suggest likeness in the absence of facial detail
- Organize a composition with strong formal (abstract) qualities
- Consider figure/ground relationship in composition
- Create sense of form in the human figure
- Create color harmony
- Hone technical skills with the medium
Grading Criteria:
- Composition
- Realism of Figure/Ground Relationship
- Realism of Proportion and Gesture
- Likeness
- Light and Form
- Color
- Craftsmanship
To Start:
- Study portraits by Johannes Vermeer
- The room should be lit naturally, with side light
- Position yourself so that you can see your full figure in the mirror in a naturalistic pose, and so that you can still access your paper and materials.
- Establish the horizon line and vanishing points if linear perspective is necessary.
- Establish the figure/ground relationship by blocking out placement of major shapes.
LOOK: Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring
Google Arts & Culture is an incredible website with so much to see! Try the “Explore” button, and in Google Art Project, you can zoom into the finest details on some of the most famous artworks in the world. The site features “tours” of many masterworks, in which you are guided (by scrolling down) to zoom into details of the artwork and learn how the artist created the work. This one was featured today (but they are all in their online catalogs by museum, so they are always available): Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, one of my all time favorite painters.
WATCH: Girl with a Pearl Earring (the movie)
If you like the painting as much as I do, you may want to check out the movie Girl with a Pearl Earring, starring Scarlett Johannson. It’s a completely fictional account of Vermeer and his subject (Little is really known about the artist.), but you get a sense of how artists lived and worked during the Dutch Golden Age (mid-1600s). The movie is based on a novel by Tracy Chevalier, and it's sometimes available to stream on Netflix, STARZ, etc.
LOOK
Vermeer created The Art of Painting. By clicking on the picture at this link, then scrolling down with two fingers, you can zoom in to an extraordinary degree.
WATCH
To follow up on what you've learned about Vermeer, watch this short video from TEDEd on the artist and his painting:
https://youtu.be/pM_IzEAv5d4
Additionally, this other TEDEd page answers the question Why is Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earring" considered a masterpiece? Click on the Think tab on the right to take a short quiz on the work, Dig Deeper to access other resources, and DIscuss Vermeer’s work.