Project 2: Line Examples

Project 2: Line Due Oct 18th

You can start with two pieces of 15"x20" illustration board and cut 3“ from
the bottom (preferred) or you can begin with an over-sized piece of mat board
and trim it down to two 15"x17" boards. Next, you should lightly draw an 9"x12"


Take one of your black and white photographs and draw a grid on it. Your
grid should divide the picture into fourths, so in effect, you will end up
with sixteen rectangles. By dividing your portrait into smaller pieces,
you should be able to manage the proportions of your head as you draw it
on both pieces of your 15"x17" board. Use contour lines only to illustrate
yourself on one board, with the other, choose between cross-hatching and
cross-contour. Cover with tracing paper.

Homework

Make a rectangle 1 x 6 inches with in this make 1 gray scale of hatching and one gray scale crosshatching. And one simple drawing showing contour line and hatching/crosshatching.


Also for Tuesday please bring in a few different (printed) photos to start working on your self portraits. (black and white will help you more)


Reminder NO CLASS THURSDAY September 29th

Shape Project-Due September 22nd

This project will assess your understanding of shape and its potential as an
element of art. You will continue exploring the principles of organization, as you
did so well on Tuesday, but now I am asking you to address the positive and
negative space. We will examine next class together examples by Henri Matisse, Nicholas Wilton, Kara Walker, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Wassily Kandinsky and Arshile Gorky and others to further our study.

After choosing a motif from the handout (letter, number, suit from a deck of
cards, traffic symbol), you will then draw it about the size of your fist on a sheet
of 8.5x11 paper. You will then crop it, bend it, rotate it, flip it, fold it and punish
the paper as you see fit. Find as many abstract designs as you can—exhaust the
possibilities. You might decide to use some combination of photoshop, freehand,
illustrator, or streamline to distort the motif. In class you will probably use a loop/
magnifying glass and hand-fashioned “L” brackets. Do thirty thumbnails in your
sketchbook before transcribing your favorite design to the illustration board.

Shape Vocab.

1. Actual Shape- A positive area with clearly defined boundaries (as opposed to an implied shape).
   
   
2. Amorphous Shape- A shape without clear definitions; formless, indistinct, and of uncertain dimension.
   
   
3. Curvilinear Shape-A shape whose boundaries consist of predominantly curved line: the opposite of rectilinear.
   
   
4. Decorative (shape)- Ornamenting or enriching but more importantly in art, stressing the two dimensional nature of an artwork or any of its elements. Decorative art emphasizes the essential flatness of a surface
   
   
5. Equivocal Space- A condition, usually intentional on the artist’s part, in which the viewer may at different times, see more than one set of relationships between art elements or depicted objects. This may ne compared to the familiar “optical illusion”
   
   
6. Geometric Shape- A shape that appear related to geometry; usually simple, such as triangle, rectangle, or circle.
   
   
7. Implied Shape- A shape that does not physically exist but is suggested through the psychological connection of dots, lines, areas, or their edges.
   
   
8. Kinetic (art)- From the Greek work kinesis, meaning “motion”; art that includes the element of actual movement.
   
   
9. Mass- 1. In graphic art, a shape that appears to stand out three dimensionally from the space surrounding it or creates the illusion of a solid body of material. 2. In the plastic arts, a physical bulk of material.
   
   
10. Objective- That which is based , as closely as possible on physical actuality or optical perception. Such art tends to appear natural or real; the opposite of subjective.
    
    
11. Perspective- Any graphic system used to create the illusion of three dimensional images and/ or spatial relationships in which the object or their parts appear to diminish as they recede into the distance.
    
    
12. Planar (shape)-Having to do with planes; shapes that have height and width but no indication of thickness.
    
    
13. Plane- 1. An area that is essentially two-dimensional, having height and width. 2. A two dimensional pictorial surface that can support the illusion of advance or receding elements. 3. A flat sculptural surface.
    
    
14. Plastic (shape)-1. Element(s) used in such a manner as to create the illusion of the third dimension on a two-dimensional surface. 2. Three-dimensional art forms; such as architectures, sculpture and ceramics
15. Rectilinear Shape- A shape whose boundaries consist of straight lines; the opposite of curvilinear.
16. Shape- An area that stand out from its surroundings because of a defined or implied boundary or because of difference of value, color, or texture.
    
    
17. Silhouette- The area between or bounded by the contours, or edges, of an object; the total shape.
    
    
18. Subjective- That which is derived from the mind, instead of physical reality and reflects a personal bias, emotion, or innovative interpretation; the opposite objective.
    
    
19. Three-dimensional- Possesses, or creates the illusion of possessing the dimension of depth, height, and width. In the graphic arts, the felling of depth is an illusion, while in the plastic arts the work has actual depth.
    
    
20. Two-dimensional- Possesses the dimension of height and width, especially when considering a flat picture plane
    
    
21. Void- 1. An area lacking positive substance and consisting of negative space. 2. A spatial area within an object that penetrates and passes through it.
    
    
22. Volume- A measurable amount of defined, three-dimensional space

For Class Tuesday Sept. 6th

Be prepared with your Principles of Organization exercise tomorrow morning. We will be going over this first thing Tuesday morning.


Also bring your sketchbook for notes and to begin sketching out your first major assignment. We will go over your first set of supplies that you will need for this projects.

7 Principles of Organization

1. Harmony - May be defined as a pleasing relationship between different sections of a composition. It occurs when elements or independent parts have characteristics in common - such as repeated colors, similar textures, shared edges, etc. These areas become vitality linked; their commonality makes them visually related or pulled together.
   
   
2. Variety - The counterweight to harmony, the other side of organization essential to unity. Harmony brings a work together while variety imparts individuality. It is a factor of visual contrast - an isolation of elements and images. The introduction of variety actively separates areas of images to make them more exciting and let them stand apart.
   
   
3. Balance - A sense of equilibrium between areas of implied weight, attention, attraction, or moments of force.
   
   
4. Proportion – Deals with the ratio of individual parts to one another or to the whole. For example, the length of an arm in comparison to the length or the whole body is a proportional relationship.
   
   
5. Dominance - Where certain visual elements assume more importance than others within the same composition or design. Some features are emphasized, and others are subordinated. Dominance is often created by increased contrasts through the use of isolation, placement, direction, scale and character.
   
   
6. Movement - Eye travel directed by visual pathways in a work of art. Movement is guided by harmonious connections, areas of variety, the placement of visual weights, areas of dominance, choices in proportions, spatial devices and so on.
   
   
7. Economy - The distillation of the image to the basic essentials for clarity of presentation. As a work develops, the artist may realize that the solutions are resulting in unnecessary complexity. Economy means composing with efficiency - expressing an idea as simply and directly as possible with no arbitrary or excessive use of the elements.