Monday, February 23, 2009

Line Work

The Rhinoceros, Albrecht Dürer, 1515


The last portrait in the series of portraits (Collage and Ink) that you have been doing is the Line Portrait. It is the third variation in the portrait series and it is very much like it sounds. You will complete one last picture of the face that you have been working with using just line. Your line work will be similar to as if you were designing for a wood-cut print.

In class you will receive a paper that breaks down Albrecht Dürer's The Rhinoceros and shows the different variations of line that he used to create the overall look of his print. Some things for you to keep in mind are:
  • Your line work should be controlled, carefully spaced and drawn with deliberation
  • You can use a variety of different types of line to emphasise shape and form
  • Your line work should enhance the image, even though it is exaggerated in its deliberation it should not be so abstract as to be unbelievable
  • The line should follow the natural contours of the facial features, hair, clothing etc.
  • Using line only you will create value (areas of light and dark) in your drawing

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Announcements Week 23 (23 Feb. - 01 Mar. 2009)

Grade 6

  • 601 - String Art: Completing your designs and then mounting them for the Art Show.
  • 602 - Mobiles: Stringing the pieces for your mobile, balancing it out and hanging it in the Art Room
  • 603 - Silhouettes: Working on the descriptive sentences to embellish your Silhouettes

Grade 7

  • 701 - Art Time Line: Time periods have been assigned, images researched and final one chosen. You need to talk fonts this week and how to make a stencil.
  • 702 - Friendship Wheel: Everybody should be completing their portrait. You need to discuss the order that you are going to put all the names on the wheel and how you are going to tag them.
  • 703 - Cylinder Seals: This week you will make your seals. We have FIMO clay to work with, the carving is tricky but fun

Grade 8
You will be starting on your Line Portraits and everybody should have submitted their photograph to me via email for the Self-Portraits.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Ceiling Painting - 702


The Ceiling Painting completed by 702 which we fondly refer to as 'Ceiling Jesus' makes people gasp when the walk into the room, which is the whole point.

Space Collage - 701


Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Silhouette 1 - 603


603 you have started making Silhouette Portraits in class. The last two lessons you used the projector in class to help trace each others shadow (in this case, silhouette) onto butcher paper. After you had traced, you then cut out your own portrait and transferred it onto a piece of coloured paper, carefully cut that out and then mounted your image onto a background colour.

The next step as a class is to start coming up with autobiographical descriptive sentences that you are going to incorporate into the final picture. You are going to play around with handwriting, fun sentences and where to place them in our overall picture...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Art Time Line 1 - 701

(click on me to make me larger)

The idea for this project is to create an Art History time-line using a quote that runs across the various images representing different eras in art. Because there are 15 students in the 701 class there will be 15 different panels.

The quote that you all agreed upon is attributed to Alan Kay who is an American Computer Scientist:

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Now that you have brainstormed the basic idea for the project and I have made you a rough example of what the end product could look like, as a group, the following things need to be done:
  • Each of you will pick a time period to paint (choosing from a hat).
  • You will do some simple research on the time period
  • Choose an art piece to represent the period
  • As a class you will make a 'mock-up' of the time line with your chosen images
When you get to this point, you will start to talk about final project dimensions, sizing for each panel, font and how to stencil the quote into the art pieces as you set about reproducing them.

For a great Art History link go to SmartHistory and take a look.

Mobile 2

602 you have done a beautiful job painting your Mobile pieces and now you are ready to start finding the balancing point of all of your pieces and stringing them into a Mobile like the one below.


This is a step-by-step account of how to complete your Calder Mobile. Right now you are all ready to start Step 7.

Grade 6 Studio Work

  1. Trace your template on the backside of the paper using an oil pastel, you can use the window for this;
  2. Carefully staple your template to your cardboard;
  3. Trace your template using a ballpoint pen
  4. Cut out the six pieces of your mobile;
  5. Keep all of your pieces together using the blue construction paper that the teacher has given you;
  6. Paint the pieces with acrylic paint. You can use any colours that you like. Be sure to paint one side at a time and allow the side to dry completely before you turn it over to paint the other side;
  7. Find the centre of balance for each piece by balancing it on your finger. Lay it flat on your finger until is does not fall off, it will balance perfectly like a see-saw. Mark that point with a pencil;
  8. Make two holes in each of your mobile mobile pieces using a needle. One hole just below the top edge of the piece at the balance point and and one hole at the "tail" end of the piece;
  9. Using thread string all the pieces together;
  10. Check to see that your mobile is balanced and make any adjustments needed;
  11. Hang it up in the classroom above your work tables.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Friendship Wheel 2 - 702

What has been decided is this:

  • Each member of the class will create a self-portrait, this will mean 16 panels, which when laid out 4 x 4 will create a large square background.
  • The background will be a press-board, the portraits will be evenly spaced and glued to the press-board creating a class portrait as the main image.
  • In a large circle on the board there will be one nail for each student in the 7th grade (44 people) with their names attached on a ribbon (or other material).
  • You have collected 'data' by pooling each member of the 7th grade, asking them at least two questions each that could be answered by either a yes or no.
  • Students will be connected via a thread/threads to each other on the circle depending on their responses to the questions that you have asked.
  • Viewers will be able to see how the 7th grade is linked not only as students sharing the same year in school but also by their particular interests.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Announcements Week 22 (16-22 Feb. 2009)

Grade 6

  • 601 - String Art: Everybody should be sewing this week.
  • 602 - Mobiles: Painting is almost done and then you will be stringing the pieces for your mobile.
  • 603 - Silhouettes: All silhouettes should be mounted and you will be working on the descriptive sentences.

Grade 7

  • 701 - Art Time Line: conceptualised, now you have to start figuring out which time periods and images to use.
  • 702 - Friendship Wheel: Everybody should be working on their portrait this week.
  • 703 - Cylinder Seals: This week you will make your seals.

Grade 8
If you have not completed your Collage Portrait from two weeks ago and your Ink Portrait from last week you need to make that a priority this week.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Black and White


Last week all of you were set the challenge of completing a Collage Portrait during class time. The time limitations forced you to make quick decisions and to work continuously without debating your choices too much.


This week you will be taking the same image from last week and creating a black and white copy of it using only white paper and ink. The concepts are similar - shape and form will be chosen to represent features in the portrait. The big difference here is that you will be working with only black and white. Nuances will be further blurred; you are not creating a line drawing, but something closer to a "stamp". As you can see from the example, detailing is once again simplified, but the overall contours and shapes of the face, hair, eyes, mouth, nose, and chin are still evident.

Announcements Week 21 (09-15 Feb. 2009)

Grade 6

  • 601 - String Art, please bring a needle to class, we can not proceed without them!
  • 602 - You will finish cutting out your mobile pieces and start painting them this week.
  • 603 - Let's talk about simple printmaking...
Grade 7
  • 701 - The Space Collage is done and looks fabulous, I will photograph it this week and post it for you. This week you will be deciding on the details of your next project. Bring ideas for styles of art that you like, and an object we can all agree on using.
  • 702 - Friendship Circle, Collage Portraits have started. We will be looking at your data for the wheel this week. Make sure you POLL the entire 7th Grade for each of your questions.
  • 703 - Cylinder Seals - Your myth should be well researched. You have decided on which images you are going to use and are bringing pictures to class to help you draw your images.
Grade 8
Last week I set you the challenge of completing a Collage Portrait during your art period. This week you will be taking that same image and transferring it into a black and white image using only white paper and ink.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Cylinder Seals 1

Cylinder Seal, Shamash, Louvre


703 you are going to be designing and making your own Cylinder Seals. In class today we talked about Cuneiform script and how it was a writing system originally based on pictographs. Thomas showed us how the words fire and mountain are written in Cantonese and we guessed at how the word may have been derived from its early pictogram.

Your aim for this assignment is to create an original seal that depicts part of a myth, legend or fairytale. The challenge is to create a storyline that is able to both start and end within the same image once it is printed. We made the example of how we would depict the Minotaur's story - We know that the Minotaur lived within a maze and so we chose those two ideas, the half-god that the story is about and the place the story mostly takes place. A cylinder seal based on this story could show the Minotaur entering the maze as well as leaving it using only two clear pictogram. The entrance of the maze would have to be closest to the head of the Minotaur as he is facing it, looking as if he is about to enter and the exit would be placed closer to his heels. This way as the image is rolled out it would look like the one creature both entered and left the labyrinth.


Cylinder Seal by Ahmad Nadalian


Some of the Myths and Legends that we listed were: Gilgamesh, Beowulf, the Phoenix, St. George and the Dragon, Persephone, Orpheus, Icarus, Jonah and the Whale, Creation Stories, Constellations, Kraken, Pandora's Box and Werewolves just to name a few. You need to decided upon your story, research it and come ready to start figuring out how to draw it in simple imagery. Good Luck!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Mobile 1

Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, 1939 Alexander Clader

As a class you are going to be exploring the world of kinetic energy and making your own Calder-like mobile. Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976) was an American sculptor and artist who is credited with inventing the mobile. He discovered a way to create a sculpture that was in constant movement and therefore always changing, making it a dynamic and exciting art form.

A mobile is a type of sculpture that is made up of carefully balanced parts that move. They move, are kinetic, because they respond to the energy in air currents. When your mobiles are completed you will be able to watch them shift from one form to another.

In class we also discussed and compared how Calder and Joan Miró's work share some similarities. You made comments about the geometric shapes found in Cat Encircled by The Flight of a Bird and how even though Miró's work is a painting it has a lot of movement in it. It looks like it could be one of Calder's mobiles in painting form.

Cat Encircled by the Flight of a Bird, 1941, Joan Miró

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Announcements Week 20 (02-08 Feb. 2009)

It is the beginning of 2nd Semester and this is what your week looks like:

Grade 6
All new projects are starting in each of the Grade 6 classes:

  • 601 - String Art, please bring a needle to class
  • 602 - Mobiles inspired by Calder
  • 603 - Still deciding on this one, I'll get back to you soon.

Grade 7
Each section of the Grade 7 is working on a different project:
  • 701 - Space Collage, should be able to finish this Friday
  • 702 - Friendship Circle, all photos should be in and you will be starting your Collage Portrait
  • 703 - Sumerian Inspired Cuneiform

Grade 8
This week you will complete and deliver a finalized Periodic Table (oh yes, that SAME one from last year!)