Welcome and First Homework Assignment

Welcome, incoming class! I'm excited to be working with you for the upcoming year. My hope is that you will all participate as much as possible in all facets of the course and in so doing inspire each other to make the most of your freshman year at SVA.

As we went over quite a bit of material on the first day of class, I want to urge you to take a few minutes to reread the syllabus on your own. Please let me know if you have any questions, and if you do just send me an e-mail at the address listed above. I'll make every effort to respond to your mails as quickly as I can.

For your first homework assignment (due next week), I'd like you to purchase the basic materials you'll need for the course (see page titled Basic Materials List to the right), and then to make a contour drawing following the specifications below. Please read the entire assignment carefully.

CONTOUR DRAWING

On one of your sheets of sketch vellum, make a contour drawing using only Ebony pencil. Your contour may be a continuous contour or not, but it should not be a blind contour (i.e., go ahead and look at your drawing as you draw).

Set up some kind of familiar object on a windowsill in your room. Before beginning to draw, take a few minutes to study your object, the windowsill, and the images you see in the panes of the window, taking special note of small details. Concentrate on discerning edges -- both those that delineate the objects from the space around them and all the internal edges. As you begin to draw, concentrate on letting your pencil "feel out" the edges you see; let your hand respond to their various qualities by applying and releasing pressure, speeding up and slowing down, etc. Remember that in a contour drawing, you are working with line only (i.e., no shading or modeling of any sort).

Be as selective as you wish, but your drawing should include something of the object on your sill, the window itself, and whatever you see through the glass (foreground, middleground, and background). The quality of your line should reflect the differences in visibility (i.e., objects closest to your eye will call for bolder lines than those furthest away, etc.).

Do not use photographs for this assignment! It is important that you work from direct observation, so set yourself up in a place where you can work for several hours.

Follow-up to critique day and portfolio turn-in

Dear class,

Once again, thanks to all of you our final critique was a great success! I was very impressed not only by the number of excellent scroll drawings I saw but also by all the wonderful comments I heard. I hardly had to say a thing. Great job to all of you who contributed so generously!

I also want to let you know what a real pleasure it's been teaching your class this year. Yours has been a class that has reminded me every week why I love teaching. Thank you all for your enthusiasm, your passion, and your commitment.

And finally, a final piece of instruction:

PORTFOLIOS AND NOTEBOOKS:

I will be reviewing portfolios and notebooks this Sunday, April 29th, from 1pm-3pm. All homework assignments from this semester other than the midterm and final projects should be included in your portfolio, and your notebook should be neatly stacked in the locker.

If you need to access the class locker before Sunday, the combination is: 30-4-34.

For your convenience, here is a list of the assignments. (Please place them in order, and be aware that presentation counts. A sloppy portfolio will affect your grade, as will a missing assignment):


1. Cubist collage
2. Paper cut-out drawing
3. Monochrome pastel
4. Altered masterpiece pastel
5. Movement drawing (or flip book)
6. Informational image drawing

RETRIEVAL OF MATERIAL:

You may come any time after 3pm on Sunday to retrieve your material.

Have a wonderful summer, and do stop by and visit me from time to time! I would enjoy that very much.

Information for Final Class

Dear class,

As you know, next week's class on Tuesday, April 24th, will be the last class of the semester. On this day we'll be doing an all-day critique of your final projects. Please come prepared to present a section of your music to the class as you present your scroll. Bring your piece of music on either an i-Pod or a CD.

Some important things of which to take note:

1. As you know by now, it will be a long and very busy day. I cannot guarantee that we'll have time to take a lunch break, so please bring a packed lunch with you. I'll be providing some breakfast for everyone.

2. As always, please make every effort to be as generous as possible with your feedback on other students' work. I want to hear from everyone next week! The more generous we all are, the more rewarding the day is for everyone.

3. YOU MUST ARRIVE ON TIME for our final class. We will begin at 9:00am sharp. You are hereby forewarned that any late arrivals may be dismissed immediately at my discretion!

4. I will be reviewing portfolios and notebooks the Sunday after our final class (that is, on Sunday, April 29th). All homework assignments from this semester other than the midterm and final projects should be included in your portfolio. For your convenience, here is a list of the assignments. (Please place them in order, and be aware that presentation counts. A sloppy portfolio will affect your grade!):

1. Cubist collage
2. Paper cut-out drawing
3. Monochrome pastel
4. Altered masterpiece pastel
5. Movement drawing (or flip book)
6. Informational image drawing

Final Project Guidelines and Samples

Dear class,

Below are the guidelines for your final project, which is due on Tuesday, April 24th (our last day of class), and some samples of previous students' scrolls.

As I mentioned today in class, I will be giving you each a piece of 10" x 80" sketch vellum during next week's class to use for your scroll.

Your homework for next week is to BEGIN WORKING by selecting a piece of music and doing a number of sketches in your notebook exploring various marks and possible materials.


THE MUSICAL SCROLL:

For this project you will be creating a “scroll” (or a drawing with dimensions that suggest a scroll) that is a visual interpretation of a piece of music. Beginning with a piece of music that holds some personal significance to you—and preferably one that you’ve listened to again and again so that you’re intimately familiar with its nuances—the challenge will be to translate the audible (sound) into the visual (form) without relying on representational imagery. In other words, the idea is not to illustrate the story that your song is about (if it has one) but rather to convey through the language of abstract form the music itself. Both the individual notes made by different instruments and the emotional overtones of the music will constitute your central “cast of characters” in the composing of your piece.

On the scroll format:

The scroll format is important for several reasons. First, because it is long and narrow, it requires that the viewer “read” it from one end to another as he/she would a piece of writing. This is a nice way to incorporate the element of time into a drawing (and time is the “medium” through which music moves). As the viewer scans your piece, the development of the music and its temporal changes will be evident. Second, when oriented horizontally, the elongated format strongly suggests a bar of musical notation (as in a score). By the format alone you will already be suggesting time (or temporal succession) and musicality.

The aspect ratio of the format will be 1:8. I will be providing each of you with a piece of 10” x 80” sketch vellum the week before the project deadline. If you’d like to use a paper or surface other than the one provided but with the same dimensions, you may do so.

You may choose either the horizontal or the vertical orientation for your scroll. Be sure to give this some thought, since the different orientations read very differently.

Selecting your piece of music:

Because the idea is not to rely on representational imagery to illustrate a story, it is suggested that you use a piece of music without lyrics. However, if you decide to use a song with lyrics you’ll have to make an effort to stay focused on the formal and emotional content of the music rather than on its narrative content. Some representational elements may be included in your drawing, but the emphasis should be on abstraction.

Analyzing the music:

After selecting your piece of music, the next step will be to analyze it (literally: to break it apart) by listening closely and separating its different components conceptually. Drawing/sketching is an excellent way of figuring things out conceptually.

- Instruments: First, you’ll want to figure out what kinds of instruments are being used to make the different sounds and make a series of sketches exploring different kinds of marks to convey each sound.

- Overall structure: Next, you’ll want to make a sketch or diagram that breaks the song down into its various “movements.” For example, it might start off slow and mellow, then progress into something loud and dramatic, then return to slow and mellow (three movements).

- Emotional range: Finally, you’ll want to think about what kinds of emotions your piece of music expresses and come up with a palette that accurately reflects them.

Choosing your materials:

You may use any drawing materials (including ink washes and other watery media) for this project. However, restraint is advised! More than anything else, you will want your drawing to be a coherent piece of visual art that can stand alone (i.e. without the music that inspired it).

Presentation:

In the final class of the semester we will be doing an all-day critique of your scrolls. At the beginning of each presentation you will be playing a short section of your music for the class, followed by a brief explanation of how you approached the project and the various kinds of decisions you made during the process.

Some samples of Musical Scrolls from past years (in the following order: Alan Tung, Jessie Tsai, Darragh Rosenberg, Kanae Hatanyama, Yasmin Malki, Inkyung Park, and Alexi Burns).

(Click on images to enlarge):

Materials for Tuesday's class

IMPORTANT NOTE: See post below for this week's homework!

Dear class,

Please bring with you on Tuesday a bottle of Sumi ink and at least one brush. You may also want to bring an ink pen with various tips, but this is optional.

Also, please bring a magazine or newspaper clipping of a recent event that captivated your attention. Stories without accompanying pictures are preferable.

Homework Assignment #9

EXPLORING ABSTRACTION WITH "INFORMATIONAL IMAGES":


This week’s assignment is about exploring an approach to abstraction that takes its cues from the world of information. “Informational images” are non-art images that can be anything from maps, charts, diagrams, and scientific photographs to musical scores and other forms of written notation. Your task for this week is to make an abstract drawing that is based on one (or a combination) of these images.

Source material: Using either the web or the library, begin by looking at a variety of images that fall outside the category of art and somewhere inside the category of information. Some suggestions to begin with are: astronomy photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, microscope images of cells, molecules and bacteria, maps of any kind, Or the scientific photographs of the photographer Felice Frankel. Since most of these images will be visually abstract (although they certainly represent various things), what you’re looking for are intriguing shapes, lines, forms, rhythms, textures, etc. From these images, select between one and three to base your drawing on.

Your drawing: Using the source material as a point of departure, make a drawing that incorporates the forms from your image/s into a dynamic and interesting abstract composition. You may, of course, deviate substantially from your source material; feel free to select, omit, distort, alter, exaggerate, colorize, etc. At a certain point you may want to abandon the source material altogether and let what’s happening in your drawing determine your moves. Be sure to bring an image of your source material to class next week so that we can understand your process and the evolution of your drawing.

Materials: You may use any materials for this assignment, and your drawing can be in either grayscale or color.

Photographs for Tuesday's class

NOTE: TWO RELEVANT POSTS BELOW!

Dear class,

Please bring with you on Tuesday several (between 1 and 3) photographs of a favorite place -- either one you've been to personally or one you've always wanted to visit. Your photographs may be landscapes, cityscapes, or any combination thereof, but they should be "scapes" -- i.e., representations of a specific place with distinct geological or man-made features. A single photograph will suffice, but the more visual information you have about the place the better off you'll be for our in-class work. The photos may be either black and white or color.

Follow-up to Critique Day

NOTE: PLEASE SEE POST BELOW FOR THIS WEEK'S HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT.

Dear class,

Thanks to all of you, today's critique was another success! I saw a lot of terrific work, and many of you really knocked yourselves out on this project. Because of all your generous and thoughtful comments, I didn't have to say much. If you would like some feedback from me on your drawing, please do let me know via e-mail. I'd be happy to give you some further thoughts of my own.

Special thanks to Bree and Vania for the extra contribution to today's class. I know their lovely gesture was appreciated by all!

And many thanks to Conor for renting the camera and photographing everyone's work!

Homework Assignment #8

DEPICTING MOVEMENT IN STILL IMAGES:

This week’s assignment is about further exploring ways of conveying movement in drawings. You may choose either of the following approaches:

(1) Drawing from film: Make a drawing based on a selected sequence in your favorite film. Because you’ll want to watch the sequence a number of times at various speeds, be sure you have the proper equipment (i.e., don’t work from memory).

After selecting a good film sequence that you would like to interpret graphically, begin by making a series of quick studies in your notebook. Just as we did in class, concentrate on the way your line quality (or the quality of your marks) reflects the qualities of the various movements your sequence involves (i.e., quick and frenetic, slow and graceful, jumbled and chaotic, precise and mechanical, etc.). You may want to experiment with various drawing materials and colors before beginning your final drawing.

When you have a good sense of how you want to compose your piece, make a drawing on your regular homework paper. Your final piece can be as abstract as it needs to be, as long as it is an interpretation of the movement you observe in your film sequence.

(2) Flipbook: Make a flipbook that creates an illusion of movement as the viewer flips through its pages. Taking some cues from William Kentridge, a very good approach to this is to begin with a used paperback book (you can buy these on the street for cheap or at used bookstores). Be sure to “test” your book before purchasing it (i.e., make sure it’s the kind of book that allows for easy and fluid flipping.) The idea is to use the existing pages creatively, drawing over and around the text however you see fit.

Your sequence of drawings can be abstract (as in a “dancing” line or shape), representational (as in a leaping ballerina), or any combination of the two. Whatever you choose to do, be sure the sequence is long enough to create a rewarding illusion of movement for the viewer. Please keep in mind that your flip book should be a work of art – that is, it should be something more than the kind of doodle one does in one's algebra text book!

More Futurist Images

IMPORTANT NOTE: See post below for information about next week's class!

Dear class,

As promised, here is my favorite Futurist painting of all time. It's Giacomo Balla's "Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash":

And here are some more of Balla's paintings (and one drawing):

I encourage you to look up other artists associated with Italian Futurism and to further explore the artist William Kentridge, whose film "Drawing the Passing" we saw today in class.

Critique Day for Midterm Projects

Dear class,

As the deadline for your midterm projects is next Tuesday, March 27th, we will be conducting an all-day critique on that day. It will be the same kind of thing as we had at the end of last semester, so please come prepared for a very full day. As I said today in class, late arrivals will not be admitted into the class room.

Several things of which to take note:

1. Sorry -- no donuts this time! I only do that on the last day of the semester. Please come prepared with your own lunch and snacks. Any breaks we take will be very brief.

2. Each of you should be prepared to give a brief presentation about your drawing before we open the forum for group feedback. Things to consider talking about include: Did you use photographs or other source material for your drawing? What kind of information did this source material provide for you in your drawing process? What drawing materials did you use? Did your ideas change at all during the drawing process? What kinds of difficulties did you encounter along the way? How satisfied are you that your drawing achieved what you set out to achieve?

3. The more generous we all are with our comments, the more rewarding the day will be for everyone. Please make every effort to contribute your feedback to everyone. As with last semester's final, I will be sitting in the audience rather than leading the critique.

4. Out of respect for your fellow students, please refrain from drawing in your notebooks, texting, playing digital chess, or anything else during the presentations. These things are enormously distracting to the person speaking in front of the class.

Good luck on your projects!

Extra Credit Assignment

(See below for information about midterm project.)

Dear class,

There is a wonderful show up right now at the Asia Society Museum called Infinite Line by the artist Sarah Sze that I'd love for you to see. Sze is a terrific young(ish) artist whose work will inspire you to think about drawing in new ways. The show comes down on March 25th, so you must act quickly if you want to get some extra class credit.

The Asia Society Museum is located at 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street). It's open Tuesday–Sunday, 11:00 am–6:00 pm, with extended evening hours Fridays until 9:00 pm.

DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR SVA I.D! The show will cost you $5 with your card.

For more information, see here: Asia Society Museum.

If you go (strongly encouraged!), you can plan to tell me a bit about your impressions of the show to receive the extra credit.

Deadline for Midterm Projects

Dear class,

As I said on Tuesday, your midterm projects will be due on Tuesday, March 27th. On that day we'll critique all the drawings.

Next week we will be studying movement, and there will be a brief (one-hour) assignment given after our next class. Please keep this additional assignment in mind as you plan your drawing time over the course of the next two weeks.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The midterm project will count for the bulk of your grade for the spring semester. As with last semester's final, I expect you to put in between 20 and 30 hours on this drawing.

Studio Day on March 13th

IMPORTANT NOTE: Several of you who said you'd be using projected texts did not send me your text by the agreed-upon deadline. If this applies to you, it is now entirely up to you to figure out how to incorporate your text into your drawing. You can expect to receive a reduced grade for this project unless you are prepared to give me an adequate excuse.

Dear class,

As you all know, we'll be having our "studio day" on the first Tuesday after spring break. This is the day when we'll be working with the models and projections for your midterm projects. Please come to class prepared with the following items:

(1) A digital camera. If you don't have one and you plan to use the models and projections, please be sure you can borrow one from a classmate who will be bringing one. It's important that we get good quality photographs, so don't rely on your cellphones for this.

(2) Your notebook. If you'll be working with the models and projections, you should come to class prepared to show the models what you have in mind. Remember: An image is worth a thousand words! It's much more efficient to show the model what you have in mind than it is to explain it verbally.

(3) Your drawing materials and paper for the project. Especially if you don't plan on using the models and projections, you should come to class prepared to get to work on your project. If necessary, we'll send you to another room where you can work without being disrupted.

Reminder: Send texts!

Dear class,

Please be sure to send me your CAMERA-READY texts before this Friday, March 2nd (midnight deadline). Anything sent to me after this time will not be converted into a slide for your use during our projection day.

Send texts as Word docs, PDFs, or JPEGs to: taneyroniger@gmail.com

Homework Assignment #6, due Tuesday 2/28

First phase: Writing on the Body:

NOTE: Before reading this post, be sure you have read through the entire midterm project guidelines (see post below this one if you have lost the hard copy I gave you in class!).

Your assignment for this week is to select a text for your mid-term project and to create a graphic arrangement that will be “camera-ready” so that I can convert it into slide form. Before doing anything, be sure to read over the entire project description (see post below).

Your text:

Once you select a text for the project, you’ll need to arrange it graphically (with or without additional “purely graphic” elements) on a regular sheet of paper (i.e., 8.5” x 11”). You can do this either on the computer or by hand. If necessary, you may bring in several alternatives; I will convert into slides up to three texts per person.

Please note that even if you will not be using the projection approach for this project, you still need to show me a sketch of what you will be doing. The main thing is to begin thinking and planning now so that you'll be ready to get to work immediately after spring break.

Midterm project

Below are the guidelines I gave you in class this week for your midterm project. Please take some time to read them over thoroughly.

NOTE: The exact deadline is yet to be determined. Projects will be due some time after spring break.

WRITING ON THE BODY:

This assignment is about exploring the formal possibilities and conceptual implications of a mode of self-expression that can be considered the most primal form of mark-making: writing on the body. While there are many different ways to approach this project, a good place to begin is a consideration of today’s tattoo culture, in which people have highly personalized words and images inked indelibly onto their skin—with results that can be both astonishingly beautiful and thoroughly grotesque. A less familiar but equally fascinating phenomenon is the practice of scarification that occurs in many African and Pacific cultures, in which deep scars are “etched” onto the face to form symbolic marks. These marks can indicate anything from status in the community to ancestral connections to personal achievements such as having undergone a certain rite of passage.

While we won’t be doing any real tattooing or scarifying for this assignment, the idea is to make a large-scale drawing that depicts some kind of personal text “written” on either your body or that of a surrogate (both male and female models will be available). We will be working with projected images, and in the past many students have incorporated aspects of the projections into their drawings, with very intriguing results.

The project breaks down into roughly seven steps, but obviously you should be considering all of them simultaneously as you go along.

1. Choosing a text: The first step is to select a piece of writing that holds some personal significance for you. It can be anything from a poem by Emily Dickinson to a passage from the Koran to the lyrics of a Pink Floyd song to something you wrote yourself. The length, style, and content of the text are entirely up to you.

2. Converting your text into an image: After selecting your text, you will need to convert the letters and words into an “image” from which you’ll make your drawing. This can be as simple as typing your text in a Word document and making a print of it. If this is what you do, be sure to give great consideration to your font, as it will clearly affect the meaning of your final image. You should experiment with a variety of different fonts, font sizes, and text configurations in the initial stages of your project. When you arrive at a final text composition, print it out on a regular 11” x 8.5” piece of paper to turn in to me. I will convert these images into slides for projection.

3. Choosing a body part: After selecting a text and considering various formats for it, the next step will be to choose a site on your body (or the model’s) to bear the text. This decision should be made with the utmost care, since both the formal particularities of the site (i.e., the texture of the skin, the angles and contours of the bones and muscles, etc.) and its psychological associations will contribute greatly to the meaning of your piece. In making your decision about body site, you might want to take some photographs of various body parts (e.g., the palms of your hands, the soles of your feet, a kneecap, your face, your back, etc.) to work with in your preparations. Remember: the idea is not to entertain the prospect of a real tattoo but rather to make a really interesting work of art. The most intriguing image might result from placing your text in the least likely place!

4. Considering your composition: Once you’ve decided on both text and body site, begin to make some preliminary sketches that explore various alternatives for a basic composition. Feel free to abstract as much as you need to (for example, zooming in on body parts can create very beautiful and ambiguous compositions).

5. Approaching your final drawing: There are several ways of approaching the construction of your final image, but in any case you should have numerous sketches, photos, etc. to work from. One of the key drawing challenges in this project will be in depicting your text as it “wraps around” the contours of your body. To help you visualize this, we will be working with a slide projector and two models (male and female) during our designated studio day (we will discuss this in class).

6. Choosing a paper: As with last semester’s final project, you should give great consideration to your choice of paper. The dimensions of your paper should be approximately 30” x 40”, but other than that, the choice is yours. New York Central Art Supply has a wonderful selection of papers. The store is located at 62 3rd Ave. (just south of 11th St.); the paper department is upstairs.

7. Choosing your drawing materials: For this project you may use whatever drawing materials you feel are appropriate. Restraint is advised, however. (Please keep the “less is more” mantra in mind, and add colors and extraneous materials only when necessary! A simple Ebony pencil can produce wondrous results.)

Color photograph for Tuesday's class

Dear class,

Please remember to bring your color photograph (the one you were prepared to bring for last week) to class on Tuesday, along with your notebooks.

Class cancellation -- Tuesday 2/14

Dear class,

I'm sorry to say that I'm going to have to cancel class today, Tuesday the 14th, due to illness. We'll meet next week as planned, but until then, please continue to work in your notebooks, as I'll be looking at them for the first notebook check of the semester next Tuesday. You can also use this week to re-work or re-do any of this semester's assignments that you've been dissatisfied with.

See you all next week.

Color photograph for Tuesday's class and notebook reminder

NOTE: For this week's homework assignment see post below.

Dear class,

Please bring with you on Tuesday a color photograph or inkjet print with a compelling composition and vivid colors to use in our class drawing session. The subject can be anything whatsoever, but it should be something that holds some personal significance to you.

Also -- I will be checking your notebooks in two weeks. I expect to see a good amount of work in them!

Homework Assignment #5, due Tuesday 2/14

ALTERED MASTERPIECE:

This week's assignment is to make a pastel drawing that uses color to change the meaning or psychological mood of a famous painting. Begin by selecting a well-known painting that holds some personal interest for you. Be sure to make a nice digital print of your selected piece (preferably from a high-quality reproduction) so that you're not working from a computer screen.

Next, study the image for a while and imagine how your "read" of the painting might differ if the color were different. For example, if your selected piece is Van Gogh's Starry Night, imagine how you might feel about the piece if the sky were bright orange instead of blue, if the stars were blue instead of yellow, if the trees in the foreground were red and green, etc.

Using your chalk pastels, make a drawing that re-interprets the painting by changing its color scheme significantly. You may want to consider "inverting" the colors -- i.e., changing each color into its complement. Or, if you prefer, alter the palette to emphasize a dominant hue not seen in the original. However you choose to approach the assignment, concentrate on "re-creating" the painting in such a way that you give it a new dimension of meaning that feels uniquely your own.

You may use however many or few colors you want to for this assignment, but complex (i.e., blended) colors tend to be more successful than simple ones.

Homework Assignment #4, due Tuesday 2/7

EXPLORING THE MONOCHROME:

The purpose of this week’s assignment is two-fold: first, to explore one of the ways in which color can impart meaning to images, and second, to explore the rich possibilities of the monochrome. You will be working from a black and white photograph (see below) and making a drawing in which color is used to imbue the image with a psychological mood or atmosphere.

Choosing an image: From a magazine, newspaper or book (no working from the computer screen!), select a black and white photograph with a wide range of tonal values. Using either a photocopier or digital equipment, enlarge the photograph so that the image is roughly the size of a standard 8.5” x 11” piece of paper. Be sure to bring this image to class next week to display along with your drawing.

Making your drawing: For your drawing, which will be based on this image, use pastels and either your white sketch vellum or a piece of pastel paper comparable in size to your vellum. Since this will be a monochromatic drawing, choose a single hue that you feel represents the psychological mood or atmosphere you want to endow the image with. To achieve a range of tonal values and intensities, mix in a variety of colors into your main hue. (For example: If your drawing is to be blue, mix your blue with black, white, brown, red, yellow, etc., to achieve bright intense blues, pale light blues, warm green-blues, smoky grayish blues, dark blackish blues, etc.).

Important note: The point here is not merely to create a colorized copy of the original but to interpret it through the medium of color. Make the drawing something that is wholly your own by selecting, omitting, exaggerating, distorting, simplifying, etc. Above all else, use your color to create a dimension of meaning that is not evident in the original image.

Reminder about chalk pastels

(NOTE: Don't forget to look below for homework assignment!)

As I mentioned before, we will begin working with pastels in next week's class. Please bring the following colors on Tuesday, and remember what I said about avoiding the cheap sets (i.e., you'll be much happier if you purchase the quality pastels that are sold singly rather than in the sets):

Black
Brown
White
Dark green
Dark blue
Purple
Red
Orange
Yellow

Henri Matisse and Kara Walker

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please see post below for this week's homework assignment.

As promised in class, below are some more images of Matisse's cut-outs and Kara Walker's silhouettes. I encourage you all to do some research on your own to find out more about each of these artists.


Cut-outs by Matisse:

Silhouettes by Kara Walker:

Homework Assignment #3, due Tuesday, January 31

EXPLORING "DRAWING WITH SCISSORS"

Taking our cues from Henri Matisse’s cut-outs and Kara Walker's silhouettes, this assignment is about exploring the concept of drawing by means of cutting. You will be using one sheet of your white sketch vellum and several sheets of colored paper of the same color (all art supply stores sell cheap sheets of colored paper made by Canson, but you can use anything, as long as it is a solid color). You may use whatever color you’d like, but choose something that is dark enough to contrast sufficiently with the white of your ground and something that has some special appeal or meaning to you. The color you choose should contribute something to the meaning of your piece (i.e., form and content are not separate!).

Using either one of your figure drawings from class, a live model (clothed is fine), or a compelling photograph as reference material (no working from the computer!), begin by studying your subject/s and seeing simplified shapes instead of the real-world objects you are looking at. Next, cut your colored paper into interesting shapes that reflect your analysis of your subject/s. The shapes can be large or small, organic or geometric, abstract or representational, or any combination thereof. Be sure to cut out a lot of shapes before you start affixing anything to your paper. You will want to spend a lot of time considering your arrangement of elements in order to make a composition that is both visually exciting and suggestive of some kind of narrative or emotional content. When you arrive at a final composition, attach your elements to the paper with glue – or else sew them in with needle and thread, staple them on, or do something else that seems fitting with the content of your work.

In making your composition, be sure to give equal consideration to both the elements and the white ground. Remember that the negative space shapes you create and the way your shapes “cut up” the picture plane are important parts of the narrative you’re constructing. Because you’re only using one color, you’ll want to avoid layering your elements too densely; instead, concentrate on exploiting the whiteness of the ground to give definition to your shapes.

Homework Assignment #2, due Tuesday, January 24th

THE CUBIST COLLAGE:

For this assignment you will be creating a collage out of the four drawings you made from multiple views of your tabletop still-life. The challenge with this part of the two-part assignment is to synthesize your four drawings into one coherent picture that will retain the “essence” of your multiple views while transforming them into something completely new.

Cutting your drawings: Begin by cutting your four drawings into interesting shapes of varying sizes. Although you can make exceptions where necessary, you should try to cut along the edges of the shapes as you had drawn them (i.e., cut out the shadows, highlights, negative space shapes, etc.).

Reassembling your shapes: Before gluing anything to your sketch vellum (use a fresh sheet as the ground for your collage), spend some time moving the shapes around and considering your new composition. The greatest challenge of this assignment is in avoiding the arbitrary: You will want your new composition to be as visually interesting as possible, but it should not be entirely abstract. You will want to retain just enough information about the original drawings that the collage will be recognizable, to some degree, as a still-life. The ultimate goal is the simultaneous representation of four different views on your still-life in a composition that is more dynamic and interesting than the original drawings. The final product should be greater than the sum of its parts!

Feel free to draw back into (and on top of) your collage wherever necessary, using any medium.

Suggestions for adhesive fluid: You may use any kind of glue, but I recommend acrylic gel medium. This product is made by a number of brands (Liquitex, Golden, etc.) and comes in many consistencies and finishes (heavy, light, matte, glossy). I recommend the matte medium made by Golden.

Here's an example of a Cubist collage made by a former student (Cindy Kim):

Student examples of midterm project

NOTE: TO SEE FIRST HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT SCROLL DOWN TO POST BELOW.

Dear class,

As promised, I've posted some examples of spring midterm projects from previous years. To look at them, click here: Midterm projects.

Homework Assignment #1, due Tuesday, January 17th

EXPLORING CUBIST SPACE:

This is a two-part assignment that is designed to demonstrate the core concepts of Analytic and Synthetic Cubism. The first part, due next week, will explore the Analytic phase, and the second, due the following week, the Synthetic. It may be helpful to keep the literal meanings of the two words in mind here: Analysis means, literally, to break things apart into pieces, while synthesis means to bring things together to form a whole.

In part one of the assignment, you will be exploring multiple views of a single scene (a tabletop still-life) using Cubism's characteristic angles, lines, and "wedges." Your task is to make four separate drawings that will then be brought together to form a coherent whole in part two. Be sure to complete all four drawings this week, since if you don’t you will not have the materials necessary for next week’s homework.

Begin by making an arrangement of objects on a tabletop which you can easily walk around. Choose objects that aren’t too ornate or complex so that in your drawing you can easily simplify the shapes. Next, set up a light source that casts interesting shadows on your objects. The stronger the contrasts between light and dark, the more effective your drawing will be.

To prepare for your four drawings, fold one of your large sheets of sketch vellum in half width-wise, cut or tear (neatly!) on that dividing line, then do this again with each of those two halves. The result should be four identical rectangles, each measuring 9” x 12.”

Select four different points of view on your arrangement of objects (example: front, back, one side, and top). Each view should differ substantially from the others (you don’t want to be making the same drawing four times, in other words). Using the same simplified, geometric approach we practiced in class, draw your still-life from each of these views, with one drawing on each piece of paper. Concentrate on capturing the essentials of each view (the large shapes, the dark/light contrasts) rather than the details. Next week, you will be bringing all these views together to form one single Cubist drawing/collage.

Drawing materials: You may use either charcoal or conte crayon for this assignment.

Welcome back

Dear class,

I hope you're all feeling rested and rejuvenated after the break. Before we plunge in to the new semester, I want to urge you all to take a look at the syllabus, which will not only give you a sense of what lies ahead for the spring but will also refresh your memory regarding important course policies. Please take some time to read through the entirety of the text, which is contained in the links to the right under "SYLLABUS."