Bork - Still Life

Emily Bork

acrylic on board, 36"x24"

The narrative of this piece can be interpreted many different ways, as can most pieces of artwork, although its intended narrative is as follows. After playing their instrument a musician sets it next to a tree and lets the strings of the violin breathe while they take out their flute. Playing it for a while they leave them for a moment to get something to drink, which leaves this scene. Though it is not outside we can imagine it as so. It is accomplished by showing the tree, violin, and flute so openly and near to each other. The intended audience of this piece is anyone who has played either of the instruments or knows what it takes to learn them. The audience would know that once in a while a break is required in order to stay sane.

            It’s balanced and yet at the same time feels a little off, I feel that if I had a chance to redo this piece I would rearrange the objects in order to make the violin bigger and have more detail. There is volume, space, and depth in the piece as well as texture, which can be seen in the white of the background. There is a shadow of the tree on the wall behind it and volume as the colors fade into black where the light disappears, it could be a bit darker though.

Farrell STILL LIFE

Maddie Farrell
acrylic on board, 36"x 24"

Mason STILL LIFE

Julie Mason

acrylic on board, 24"x 36"

Morning-Star STILL LIFE

Athena Morning-Star

acrylic on board, 36"x 24"

Chavez STILL LIFE

Maria Chavez 

acrylic on board, 24"x 36"

Pope-Still Life

Trevor Pope

acrylic on board, 18"x 24"

My still life consists of two mannequin arms and hands placed in a haphazard pile on a flat white sheet. The background of the piece is a solid black sheet that was pinned in order to eliminate folds and texture. I had originally planned to create a horror themed still life but decided the limb portions would be interesting subjects. The audience is not important in this piece, because it is more interesting to look at rather than some implied narrative for a specific audience. I feel like the composition of this piece is pretty well balanced, I just would have liked to be able to show more detail in the overall image. I feel as though I was able to capture some volume, space, and depth with the use of shadows and differing tones but the space of the image could greatly be improved. I feel that I was able to add some texture to my painting because I was able to capture the shiny texture of the mannequin parts with tonal differences and highlights.

Still Life--Stanley

 Caroline Stanley

acrylic on board, 24"x 24"

I have painted a plate sitting on a small table. On the plate there is a lemon, tomato, and some grapes. The items I choose are fruit that I found in my kitchen and arranged them on a plate. The intended audience would be someone looking for a simple daily scene of kitchen foods. It is not important in this piece. Paintings like these are often used for simple decoration. I like that it is offset towards the top of the painting. The table balances the bottom half of the painting. I feel like I could further the piece by changing the scale and view. I think that it could have been more interesting had I scaled it larger. As for the depth, I think what’s lacking the most is the plate and the table. They don’t look 3D. They look flat on the surface. I like the lemon and tomato especially. I like the texture of the lemon and the tomato. They feel more 3D with the color changes. The grapes were harder with all the lights and darks.

Hwk: 9/18 UNEXPECTED COLOR!!

Hwk: 9/18 UNEXPECTED COLOR!!

UNEXPECTED COLOR projects DUE Tuesday! Remember questions to consider:

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

• Is this a personal feeling/ state-of-being or does it read as more objective (about someone else, friend, family, stranger, society etc.)?
• Are you using CLICHÉ imagery or color?
• Do you genuinely care about or feel interested in your ideas?
• Is this an image that will clearly be read as “unusual/unexpected” color?
• What are the “expected colors” for this image? Are there several ways that changing the color will affect the concept of the image?
• Do you care whether or not the viewer understands your concept? (You do not have to say yes!)
• Do you have a clear idea of what the change of color means to you?

Begin to think about your STILL LIFE paintings!

STILL LIFE PAINTNG

Painting I- Oliver

Assignment 4

(Due: Tuesday, 9/30)

Still Life Painting

Materials:

-­‐one panel 24” x 24” or LARGER

-­‐acrylic paint, mediums & brushes

-­‐minimum of 4 objects and controlled lighting

Objectives:

Introduce and practice still life arrangement techniques:

Control/activate the background

Balance highlights and shadows

Provide areas of visual movement

Repeat accent colors

Consider viewing from different angles

Review basic composition techniques:

Rule of thirds, avoid centering

Cropping, fill the whole space

Activate the edges

Design a unique and original composition based on a still life arrangement

Mentally/visually convert 3D arrangement to 2D image

Thumbnails: sketch at least 5 different cropped areas

1 rough color drawing (color): plan for painting

1 presentation quality color painting: final still life composition

I want you to also consider, IN ADDITION TO FORMAL/ ACADEMIC composition, what it is you are painting and WHY. With your painting you will need to write out a paragraph explaining:

1)       What is the narrative being portrayed, and how is this accomplished? What are the objects and what is the space?

2)       Who is the intended audience for this piece and are they important (why/ why not)?

3)       Is this a balanced composition? How could this further be improved?

4)       Is there volume, space, depth, and texture in both your objects and your space?

Print this out and bring it in with your painting, as well as posting it to the blog under the title, “STILL LIFE”.

POETIC/UNEXPECTED COLOR

Painting I- OLIVER

Assignment 3

(Due: Monday, 9/23)

POETIC/UNEXPECTED COLOR

OBJECTIVES:

• Explore the possibilities of unusual/unexpected color in communicating psychological, emotional, or provocative interpretations of imagery
• Consider the connection between the artist’s conceptual meaning VS the viewer’s interpretation of the work
• Learn the use of a grid as a way to transfer/enlarge imagery
• Interpret value in relationship to color

MATERIALS:

• THREE or more choices of images (black and white ONLY!!). These can be images you took, or appropriated from another source. Your choice of imagery can be simple, but I want you to consider WHAT COLOR one would expect in this image, and how you can manipulate these colors to alter the psychology or narrative.
• You will be using a BLACK & WHITE images that you will then ADD COLOR! Keep the images relatively simple.
• You will be making your final painting on a full-sized sheet of watercolor paper
• Color choice OPEN, but you MUST use color in unexpected ways!
• Bring in a ruler, pencil, and straightedge (if your ruler is short). I suggest a quilters ruler/square.
• Glue or glue stick

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

• Is this a personal feeling/ state-of-being or does it read as more objective (about someone else, friend, family, stranger, society etc.)?
• Are you using CLICHÉ imagery or color?
• Do you genuinely care about or feel interested in your ideas?
• Is this an image that will clearly be read as “unusual/unexpected” color?
• What are the “expected colors” for this image? Are there several ways that changing the color will affect the concept of the image?
• Do you care whether or not the viewer understands your concept? (You do not have to say yes!)
• Do you have a clear idea of what the change of color means to you?

Hwk: 9/16 COLOR HARMONIES!!

Hwk: 9/16 Analogous, Complimentary, & Triadic Color

We are going to be looking at several color balancing techniques, and how they work together to create objects in space. 

Monochromatic-- Color palettes start with a single hue and then use shades and/or tints of that color to expand to two, three, or more values. Learn more about using tints of spot colors for design.

Analogous colors-- Colors that are adjacent or next to one another on a color wheel. An analogous color scheme is one in which only three adjacent colors are used. The theory is that colors work well or harmonize together. Usually one of these colors is dominant, or used more than the other two, in the painting.

Complimentary colors-- Two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel, which when placed next to each other make both appear brighter. The complementary color of a primary color (red, blue, and yellow) is the color you get by mixing the other two (red + blue = purple; blue + yellow = green; red + yellow = orange). So the complementary color for red is green, for blue it's orange, and for yellow it's purple.

Triadic color-- Palettes using a trio of colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel.

http://bedroom.about.com/od/ColorIdeas/ss/Decorating-Around-the-Color-Wheel.htm

http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-harmonies.htm

http://webdesign.about.com/od/colortheory/ss/aa040907.htm

For homework: You MUST got though these websites. You will paint the same two objects 4 times, creating a half- sheet sketch following each of the above stated color schemes (monochromatic, analogous, triadic, and complimentary. Each should at least an hour. If you need to finish the complimentary sketch from class, do. We only spent about 35 minutes on this in class. They should be labeled with the date and the amount of time you spent on each. Do NOT forget backgrounds! 

You ALSO need to bring in two three full-color images (and a black and white copy of each) for your UNEXPECTED COLOR paintings for next class, along with materials to work on this project.