Life as an art student | Day 4 of 20

Started class today with a discussion examining the works of Giorgio Morandi and Paul Cezanne. I am finally understanding (and embracing) the importance and beauty of still life fine art pieces.  This makes me that much more motivated to spend time doing still life studies and I find myself brainstorming what types of objects or unifying themes I would focus on for my set-ups.

I know that the more time I spend painting and thinking in visual ways, the stronger I will be as a visual artist in a multitude of ways. I hardly ever paint at home and I am thinking I would like to try more of this especially this summer. I am going to try and get my 4 yo daughter involved because why not? My professor said when his daughter was in her early elementary years, she was exposed to plenty of art and she actually set her stuffed animals up to imitate the Last Supper. Perhaps I am a big nerd but that absolutely delights me and encourages me to be more bold in the art I share with my little girl.

Our studio time today was a continued study in torn paper collage but today we were directed to not just look at the negative space/background and to focus more on the foreground and proportions and scale of the objects themselves. Somehow my easel set-up ended up getting shifted from yesterday to today so I ended up unknowingly dealing with that and thinking I was crazy because my perspective was all of a sudden off and I couldn't explain it.

The professor was wonderfully supportive and helpful and encouraged me to note the challenge presented but not be overly concerned and just deal with the issue by making decisions based on the fact that I know/understand how to show proper perspective, scaling, and appropriate proportions without relying on the set-up itself. I did most of the hard work yesterday with the negative space and that was enough for me to fill in the foreground correctly enough.

Today after class I finally took a trip into DC to visit my local Utrecht location and I finally purchased the rest of my supplies - brand new PREMIUM-type brushes (read: expensive!) and Gamblin brand oil paints. I was going to order from Dick Blick and because I'm in the midst of "creative budgeting" while I deal with the cash flow issue of waiting for my student loans to be applied to my account, I had to wait until literally today to be able to get my supplies because I have had no money to do it. Such is life but God is so good(!) because not only was I able to take advantage of the amazing sale Utrecht is currently having but I was also able to use a 15% off coupon for one part of my oil and then my teacher discount for the rest (turpenoid, some oil painting medium, a new spatula and razor knife for my palette) - the sales associate who helped me was AMAZING to be able to help me figure this out and truly maximize the money I spent.

Old brush set on the left side, new brush set on the right

I don't have class tomorrow (it's every day of the week for four hours except Fridays) and while (earlier this week) I was excited about that since it gives me some much needed time to both spend with my little girl and prepare for her big birthday party this weekend, I'm bummed that I have to wait until next week to try out all of my new supplies! Oh well... good things come to those who wait (me included).

Have a great weekend everyone! See you next Monday after class!!

Lesson idea: Junk mail collage portraits

This project idea was not an original one. I saw a version of it first on Princetenol as well as in my Google reader on a popular art blog called Craftzine when they spotlighted artist Sandhi Schimmel Gold and her innovative idea of taking junk mail and turning it into portraits. I think I actually starred the idea in my reader at least two years ago but, as with just about everything that I snag as inspiration, it has been implanted and festering in my brain that this year I finally had to get it out and make it happen.

This project was one of the last ones that I did with my 2D students and I am ridiculously proud of how far they have come as evidenced in the student work you will see below. They demonstrated a real understanding of visual texture and grasp for serious dexterity with regard to their cutting and assembling technique.  They also applied definite knowledge of color theory and each student artist definitely spun their own portrait attempts with very personalized (to them) stylings. Their finished works far exceeded my expectations as well as their own and many of them became more and more serious about their work as they came closer to finishing them and saw how impressive they could be if they only paced themselves and worked carefully.

We used hand-cut (by me) chipboard that I had in our remaining stock from last year and I worked diligently to collect magazines, catalogs, and junk mail from  anyone who would give it to me so that we had a wellspring of paper media to work with. I allowed them the short cut of using graphite transfer paper for the major features of the individuals they picked but they were tasked with making things as 3D as possible with shading and highlighting as well as outlines. Most of them used Xacto-knives to carefully shape and cut their pieces in specific ways and then they used glue sticks to adhere them to their boards. When each piece was finished it was sealed with matte Modge Podge.  A paper clip was hot glued to the back of each piece so it was ready to hang in the student gallery or in the growing personal art galleries in the homes of my talented student artists.

WiPs: Junkmail portraits

I am in the process of culling finished student pieces of a recently finished lesson plan idea (for the Broken Window Painting) but here are some more images of my students working on their latest project that will be finished (hopefully!) the day before we break for Christmas vacation.

The project is called the Junkmail portrait and it's been one that has been mentally bookmarked in my swirl of ideas that I sometimes get from my blogroll. I originally saw featured on Craftzine and the artist who created them is Sandhi Schimmel. Obviously her works are incredibly impressive and indicative of years of experience and refined technique but I love taking inspiration from art/artists found via the interwebs because it forces my students to consider and sometimes become active fans and follow noteworthy artists of today. Years ago the 2D students did a take on this idea so I have some old student samples of collage portraits in a similar fashion but for this project I really just kind of showed them a handful of finished pieces of work, encouraged some light discussion about ways to go about it and then just pushed them in the direction to get started in whatever way they felt their piece needed.

Here are some of the beginnings of what I am certain will be some pretty remarkable student artwork samples...

I opted to let the students pick individuals of whomever they might like as a way of encouraging their greatest investment in their work from the get-go and also allowed them to try out transfer paper as a way of getting the layout and placement of the face/details of the face in the most accurate way possible. They've been free-hand drawing and thumbnailing for the whole semester and the transfer paper was a tool they have been excited to use as way to work "smarter not harder."