| Studio Activities
Drawing Your Personality
Rose Window Cutout
Using the Triangle
Sketching an Event
Sketching a Sound
Creating Texture
Creating Abstract Effects
A Futuristic Dwelling
Drawing
Your Personality
Suppose you lived in a place where
images of past relatives were kept in every home. Think of how
you would like future generations of your family to remember
you. Then complete a pencil drawing of yourself as seen from
the front. Show yourself in an activity that reveals your personality.
The figure does not need to be a perfect likeness. It must,
however, tell viewers about the kind of person you were. Your
personality, not your appearance, should be shown.
PORTFOLIO
Ask two or three classmates to describe your work in one word.
List their words in your sketchbook, and compare them to the
image you wanted to show. Then tell what, if anything, you might
do differently if you drew yourself again.
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Rose Window
Cutout
Make a pencil sketch in your sketchbook
based on a rose window design. Rose windows sometimes appear
on the front a church or cathedral. They are round, so your
design should have either symmetrical or radial balance. Leave
out all unnecessary details in your work. Transfer your sketch
to a sheet of black construction paper. Go over all the lines
with white chalk. Make some of the lines thicker than others.
Using scissors, cut out all the spaces between the chalk lines.
Cut out patches of tissue paper in the shape of the spaces,
only slightly larger. Pick different colors of paper for different
spaces. Using white glue, attach these patches to the construction
paper along their edges. You may want to use two thicknesses
of black construction paper and sandwich pieces of tissue
paper between the outlined areas. Turn your work to reveal
your own stained glass window.
PORTFOLIO
Write a short paragraph explaining how you chose colors, shapes,
and use of space. Keep your description and your stained glass
window together in your portfolio.
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Using
the Triangle
Many Renaissance artists followed a triangular or pyramid
plan to organize the main figures in their works. Using pencil
and ruler, draw a large triangle on a sheet of white paper.
Within this shape, fit one or more of the letters that make
up your initials. Fill as much of the space inside the triangle
as you can. Use only straight, ruled line for your letters.
Now continue some of the lines beyond the triangle to the
edge of the paper. This will divide the rest of your composition
into various shapes. Paint the shapes within the triangle
with different values of a single hue. Paint the outside shapes
with different values of the complementary hue.
PORTFOLIO
For your portfolio, write what you learned by creating this
painting. Does your work reflect the same balance and organization
as that of the Renaissance painters? Explain.
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Sketching
an Event
Plains Indians painted tales of their battles on skins. Look
through a newspaper or magazine for coverage of an important
event in your city or in the world. On a sheet of paper, sketch
the story behind this event. Carefully outline each object
in your design. Color the work using watercolor markers.
PORTFOLIO
Exchange finished artworks with a classmate for peer evaluation.
To evaluate a peer's work, use criteria preset by your teacher
or class group, or evaluate the use of elements and principles
of art, use of media, and how well the artist has followed
the directions of the assignment. Keep the peer evaluation
of your work and the art work together in your portfolio.
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Sketching
a Sound
Using your imagination, sketch an image that goes with one
of these sounds: a bird's song, the roar of the ocean, or
breaking glass. Then brush water over your drawing and paint
it with watercolors. Choose colors that best express the mood
your work calls in mind.
PORTFOLIO
Write a short paragraph explaining whether you communicated
a mood with blurred images.
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Creating
Texture
Working lightly in pencil sketch a nighttime landscape. Include
trees, a lake, and the moon. Make your drawing large enough
to fill a large sheet of paper. Switching to crayon, trace
over all the pencil lines, pressing hard. Place a sheet of
burlap beneath your paper. Using the side of an unwrapped
crayon, rub over the sky in your drawing. Replace the burlap
with bits of dried grass and leaves. Rub the crayon over the
lake in your work. Examine the results. Use other materials
with rough surfaces as a base for rubbing the remaining forms
in your work. (For further information on rubbings, see Technique
Tip 25, Handbook.)
PORTFOLIO
Describe the results of each textural experiment. Write each
technique and the words that describe its effects in chart
form. Keep this chart and your sketch with texture samples
in your portfolio reference. Add new techniques and textures
to your chart as you discover them.
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Creating
Abstract Effects
Choose one of the following words: war, hunger, anger. Look
through magazines, tearing out pages showing objects that
capture the idea of this word. Using pencil and tracing paper,
carefully transfer the images you have found to a sheet of
paper. Overlap the drawings to create an abstract effect.
Use India ink to create contrasts of light and dark shapes.
PORTFOLIO
You might want to practice for portfolio presentation by presenting
this art work to classmates. Display the work, and describe
how you used the elements and principles of art to create
a theme. Evaluate your success by asking classmates to tell
the theme suggested by your work.
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A
Futuristic Dwelling
Art, it has been said, mirrors the time which it is created.
This holds especially true for the branch of art called architecture.
On a sheet of paper, make a pencil drawing of a dream dwelling
of the future. Provide solutions to such growing problems
as pollution and thinning of the ozone layer. Share your finished
work with classmates. Which design is the most interesting?
Why?
PORTFOLIO
Provide information for art historians of the future. Include
this information with your drawing in your portfolio.
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