Hwk 3/10: CRITIQUE DAY!!!

Hwk 3/10: CRITIQUE DAY!!!

1) First 5 Experimental Drawings DUE!

2) Scratchboard Assignment DUE! REMEMBER you need both a FIGURATIVE & an ABSTRACT eye. MINIMUM 6" x 6" each. These DO NOT HAVE TO BE HUMAN OR SUPER CLOSE-UP! The goal of this assignment is to create texture studies with varying states of ascertainable narrative/ legibility. Make SURE once you are done that you step back and really examine each image. One should read as an eye and one should NOT. If you need to add an extra image to accomplish this bring all of these into class. There is extra scratch board in my trunk in Room 245 if you need more. 

3) Bring in at least 2 images for your Portrait of an Elder assignment to discuss in class. These can be digital at this point, but will need to be printed to accomplish the assignment. 

Your mid-term portfolio check will be done the week AFTER spring break. This will include all blog posts and assignments, in class and out, to date.

Portrait of an Elder: A Texture Study

Drawing II-­‐ OLIVER Assignment 5
(Due: Monday, 3/24)

 Portrait of an Elder:

A Texture Study

MATERIALS:

• Fawn Stonehenge 22”x 30”
  
• White Charcoal Pencil and White Conte Crayon
  
• Black Charcoal Pencil and Black Charcoal
  
• Bistre Conte Pencil and Bistre Conte Crayon
  
• Sanguine Conte Pencil and Sanguine Conte Crayon
  
• Blenders/Erasers/Other Drawing tools

• PROCESS (suggested, NOT fixed):
  
• Grid original image (triangle grid most effective)
• Draw in 1.5” border very lightly using graphite. Carefully tape 1.5” border using
  Blue tape (and newsprint, as needed). Draw corresponding grid on Fawn paper
  (very lightly in White Pencil)
  
• Draw Image in as much detail as possible using SANGUINE. Think about 7-­‐pt
  value scale and TEMPERATURE.
  
• Remove any trace of Grid as needed
  
• When Sanguine is complete, add BISTRE to darker areas.
  
• When Bistre is complete, add BLACK to the very darkest areas
  
• When Black is complete, add WHITE to highlights. Be sure to leave bits of Fawn
  paper as second-­‐lightest value.
  
• When Complete, Lightly Spray-­‐Fix, if desired
  
• CAREFULLY Remove tape. Always pull AWAY from the interior of the drawing,
  rather than toward the middle (so if tears occur, the tear the border rather than the drawing)

Once you have completed this image write a single paragraph describing the character presented in frame. Post this to the blog AND print this out and bring it in with your image the Monday after spring break. Give him/her a name if one does not already exist, tell us about the moment, thoughts, etc. Do they have a secret? What is the moment being described? Would you want to hang out with him/ her? We are looking for true PRESENCE in frame. 

SCRATCH BOARD!!!!!

Scratch board is FIIIIIINALLY HERE! (Sorry! Amazon!  >:^/ ) Come pick up your two pieces from my trunk in room 245 in the art bldg.

Projects still due next Wednesday, along with your first 5 experimental drawings!

Cornelia

Hwk 3/3: Supplies!

You all should be well-into your experimental drawings at this point! The first half are due next Wednesday, along with your Scratchboard Drawings. You have TWO 6" x 6" images of eyes due! Think about figuration & abstraction, narration & non-narration. How are each of these images READING? These are studies in VALUE and DETAIL. You are simply copying what is there, so don't worry about generating new work or the profundity of message.

For those of you who want, please feel free to make your own scratch boards or scratch paper for this assignment. This is a super easy tutorial: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Iob3Nosis (oil pastel paper)
http://makezine.com/projects/diy-scratch-art/ (actual board)

Helpful for working with scratchboard:
http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/inspiration-creativity/scratchboard-strokes-12-critical-effects
http://www.ehow.com/info_12025131_scratchboard-techniques.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEZaXrtgY0U (cheesy video, but good information!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTXiNzwlzno (step by step)

For next class you will need your SECOND SHEET of black paper, 2 sheets of mid-tone paper, your white drawing paper, and your contè crayons (black, white, sepia, umber). Also bring in your images of eyes. We will discuss these at the beginning of class.

Abstraction - Lydia Gosling

1) Define "NARRATIVE" & "NON-NARRATIVE" art. Make this clear for a broad audience. Give examples with captions.

- Narrative art:art that tells a story, either as a moment in an ongoing story, or as a sequence of events unfolding over time. In narrative art, the artist chooses how to portray the story, represent the space, and how to shape time within the artwork. Narrative art can be categorized into various types, also known as modes or styles. A piece of artwork is not limited to only one type of narrative. Formal elements would be that it contains a story, or recognizable figure that can be read easily. Most often narrative art has figurative elements.

Example:

Laocoön and His Sons, 1st century BC or AD, attributed to  Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus

 

- Non-narrative art:  Art that has a conscious attempt to reject the assumption that art should be didactic and rational. Formal elements would include no visible narration within the piece, usually abstract work, and usually trying to create experience. The American painter Mark Rothko created abstract paintings of ambiguously muted color. He steadfastly refused to interpret them or suggest any story line or moral. He felt that a direct experience of the painting was far superior to a rational explanation.

Example: 

No. 61 (Rust and Blue), Mark Rothko, 1953, 115 cm × 92 cm (45 in × 36 in). 

Continuation of homework:

- Figuration: describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—that is clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational. "Figurative art" is often defined in contrast to abstract art: "Since the arrival of abstract art the term figurative has been used to refer to any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world." Figurative art is not synonymous with "art that represents the human figure," although human and animal figures are frequent subjects.

 Example:

Bourgoin Skydoll by Mikaël Bourgouin

- Abstraction: abstract art is derived from a figurative or other natural source. However, "abstract" is sometimes used as a synonym for non-representational art and non-objective art, i.e. art which has no derivation from figures or objects. Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world, and by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality.

Example:

Dorit Ruff, Medium: Acrylic, Mixed Media

Continued Discussion on Abstraction

Narrative art is art that has recognizable objects or figures that tell a story or show a moment in a story.

Leonid Afremov, Dance Under the Rain, Oil Paint on Canvas

Non-narrative art doesn't have any kind of story, and is usually more ambiguous than narrative art.

Jaison Cianelli, Warm Seas-Abstract Art

EDIT:
Figurative art is art that visually represents something accurately or semi accurately.
Abstract art has no recognizable objects or figures.
Personally I don't think that figurative art can be non-narrative because if there is some sort of object a story comes to mind. If there's a figure standing there you can sense an emotion and a story from it. I think abstract art can be narrative sometimes because you can tell a story with only color and shapes instead of figures and objects. The abstract eye definitely reads as non-narrative, while the whole eye reads as narrative. I think the abstract one doesn't read as narrative because you can't necessarily tell that it's an eye, it just reads as texture. I don't think the figurative eye directly gives you narrative, but you can draw narrative from it. Since I have a cat, the figurative eye kind of tells me the story of when I wake up in the morning and all I see is my cat eye, very close to mine asking for some breakfast.

Abstraction, Cont'd - Sullivan

Narrative art is art that represents recognizable images of places, people or things, either as wholes or as parts. Viewers can make sense of the images and will develop their own stories or explanations of what is happening in the piece.

 

Non-narrative art does not present any recognizable figures. The marks, colors, and shapes in the work cannot be read as known objects; therefore, viewers will struggle to impose stories on the images.

~

In order to define figuration and abstraction, I think I have to alter my definitions of narrative and non-narrative art.

Narrative Art - art that causes the viewer to assign a story to it

Non-narrative Art - art that does not cause the narrator to create a story about it

Figuration - the representation of recognizable figures (places, objects, people) 

Abstraction - art that does not contain recognizable figures; can be derived from abstracted or distorted figurative images, or be the result of pure mark-making

Most of the time, figurative art is narrative, and abstract art is non-narrative, as in the images above. I think it's theoretically possible to create figurative but non-narrative art, but I have never seen it done. On the other hand, abstractions can often be at least slightly narrative, although they usually don't cause viewers to reflexively invent a story in the way that figurative art does.

This image, for example, suggests an environment--perhaps a fancy carpet, or a room full of dancers as seen from above. The colors suggest time of day, time of year, and mood. It definitely has narrative potential, at least.

As I thought about how these definitions applied to my eye images for the scratchboard project, I realized that I might actually have an example of non-narrative figuration. Most of the eyes that I've found suggest narrative when taken in their entirety, but there's one--an especially bland stock photo--that does not. Sure, you could attempt to create one for it, but it requires the same sort of effort as assigning a story to an abstract image. Yet the eye is very clearly an eye. (My abstract eye textures, unsurprisingly, do not create narrative.)