Perspective Strategy Drawing

Purpose:

To review the perspective strategies that you learned;

To make connections between what you learned and demonstrating your understanding by creating a drawing using one of the perspective strategies.

I used a combination of 2 different one point perspectives in the same drawing. This odd occurrence was the result of my choice of a trapezoidal building as a subject. I also included some elements of aerial perspective, like how I drew the trees growing smaller in the distance along the sidewalk. I learned some important things to keep in mind, like to draw all horizontal lines going towards the vanishing point. This is how I made my windows appear realistic, even with the semi-circle windows.

Watercolor History

Purpose:

To become familiar with the history of watercolor;

To become familiar with various watercolor artists throughout time;

To make connections between watercolor purposes and techniques from long ago to its uses today.

The earliest paintings ever created (cave drawings) were actually water-based pigments as early as before 10,000 BC.

Albrecht Durer is considered the first master of watercolor. He was a German artist who became familiar with water-color landscape painting when he traveled to Italy in 1494-95. His methods are greatly varied; he used the wash technique to create airy, atmospheric landscapes as well as using precise detail to draw objects found in nature.

View of Kalchreuth 1503

Frances Anne Hopkins: The Lumber Raft, Quebec, 1870

Anthony Van Dyck: Landscape, 1632

Watercolor was at its peak in the early 1800s. It had at that point been part of education in British Academies and was being mass produced by Winsor-Newton. In the late 1700s, it became a popular hobby among women to use watercolors to color black and white prints. Even Queen Victoria took watercolor lessons and kept a painting journal, which made it popular throughout the English speaking world.

In the 1970s and 1980s watercolor re-gained popularity along with 19th century art in general. Watercolor painting became a fashionable past time once again for the middle class. Today, there is a wide range of mediums that qualify as watercolors, everything from water-soluble oil paints, to fade-resistant, to gel enhanced.

Perspective

Purpose:

To demonstrate and understand, learn & create, various perspective strategies to show depth on a two-dimensional surface;

To review and interpret some of the work created by Leonardo da Vinci.

Linear perspective is the illusion of depth and a third dimension on a 2 dimensional surface.

Horizon line: the line that separates ground from sky

Vanishing point: point were all parallel lines going into the distance converge on the horizon

Orthogonal lines: parallel lines that converge on the vanishing

Transversals: perpendicular lines to the horizon

One point perspective: The perspective with one vanishing point

Two point perspective: The perspective with two vanishing points

Objects further away appear smaller and less detailed than close objects.

Colors further away appear more dull than closer objects.

The further an object is, the more its color appears to be mixed with the color of the surrounding atmosphere. Da Vinci thought this was a result of water vapor and dust reflecting light away from objects in the distance, such as mountains.

Elliptical perspective: The circle is visualized on a grid of four squares. Then, the grid is distorted according to the perspective, and the circle is drawn on the distorted grid.

Printmaking History, Processes, and Artists

Printmaking started out as just a practical way of duplicating writing such as religious texts and books. Artists then began to make prints of biblical events and putting them in the religious texts that were being printed. Eventually, artists developed printmaking into its own independent media. Printmaking is still a common form of art today, and is used very often in the fashion industry to create designs.



Types of Printmaking

Lithography: Drawing a design on limestone with a greasy material and then burning the image in with acid, then water is applied to the surface of the limestone, then ink. Ink sticks only to the greasy parts and water only to the non-greasy parts.
Woodcut: Cutting lines and shapes out of a wood surface so that they will not pick up ink when printing, as a result the positive values will be created by the uncut wood.
Engraving: The process of cutting a design into a metal plate, in this method the ink in the etched lines is actually what shows up on paper.
Screen Printing: Creating a stencil, then placing the stencil over a fabric and pushing ink through a screen to transfer the image of the stencil onto the fabric.

Katsushika Hokusai

http://cuadernoderetazos.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/olas-katsushika-hokusai/

Andy Warhol

http://jssgallery.org/other_artists/andy_warhol/campbells_soup_can.htm

Utagawa Hiroshige

http://www.printsofjapan.com/hiroshige_ii.htm

Expressionism

Expressionism was an art movement in Germany in the early 1900s. The major medium used by expressionist artists was printmaking. The elements of expressionist art were meant to shed the restrictions of being realistic that previous European art had held on to. Paintings were supposed to reflect emotions and thought and be symbols, not recreated images of reality. Often subject matter was dark and meant to reflect on hardships of the time. Well known artists of this movement are Ernst Ludwig Kircher, Franz Marc, and Kathe Kollwitz.

Lino Cuts- Kathe Kollwitz

Vernal Pool - Holly Berry

The first print is a traditional German Expressionist piece and the second print is a contemporary work made by a local artist. Obviously both the styles and subject matters are very different, but they both follow elements of Expressionism. Kollwitz's is definitely of a darker subject matter and arouses sad feelings whereas Berry's is a colorful representation of nature. Kathe Kolwitz's print seems to just be composed of harsh contrasts between light and dark, which is part of what gives it such a solemn mood. Berry's has much more organic shapes and friendly curves.

"Collection Online | Browse By Movement | Expressionism - Guggenheim Museum."Collection Online | Browse By Movement | Expressionism - Guggenheim Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

"EXHIBITIONS." MoMA. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

"German Expressionist Woodcut Prints." Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

"Linoleum Block Prints." Holly Berry Design. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Post Impressionism

Lake Annecy 1896,  - Paul Cézanne

Purpose: To gain a basic understanding about the Post-Impressionism Art Movement and to identify Artists who work(ed) in this style.

In this assignment, I learned to use colored pencils as a way to blend color. I had never used complimentary colors before as a way to darken values in colored pencil drawings. I found that colored pencils are better for drawing tiny details and texture more than oil pastels, but I prefer to use oil pastels. I do think I would enjoy using color pencils for drawing smaller subjects, like a portrait or still life, instead of using them for a landscape.

Post-Impressionism was a small, independent movement in the later part of the 1800s that broke off from the current style of Impressionism. Their new style differed and varied from artist to artist. All of the artists focused more on emotional, spiritual, symbolic, and structural aspects than traditional Impressionism. Some artists that pioneered the movement, like Van Gogh and Cézanne are almost household names now. Much of the modern movements that happened after Post-Impressionism were influenced to how much the artists of that time were pushing the envelope creatively and artistically.

Half Portrait Drawing - Sketchbook

Purpose:

To look closely at half of a portrait and complete the portrait by drawing similar features;

To practice drawing facial features: eyes, nose, and mouth

I learned technique for drawing hair in this assignment. Instead of just shading in values for areas like you would for a smooth service, you are supposed to draw lines that suggest the direction of the hair. The darkness and density of those lines determine the value and make the hair look more realistic. It was also good practice for drawing the shapes of eyes, nose and mouth because it was a different subject being drawn than myself.

Realism, Inspired Drawing - sketchbook

Purpose: To gain a basic understanding about the Realism Art Movement and to identify Artists who work(ed) in this style.

In this assignment, I learned how to blend colors for various uses. I mixed complimentary colors to make the color more dull and added white or black to lighten or darken a color. I also learned how to draw edges with pastels. Instead of just drawing two crisp edges next to each other, I blended them together a little bit on the edge.