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PORTFOLIOS/ ART JOURNALS
By now, students should have completed their art portfolios and art journal/sketchbooks. If not, they should take them
home for completion, or arrange to stay after school.
PORTRAITS
Sixth graders are finishing up their self portraits. They are fantastic! They studied contour drawing, looked at the
self portraits of famous artists, and observed their own unique features to create their portraits. We'll display them soon.
VALUE STUDIES
Artists in seventh and eighth grades have completed their value studies, in which they used light and shadow techniques
on two dimensional basic shapes to create the illusion of three dimensional forms. They have done a great job, and many
works are in the hallway gallery.
OBSERVATION DRAWING/ SIGNS OF CHARACTER
Seventh graders aare continuing drawing from observation, in their "Signs of Character," lesson.
They are observing and drawing their hands in the positions of American Sign Language, then forming words reflecting
positive character traits, such as caring, kindness, respect, etc. They are off to a great start on their drawings.
CUBISM
Eighth graders have viewed work by the CUBIST artists and learned something of the theory and history of cubism. They
are now drawing objects from observation, which will be simplified into more basic forms and shapes. The cubists often showed
multiple views of the same object and combined this with hard edged geometric shapes.
Students will select from cut paper, colored pencil, or oil pastel to complete their work.
Homework: Due week of Sept 26. Close up magnification of your eye. Please look in a mirror and draw a huge blow up of
one of your eyes. Note all the details: color radiating around the pupil, darker ring of color around the iris, the eyelid
covering the top of the iris, shadows, lashes, brow, etc. This should be placed in your art journal for grading.
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Due week of October 10
Contour drawing is a slow, searching process, in which we mentally trace the edges of an object, and record our "journey"
on paper. It works best with a pen. The purpose of contour drawing is to learn to coordinate our eyes and hands. It is
not about the results on paper. In fact, the drawing itself is usually very strange, because we are not going to look at
the paper, nor will we lift our pens.
The most difficult part is in not worrying about what the drawings will look like.
It is important in drawing NOT to mentally name the objects or parts we are drawing, but simply to follow the lines and
angles as they are.
REMEMBER: DRAW WHAT THE EYE SEES, NOT WHAT THE MIND KNOWS.
1. Look at a chair in your home. With your hand, slowly trace all the edges--actually trace them physically.
2. Now sit on the floor in front of the chair, and mentally trace the edges.
3. Convince your brain that your pen is on the chair itself, instead of on your paper. Never move your pen unless you
really believe it is on the object you are drawing. If you lose this mental image, leave your pen in place on the paper until
you "reconnect" to the object you are drawing.
4. VERY, VERY slowly, allow your pen to move on the paper, as you mentally trace the contours of the chair. Contour
drawing is an extremely slow, searching study of an object. Don't lift your pen to get to the other side of the object you
are drawing, but simply trace a contour to that place.
5. You should have only one beginning and one end to your continuous line. Try to get every fold, crease, bump, angle,
curve, and edge of the chair. TAKE YOUR TIME. Slow lines have a very distinctive quality.
Spend at least 20 minutes drawing. When your work is complete, sign it in the lower right hand corner, date it, bring
it to class and place it in your art journal by October 10.
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