Exploring ArtStudio ActivitiesAppreciating Local Architecture Appreciating Local Architecture The buildings around us can become so familiar we don’t even notice them. This activity will help you appreciate local architecture as an art form. PORTFOLIO Choose one of the 26 letters of the alphabet. Search through newspapers, magazines, and books. See how many different typefaces and sizes for this letter you can find. Cut examples of the letter from newspapers and magazine headlines. On a sheet of paper, make a collage based on the examples of your letter. To add interest to your collage, turn some of your letters upside down and some sideways. Try overlapping some of your letters. When you have an interesting arrangement, glue the letters to the background with white glue. If possible, photocopy your finished collage. Then add color using watercolors, crayons, or pastels. (For more information on making a collage, see Technique Tip 28, Handbook page 281.) PORTFOLIO Creating a Freestanding Sculpture Using pieces of scrap plastic foam from beverage containers, trays, and packing materials, work in teams to create a freestanding sculpture. You may use both the additive and subtractive techniques to create this work. Use slots and tabs to hold the smaller pieces of your construction together. Straight pins, strings, and other joining devices can help you hold the larger pieces together. The size of these constructions depends upon the limits of your art room and the supplies you can collect. You can carve large packing materials with scissors and utility knives. For small sculpture pieces, cut the cups and trays with scissors into a variety of shapes. PORTFOLIO You can use the element of color to make a viewer’s eye move around a visual image. First, find a scene filled with people and objects in a book or magazine. Make a black-and-white photocopy of the image. Use your imagination to create a wandering path through the scene that you want your viewers to follow. Trace the path lightly with a pencil. Using one brightly colored marker, color one shape on each person or object along the path. The size of the shapes may vary. Share your art work with other students. PORTFOLIO Imagine that the room you are sitting in is a painting. Look around the room. Be on the alert for the use of techniques that lead to a feeling of deep space. For example, which objects, if any, overlap? Which objects appear to be smaller than others? Now make a sketch of the room, replacing some real objects with ones from your imagination. Make sure that your new objects follow the same rules of space as the old ones. When you have finished, discuss your drawing with other members of the class. Can they identify all the space-creating techniques in your work? PORTFOLIO On a sheet of white paper draw five shapes with three different colored crayons. Make three geometric shapes and two free-form shapes. They can be anywhere on the paper and any size. Do not overlap the shapes. Fill two shapes with one color. Make designs in the three remaining shapes using all three colors in each shape. Fill all the shapes with color. On a separate sheet of paper write an exact description of your drawing. Be very specific. Tell the size of each shape and where it is located on the paper. Tell whether it is close to an edge of the paper or if it is close to another shape. Describe the colors and texture of each shape. Use your language to give the reader the best “picture” of the free-form shapes. Exchange descriptions with a classmate who hasn’t seen your picture. Using the descriptions, draw each other’s picture. PORTFOLIO On a sheet of white paper, make pencil drawings of three or four objects in your classroom. Choose a hue from the color wheel. Paint one of the objects that hue, paint a second a tint of that hue, and a third a shade of that hue. (See Value on page 58 for information about tints and shades.) PORTFOLIO Draw a continuous curving line lightly with pencil on a sheet of white paper, 6 × 9 inches (15 × 23 cm). Begin the line on one edge of the paper and draw it wandering around the entire space of the page. Consider the line as the path of a flying insect. Let the line finish its path at a different edge of the paper. Use the black marker to trace your line. Create variations of thick and thin lines along your linear path to add visual variety to your composition. PORTFOLIO Gather an assortment of school acrylics and thick tempera paints, tools for applying paint, and white paper. Besides different types of brushes, painting tools might include painting knives, twigs with the ends bunched together into a brushlike effect. Try one combination and then another, noting the effects of each. What kind of brush stroke do you get, for example, with a dry brush that has been dipped in thick paint? What happens when you use a wet brush dipped in the same paint? Does thinning the paint with water change its look on paper? PORTFOLIO Experimenting with Painting Media Gather as many different kinds of paint of one hue as you can. For example, look for red watercolor, red poster paint, and red acrylic. Draw several shapes on a sheet of white paper. Draw one shape for each paint. Paint each shape with a different kind of paint. Display your results alongside those of your classmates. Discuss differences and similarities among the different paints. Compare the texture, intensity, value, and reflective quality of each paint. PORTFOLIO Experimenting with Printmaking One of the hardest tasks facing a printmaker is thinking backwards. The printing plate, you will recall, must be a mirror image of the final print. Each student in the class is to select a different letter of the alphabet. Once you have chosen a letter, place a thin sheet of paper over a thick pad of newspaper. Pressing down hard, draw your letter on the thin sheet of paper. Turn the paper over, and you will see your letter in reverse. Using the image as a model, carve a stamp from a cube of modeling clay. Apply paint to your stamp with a brush. On a sheet of paper, make a pattern by pressing your stamp several times. Does each image in your pattern look the same, or do they differ? Does this make your pattern more or less interesting? Explain your answers. PORTFOLIO Gather an assortment of fabrics and papers with smooth and rough textures. Look through a magazine for color pictures of smooth and rough visual textures and cut them out. Arrange theses actual and visual textures on a small piece of cardboard. Cover all the background with textures. Your design should show contrasts of actual and visual, as well as smooth and rough textures. Glue down your design with white glue. PORTFOLIO Choose a favorite work of art by one of the artists listed below. Use other art books for reference if you need to. On drawing paper, 9 × 12 inches (23 × 30 cm), sketch as accurate a copy of the art you have chosen as possible. Then, using oil pastels, fill in the colors, following the original work of art for style and shading. See how close you can come to creating a piece that looks like the art work you used as a model.
PORTFOLIO Gather small items with different shapes that might be dipped into paint to make a gadget print. Some possibilities are paper clips, erasers, clothespins, spools, cork, and buttons. Be as imaginative as you can. Brush tempera paint on each gadget, and press the gadget firmly on a sheet of white paper. Exchange gadgets with your classmates. Once the paint has dried, select one of the gadgets, and place it underneath the paper near a printed image of the same gadget. Make a crayon rubbing of the gadget. (See Technique Tip 25, Handbook 280.) Discuss your work with your classmates. Do the rubbings look like the prints? Why or why not? PORTFOLIO Find and bring in interesting leaves. Select two that interest you and view them from various distances, then draw several versions of each one. You might view the leaves under magnifying glasses if possible. Also take close, unmagnified views, arm's length views, and views from a distance of several feet. When finished with your drawings, show your work to another student and describe how the changes in distance affected what you saw and how you drew. Display the finished drawings for study by the class. Does everyone’s work look the same? Why or why not? PORTFOLIO Find in a magazine a black-and-white photograph of an object seen from the front. Clip out the photo. Cut the object in half and glue half to a sheet of white paper. Use a pencil to complete the missing half of the object. Before you begin, take one of the following views:
Discuss your drawing with other students in the class. How many were able to identify the aesthetic approach you took? Were you able to identify the aesthetic approach they followed? PORTFOLIO Using an unexpected point of view can add interest to art. Using a pencil, make a drawing of an object you know well. One possibility might be one of the shoes you are wearing right now. Draw the object as well as you can. Now draw the same object from the point of view of a bug looking up at it. What details might the bug see? Compare your two drawings. Which one do you consider more interesting? PORTFOLIO |  |
