Sketchbook Activities - Quarter 1

Master Monday: Underline words in the text you are unfamiliar with. Then answer a couple of Questions.

Sketchbook Activity 1

Artists - Pablo Picasso and Keith Haring

Line drawing has been everywhere for the past couple of years. When you open Instagram, for example, you are almost guaranteed to see minimalist line art tattoos, illustrations, and home decor. While the aesthetic of line art may seem inherently contemporary, it has a rich history that goes back many centuries. The line has been one of the most important guiding principles in all types of art since ancient Greece and Rome. From marble sculpture to the paintings of Matisse and Picasso, to abstract line art and continuous line drawing, lines guide everything. They help the human eye make sense out of all images. In recent history, line work was popularized by Pablo Picasso. Picasso's "Portrait of Igor Stravinsky" was completed in the 1920s and is one of the earliest examples of line art as we know it today. A little later in the twentieth century, Keith Haring made a splash with his distinctive urban graffiti style, characterized by recognizable cartoon-like figures, bright colors, and thick black lines executed in marker ink or acrylic paint.

What artist's work do you prefer?

Why do you like their work?

How might you use them as inspo?

Technical Tuesday: Use Line for a full five minutes without taking your pencil off the paper 

Wordy Wednesday: Create a Frayer Model & use one of your Monday underlined words.

Throwback Thursday: Reflect on this week! What were your accomplishments/Failures? 

Sketchbook Activity 2

Master Monday: Underline words in the text you are unfamiliar with. Then answer a couple of questions.

http://www.leahguadagnoli.com/

LeahGuadagnoli 

Incorporating elements of sculpture, painting, graphic design, and architecture, Leah Guadagnoli's whimsical, idiosyncratic works defy easy classification. The artist's work expands on the Pop tradition by utilizing readymade imagery and everyday materials. Often drawing on the aesthetics of her Midwestern upbringing, the artist appropriates designs and patterns from the 80s and 90s — often considered kitschy — presenting them in fresh and dynamic ways. Guadagnoli's creations are inherently accessible; they reference the "outdated yet irresistible aesthetic" of public spaces such as waiting rooms, movie theaters, bus seats, and casinos (1). A clear aesthetic descendant of Ruth Root and the Memphis Group, Guadagnoli reinterprets this imagery through a lens that is both nostalgic and forward-looking. Her work strikes a balance between hard-edged geometrical precision and free-form patterns. The result has a certain levity, as disparate materials "come together to form upbeat, balanced wholes, perhaps providing us with a small dose of necessary idealism." (2)

What does her work remind you of?

What elements do you notice first when looking at her work? 

What mood does she try to evoke from her viewers?

Technical Tuesday: Use Shape to show movement. 

Wordy Wednesday: Create a aFrayerr Model & use one of your Monday underlined words.

Throwback Thursday: Reflect on this week! What were your accomplishments/Failures?

Sketchbook Activity 3

Master Monday: Underline words in the text you are unfamiliar with. Then answer a couple of questions.

In satirical paintings that blur the boundary between analog and digital production, Avery Singer combines early internet aesthetics with elements of Constructivism, Futurism, and Cubism. The artist first constructs blocky, greyscale figures, scenes, and abstract geometries with 3D-modeling software, then airbrushes her compositions onto canvas with computer-controlled printers. Singer, whose work regularly sells for six figures on the secondary market, has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Lyon Biennale, and the New Museum Triennial. Her work belongs in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London, and the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, among other institutions. With her singular, materially inventive approach to painting, Singer redefines what it means to be a painter in the 21st century.

Who is the artist?

How does her use of value enhance her work? 

What feeling do you get by looking at her work?

Technical Tuesday: use value and shape to show 3 changes of light. 

Wordy Wednesday: Create a Frayer Model & use one of your Monday underlined words.

Throwback Thursday: Reflect on this week! What were your accomplishments/Failures?

Sketchbook Activity 4

Master Monday: Underline words in the text you are unfamiliar with. Then answer a couple of questions.

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is one of the world’s most famous graphic artists. His art is admired by millions of people worldwide, as can be seen by the many websites on the internet. Escher liked to play with positive and negative shapes. The bird in the top left image appears as positive space (a main subject, yet its shape is echoed in the dark negative shapes between the fish.  Likewise, the positive shape of the fish at the bottom has its shape repeated in the white spaces between the birds. The following image, Day and Night, depicts a day landscape merging into a night scene. White and black birds blend, appear, and disappear.  Which bird our eye notices depends on which landscape we focus on.  If we concentrate on the day landscape, the black birds appear -- they become the positive shapes and the daylit land becomes the negative space.  If we stare at the dark landscape, the white birds stand out, making them into the positive shapes in our view, with the darkened land being the negative space. Many of Escher's artworks play with optical illusions. 

Who is the artist?

How does he use space? 

What feeling do you get by looking at her work?

Technical Tuesday: Use Layering to create space.  

Wordy Wednesday: Create a Frayer Model & use one of your Monday underlined words.

Throwback Thursday: Reflect on this week! What were your accomplishments/Failures?