visual art 90
Illustration Art
Did you ever watch Adventure Time as a kid? Maybe you still do. Either way, what a great show. For this first project in grade 9 we're going to create an illustration-style drawing, kinda like the Pendleton Ward drawings for Adventure Time. But we don't want to copy just one cartoon show. Illustration is everywhere: comics, children's books, advertisements, etc. So for this first project, I want you to impress me with your creativity and ideas. Check out some of the examples below to get an idea of the style we're going to work in.
We are going to start this project with just pencil. Grab an 11"x17 piece of paper (if you have some - otherwise you could use two pieces of standard size printer paper). You are going to place 3-5 shapes on the page of varying sizes (circles, squares, rectangles, triangles) and add 5-10 lines possibly connecting the shapes or maybe running parallel to one side of the shape, your call. Basically you are going to add "random" shapes and lines onto the paper in a way you think looks good. Don't worry at this point about making anything in particular, just add the shapes and lines until the page feels like it has a nice collection of items on it. Don't make them too big or too small - don't make a circle that fills the whole page, but also don't make it so that all your shapes and lines fit into one corner of the paper.
Done that part? Now take a minute to just look at your drawing. Does anything start to appear in your mind? Do the shapes remind you of anything? Do you start to see mountains and a sun, or a strange robot? A monster's face? There's no wrong answer, just take your time and see if anything comes to mind.
Once you start to see something, start adding more lines, or more shapes, or erase some of the parts that don't fit your idea. You want the image to just sort of grow organically out of your own mind. Remember it's going to be a cartoon so don't get caught up making things look "real". Just work in pencil, and remember also this is meant to be a line drawing so no need to shade or anything. Just make a fun illustration. Once you've got something going that you like, take a minute and look at some of these illustrations carefully.
Anni Betts, Medieval Village
Above is an illustration by Anni Betts. Look at how she adds detail with her use of line, but also with her use of colour. We are going to use pencil crayon to colour your picture in, so think carefully about which colours you will use and how you will use them.
One of the things we want to add to our picture is details. Details make your picture feel more full and interesting. Look at all the details Betts adds to her drawing above. Now take a look at your drawing so far. Are there any details you can add that will make it feel more full? You should also think about where your shapes sit on your page - look at this page about the rule of thirds.
The image above is another great example of using details. The artist here is Nicola Robinson, and look at how much she has added to the image to make it have character. All the windows, the hair on the troll's chest, the little trees in the bottom corners - all of these items make this image feel complete. Take another look at your picture. Are there even more areas you could add details to?
Now that you have a full drawing, rich with details, and all the changes you need to make erased away, your paper is probably looking pretty worn out. Take the time now before we start colouring it to clean it up. Take a couple pieces of Scotch tape and find a sunny window in your house. Tape your paper onto the window, then tape a second piece of paper over top. Carefully and lightly trace out all the parts of your drawing you want to keep. This way when you get to work colouring it you won't have a bunch of graphite muddying up your colours, or half erased lines peeking through your colours.
Did I mention colouring? Yes - we are going to colour these pictures completely in, from top to bottom, with pencil crayon (an underrated medium). Plan to colour in really hard with the crayons. Experiment with blending your colours too. And choose carefully! Choose just a few colours that work together right from the start. Think also about balancing your warm (red, yellow, orange) and cool (blue, purple, green) colours. Look at the example below and think about how the colours work together and compliment one another.
Once you are done colouring, the last thing we are going to add is a thin black outline to crisp up your lines. Use a Fineliner Sharpie or Pilot marker, and be careful because while the black marker will go on top of the colour, it will also smudge!
Congratulations! You're done your first high school art project. If you're stuck at home take a picture and email it to me at redstone.bert@prairiesouth.ca
The images below are all student examples. They are all on 11"x17" paper, and they used pencil crayon and a Pilot Fineliner marker to outline.
The Morrisseau Project - Woodland Cree Painting & You
Norval Morrisseau, Artist With Thunderbird Vision (The Visionary), 1977
Look at that incredible Norval Morrisseau painting above. In this project we are going to look at and hopefully start to understand some of the ideas Morrisseau and other Woodland Cree artists were thinking about in their pieces. But, before we get too far into explaining this project, it's important for you to get comfortable using our medium. Have you ever used oil pastel before? We're going to use our oil pastel like that painting above - thick and rich, vibrant colours, with heavy black outlines incorporated last onto your other colours. Just like in our first project, the way we use the black lines is going to be very important, and also like our previous project, we are only going to include the black line once everything else is done. But maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves...
Exercise #1
To start, grab yourself a small piece of paper (8.5"x11" - standard printer paper). Now fold that piece of paper in half so you have a 5.5"x8.5" rectangle to work in. This is your exercise, so we work small in order for you to be able to make a couple if needed to fully understand what we're going for. You are going to then choose 3-4 colours that you think look really good together. Feel free to be inspired by the colours the Woodland Cree artists used - after all, we are trying to learn from the artists that came before us.
Remember the lessons we learned in our first project - when choosing your 3-4 initial colours, be sure to include a balance of warm and cool colours. The oil pastels come in a huge variety of shades and tones so you will have many options to choose from to get just the right balance. Once you've got your main colours, now try and find a brown or grey that can be included with your piece to help tie all your colours together. Morrisseau almost always includes greys or browns in his paintings - this helps everything you add to your page come together.
Next start placing the colours on your small page. Use only organic shapes and designs - no harsh sharp angles, no right angled squares or triangles. Organic, free flowing shapes only. Lay your colours onto the paper in a way that you think best balances your warms and cools. Make sure you use your lightest colours first! Oil pastels have a bad habit of picking up all the little bits that come off as you're working and leaving weird streaks. You might want to try blending at least two different colours together to create your own unique colour as well. Finally, once ALL the colouring is done, outline the parts you want to with the black. Again, the black should flow across and over the piece, thickening in some parts, thin in others. Like a river of black flowing across the piece. Here is an example of what these little exercises will look like. Notice you aren't trying to draw a complete tiny picture - instead, imagine that you have zoomed in on one small part of what would be a larger image.
Exercise #2
Our second exercise is a little trickier to explain... We are going to do a type of drawing called blind cross contour continuous line drawings. Blind, as in we aren't going to look at what we are drawing (crazy! I know). And cross contour in that we are going to think about drawing all the different contours of the piece, especially taking time to think about the interior lines that make up an animal, insect, creature, tree, flower, etc. And continuous, because you aren't going to pick your pencil up once you start drawing until the end. This is a lot easier if you're in class for me to walk you though things, but if you are stuck at home, basically you are going to try and draw your favorite animals/plants/insects without looking at your hand at all. We are once again only choosing organic things - no cars, no buildings. Natural things only.
Using the animals below, try and imagine them as line drawings, and while only looking at the picture try and include as many of the "lines" that make up these creature as possible, within about one minute! Use a kitchen timer at home so you are forced to work really quickly. And have fun with it! Some of these drawings are going to look crazy or make no sense - that's ok! We are just trying to practice connecting the hand that draws with your eye that sees. Too often we obsess over a drawing and never look at our reference, spend hours on it, and it still turns out in such a way that you are unhappy. This method lets you try and draw lots of things very quickly, so it doesn't get as frustrating - and you never know, you might make something really cool that you wouldn't have even tried.
So, while looking ONLY at the images below, try and draw them in about a minute without lifting your pencil.
Once you have tried the examples above, choose your own favorite animals/insects/flowers/etc. to try and draw in this way. Use real photographs as references, no cartoons or line drawings. Remember, some aren't going to work out, and that's fine. Just aim for 10-12 decent ones that you think capture the style we're going for.
Project
Finally, the project itself. But what to draw? I bet you're thinking you're blind contour drawings "aren't good enough". Or you're not sure where to begin. Well, first of all, what do you know about animism? Broadly speaking, animism is the belief that all naturally occurring things have spirits - trees, plants, bugs, rivers, mountains, the sky, the earth itself. Animism is found in various forms across the globe, including in Saskatchewan and Canada, especially among (but not limited to) our Indigenous communities. You don't need to believe in animism to think about it as an interesting concept - what would the spirits of everything around us look like if we could see them?
Look at the images above and think about what these artists were going for. Norval Morrisseau, Daphne Odjig, and Saul Williams (who in the example above is intentionally making an homage to Morrisseau) are all making images that depict a world that exists among us but is usually unseen. A world of spirits and legends. This might be a good way for you to think about making this project. Choose your favorite animals, creatures, or plants and think - what would the spirit look like? Choose some of your favorite colours to represent how you feel about your choices. Notice in the image above, even the relatively simple paintings of the fish and beaver the colours and designs used are meant to represent the energy of the animals, not what they actually look like. So have fun! Play around with colours and shapes to create a really cool picture that you would want.
Things to notice:
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We are not stealing or re-creating the pictures these artists made - we are going to work in similar themes, but in the end the picture should be completely your own creation.
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Keeping the first point in mind, we are going to borrow some of the aspects of the images above that make them work - for example, the use of thick, flowing black lines. Black should be a major component of your piece, so think about how you will use the black carefully.
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Don't forget all the lessons we've learned so far about composition and colour! Balance and carefully pace your warm and cool colours so everything avoids becoming jumbled together.
All of the projects will be done on 18"x24" paper, so pretty big. But feel free to draw your ideas out on 8.5"x11" paper and I can help you blow it up to the full size paper after you've worked through your composition ideas. One warning - oil pastels are pretty fat, so don't plan to have a bunch of tiny little details. And remember to only add the black outlining last!!
Below are some student examples from past years - all of the following images were done on18"x24" paper with oil pastels.
Watercolour
Watercolour is a little tougher project, no way around it. Especially if you've never used watercolour before. So we are going to do a couple exercises to get you used to the medium. First off let's figure out where all the colours are - you'll soon notice in the videos that they refer to the colours by their complete names, to make sure you're getting the exact right mixed colours. One note - the yellow we use is not all the exact same in every kit. Some of you will have lemon yellow, some have cadmium yellow, and others of you will have medium yellow. Use them all as described in the videos, but if your colour and your neighbors colour isn't exactly the same shade, that's why.
Here's a picture to show you where all the colours you'll need are placed in the tray.
The first exercise we're going to try is below - a simple tree, done on plain 8.5x11" printer paper. The big thing to learn with this exercise is just how much you need to scrub up these dried watercolour cakes - lots of even pressure with water to bring the colour up. DO NOT crush or break up the watercolour cakes! Just patiently use the bristles of your brush to bring up the colour. Give it a try.
Our second exercise is much more advanced. There are two videos below - try the simple pond first. It's tricky, so be patient and carefully follow along. Then there is a video showing you how to paint some blue misty mountains. Either is a good test, and feel free to try both if you're stuck at home with time on your hands.
Once you've tried the pond, you can try the misty mountains below. This exercise is not required, but if you'd like some more practice give it a try too.
Once you've done the exercises and are feeling confident, you are going to do some internerd searching and try to find a watercolour painting you think you can try and do on your own (without a tutorial). Because watercolour is harder than you might think, you don't need to try and create your very own piece. Instead we're doing a "masters study", like famous artists who used to go to the Louvre and practice sketching famous paintings to improve their skill. Have fun! If you need advice just let me know.
Below are some examples of watercolour paintings that would be a good level of difficulty - don't choose images that are too simple or there won't be enough for you to do. On the other hand, if the techniques are too difficult or the image is rendered too realistically, that won't work well for you either.
Drawing Eyes
One of the main components of Visual Art 90 is learning how to draw faces - specifically your face. And the most important part of the face in a drawing is the eyes. So, it makes sense that we would spend a couple hours of class time working on the specifics of eye drawing.
We usually start with just a general eye. Not any particular eye, not yours or anyone your know, just an eye. The first step is to start with the eye outline. Look at the shape below - not an almond, wider than it is tall, and with specific parts including such as the tear duct (left corner) and the eyelid fold (line above the eye).
The next step is to add in the iris and pupil. It is incredibly important to make sure the iris is a perfect circle, and the pupil sits right in the middle of the iris. You can see the whole shape of the iris coloured in below - of course some of the iris is hidden behind the top eyelid. Rest the bottom of the iris on the inside line of the bottom eyelid (for now - when you draw your own eye you need to pay attention to where your own iris sits in relation to your eyelids).
Now we can start filling in the eye using both the point and sometimes the side of the pencil. You can create large soft areas with graphite by laying the pencil almost flat against the paper and using the side of the graphite instead of the point. This is how you create the nice soft greys - the shading - on and around the eye.
Your pupil should be coloured in very dark - as dark as you can get it with your pencil. Notice also the reflection on the eye - this is an incredibly important part of the eye and it must be kept as white as possible while working (don't accidentally rub your hand across it or you will lose that bright white reflection).
You can also lay in the eyebrow at this time. The eyebrow (and later the eyelashes) must be done quickly and confidently in the direction the hair grows. For the eyebrow that means moving your pencil quickly towards the outside of the face, almost flicking in each hair.
Last steps! Now it is important to use both the side of the pencil and your fingers to smudge and blend the graphite to create soft shadows and grey tones. Do as much shading around the eye as necessary. Look carefully at how that eyelid fold line we started with has become a shadowed area. Also note how dark the shadows are on the inside of the eye - make those shadows dark! This will push the eye back into your head, as it should be.
Your eyelashes are done much like the eyebrows, quickly and confidently. Don't make your eyelashes straight up and down! Note where the eyelashes on the bottom of the eye come from - the outside edge of the bottom eyelid. They don't grow out of your eyeball...
Go over your eye one last time with the point of your pencil and darken in the darkest areas shown below. Crisp things up and call it done!
Now you have one eye - to complete the project, you must draw the other eye!
Remember that eyes are spaced usually one eye apart from one another. So just measure how wide the eye you've drawn is, place that measurement from the edge of the tear duct towards the left side of your paper, and then start your left eye's tear duct right there. Good luck!
Now that you can draw an eye you can make some pretty cool pictures. Try using coloured pencils or markers to make a page full of eyes. Choose some colours that go really well together and make a series of eyes - a page full of yellow and blue eyes, a page full of red and dark purple eyes. Or draw two really good eyes in bright colours and then colour the rest of the page in very dark. Have fun with a new skill.
Oh and check out this cool eye-making video.
Drawing hair - everybody's least favorite part! This video will give you some good suggestions. The key is to only use the side of your pencil to create ALL the darkest areas/shadows of your hair, then use your blending stick to create all the mid-tones. After that you use your eraser to draw in all the highlights - yes, your eraser also draws for you. It draws the white! Last step is your texture - using the point of your pencil, draw in a few sharp textures. See the video below.