Painting 2: Written Assignment

Note: This is for Painting 2 class, NOT Watercolor 1...

PROJECT3: Visit a museum or gallery.

Focusing on a group of works, or exhibition, critically discuss your experience as a viewer (this does not have to be a painting) and critically analyze the work being shown. In other words, discuss how the work is presented, your experience of the work (good or bad, with reasons for both), and focus on one piece in the exhibition to write about further.

As you begin to think about this, try to approach your viewing as a "cold read"....

take note of anything- the room temperature, the smell, the way the work is hung, the paint color on the walls, etc. ALL of these elements point to and dictate your viewing of the work and should have been considered by any artist or curator worth his or her salt. If it doesn't work, let 'em have it!

THIS is what I'm talking about:

This is a great site in general to see what's happening in the art world, written in a very straightforward way. (artfagcity). The link below is to one of the articles in the reviews section- a great example of how to look at and approach art- and not to be afraid of stating supremely obvious things (like the smell of the gallery!). These reviews are offbeat, funny, scathing and truthful- check them out!:

http://www.artfagcity.com/2013/03/05/we-went-to-bushwick-with-gawkers-adrian-chen-part-2-of-2/

Also, for more local info, go to:

http://www.bigredandshiny.com/cgi-bin/BRS.cgi

scroll down, click on events and listings for local exhibitions.

Watercolor 1: Written Assignment

Pick an artist (can be a musician, poet, painter, photographer, whatever). In two pages, double spaced, cover these three points:

What is that artist saying? (what’s their work about)

How is he/she saying it? (technique)

Why does he/she matter to you (what's your personal connection?)

The videos we viewed in class, and way more, can be seen at http://www.pbs.org/art21/

This is an incredible resource for you guys to dive into regarding contemporary artists and their practices. You do not have to use an artist from this site, but viewing some of these artists' videos might help in reviewing the three points above.

 Due 11/18.

Rubric:
30% What is that artist saying? (what’s their work about)

30% How is he/she saying it? (technique)

30% Why does he/she matter to you

10% clear writing, grammar

Painting 2: color matching

We've gone over this in class, but thought I'd reiterate:

(click to enlarge)
match these colors as best you can- as long as you get within 80%, you're good...the only cors I used are ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red medium, and titanium white.

Rubric:
I will be grading these based on neatness (clean edges- you don't need to tape, but no stray brush marks), opacity (no transparent washes- solid blocks of color), and accuracy.
Due 10/23.
And remember, the triad project is due 10/16. I will be grading these on how well you stayed within the confines of the triad, and on the color range you were able to achieve using just these three colors.

Watercolor 1: The Color Triangle, and the Midterm

Posting the color triangle for those of you who weren't in class and still need to do it- just do exactly as I've done here:
(click to enlarge)

MIDTERM: Neutral grey grid
(click to enlarge)

The primaries are on the left, their respective complementaries are on the right. The very middle square on each row is the actual neutral grey- an equal mix of both colors, the other squares gain more of the end colors as they move from the center. For example, the neutral grey of red and green gets redder as it shifts to the red, greener as it shifts to the green.
To do this I simply filled in my two end colors as cleanly as possible (change your water often!), then got the middle grey as accurately as I could. To use the red and green example again, I then layed down a light layer of red on the three squares shifting towards red, and a light green on the squares shifting towards green. The I layered the colors until I got the gradation correct. In other words, take your time and be systematic with this- you may not get it exact at first, just keep moving along and you'll get it.
The squares are an inch wide separated by a quarter inch. This way I was able to put 9 squares on a 12 inch wide piece of watercolor paper. You can measure it any way you want, as long as you have 9 squares.

Rubric:
grading on neatness, purity of color (no dirty primaries!) and convincing gradation.
Due 10/21

Painting 2: Color Wheel Review

Above, the basic color wheel and its complementary colors.  Below, the colors to be used for the triad project:

This is a good basic triad to use...probably the easiest for this project. Simply mix these three colors and use them to paint your still life- and use white to tint the values lighter.

for this apple painting I used the triad below- same idea as the secondary triad, it just gives me a little more leeway with the blue... I combined the oranges and purples for my darks, and tinted with white for my lights.

Color Theory Video

it's a little cheesy, but very helpful...

Watercolor 1: Two Fruits

the setup: pumpkin and lemon.

establishing the local colors- brown, yellow, and orange.

shading with complementary colors: purple for yellow, blue for orange, and blue for the brown (which is close to orange in color)