Geometric and Organic Cityscapes with Paul Klee

DISCUSSION: Geometric shape vs. Organic Shape we just went over geometric shapes

what are organic shapes?

where do we find them?

in math class?

in nature?

where do you hear that word ORGANIC?

farmer’s market

grocery store

City Scape: What is it? 

Look at Paul Klee’s Castle and the Sun

What are his Buildings made up of?

What Colors do you see?

Are there any Organic shapes?

Foreground: Front of the picture; bottom of your paper

Middle ground: middle of your picture; horizon line in a Landscape; middle of your paper

Background: The back of your picture; above the horizon line; the TOP of your paper

Overlapping: one object being on top of another

The Buildings in the foreground will have no overlapping

The buildings in the middle ground will be hidden slightly behind

the foreground buildings

The buildings in the background will be hidden behind the foreground and 

middle ground buildings

ARTIST: Paul Klee

(1879 – 1940) 

Swiss painter of German nationality.

His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. 

Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually mastered color theory, and wrote extensively about it. 

His works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes child-like perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality. 

He and his friend, the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the German Bauhaus school of art and architecture.

for additional information, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee

PROJECT: Construct a City Scape using Organic and Geometric shapes

Step1: Pencil: Draw your cityscape starting at the bottom of your page (foreground)

Draw geometric and organic shaped buildings (3-5)

Step2: Draw the next set of buildings in the middle ground. Remember to have the buildings in the foreground overlap these buildings. Draw at least one organic shaped building

Step3: Draw our last set of buildings in the background. have them be overlapped by both of 

the first sets of buildings

Step4: fill in your buildings with windows (geometric or organic), lines, tops anything to make

your buildings unique like Paul Klee’s

Step5: Fill in with chalk pastels in primary and secondary colors like Paul Klee. 

Step6: the background could remain white or you could make it brown like Paul Klee’s work.

MATERIALS: White paper

Oil pastels

Pencils


Additional photo's of student work:

Op Lines with Victor Vasarely

Discussion: Line

what is a line?

how important do you think it is for art?

let’s name a few lines: Diagonal, Curved, spiral, think, thick, wavy,etc...

             want to see drawn lines on paper begin to move?

show Victor Vasarely’s work, then begin to rotate it. 

Op Art: Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in only black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping.

Op is short for optical illusion. Thinking we see something that we don’t. 

Victor Vasarely, (vah-zah-RAY-lee)

1906-1997

born Hungarian:

was a Hungarian born French artist: sculpture, painter printmaker 

He led the development of the op art movement

Op-Art: an artistic style that uses geometric abstraction

Began painting in 1943

Style is characterized by BRIGHT VIBRANT COLORS geometric forms and suggestive movement

Style influenced by KANDINSKY and KLEE

Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art. 

Vasarely died in Paris in 1997

for additional information, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Vasarely

PROJECT: 

Create an Op Art Pice using Black lines

Step1:Draw three or more rounded shapes anywhere on your paper

Step2: Add concentric lines around each original shape

keep them close together but not touching

Step3: Add another concentric line around each original shape and continue until 

you fill the space. 

Step4: remember to have the lines be as close together without touching

Step5: hold up your piece and see if it moves to you. Rotate it to add movement

MATERIALS: 

White paper

Black Pens or sharpies

This wonderful lesson plan was found in Arts and Activities for more information visit their site: www.artsandactivities.com.  This lesson is perfect for a first day activity. Additional photo's of student work:

ASAP: Chuck Close Pattern Hand

DISCUSSION: All Student Art Project (ASAP)

what is it?

How does it work

All Student means that every student that takes art class has participated in some way in the final product. Often times in art class the final project is used to generate funding for art supplies, etc.

Other Discussion topics: Pattern, printmaking, warm and cool colors

ARTIST: Chuck Close

Born July 5, 1940, American Artist

He is a painter, photographer, and printmaker. 

Close is a builder who, in his words, builds "painting experiences for the viewer." 

Close is also a master printmaker, who has, over the course of more than 30 years, pushed the boundaries of traditional printmaking in remarkable ways.

Almost all of Close’s work is based on the use of a grid as an underlying basis for the representation of an image. 

This simple but surprisingly versatile structure provides the means for "a creative process that could be interrupted repeatedly without…damaging the final product, in which the segmented structure was never intended to be disguised." 

It is important to note that none of Close's images are created digitally or photo-mechanically. 

All his work is made the old-fashioned way—by hand.

While a painting can occupy Close for many months, it is not unusual for one print to take upward of two years to complete. 

Close has complete respect for, and trust in, the technical processes—and the collaboration with master printers—essential to the creation of his prints. 

The creative process is as important to Close as the finished product. "Process and collaboration" are two words that are essential to any conversation about Close’s prints.
For additional information visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Close

PREPARATION: 
Step 1: Pick a hand drawing of one of the students and blow it up on a canvas

Step 2: Draw a grid over the whole canvas numbering the same # of students

PROJECT: 

Step 1: Students should pick their grid piece.

Step 2:Have Chuck Close’s work on hand for students to look at when deciding how to fill in their grid. 

Step 3: First, Draw in the pattern with pencil

Step 4: when the student is ready to paint: Warm Colors should make up the inside of the hand and cool colors should make up the background. 

MATERIALS: 

Canvas

Acrylic paint

This project was completed with students from K-8th grade. I did encourage the little ones to pick grid pieces that were either warm or cool and not both. I saved those for the oldest students to complete.  We sold this piece during our annual art show. It was done as a silent auction. 

2011 example of a chuck close Cheetah done by the students at LDV for the Cheetah Wildlife foundation

this is the same piece in progress

Blind Contour Cubism Portraits with Picasso

Discussion:   

Contour line

Cubism

Blind contour

Still life

Portrait

Line

Geometric Shape

Organic shape

Complementary colors

Cool colors Warm Colors
Rules of Blind Contour: 

Do not look at your paper

Start at the top of the object

Follow the object with your eyes and move your hand as your eye moves

Do not pick up your pencil for the duration of the drawing time

If you finish go over the shape again until time runs out

Picasso: 

1881-1973

Spanish painter, sculpture, printmaker, ceramicist, and illustrator

Father of cubism

Father was an art teacher

Attended academy of fine arts in Barcelona

Left for Paris a year after and painted the poor on the street is blue tones

1904 began to paint happy circus performers in pink tones

Studied Gauguin’s work, began experimenting with distortion

1907 collaborated with Braque to produce Cubism

Cubists try to show all sides of an object at once using geometric forms

PROJECT: 

Draw blind contour cubist style portraits

Spend thirty+ minutes practicing blind contour several times with time limits

      use the rules of Blind Contour listed above

Step1: draw a blind contour drawing of a front facing portrait

Step2: ON THE SAME PAPER: draw a blind contour drawing of the profile right on top of the front facing portrait

Step3: Finish this piece next week by filling in with colors in the shapes created.

Materials: 

Pencils

Oil pastels

Rouault Stain Glass Portraits

DISCUSSION: 

Portrait: drawing of the face

Go over the face and where things fall on the face

Proportion

Complementary Colors? what are they? where do we find them?

what do they create in a work of art?

ARTIST: GEORGES ROUAULT (born May 27, 1871-Feb. 13, 1958, Paris) 

French painter.

His apprenticeship in a glazier's shop restoring medieval stained glass (1885 – 90) influenced his mature style as a painter. 

After an early academic period, his style evolved toward Fauvism before he established a highly personal form of Expressionism. 

An ardent Roman Catholic, he painted subjects apparently fallen from grace tragic clowns, and pitiless judges. 

After 1914 his subject matter became more specifically religious, with greater emphasis on redemption, 

He shifted from watercolor to oil. 

His layers of paint became thick and rich, his forms simplified, and his colors and black lines reminiscent of stained glass.

In the 1930s he produced a splendid series on Christ's Passion, while reworking many earlier paintings. 

His series of clowns in the 1940s are virtual self-portraits. 

He also produced many engravings as well as ceramics, tapestry designs, and stained glass.

PROJECT: 

Step1: gather supplies

Step 2: draw a portrait on your page do you best to place thing s accordingly

Step3: begin by mixing complementary colors and see what new color you make add in some flour

Step 4: lighten and darken those new colors by adding in white and black

Step 5: Use your new colors to color in your portrait

Step6: color in your background

Step7: fill in your line in black so your portrait gives of the appearance of stained glass

Step 8: clean you mess

MATERIALS:

Brown paper

Pencils

Paint

Water 

Brushes

Flour for paint

Pop Art Hands with Andy Warhol

TWO WEEK PROJECT:

First week practice drawing the hand in Blind Contour:

DISCUSSION: 

Contour line: what is it? 

Blind Contour drawings? What does blind contour mean?

Rules of Blind Contour: 

Do not look at your paper

Start at the top of the object

Follow the object with your eyes and move your hand as your eye moves

Do not pick up your pencil for the duration of the drawing time

If you finish go over the shape again until time runs out

PROJECT: 

Practice Using charcoal sticks draw your hand with blind contour 

Step 1: place your non drawing hand on the table in a fun position using a portion of it to hold your paper down

Step 2: start at the top portion of the hand and begin to move your eye around your hand

Step 3: using charcoal let your drawing hand move along the paper without looking at the results until the end

MATERIALS: Charcoal sticks

Paper 

Stop watch

WEEK TWO: 

DISCUSSION: Color DRAW A COLOR WHEEL ON THE BOARD

Analogous Colors: colors next to each other on the color wheel

Monochromatic: one color: page 60: What do you think of this art work?

Complementary: opposite on the color wheel: 

Neutral: All grey tones: page 72: what do you think of the art B ? 

Do you see texture?

Do you see the dewdrop?

What makes it look wet?

Andy Warhol: 1928-1987: POP ART

American born in PA

Love to paint popular culture of the moment

Painted Campbell’s soup cans

Painted the famous

Social commentary about excess

Worked in a studio called The Factory.

PROJECT: 

Step 1: pick four of your charcoal hand drawings

Step 2: finish one in charcoal creating your neutral ¼

Step 3: with pastels finish one in complementary colors

Step 4: finish the next in analogous colors

Step 5 finish the last in monochromatic color scheme

MATERIALS: 

Pastels

Charcoal

Hand drawings and hairspray