Texture Printmaking with Wayne Thiebaud

Discussion: 

What is texture? 

How does your hair feel?

How does the bottom of your show feel?

Do they feel the same?

What about tree bark vs. A puppy? 

Art and texture: 

The job of an artist is to create visual texture

A dog might look fluffy and a marble would be shiny and smooth

Printmaking: do you print things at home? 

How do you print them?

How do we print in art: smash pictures or folding pictures in half

There are many techniques in art for printmaking

Mono-print: creating one print from an original piece of art

Look at Wayne Thiebaud’s Gum ball machine painting and discuss how he might have drawn it. 

ARTIST: Wayne Thiebaud 

(born November 15, 1920) 

He is an American painter 

His most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toys and lipsticks. 

He is associated with the Pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture,

although his works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists. 

Thiebaud uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colors to depict his subjects

well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included in his work.

Project: Create mono-print gum ball machine from sand paper

Step1: on your 4x6 piece of sand paper: with a black oil pastel, draw a large circle on the top half

Step2: Draw a square underneath your circle

Step3: add a half circle on top of your first circle

Step4: add a small circle inside your square

Step5: color in your square and small half circle with the same color

Step6: color in your small circle black to show where the gum balls come out

Step7: fill your machine with different colored gum balls

Step8: once complete, adult uses an iron to melt picture onto your tag board paper

Note: These come out like a print, they might not be exact. 

MATERIALS: 

Oil pastels

Sand paper (light)

Iron

Heavy card stock or tag board paper

I loved the addition of the 25 cents but you might warn young students that it will print backwards. 

Monoprint Reflection landscapes with Gregory Kondos

DISCUSSION:

Landscapes from a new perspective

Artist and the artwork: Sacramento River, 1981 Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

Washes

graded washes

centered horizon lines

reflective water

monochromatic

value

Mono prints

Artist: Gregory Kondos

1923-

Painter Gregory Kondos executes thickly painted landscapes known for their buttery spread of bright, warm color. Even the cool tones of the color blue in a Kondos painting are heated, evoking sun-warmed expanses of summer sky and waters. Perhaps this is because of the intense light that drenches the Sacramento and Napa Valleys that he likes to depict. Heat also plays a role, causing the regional landscape to shimmer in a veil of heavy air that mutes the intensity of color and broadly flattens detail. This, of course, is common in Sacramento, home to the artist, where he has painted and taught for half a century. 

In his use of high-keyed color and broad paint handling Kondos shows an affinity to artists such as Wayne Thiebaud, with whom he shares an abiding friendship, Roland Petersen, and Bay Area artist Raimonds Staprans. Unique to Kondos, however, is his verity to subject. Arguably, Petersen and Staprans overtly generalize the landscape, while Thiebaud’s landscape forays are about pattern and its role in establishing illusion. Kondos’s compositions are balanced in order to express not only the tranquility of the scene, but also the pleasure of solitary communion with nature. The artist offers, “If you look at my work, you will find qualities of quietness and cleanliness, but, above all, you’ll find that I’m a loner.” 

PROJECT: 

create a reflective landscape using the mono print method

Step1: Fold your paper in half horizontally

Step2: Using liquid watercolor Paint a tree trunk

Step3: fold your paper to print the tree trunk

Step4: continue painting and printing tree trunks until you have 3-7 trees

Step5: add a tree top on one of your trunks, fold and print your tree tops

Step6: continue until all of your trees have tops

Step7: add land under your trees, grass or hills, etc. and fold your paper to print them 

Step8: add your sky behind the trees, remember to print them before they dry you might print several times during teh painting process

Last: using wet brush with clear water pull the reflection slightly to give it a more real reflective quality

MATERIALS: 

watercolor paper

watercolors