Blind Contour Still Life

INTRODUCTION to lesson (Anticipatory set): 

"I hate flowers -- I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move."- Georgia O'Keeffe. 

Students will: Think-Pair-Share

Independently read the Quote

Discuss the quote with group members

Independently write down their own response

Share written responses with group members

Participate in this class discussion 

OBJECTIVE: Draw and shade a large still life using Blind Contour Drawing as the tool.  Students will finish the blind contour drawing using shading techniques they have studied previously.

Draw their hands for pre-assessment

Discuss art history, Blind Contour, shading techniques

Practice drawing still life several times

Students will be able comprehend and use these terms in relation to drawing 

Hatching Blind Contour Stippling Tint

Crosshatching Contour line Scumbling Contour hatching

Shade Light Source Still Life Modified BCD

CA STANDARDS: 

1.2 Discuss a series of their original works of art, using the appropriate vocabulary of art.

2.1 Create original works of art of increasing complexity and skill in a variety of media that reflect their feelings and points of view

4.1 Describe the relationship involving the art maker (artist), the making (process), the artwork (product), and the viewer.

5.3 Prepare portfolios of their original works of art for a variety of purposes (e.g., review for post secondary application, exhibition, job application, and personal collection)

PURPOSE: Drawing in the Blind Contour drawing technique become more valuable when students understand the rules and see a finished product

INSTRUCTION: 

Students will be introduced to the artists Andy Warhol and Barry Flanagan and their line drawing studies. These works will allow students to comprehend using blind contour and a simplifying a still life from objects to shapes. 

MATERIALS: Sketch Books Drawing Pencils

Copy Paper 12x18 white paper or card stock

DIRECT INSTRUCTION:

Day 1: Power Point Presentation

Opening: In sketch Books, Art Quote O’Keeffe activity

Review Girl upside down and directions

Draw hand in two minute timed blind contour drawing 

Model or show video of Blind Contour 

Art History: Andy Warhol and Barry Flanagan

HOLDING YOUR PENCIL

Try each hold in sketch book

Shading Techniques

Draw still life in two minute timed drawing for the remainder of class

CLOSURE: How do you feel about the Still life Drawing? Write brief 

Notes on thoughts in sketch book. 

Teacher Models: 

Blind Contour Drawing of hand

Each Shading Technique 

Check for Understanding: 

Check Blind Contour hands by walking around the room

Check Blind Contour Still life by walking around the room

Day 2: Studio class

Opening: "The best artists know what to leave out."- Charles de 

Lint,

Review Power point on Blind Contour rules

Review holding your pencil

ASSIGN FINAL ART PROJECT: 

Draw still life on large paper

Fill the page with balanced composition

Find details of each object using line

Find Light source of each object and identify the lightest

And darkest point of each

Shade each object in still life 

Students receive large Paper and begin their BCD of Still life

Students complete drawings by finding all the details in the still

Life using line. 

CLOSURE: write brief summary of studio class in journal

Like/dislike/rules/etc.

Day 3: Studio Class

Opening: Art Link: Draw five circles and try each shading technique 

From one light source

Review Shading Techniques

Students begin to finish each still life object using each shading

Technique at least once in the composition

CLOSURE: How do you feel about your work to date? 

Day 4: Studio Class: Work on Final assignment

Opening: ART LINK: Don’t think about making art just get it done. 

Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they 

Love it or hate it. While they are deciding , make more art. 

Students continue work on final art project

Day 5: Studio Class: work on Final Assignment and CRITIQUE

Opening: In sketch books, Draw Your Hand using BCD

and shade one finger 5 Minute activity

Students complete final project first 30 minutes

Students participate in Critique last 25 minutes of class. 

Value hands with KAWS

 

DISCUSSION: 

Talk about The Kaws painting below:

              What is happening in the piece

What type of art does it most remind you of?

Look at the second piece

Have you seen this before? When? 

What is the same about the two pieces of art? 

color and mood how does it make you feel? 

Value: tints and shades

Black: You only need a dot to change the color

Monochromatic mono (one) chrome (color)

Pure color: color from the bottle. 

ARTIST: Kaws

KAWS (1974-)

American Painter and illustrator

was born Brian Donnelly in Jersey City, New Jersey.[1] 

He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration in 1996.[2] 

After graduation, KAWS briefly worked for Disney as a freelance animator painting backgrounds. 

He also contributed to the animated series 101 Dalmatians, Daria and Doug.[3]

PROJECT: 

Step 1: On card stock, trace your hand. Make sure you finger tips are at the top of the paper and draw your wrist/arm till the bottom. 

Step 2: Draw four horizontal lines through the paper making five stripes (1 is the stripe with fingertip 5 is the bottom stripe with the wrist) seven spaced apart

Step 3: Add pure color through the middle both in and outside of the hand drawing

Step4: Paint white on the inside of the fingertips and opposite end the outside of the wrist

Step5: Mix white with red 

Step6: Add the new color inside the hand (2nd Stripe) and outside the wrist (fourth Stripe)

Step7: Paint black on the inside of the wrist (5) and the outside of the fingertips (1) 

Step6: Add black to your pure color

Step7: Add your new color inside wrist (4) outside the hand (2) 

MATERIALS:
card stock

Tempura Paint in white Black and red

Scrap paper

Organic and geometric Repetition Animals with Maija Peeples-Bright

 3 Day Project

Day 1

Take a look at the work: Woodpecker Wimea with Weightlifters

Oil on canvas 1982 by Maija Peeples-Bright

Discussion:

What do you see in this piece

What is repetition

Do you see texture

How many different colors are used

Are the birds always painted the same?

If you can forget for a  moment that they are birds what does the painting look like?

do you see any shapes? what shapes do you see?

What is a shape? Name some

What is an organic shape? Can you name some of those? Where do we see them?

Artist: Maija Peeples-Bright  (1942-)

Maija was born in Riga, Latvia in 1942.  Maija and her parents then moved to Northern California when she was 8

She is known for paintings, prints and ceramic sculptures of zany lovable animals and bright flowers.

She was well into completing her math degree at UC Davis in 1963 when her counselor advised her to take an art class to fulfill general education requirements. 

On her first day in the class, she unknowingly stepped right into the middle of what's known today as the California Funk movement. 

Eventually she ended up palling around with such notables as Robert Arneson, William T. Wiley, Peter VandenBerge, David Gilhooly and Roy DeForest. 

"I was so lucky that Davis was just this hotbed of art at the time that I was there," says Peeples-Bright,    

In 1967, Maija lived in San Francisco in a house she helped paint every color that Dutch Boy produced and called her work "The Rainbow House."  

"I do art in just about everything—my shirts, crochet my blankets. 

Maija studied under Wayne Thiebaud, William T. Wiley and Robert Arneson to gain her Master's in only one year at the University of  Davis.  Maija prefers to isolate herself from the art world and work in her garage studio in Eldorado Hills, California.

Project: over several days and steps create a work inspired by the work of Maija Peoples-Bright

Step1: Blue Tape 1/2 inch border around a large piece of thick paper, tape to a board

Step2: Draw three large geometric shapes the same or different

Step2: Draw three large organic shapes within and around the geometric shapes

Step3: fill in any blank spots with shapes both Geo and organic

Step4: using tempura paints, Paint shapes both organic and geometric of different colors

Materials: 

Thick paper 12x18

tempura paint

pencil

Day 2: 

Discussion: revisit all discussion topics from day 1

Focus on repetition 

Tint: adding white to colors

Value: what is value 

what happens when you add white to colors?

Make Paint: 

Give each student a bowl of different color paint and a brush

add a portion of white to each bowl and have the student create the new colors

Project: 

Step1: using a pencil, choose one shape and fill it in with at least 2 of the same animal

Step2: in another shape, fill it with at least 2 of another animal

Step3: continue on until all shapes are full, some shapes could be filled with only one animal

Step4: put the new paint colors one on each table in the studio.  Have the students move about to the studio to each table to add the new paint colors to the animals

Day 3

revisit the previous two days discussions

Oil Pastels: what are they?

How do we use them?

When and how were they created?

Value: Shade

What happens when you add Black to a color?

Make Paint: 

Give each student a bowl of different color paint and a brush

add a small portion of black to each bowl and have the student create the new colors

Project: 

Step1: using oil pastels add details to your animals

             eyes, scales, contour lines, etc.
Step2: put the new paint colors one on each table in the studio.  Have the students move about to the studio to each new color
Step3: using a q-tip add dots around each original shape


Materials:
Oil pastels
Q-tips
Paint Brushes
Black paint
White Paint
pencils
bowls

Shade and Tint Gum Ball Machines with Wayne Thiebaud

DISCUSSION: How do we make colors lighter

pink, clouds, light

Tint adding white to colors

How do we make colors darker?

Black: shadows, shade

Shade: adding black to colors

When light hits an object it becomes lighter

If an object has no light it is darker

ARTIST: Wayne Thiebaud 

(born November 15, 1920) 

He is an American painter 

whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, 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 a gum ball machine using shade and tint

Step1: with black oil pastel draw a circle in the middle of the page

Step2: draw a square underneath the gum ball machine

Step3: draw a small rectangle on the bottom of the square color it grey

Step4: color in the large square any color

Step5: fill in the large circle with gum ball stickers

Step 6: on the right side draw in a shadow from the square to the right side of the page

Step 7: on the tops of all the gun balls add a small speck of white

MATERIALS:

oil pastels

white tag board

primary colored circle labels

Value Trees with Eric Carle

Discussion: Value: 

Hold up different colors of green and ask what color it is

how can six colors of green all be green???

Value we have talked about adding white to colors

what did it do? makes them lighter

What happens if we added black to colors?

it would make them darker

Blue becomes navy

  green becomes olive

Artist: Eric Carle

1929-

American illustrator

Famous illustrating over 70 children’s books including Brown Bear

Uses Collage to create his artwork

His art work is created in the collage technique

He uses hand painted papers

He cuts and layers each piece of collage to create bright cheerful images

Went to art school in Germany

worked as a graphic artist for the NY Times

Bring an Eric Carle book to share with the class

PROJECT: Create a tree using values of green and triangles

Step 1: On Blue Paper, paste on a tree trunk in brown rectangle

Step2: on the truck paste a green triangle

Step3: on top of the triangle paste another value of green triangle

Step4: repeat until you have five triangles on to of one another creating a tree

Step5: Using two small yellow triangles add a star on top of your tree

Step6: using stripes of cut words from magazines paste three on top of each other 

creating a snow flake

Step7: repeat until you have three snow flakes on your page

Step8: fill in more snowflakes with white oil pastels 

Step9: if time allows teh students could add a 3 to 5 ornaments to the tree using

buttons or sequins or more collage materials

MATERIALS: 

values of greens pre-cut into triangles

magazines, scrap paper

Two pre-cut yellow triangles

Glue

words from magazines cut into stripes for snowflakes

white oil pastels

Brown or olive tree trunks

ADAPTIONS: could create christmas trees with ornaments and presents

For older groups of children you could create a two week project and have them cut, create and prepare all the values of green for the project.