Beyond the Postcard…
Postcard art is not new, far from it and many Artists love to create works postcard size. They can be mailed, hung and you can create a lot of them quickly in a limited edition if you want. In thinking about postcards as a medium my mind turned to cards, greeting cards and the like, a postcard but it folds.
Take the standard card you might send to a friend for their birthday and consider how it might be a useful art activity.
Sure you could decorate it in some card type design and say happy birthday, but I would hope you might go further than that.
Consider, how it…
- Folds.
- Unfolds.
- Could use the envelope to say more than the card.
- Could be a series of images, that when put together could create a big image.
- Could use words to express a theme.
- Might be displayed when it is sent… perhaps it comes with instructions.
- Could present a theme.
- Could inspire the receiver to create another one (or 20…) and send them on.
Explore some of these starting points and see what happens next, perhaps a set of blank ones drawn on if differing ways to see if you can create something fresh rather than just exploring basic imagery in a few dimensions. If you create a few send me a photo or three to see the results.
Exploring Culture in Visual Art
Culture, generally refers to “Patterns of human activity and the devices, which give such activities significance and importance.”
With this definition in mind Artists might find themselves saying, “So when am I not exploring culture…” Great point, and while you are pondering that let me get on with some other bits… Thanks…
Patterns of human activity, things we might do repeatedly, things, which have significance or importance, which are repeated.
Therefore there are a lot of things, which could fall into these category’s, the Artist using these to communicate and or explore “stuff” about them could find some interesting starting points, here are a few, I am sure there is more.
- Popular culture - Looking at the popular things of the time and their impact - Social - Sports - Politics - Art - Philosophy
- Religious culture - The history - The rituals - The beliefs - Structures - Development
- Historic culture - The things that happened of significance - Wars - Natural disasters - Other
- Social/Organisational culture - Shared knowledge - Values and beliefs - Cultivation of concepts and philosophies.
Take any of these and consider ways to utilise them as a starting theme, then figure a few ways to make art with the “cultural” starting point.
© Steve Gray 2010+
How about this as an example, War - There are many ways to depict war in art, but what if I was to collect copies of war time newspaper articles and create a collage of the cut up articles… I could cut out shapes of guns and overlay them, I could make patterns out of the collage of guns, the result is a starting point on the theme of war. Of note here is the way I can explore the idea and fit it to the cultural theme, therefore I can explore the theme in a range of ways which may lead me to examining the topic at a deeper level and hopefully communicate that to others visually.
© Jesse Nivens 2010+
So there’s a start, you could take almost ANYTHING you are interested in and explore it this way. Perhaps a collage might lead you to thinking about a drawing or painting, or ideas for photographs themed from the collage.
By following a train of thought, then exploring it further, you could be creating your own level of significance and importnace about something, so you would be creating your own culture! I figure that’s why art is a called a cultural activity. Hmm if I use that sort of thinking sport could be art… or at least the catalyst to the way we might explore the culture of sport.
Activities to take the concept further;
Exploring the definition of “Culture”.
- Find at least five definitions of the term culture (Dictionary and or Internet search) and from those distill a series of points to assist in strengthening your understanding of the term “culture” (make sure you do all this in your visual diaries to reference it later on.)
- As you explored the definitions of culture, did anything relate to a topic or subject of interest to you? Do a quick brainstorm and see what happens, based around your interests, asking the question, “What things am I interested in which can clearly relate to “culture”? (Make your brainstorm, at least 21 points long).
- From your brainstorming, pick out a few points which are of strong interest to you… Now jot a few points in your visual diary on ways you might be able to use these points.
- Create a word based mind map of whats been happening since you started this process.
- Make a purely visual mind map to go with the text based one, perhaps search the net for images you can copy and paste, print out and then paste into your visual diary.
- Make some notes and or drawings on any key themes you have come across which might be showing up… Are there any strong enough for you to explore as an art work?
Further concepts…
- Look at the project 1000 journals this will give you a range of ideas on how others have created journals and make a mini journal on your efforts so far for exploring “culture”…
- Create a large drawing using one of the pages from your mini journal as inspiration. (tape together a bunch of pieces of paper to make the image BIG.)
- Write about the process thus far in your visual diary and the things you have discovered, what has stood out to you?
- Select two of the interviews on Contemporary Visual Artists at our sister site. Take notes about their work and their way of working and how they explore the concept of “culture?”…
- Create a few quick drawings or actual pieces in any medium to abstractly explore some more random notions about the term culture.
- The culture of various societies is often developed from their history, can you find any links to what you have done in this exploration of the topic and the history of your social background (Country of origin, social position etc.?)
Copyright © Steve Gray 2010+
Connect…
Today I watched a doco on the 1000 Journals Project and the massive impact it has had.
I then thought… Wow what a great way for students to get ideas for ways to approach a visual diary.
Then it went further as I began pondering the possibilities, as the doco explored how people had connected through the journal, passing it on etc.
I liked the connection aspect to it and thought the idea of connecting in art would be a useful one to explore contemporary themes.
Connect… (Feel free to add some other ideas via the comments…)
Mail Art - Connect with other artists by making a postcard and sending it to them and seeing what (if anything) they sendback - find them on the internet, you may well send an ecard of some kind or a scanned image of a card you made.
Invite - Invite people to create something and send it to you, from a postcard, to a letter, artwork etc. put the invites up on noticeboards where you think you will get some interesting responses. perhaps aim for them to send things to a gmail or hotmail email account to protect your privacy or even a PO box.
Ok now you think of some ways you can connect with people to create a project which might engage others. Discuss some of the issues you may face then brainstorm some ideas, remember to share them! 
Glossary of art terms
As a student I was told to buy a dictionary of art terms and flip through it from time to time, look up points I did not know and generally have it as a resource. That was a good idea, but only some of the info stayed with me.
I was shown another way years later which I like more, as it involves students at least cutting and pasting info they need and therefore see of value, over time the resource builds to suit their needs and interests.
Here’s how…
- Take a quick internet search for a glossary of art terms (probably just heading points at this stage) or create your own ready to use.
- Take the list and put it in your favourite word processor.
- Use the headings as starting points, get the info on the headings which interest you and paste it in.
- Save the info and keep adding to it, over time some of the headings will have multiple entries. Encourage web links and pictures as well. Make it into a PDF file and get the students to hand it in online…
After a few weeks the glossary will be a few pages long, then more and more can be added.
Extension activities
- Invite the students to share new or interesting points they have found which they have added to their glossary of terms. What a great way to get students chatting about art and using art terminology.
- Start Junior students with one and build on it year by year, by the time they get to be senior students they will have a solid resource and a great connection with the language and terminology of the subject.
- Want to avoid setting homework… or want to set some… simply give them this task and ask them to add to it week by week. In class you can remind them to add to it each week and put a note in their Student diary/organiser to remind them.
Analyse this - Slide show idea for Teachers
Dear Teachers… (Hey students, don’t wait for teachers to set this up, create your own!)
Often one of the tricky areas in art education is getting students to be involved in looking at artworks and providing some form of analysis of artworks, even in a fairly formal sense. The probem seems to come when Teachers say “Today we are going to do some Art History” this turns some of them off straight away… Here’s a way to hopefully break the cycle.
Make up a slide show (power point or the like) of about 15 - 20+ artworks of varying styles and types (prefereably images your students may connect with), then run a BRIEF session with the students where you flip quickly through the slides asking what the students see. When a few points have been raised about one image, move on and do the same thing with the next image. The aim is to get them to quickly see the basics, developing the skill of seeing basic “formal” elements. The key is doing it fairly fast, for a twist, flash an image up for 5 seconds, take it off and ask what they saw.
In the end the students will have had to think quickly about what they saw without making too many judgements, like “I didn’t like it…” stick to the basics and give them a few points, like… “What colours did you see, were there lines? Subject matter? Tones, Shapes, Form, Texture, Composition etc…
Eventually you should be able to show them a bunch of images and say nothing as they will call out what they see as they will be used to the process. (sneaky huh…)
Over time you could even create a series of these slideshows, to build a repertoire of images students can discuss in more depth. You could also add some details like the name of the artist, dates etc when the more in depth discussion and analysis needs to take place.
It could be a quick start to a practical art session where you might want to catch them off guard and cause them to think in a different direction for a while.
For more points to discuss and analyse with try this. or this…
A savvy teacher might also set up a series of online images on a school intranet and ask different questions for different year levels, just food for thought! Perhaps a great way to introduce homework for students via the internet, add a pdf file for parents to get involved too outlining the same process I have above, Enjoy!
Extension activities.
- When you take students to a gallery to see works live, ask the same questions, get quick responses and move on, you could go around one gallery space a few times going for more depth with each viewing.
- Invite students to make up their own set of slides to share with fellow classmates.
Art Analysis - Start here…
Okay Teachers (and Students…) You asked for it, you wanted more info on Analysing Visual Art works so here are a few starting points to go with. Feel free to send me other resources you have found useful over time but for now here is my starting point to formal evaluation of artworks.
Artwork Analysis Helper
Description:
When describing the artwork, you should describe exactly what you see. It is useful to pretend you are describing the work to a blind person, giving all the details to help describe the work.
Analysis:
What elements can you see? Colour, line, tone, texture, shape, form (three dimensional). Describe the way these elements are used in the work.
Interpretation:
What do you think the artwork may be about? What is its meaning? What evidence is there in the work to support your interpretation?
Judgement:
What is your opinion of the work? Do not just say, ”I don’t like it”! Tell us why you don’t think it is a very effective artwork. If you like it, explain what specific things you like about the artwork.
Try these points out for yourself by looking at a number of artworks and answering the above questions quickly and see what happens. no right or wrong answers at this stage, just ideas and options to get you checking out artworks and thinking about them in ways you may not have yet thought of.
Landscape ideas
From ancient times through to contemporary works the landscape has meant a great deal for art and artists. how artists interpret the landscape is as varied as chalk and cheese from abstract concepts and emotions through to highly realistic scenes.
Many artists are inspired not just by their shapes and forms on the landscape but by colours and textures as well. For an artist starting out the chance to explore landscape ideas can seem rather daunting I hope some of the concepts I put forward might give you some great starting points.
- landscape can include many things, the urban landscape, seascapes, rural landscape and the industrial landscape. Try picking one, which is close to you and then explore it perhaps with a camera, if you took lots of photos see if you can pick out the top five, then ask yourself what makes these five more interesting than the others?
- Australia is one country where many of the artists were heavily influenced by the landscape to an Internet search on this topic and see what you can find, is there any one style from the many Australian artists working on landscape that you really like? Do some research on that particular style or artist and see which you can find.
- Take a look at the work of artists who simplify the landscape down into a very basic terms perhaps just sky and ground, maybe you can find out more about why they simplified the landscape so much, consider copying one or two of their works perhaps just on paper with coloured pencil.
- Landscape drawing does not need to be realistic, consider exploring more of the “essence” of landscape or the bare basics of it in some drawings.
- Students of Art using an art journal or a visual diary of some kind, may find it useful to jot down ideas when looking at landscape, it may be what the weather was like, temperature was like, how they felt and whether the scene was something really captivating or not, as well as doing some drawings or photographs.
- If you take mainly photographs of the landscape consider doing some drawings as well. And if you do mainly drawings of the landscape consider doing some photographs. Compare the difference.
- The way Artists tackle the landscape can vary from abstract to realistic and lots in between, consider what would be the difference between a leisure or hobby painter doing a landscape, and a contemporary artist doing the landscape and what sorts of things might be different?
Okay there’s a few ideas you might like to try to get started in landscapes, I think you may find the more you do landscapes to more engrossing it will become… enjoy!
Here are a few websites you may like to explore to learn more about the ways artists have explored the landscape as a concept or theme.
Boxed in…
I often cruise Art shops (and occasionally Craft ones too) to see what’s new, what inspires and what’s still the same old same old. In one I walked into recently I noticed they have small pine boxes with latches, and some had clear see through tops in a range of sizes.
I guess the crafty and scrapbooking types will recognise them as a way of creating some form of “Keepsake” device where precious memories are displayed and therefore it’s a way of exploring 3D collaging in an intimate setting.
In the same way I think the boxes have a lot to offer the Art Student and or Visual Artist. Firstly the boxes are plain pine so they can be varnished, stained, painted and or added to in many ways.
The boxes could be a way of exploring 3d Art without having to go big scale and deal with storage issues of large works. I think the intimacy a small work can create could be an interesting drawcard as well.
For creative starting points lets think about a few possibilities…
- Create a series of small things to place in the box along one theme.
- Try making small 3D paper objects, perhaps out of printed or painted paper… consider origami as a starting point.
- The box could contain found objects relating to one theme.
- The box could house a working model of some kind, perhaps you pull a string or press a button to make a mechanism “do something” inside the box.
- Simply use it as a frame to house a miniature painting and perhaps give the painting a fresh or different meaning.
- Consider making the contents so they could be changed by the owner to reflect a different mood or feeling.
- Jamming it full of letters cut out of magazines, and shaking it to create a different work each time it’s shaken.
- As a place to put very small written works or images which can cover the internal walls like wall paper (great if the box is deep).
- Hang a fine string like a clothes line and attach miniature objects to the line. You could add a painted scene in the background.
- Hang small things off strings set at differing depths to add depth.
- Paint an optical illusion in the box using the depth of the box for enhanced effect.
- Use a deeper box like a diorama and set up a miniature scene of some kind.
Of course the possibilities are endless, the main thing here being the price of the boxes I looked at were very cheap, and came in a range of sizes.
If you create one or three of these, send us a link to a photo in the comments for this post and show us what you have created!
The online portfolio developer…
As an Art student or even as an Artist, you probably have a lot going on, teachers and lecturers wanting you to explore this and that, themes to pursue, techniques to be tried out and so on. Well here’s a technique to use to keep lots of these forces happy.
Most of you will have a facebook page, as such you realise you can share a lot of things with the world, pictures especially and comments.
So try the daily challenge (It could be weekly but hey, a bit of a push wouldn’t hurt…) the aim is to put a picture every day online for a set period (one I know of is a 365 day photo challenge.) and therefore put up one image a day and comment on it.
Your Teachers and Peers can add comments and provide critiques. At each stage you could offer a lot of info or little info… perhaps stick to a formula of a few points, why I took this photo, how I lit the photo, why this composition works and so on…
This way you can show you are working, get feedback, see if patterns evolve, it could be the same with drawings or any other media!
The only downside is having teachers and lecturers as friends on facebook! Okay probably not a bad thing either… 
Thanks to David Gray one of my Nephews, whose 365 day facebook photo challenge gave me the idea!
Portraits - outside the square
This portrait by Rupert Shrive shows the idea of representing someone in a portrait does not have to be a basic square or rectangle.
So lets explore a few different ways you could do a portrait.
- Project or draw directly a photo of someone on to crumpled paper, draw the image and then smooth out the paper.
- Get a bunch of images of your subject then print them in Black and white on paper in a printer, then use coloured pencils to draw around the images and present them in a row. Try different papers like tracing paper for a different approach.
- Overlap multiple images of the person on one page, then draw more heavily, the interesting parts and see what happens.
- Get a 3D mask (often in craft shops) and project and draw or draw directly onto the mask then paint.
- Overlap a range of paper shapes, project image, draw then separate the paper, and play with various compositions. perhaps try photocopying a range of compositions and re work these to suit.
- Scan any of the above images into your computer and put text in the background of the image which relates to the person. It could be a story or poem, or even just a bunch of words which relates to the person.
- Project images on to a box and draw that, what happens when that’s flattened out?
- Do a “straight” portrait, copy it a few times, now abstract stylise, simplify or simply alter the colours with paint or pencils, how do they look in a row? What happens if you alter the order of them…
These are just starting points to work from, but once you have tried these, think about doing a straight portrait, do you think it will be easy? Perhaps it might seem too bland as a process and ask yourself which one really portrays the subject matter the best…. Enjoy!
Mail Art
Yes you read right Mail Art check this guys blog site there are thousands (seems that way to me) of examples of art in and out of his mail box! http://iuoma.blogspot.com/ Go on send some art today!
Starting out….
I wish I was starting out, back in Yr 11… no wait I’m wrong I would hate it, all the drawing, the homework, the learning new things, getting my tongue around works like juxtaposition.. yeah I’m better off here, not there.
So if you are a newbie to the Visual Arts welcome to a life of adventure (and quite possibly torment at some stage or other), but fear not young learners (and more mature ones too…) this site (and others like it) are here to assist your journey and hopefully ease some pain.
If you are in Yr 11 at secondary school and wanting to get the jump on the the rest of the class, pull up a chair and have a good look through whats in here… Techniques, creativity boosting strategies, links to some interviews with Artists, how investors look at Art and so much more. Then take notes and GET STARTED!
Draw like your life depended on it, take photo’s like there is no tomorrow (one day you will be right…) write out idea,s carve thing up, break things down, explore techniques and materials then explore Contemporary Artist interviews with vigour and interest, it will all be worthwhile in the end. Oh and take a look at any lists, which tell you the benefits of being involved in the arts and nail it up in a few great places, you won’t go wrong!
I wish you well in your Art Journey, Steve Gray. Jan 2010
The student, painting and costs…
As a student of the Visual Arts, cost of materials is generally a big factor, you want to paint but by the time you make a stretcher, get the canvas (heck linen is so expensive, canvas is it…) then stretch it and undercoat… PHEW it’s time to paint at last!
All very well but the cost is sending you broke… so what to do?
Q. Especially in the start of the learning process, are you about to create a masterpiece? Chances are no…
A. So why go expensive, grab a big chunk of “straw-board” whack on the undercoat and get started.
1. It’s faster to get started.
2. It’s cheaper.
3. It’s easy to store…
Lets face it even if you do a “masterpiece” on board you will probably be able to “copy” it in canvas anyway…
Limitations… size, no canvas texture and permanency. Other than that give it a go…
How about another idea, use canvas, but stretch it onto a board of some kind, plywood etc using drawing pins, paint, let it dry and hang it using bulldog clips. You want a neater finish? hem the edges on a sewing machine…
Hey what about those cheap Chinese canvases you see in the two dollar shops? are they any good, short answer, no… but if you want cheap and are desperate to paint grab one or twenty then go for for it! Some of the sizes are bigger than straw-board so that’s useful. Its cheap but storage becomes the issue (again!)
In other areas of Visual Art there are probably heaps of ways of making things more cost effective… think about where you source materials from and explore the options…
Remember this… “Make Art Have fun…” (at least some of the time.)
Stencil art centipede…
Every now and then something comes along to amaze, intrigue etc…
Artist - Meet and greet…
Apart from catching up with the Artists for a “quick natter” at an opening, you might want to have a longer chat with them one to one, or hear them explore their work with a small group. Well now you can…
The guys over at www.regionalis.com.au and their corresponding exhibition at red gallery 157 St Georges Rd North Fitzroy (Aug 19 - Sept 5th - Wed - Sat 11am - 5pm)
Aug 22 the Artists involved in Regionalis will be in the gallery from 1pm to 4pm ready to chat to you about their work.
So join them for a while and find out about art from the inside.
Your own art book…
I have been looking into this sort of book publishing site for a while and I saw one that seems quite good, impress your friends, psyche out the gallery guys! you download some software, create your book, upload it and sell it online…
Here’s one I prepared earlier called Urbane. Check it out and see what others are up to while you are there.
The thought of having my own glossy “coffee table book” was to good to refuse, oh and if you want just one, then so be it! the possibilities are endless!
Video art
This could be as complex or as simple as you wish, I like the apparent simplicity of this it leaves a lot to think about…
DATAFLUX 0.1 from Kit Webster on Vimeo.
Online Drawing & Painting
There are a number of online programs you can use to draw and paint with, a quick search gave me this. Okay it’s fairly simple however it could be used in a number of ways to explore simple ideas without having to get paints out etc. Younger students could create simple “loose” colour wheels through to more complex ideas, it has an online gallery to see what others have done as well. Have a play around with it to see what it can do…
Photo manipulation - basics
In an earlier post on ideas to do with photo basics, I briefly hinted at photo manipulation as a tool for exploring photo ideas. Love it or hate it, these days with photo software it’s very easy to do and can lead to some interesting results.
Here’s what I did to get some things happening fairly easily, I took one good photo.
I then exported it as a smaller file 280 kb (to make it fast to load and manipulate for the demonstration here.)
I then went and did an internet search and found a photo image manipulation online application (You can use photo shop and similar to do the same but I don’t have these), uploaded the image and started to tweak it from there. (I used www.pixer.us) there are plenty of others. I went to the special effects button, tried a few options. If I did not like it I undid the effect, then tried another. Later on I did several effects on the one image to get fresh results. Check out the results…
I had great fun playing with this and the results can be amazing or very boring, nonetheless it can be useful to explore a subject and play around with it to suit your needs. For me I still prefer the original, but for others some of the new images will be better. Either way enjoy!
Here’s a thought, select an image and make four variations of it, then set them up on one page and print them out. consider how well they work together, it may take some “fiddling” to get the balance right but the result could be well worth it.
Don’t box me in…
Here’s an art activity you might find useful, set yourself the task of creating a cube of a set size then “decorating it with your art”.
The box could be seen as a sculpture, a painting in 3D, it could be a drawing to… in fact it could be anything. the construction and scale of the cube is up to you. If you are a teacher you miight set the calls the task of doing the cube to the same size eg: 40 cm x 40 cm x 40cm.
The end result could just sit on a table, pedestal etc, or could hang…
Have fun exploring the challenges this might bring and if done in a class, discussing the various interpretations students have to the idea.
Creativity Starts Here, Or Not…
I came across this website years ago and was blown away with the simplicity of what Michael Hewitt Gleeson chats about. His 10 part email training is simple and as effective as you might want it to be. Simply put it’s about thinking, but not in a heavy science kind of way, this is practical material you can use daily, regularly, easily.
I urge you to take a look and see if it can assist your creativity to be all it can be.
http://www.schoolofthinking.org/about/
Oh and it’s free!
Note when you have a look you will notice it’s not an art site, nor does it mention art in any way, but the principles for developing creative approaches are in here, so go take a look, sign up, get the emails and let us know what you think.
Creativity, Words & Pictures - A Dada approach
There are many ways to develop a creative approach to subjects and themes, one I learned many years back was how the Dada artists created poetry, in particular they were interested in taking an anti art stance and as such often broke a lot of “rules” around writing and art, the great thing for us is they found some very creative ways to explore things.
One of the things that stands out about this technique (or at least my version of it) is how easy it is to get something going, have fun and watch it evolve (sometimes not, but most times yes!)
The can be a fun technique to explore with friends at a party (when all else seems dismal…)
So the idea is to grab a book or three and aim to grab snippets of information, words, phrases etc and string them together randomly, sometimes the chunks can seem to have some form of connection though.
One way to do this is to flip through the pages and see what grabs or stops, take that page and go for a stab in the dark, point at a section and write down the words or statements, then string them together and read what you get.
Another approach is to copy a bunch of pages randomly from books on a topic or theme, and then cut up the lines of words, and paste them together in various was, read it out and see what you get.
Often the most absurd strings of words and phrases give the best result.
Now having created the words and or “poetry” your aim is to use the information to form a foundation for an art work. Consider a collage of copied sections of writing, enlarged, painted over, stained, used as a decopage/collage over an object. or perhaps the words in your poetry suggest an image or series of images that relate to your theme or subject, therefore leading your creativity.
It can be a fun technique which might give you ideas and options to explore some creative approaches to your work, now you need never be struck with a blank canvas again.
There are lots of ways you can make this work, adding pictures and so forth to create collages and so on. Think of a few variations on the basic theme of random searching and come up with some techniques of your own, then write them in your Art Journal for future reference.
Visual Art Diary - Art Journal
Many Students have these, and most have them because they are told they have to as part of their studies! Ok get over it, you should use one because you want to, not as a have to.
So what’s the value, the benefit, the reason… Well most people who say have one, will have seen the benefit and should be able to tell you, it’s for exploring, writing, gathering, giving you points to reflect on and not just as a sketch book, it’s more than a diary to write in, note the title “Visual Diary” or “Art Journal”.
My suggestion is to see the Journal as a way to keep things together, so that when you want to show how a work or your thinking has developed you have the “evidence” rather than just having some new art tangent you have miraculously plucked from “thin air”.
In simple terms it’s a diary on steroids, not just a collection of past events, but of present thoughts and ideas as well, that you can reflect on and use in the future. A personal resource of information (it can include anything and everything you can think of that fits on to a flat page.)
Do a bit of internet searching and you will probably find lots of outlines for how to create a journal, but the key to creating one is making it work, and that’s simple, get one and use it all the time. Example, I bet you have a mobile phone with you all the time, same with this, you can even have a small one so you can carry it with ease then add your entries to a big one if you want. If the first one gets filled up grab another one and add to that to. One thing I will say, NEVER throw out rip out any part of the diary, keep it in tact, you never know when some info you were going to throw out will be useful.
The Journal can be great to have at an interview for courses of further study, as it can reaveal a great deal about HOW you work and back up the actual work.
If you want to see journalling on steroids (go on take a look…) check out the 1000 journals website and see how others have tackled Journal writing on a massive scale!
And here’s a video to give you more ideas…
Self Portrait Ideas
To many students the idea of doing a self portrait is a challenging experience, especially if it’s at the start of a course of study… “What me on a canvas?” Well I am sure the teacher had good intentions in mind, like wanting you to look deeper at yourself and what you stand for. Also, if you ever get stuck for subject matter, you know yo will always be around to draw.
Here are some ideas to get you started with many taking the “you” out of your portrait.
- Silhouette - Grab a digital camera and take a profile shot of you, on the computer tweak it so you only see a silhouette (you might play with contrasty lighting in the initial shot to make it easier). Then play around with ways of using the image (multiple tonal overlaps, outline and tone overlaps, include other objects in the silhouette, play with words and statements.) have a play with it and see what happens.
- Installation - Use the silhouette as a starting point and copy a heap of them, paint one side one colour and the other another, then create a sculptural installation hanging them at varying heights with fishing line. For a variation consider stripes or contour lines, or how about a collage of images on each.
- Negative you - No not a negative “image” a negative image… So yo take the silhouette and cut out the you bit, put that aside, now use the bit around you, the negative image… decorate that and see what you can get.
- Half you - Take a contrasty photo and enlarge the image cover half of the face and leave it blank or decorate it, use some of the above techniques to explore with.
- All of you - Grab a big sheet of paper (a roll of newsprint or something heavier is good) lay it out on the floor, lay on it, and have someone trace you with a pencil, top to bottom, now take that outline and decorate it, make a giant collage, colour it in, maybe make a few of them and create an installation, try a heavy outline in texta. What about the other side? How will you present it?
- The real you - SO the teacher is harping on about “I want to see the real you, no silhouettes!” so create a “real” picture (use a mirror to draw you) then copy it and slice it up in to strips or “chunks” and arrange that as in a collage… Sneaky huh! and the variations are endless.
- More of you - Create a card board 3D you perhaps a “box” or three attached together, that includes your head and torso. Attach drawings or draw or paint directly on it. You could have someone take four views of you on a camera, project them onto the “boxes” draw, paint, decorate!
- Use your arms - Not your head? Wow how does this work? (pay attention and I’ll tell you…) It’s simple, place your arm on paper or canvas and trace the outline on to it, then the other one… then fill in the space with collages about you, include pictures of you. Pretty handy eh! You can do multiple of these and have fun figuring out how to present them. Want to be more abstract, then find ways to paint or decorate the inside, hmm or the outside… that add depth to your arms and what meaning you want to give them. Stuck for how to decorate? Try a fish bowl approach, put fish in your arm…
The above ideas are starting points around a self portrait, hey you might not love the subject matter (yet) but these exercises can give you some creative options to explore, the sky’s the limit. Try brainstorming some other options with friends or classmates and see what you come up with. Have fun! exploring yourself might be deep and meaningful at some stage, but it does not have to always be that way and often a deeper connections with yourself can come about by more “casually” exploring who or what you are and stand for etc.
Throughout history many artists have explored themselves through self portraits with interesting results, do a search on Rembrant, Albrecht Durer, Andy Warhol and see how they tackled the subject in fairly formal ways.
Review the self protrait exercise (if you have done any) and jot down (where’s your Art Journal) what comes to mind, was it an easy exercise?, what would you have done diferently?, what’s stopping you from doing more (if anything)? and how about creative processes, did you really explore the posssibilities of way’s to “decorate” your portrait?
Finding out More
When you want to know more about Visual Art there are plenty (these days) of ways to explore, once all you had was art galleries and a library or two. Now you have access to the internet, which means you have a great way to explore techniques, styles, find inspiration, learn about artists, history, theory and much much more.
So to use this all to your advantage start searching and make a great list of sites that are or could be of value to you. Bookmark them, make favourite lists, then break it down into categories so you can easily find the things you have find in the right place. store these lists, back them up on paper (in case the system dies…) that way you will be able to explore the extensive world of Visual Art with ease.
Start searching and share your findings with your classmates. Not sure where to start? grab an art history time line and start exploring the various art styles through the ages and note the things that grab your attention. Keep building ideas from that and seeing where things developed from, note key artists and historic events that happened at the same time. Now that you have started you will probably not stop, as there is so much to explore and be fascinated by. Any key things that stand out, drop a comment in…
Dream Journalling
The surrealists used dreams to make art, and so can you, the challenge though is to remember the dream or enough of it, so that the next day you are able to use the imagery as an art starting point. So here’s one way you can turn that around.
Start by keeping a dream journal and keep it near your bed, when you rise in the morning make it the first thing you do, jot down the dream you had. It might start out that you remember a few people in the dream, or a place, but then over time more details will emerge as the days go on.
On doing this myself many years back, I found I had so much information and detail to write down, I would run out of time in the morning… I should have had a tape recorder to speak it out rather than write it.
Using the information gathered you could use that as direct material or as inspiration for works. Either way it can be a very compelling as well as highly useful way to develop your art ideas.
Art activities, lets share the good stuff!
I have listed a bunch of art activities, the sort that are useful for artists and VCE+ (yr 11+) students to utilise… If you have any activities like this you would like to share, which you believe can be of benefit, I will gladly check them out and put them in here for everyone to check out and utilise. Drop me an outline note to, info@stevegray.biz
Steve Gray
Going Abstract
The word “abstract” is generally thought of as the opposite of “realistic;” although abstract art is not realistic it can range from stylised (or simplified piece of work), to a totally abstract piece, which is a completely new object in the world.
While “abstract” is often thought of as a specific style, there are as many branches of it as much as there are ways to use abstract to explore visual concepts. An artist might choose to do an abstract work to somehow communicate different things than a realistic work might. When it came into being, being able to do things abstractly, freed up artists to explore their worlds in fresh ways.
So let’s do some basic exploration, starting with a realistic drawing, trace it and simplify it’s structure, then trace the initial tracing searching for aspects of the original you may want to alter and shift. Take this piece and now evaluate it in basic design and compositional terms adjusting it to suit. Perhaps you have been able to keep some of the original “feel” of the initial drawing and have now used it as a catalyst to explore other aspects of the drawing.
There, you have just created something abstract or at least stylised. Playing around with these types of techniques can give you the chance to explore media, design elements and aspects of communication which may be worthy of future exploration.
An extension exercise might be to create as many stylised versions of a drawing as you can, selecting a few and using different media to alter them from their original concept.
The Paper Cut
Check this image out…
So simple yet so powerful! The placement on the page, the framing the whole thing… Now get your thinking caps on and come up with some ways you could do the same, perhaps consider simple shapes, perhaps shapes cut out appearing to fall off the page… perhaps different coloured shapes.
Of course there will be a million different ways you could cut paper to communicate a concept, but it would seem that often the simplest seems to work the best.
Have a go and see what you can come up with.
Oh and who is the artist? Well have a look and see. http://www.petercallesen.com
Exploring More Colour
In exploring colour options for art works many people will be familiar with primary colours and then secondary colours, but wait there are tertiary colours… what about those?
When you get let loose to create anything you want and start to explore things you get to a point of realisation there are many colours not on a standard colour wheel, then you find as you mix varying proportions of more than two colours you get the tertiary mix.
For many their first foray into tertiary colours looks like mud on the page! So it requires you to handle it carefully so as not to end up with a mess.
as an exercise in colour mixing you can play about with dashes of colours painted on a page and rotate the page every so often (Hey it’s probably not High Art but its an exercise to try out things…) you might mix a palette of say 5 tertiary colours and tone them with small amounts of white, while every so often trying a new colour and some more white.
As you play about with the colour on the page, consider the design, consider if there is usefulness in overlapping the colours and letting one show through the other. Also consider the white space, is there enough to balance the way the painting looks (what ever that means to you and the image you are creating!)
You want more? Consider the metallic colours silvers, gold, iridescents… There is now a great range of these and they offer a whole range of possibilities for mixing colours that sparkle and shine in different lights.
Even though it’s JUST a colour exercise, use the opportunity to explore some form of design on the page, so you can come up with more than a colour exercise. Perhaps a great design copied and coloured in a bunch of different ways might be a useful exploration.
If you want a real twist try playing with stripes of colours going light to dark in a range of tertiary colours, perhaps expore some “Op Art” designs, or find a 3D object you can “decorate” with your stripes, imagine a 3D Op Art box suspended on a fishing line and rotating in mid air, it could be a great start to a whole new group of art woks for you.
Exploring Drawing
There’s lots of ways to explore drawing skills and for many the task of sitting down to reproduce an object causes them some stress, will I get it right, will my brain hurt afterwards… Well here’s a simple exercise that can take the edge off things and give your brain a few chances to explore but not hurt too bad! (No promises…)
Fold a piece of paper in half, on one half draw a continuous line with a reasonable amount of twists and turns on it, start at the top and work your way down.
Now open the paper up, half has what you have just drawn the other half is blank (well it should be!) now fold it back closed, and put it on a light box or against a window (so you can see the design through it.)
Using your other hand trace the outline of the design (yes the picture shows up on the back of the page). Now open out the page and see if you can draw a mirror image of your first design (freehand this time) on the original blank part of the page.
The more you try this the more you will exercise your brain and be able to come up with a range of more complex designs.
Drawing Straight
Try working on a drawing using only straight lines, often used in life drawing classes you can use it on any subject.
Instead of drawing the outline of the object you are looking at, use loose straight strokes of the pencil or crayon, having some part of the line you have drawn become part of the object you are drawing. You will end up with HEAPS of lines on the paper and suddenly you will probably have found out something about exploring negative and positive space…
Creative Twists
Any one that has done effective brainstorming in a corporate setting and put the solutions into action will know the process can be very useful, sometimes a facilitator will use some form of creative brainstorm to get people thinking.
Often they use words, statements, short stories or symbols with some form of puzzle or conundrum to tease the participants minds into a creative approach.
Artists can use this to, and I find often that artists are perhaps more natural or less inhibited in coming up with creative approaches as it happens at a more unconscious level (especially with practice.) So lets take a simple approach and twist it.
Write down five things that interest you (it could relate to a theme or line of research on a topic) then for each thing write down something different to that, do that 5+ times for each word, then it’s up to you. For me the first “logical” thing would be to take the last words from each list and then figure a way to make these fit to your original “theme”.
To take this further you could do the same with symbols printed off a computer. Or explore the first word exercise using symbols to respond to the last word you got. Or take all the words, put them in a bowl and randomly select a few and group them together.
Ideally I guess the “creative process” is about taking the absurd, mixing it with a dash of logic, and exploring the boundaries. Then in a useful stance the organised artist would possibily create a dictionary or encyclopedia of wierd creative approaches, systems or ideas…
Working Away From the Void.
Occasionally artists end up so wound up about a set topic or theme they have been working on, they can fall into a void, believing the topic has been somehow exhausted. Or they go to start some new work and find a creative slump, and a “black hole” or “void” has got them in it’s spell… Breaking free from that can happen, however at the time the situation can be daunting if not debilitating.
One approach might be to develop a small sketch type book or visual diary, where you push other boundaries of exploration around your topic. Perhaps there are small drawings, words to associate (or not), different colour schemes, alternative symbols, metaphors or visual devices of some kind.
Clearly the aim is to develop ways of knowing when you are close to a void, and how you might manouvre to stay away from it. Hopefullly these will give you a starting point to work with.
Surfaces
When people draw and paint skin, they often want to make it look like skin, the colours, tones, textures, it all comes together to make it look “right”. Well what if you were to alter it and makes things different. What if skin was rendered to look like metal, or wood…
In many digital paint type programs these sorts of effects can happen fairly easily, If you have these to work with, then check it out. If you don’t, while drawing an object, consider what would have to change in the drawing to make it have the “skin” of something different.
Explore the surface of your drawings and works more and check out what happens, the resultant creative shift may be well worth your while. A standard scene might be given more depth of meaning by giving it a “new persona”.