Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Black and White Makes Your Color Artwork Dynamic

After you complete your Ferris Wheel upload a picture of it, so I can see.

The next project I have in mind is related to value. Depending on how long you spend on this project each week and the size of the canvas you choose, will determine how long this project will take you. Keep me updated as to your progress, so I have an idea as to when I should post another project.

This will have 5 steps. 

Subject of the painting: Create (a new one, don't copy one that already exists) a cover for one of your favorite books.

~1~
If I were there in person I would explain to you value; however, I am here and you are there and this is what we have at this moment. I found a short article about value. This article contains the things that I would explain to you if I were there in person. I loved the part were the author tells you to mix something other than white with your colors to lighten them. Did you notice this with your Ferris Wheel painting that you got very paisley colors when you mixed white with it. I used a lot of yellow ochre to lighten colors up. The color chart you created will always help you with figuring these color mixing questions out. 

After reading the article create a grayscale with 9 values going from white to black, if you haven't done this already with your acrylics.

Borrowed from this site


This article also throws out a lot of stuff to do with color theory, particularly from Munsell and Albers. These two are the foundations of most of the color theory we have today. You can read about Munsell or  Albers at these sites. Feel free to peruse them for more information if you would like while you do this project. Also, this is fun.
 Photo taken from here
~2~
Sketch out two possibilities for the book cover you want to create. Brainstorm different ideas. Make sure it is something that you want to draw and paint three times. 

~3~ 
Paint a black and white value painting of the book cover. Keep in mind the article's suggestion to keep a variety of values to create a dynamic work of art.

                                                                                               
                                                   

Artwork owned by Pastel Horse World

~4~ 
Draw the same sketch again, but this time use two complimentary colors to create the same variety of value you did with the black and white painting and the article's suggestion to keep a variety of values to create a dynamic work of art.







~5~
Photo taken from a website but I have this 
feeling that Disney owns the rights to it :-p
Draw the same sketch again, but this time use your full color spectrum available to you. Once again, keep in mind your black and white painting and the article's suggestion to   keep a variety of values to create a dynamic work of art.               
                                                                                          
When you are done with step 5, it might be fun to take a picture of it and turn it into a black and white photo to see if it looks like the black and white painting that you did earlier!

If you have questions about a problem you are having while painting or anything at all concerning this idea for a project let me know. I'll help as much as I can from this distance. Upload pictures of the project as you go through the steps. 

Under His mercy,
Rebekah

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Freshman Convocation Address at Hillsdale

Worth reading. Sorry about the goofy colors.

 
 

Sent to you by teacon7 via Google Reader:

 
 

via The Imaginative Conservative by Brittany Baldwin on 8/31/11

By Brittany Baldwin

As you will soon discover, if you haven't already, Dr. Arnn likes to pick on students. So, as he has given me a 7 minute slot on stage, I have to get him back. Just a little bit. I have a sister who's now a Sophomore here, and when she was visiting the college, we went out to eat, and we ran into Dr. Arnn there. I told him my sister was visiting the college, and he said, "

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

The Odyssey

Go read Homer's Odyssey. If you can, find the translation by Robert Fagles. Read it pretty much at your own pace, but do at least a "book" a day. It's a biggie and you don't want to read it on the computer, so get a hard copy. I think I might have left a copy upstairs in your room.

Meanwhile, I'm going to try to find a sweet article by C.S. Lewis, which has currently evaded my grasp. It's called "Bluspels and Flalansferes: A Semantic Nightmare," and is in the book Selected Literary Essays (1969, ed. by Walter Hooper). Maybe the library has that book. If you have to go to the library to get the Odyssey, see if you can find the Lewis thing too. It's sweet.

A quick question for your comments: what makes something "literature," as opposed to just "fiction" ? What do you think?