Students Entering Pre-AP Art 3 & AP Portfolio

Summer Assignments 2013

Questions: mdonahoe@houstonisd.org

Whether you are examining formally in AP Studio Drawing next year or preparing a portfolio for art school admission or as supplementary material for your college application, summer is the time to make art without insane pressure. My upper level kids have the most choices as some of you have skipped a year and some are coming in immediately after having me. Do the assignments you think would most compliment what you already have in your portfolio. All returning students have the option of having a series of contracts approved before the end of school, or doing the assigned summer studio projects.

These assignments are important portfolio builders and summer practice. Please take them

seriously. All summer work will be due the Tuesday after Labor Day, and will be counted as

major grades the first grading cycle. You will not be working on these assignments during

class time. Failure to complete these assignments will likely result in a failing grade for the

first grading cycle.

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#1 Contract Journal

Do a contract journal for an artwork or series of artwork you wish to do this year. This may be

an area of art you are particularly interested, but I would prefer if you used this opportunity to

research a possible direction for your AP concentration. When you do this you may wish to go

on the AP Studio Art College Board website where you can view examples of concentrations

and where AP also give explains the AP concentrations and gives tips for choosing your

concentration.

#2 Recycled Art or Mixed Media Robot or Cardboard Extravaganza

#3 Drawings from Observation: Favorite Summer Place. 3 Views in sketchbook.

These can be done in sketchbook or on a separate piece of paper. Spend time looking at the

area, not a picture. Begin by sketching lightly in pencil to get accurate outlines, and then you

can add detail with darker pencil values as you complete the drawing. Work to develop proper

perspective, but if possible draw freehand. If the area is too complex, you may use a ruler and

set up a horizon line with vanishing points. These are to be serious drawings – not quick

sketches. Spend the time to get the perspective right and add tone or color.

#4 Pez Portrait or Shoe Studies or Toy Block Painting

Contract Journals:

Contract Journals are how you will generate your own projects in art. Sometimes we will have a theme

or technique in mind, but other times you will be entirely on your own to pick subject and media.

Contract journals may be for one artwork, or for a series of work. All contract journals are to be written

long hand in you artist journal. There is to be no plagiarism in and as much original thinking and

observation as possible in student writing. All contract journals exceed 3 pages. Most contract journals

contain 3 main sections:

1. Artist Study This is your own looking for examples of work that excite and inspire you related to the subject of study. For example, if you are thinking of doing some figure paintings, then you will wish to find examples of paintings or drawings that include figures that excite you and that may go the direction you wish to study. This section is your report on what you found that interested you or was of value to look at. Choose the very best examples of whatever work you are attempting to look at and items that might inspire and inform your direction for the project. The written part should be a record of your own looking at (description), response, and analysis of the work of these artist; your thoughts on their work. Use natural voice, but keep in mind art vocabulary and concepts. You may use critical analysis and historical detail to inform your own analysis, but are not to copy these wholesale from books or from the Internet. Please include pictures of the artist’s work. Especially include pictures of artwork that you talk about and that inspire you. Each picture should be documented with artist name, title, medium, and date.

2. Technique This is a record of what you learned about technique while studying artists and while

looking into the medium in which you wish to perform your artwork. Writing may be

subject specific (your report on a blog discussing how to paint the face in watercolor and

how you learned to shade the nose) or general (wet-on-wet washes, dry washes, dry

brush, and so forth). You need not cover old ground. For example, students who have

some background in the medium and want to paint an animal in acrylic may want to

focus on creating texture and shading for form rather than giving general information

about how to paint using acrylic. Pictures of various techniques are also welcome in this

section. For example you may find step-by-step how-to pictures in a forum or pictures

of works in progress in articles about an artist or in artist’s blog.

3. Planning This is any combination of rough drafts, studies, preliminary sketches, and description of

final products necessary to explain the project and sufficiently explore composition and

the final forms your project might take.

Included afterward is a simplified Art 1 Contract Journal. This should give you a good idea of where

these journals may start. These students were given a choice of projects one of which was to do a

drawing of a plant using oil pastel. We had several plants in class for students to work from.

Cardboard Extravaganza

Cardboard: a wonderful, but undervalued art material. As you can see, these are a combination of

drawing and cardboard relief. Create a set of three similarly sized, thematically related pieces.

Cardboard is readily Available, environmentally friendly, and easy to use. Minimum size 12” x 12”.

You may choose whatever subject matter you would like, but works should be linked to create a series.

To remove the top layer of cardboard, but leave the corrugations, score the smooth top layer, then peel

it away from the corrugated substrate. You can layer pieces of cardboard on top of each other or use

strips of cardboard lain on their side as well to create texture, depth, and interest. Have fun and recycle,

in a pinch you can get cardboard sheet at a box store. See the following examples:

Giles Oldershaw

Jason Yen

Recycled Art: Green Art from Discarded Paper and Cardboard

What do you do with the tons and tons of paper you receive each year? You get magazines, some get newspapers, flyers,

coupons, notes, & even gifts wrapped in paper – the list goes on and on. Now is your chance to do something with all that old

paper you have lying around. You will use paper as a raw material to make a new an original image. You will need a piece of

cardboard or paper grocery bag big enough to glue to and a stack of old paper and glue to start. Supplement with chalk, paint,

marker, and found objects if you choose. You may use only paper to create your work or combine collage with other media.

Collage should remain a major feature of your work, however. Your work may be entirely two-dimensional or you can build

up cardboard and layers of paper and mat board to make low reliefs. Make 3 artworks along the same theme. Perhaps, they even

tell a story. Artwork can be as small as 8” x 8” or as large as 14” x 18”. All 3 works must be similar enough in dimension and

style to be hung together as part of a series. Therefore, you want enough similarity between your works to feel as if they belong

together and can be displayed in a triptych, but they need not be exactly the same dimensions or carbon copies in terms of style

and composition.

Need some inspiration? Look what these great artists are doing with stuff you would usually throw away! Jason Yen

uses cardboard to create reliefs and to create a ground, draws with chalk and ink, and collages with torn junk mail and magazines.

Derek Gores & Sandhi Schimmel Gold turn discarded junk mail into art. Michel Keck uses a wide variety of torn papers, paint,

pencil, and ink to make his unique mixed media artworks. Peter Clark has a whole series of dog works he created from old

maps! Follow their example. Do something Creative with your trash!

Derek Gores Sandhi Schimmel Gold

Michel Keck Peter Clark

Jason Yen

Robots: Show us how your brain works!

Rebecca Collins

Jim Bradshaw

Now is your chance to make your own robot artwork! Try to employ mixed media and

collage like Rebecca Collins and Jim Bradshaw, Be creative! Robots can take many

forms and do many things. If it helps, then think of a story for your robot. Has

your robot become overlord of the planet? Is it a comedian? Broken all the time?

What is its purpose? A nanny? A warrior? A policeman? An explorer? A rolling T.V.

set that follows you around? Use the many pictures to inspire you (not to copy) or use

the poem below as a starting place & start your own series of robots.

My robot's misbehaving.

It won't do as I say.

It will not dust the furniture

or put my toys away.

My robot never helps me

with homework or my chores.

It doesn't do my laundry

and neglects to clean my floors.

It claims it can't cook dinner.

It never makes my bed.

No matter what I ask of it,

it simply shakes its head.

My robot must be broken.

I'll need to get another.

Until that day, I have to say,

I'm glad I have my mother.

--Kenn Nesbitt

You may work in a sketchbook or on a separate piece of paper,

cardboard, or canvas. For inspiration (not copying) look at

artists Rebecca Collins and Jim Bradshaw. Create three pages of

sketches and mixed media compositions in your sketchbook. You

might also choose to create a mixed media sculpture of your

robot in place of one of the sketchbook pages.

More Robot Art for Inspiration!

Pez Portraits In Acrylic, Watercolor, Oil Pastel or Colored Pencil

Joe Vivilecchia Craig Stephens Michael Naples

Sandy MacDonald

How can you make a still life look modern and new? Present

objects in a new way that is exciting and modern to a viewer?

These are all traditionally painted realistic still life paintings,

but you can feel their contemporary viewpoint. What makes

this so?

Do these painting feel contemporary because of the

subject matter? Or, is it also in the way these artists deal with

space and how the objects relate to each other? Look closely at

the way the objects relate to each other. The large painting by

Joe Vivilecchia the Pez are lined up in military formation.

Below that his Pez are arrayed in various arrangements from

looking like they are in a stage show to falling in love. Very

simple changes in layout change the mood. Craig Stephen’s

bottled Pez give the idea of a neglected collection, but he has

another painting with only Hello Kitty in the jar titled

“Prisoner”. Notice that only the painting of Mickey done by

Michael Naples is centered. This befits Mickey being the star and

center of the show and is also complimented by his dramatic

lighting.

Lastly, look at the beautiful paint in these examples.

Study closely how light, shadow, and cast shadow are painted.

What colors do you think were mixed to get some of the

neutrals and semi-neutrals? Did the artist use black paint or are

all the neutrals mixed from compliments or they really darker

and less saturated hues and not neutral at all? Are any of the

whites pure white or are they infused with other colors? How

“painterly” are these works? Is there noticeable brushstroke?

Shoe Studies: Shoes are marvelously descriptive of the person who wears them. In some ways they can reveal more about a

person than their face. Casual? Dressy? Well worn or new? Moreover, shoes also can pose a real challenge to the

average draftsperson: lines of sole, seams, and flaps curve to delineate form, both flat and round planes curve

toward or move away from the viewer, and there are a variety of surfaces and textures to capture with shading.

Shoes are a very handy subject to study all these topics since everyone has shoes and shoes will sit still for as long

as you would like – unlike your little brother.

Shoe studies should be done on a separate

sheet of paper - not in your sketchbook.

You choose the medium. All shoe studies

must have tone or color, however.

Studies can be done of a pair of shoes or

groups of shoes. No single shoes. You can

even do a family portrait using shoes, or

depict your relationship with your best

friend using your shoes.

Toy Block Painting

The objective of this project is

to demonstrate to AP an

understanding of perspective

and shading and your ability to

draw accurately from life.

Studies of blocks can be done in

a variety of media. They will

need to be in color, however.

Observe blocks carefully. Be

particularly careful to accurately

copy scale and perspective.

Light your small still life & push

your range of values. Leave

white. Make darks darker.

Notice the actual color of things

rather than automatically

painting local colors.

If there are no building blocks at

your house, substitute what you

do have. Legos, a Jenga puzzle,

etc.

1. Set up your still life & light it.

Yours need not be as

elaborate a setup. It can be

as simple as setting up blocks

underneath a lamp on your

desk or near the window on

the kitchen table.

2. Block in your painting.

Accurately copy scale and

perspective. Rough in darks

and lights. You can do this

with a gray layer (grisalle)

like this or with a thin layer

of color.

3. Lay in color. Continue to

refine form. Make sure to

notice whether edges are

light or dark. Finished

paintings should have no

outlines. Continue until you

feel the colors are accurate.

Remember compliments dull

and darken. No black paint

allowed! Mix your darks.