Today's Class- Today we looked at a category that I am calling Monumental Art, two dimensional work on a large scale that permanently covers walls, ceilings, and floors of buildings and other large structures. I showed slide examples of such art, mostly mosaics and frescoes, from antiquity through the present. I also showed a short video that demonstrated the steps involved in creating a large contemporary mural. After that the students began a new portfolio exercise, a mosaic style collage.
How to make this up- I put out a stack of old magazines and had students select a color photo. It must be a photograph of something three dimensional and real, not an artwork or illustration. Students then selected a square or rectangular portion of it to reproduce as a basic pencil sketch. After that, they continued to go through the magazines searching for colors that exactly matched those in the photo, cut out small pieces, and glued them to the drawn version to match the original photo. In the above student example, the original is on the left, the collage version on the right. The specific instructions and additional student examples can be found here.
This is a portfolio exercise and is due by the end of the semester. I suggest working on it before then- it is not difficult, but it is very time consuming.
Homework- Nothing new, but the research assignment is due at the beginning of class on October 24, 2012. Many of you have shown me your chosen artists and artworks for approval, but if you haven't yet, you should do it soon.
For next class 10/10/12- We will work with color again, this time mixing paint. Bring your 18" x 24" pad, pencil and eraser, watercolor paints, and brushes. There may be water containers and palettes there on the counter, but if you don't want to take a chance, bring your own.
