Today's Class- We opened today with a slide show of art through history featuring text as a visual element. Around the world, forms of writing were derived from pictures, with images gradually evolving into language symbols. Recognizable words and numerals in art can function both in communicating the concepts symbolized by those items, but also as purely visual elements in a composition. Following that, I assigned two portfolio exercises related to the idea of text and symbols, worked on as I assisted each prepared student one at a time in printing their woodblock project. The results from today's printing are shown below.
How to make this up- Those present completed two exercises, the first involving designing words, the second creating a symbolic business logo.
Descriptive Word Exercise- The assignment was to design three words- using lettering style, spacing, location on the page, orientation, etc to depict each word in such a way that the specific meaning of the word could be determined without actually reading the word. To make sure that the words wouldn't be read, I distributed to each student a few photocopied pages from an English-Russian textbook glossary. The words were alphabetized in English, but the students were required to use the Cyrillic lettering and spelling of the Russian translation. Markers were used to create the lettering, all three on a single sheet of your 18" x 24" pad. Toward the end of class we reviewed them, looking at each student's words and trying to guess the meanings. Today no one guessed one exactly right, but some people came pretty close. This works best with descriptive words (adverbs and adjectives) and words about activities. Stay away from nouns, so we just don't get a bunch of words in the shape of recognizable objects. Below are some examples from previous semesters. You can make this up right away if you wish by using words from a Russian dictionary, or you can wait until next week and I'll give you some copied pages. Below are student examples from a previous semester.
Symbolic Business Logo Exercise- The assignment was to design a logo for an imaginary business. The logo may include images, lettering, or both. The logo should symbolize the main purpose of the business, so that seeing it should let the viewer know immediately what they would do. The business should be imaginary in that it provides a product or service which is impossible in our world, or because the idea is just so stupid that the business would fail almost immediately. Produce both a 1" square and 6" square version of the logo using pencils and or markers. It can appear on the same page as the Russian words. Below is a student example ("Buffalo Muffins") from a previous semester.
These are both portfolio exercises, which can be completed any time before the end of the semester to receive full credit.
Homework- Nothing new today, but if you didn't have your woodblock ready for today, complete it as soon as possible so it can be printed for partial credit. The written museum assignments are due four weeks from today.
For next class 11/17/14- We will go back to our study of color, which will be something we use every week for the rest of the semester. Bring your 18" x 24" pad, acrylic paints, brushes, palette, palette knife, water container, scissors, glue, and pencil and eraser. We'll be starting a new graded project related to color temperature.
