Today's Class- Today the topic was the idea of a canon of proportions, a set of standard proportions used by a specific artist or culture to portray the human figure. It might be mandated by the state (such as Ancient Egypt's body height equals 18 fist widths), or ones advocated by individual artists or art schools (such as classical Greek measurements that generally had body heights working out to about 6.5 to 8 heads tall). I also discussed examples of intentional exaggerations of body measurements, such as Italian Mannerism and contemporary advertising (see below). Then the class started a portfolio exercise that will be used as part of a future graded project.
How to make this up- Find a photo of a human, one that includes everything from head to toe. Any gender, pose, and amount of clothing are acceptable as long as we see the whole figure. The first part of the assignment is to reproduce the figure in three dimensions using foam core and bristol board (like the recent cars). Because you are basing them on photos, you will have to make educated guesses about what exists on the back side of the figure.
The second half of the exercise requires you to make a second version of the same figure, but this time with certain body parts changed in size. Heads, upper arms, thighs, hands and feet stay the same, but modify the following body parts:
neck- twice the length
shoulders- twice the width
waist/hips- half the width
forearms and lower legs- three times the length
Try to keep the poses the same, but if the new lengths require moving the positions of limbs, you may do so. You may attach the figure to a base to make it stand upright. Above are examples from previous semesters, and below a few from today's class.
This is a portfolio exercise, so the pair may be completed any time before the end of the semester for full credit. However, the original sized one will be a part of graded project in a few weeks, so you may want to make sure that one is finished sooner.
Homework- Nothing new, but the Stone Age natural materials project started last week is due at the beginning of class on October 20, 2015. There will be a critique and they will be returned graded by the end of the day.
Since we are at about the halfway point of the semester, I'm going to remind you that the deadline for withdrawing from the class is October 28th, and that the due date to receive maximum credit for the Museum paper is December 1st.
For next class 10/20/15- We will critique the natural materials project, then start a new portfolio exercise involving pulp cardboard coffee holder trays of the type available wherever coffee is sold as takeout. You should have at least two, but it doesn't hurt to have a third in case you need it. Also, x-acto knife or something else to cut with, and glue.
