Today's Class- Today the topic was the use of text as a visual element. Most writing systems evolved from images of recognizable things. In some cases the images continued to be used, even if the meaning changed. In other cases (such as our Roman alphabet) the images were stylized and evolved into abstract shapes, as in the capital letter "A" being derived from an image of a cattle skull. In any case. they are all just shapes, which means that letters and words can be part of visual art. Some students made use of letters in their woodcuts and got first hand proof of this. I showed a few dozen slides that included images with letters and words. Sometimes it was written text accompanying an image, and sometimes the letters and words were a means of exploring relationships of color, value, motion, and other concerns of fine art. I also included slides of WWII era propaganda and 1960's advertising, pointing out where the way the text was shown carried connotations besides the direct messages of the words.
This was followed by the class doing two portfolio exercises that made use of text and symbols that carried meanings. While that was being worked on, I helped print all the completed woodcut blocks. Below are today's batch.
After lunch we looked at the woodcut prints and the text exercises done today.
How to make this up- The first exercise involved designing words, using letter styles, sizes, directions, locations on the page, to convey the meaning of the word to the readers. To make sure that those above mentioned characteristics were the things carrying the meanings, the words were all from the Russian language, using that country's Cyrillic alphabet. Below is an example from a previous semester.
When that assignment was completed the students moved on to another thing related to the slides we had seen- creating an advertising logo for an imaginary business. This I'm defining as a business idea that doesn't currently exist because either it is physically impossible, or the idea is too ridiculous to be profitable. The logo should convey the most important concept to the nature of the business, but this time the image would have to carry the meanings without any words. Below is an example from a previous semester.
These are portfolio exercises that must be made up by the end of the semester to receive full credit. For the Russian words exercise it would probably be easiest to wait until you return to class and I'll give you some of the language translation pages the class used today. However the logo you can handle on your own- use a page in a sketchbook, pencils and markers, about 6 inches square.
Homework- Nothing new, but those who haven't yet completed their wood block or had it printed yet should complete it as soon as possible and turn it in.
For next class 11/14/16- We go back to color with a graded project on the topic of color temperature. Bring your 18"x24" pad, pencil and eraser, acrylic paints (which can include colors beyond the 5 hues we used for first exercises), palette, water container, scissors of knife, and glue or rubber cement.
