Required Projects
Main Project Descriptions – All three of these projects will need an accompanying paragraph taped to the back, after the final evaluation, describing what you did and what the work is about. Do not cut and paste information from a website! Use your own words (ten or more sentences) to describe what it is that you have done and reflect on the process. This will be factored into your mark.
Project #1 Perception: Drawing on Psychology 15%
This project deals with topics you are concerned about or subjects you find interesting including but not limited to: identity, social concerns, environmentalism and politics. Each student will produce a large-scale drawing that will depict some of these concerns through literal representation and realism. This section is about perceptive skills – indeed copying what you see in front of you. This could take the form of drawing on a theme. As an example the student may take the profile of a person they relate too and use this to create a visual essay on a particular person using photographs and/or life drawing.
Key Words: Emotion, Feeling, Concrete, Actual, Perception, Literal, Recognizable, Expressive, Interpretation, Sensation, Detail, Figuration, The Human Condition
Artists: Louise Bourgeois, Lucian Freud, Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, Paula Cowan, Ben Reeves, Chuck Close, William Kentridge, Trisha Brown
Project #2 Speculative Drawing Using Information 15%
The real power of drawing exists in its immediacy - its ability to capture ideas on the fly. In this section the student will create a drawing over an extended time and could take the form of a mind map, flow-chat, scribbles and doodles. Think of this a plan for something to be built or perhaps it's a philosophy of life articulated through drawn fragments. It could also take the shape of data that you collect in your sketchbook to finally execute near the end of the project deadline. Drawing, in this instance, may be linked with performance and possibly a two-person collaboration. (This will be left up to the discretion of each instructor.) I will also accept computer-aided compositions but only if they are combined with manual methods. We will cover many areas having to do with proportion in this section including measurement and perspective.
Key Words: Perspective, Uncertainty, Theoretical, Wonder, Muse, Creative Play, Venture, Invent, Innovate, Text, Notation, Mapping, Experimentation, Projection, Data analysis, Systems, Propose.
Artists: Olafur Eliasson, Agnes Denes, Mark Lombardi, Alex Hay, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Smithson, John Scott, Richard Tuttle
Project #3 Structure and Abstraction 15%
What will be explored in this project is the 20th Century history of abstraction, which was a complete paradigm shift in the academies even though it came from non-academic roots. In this work I would like you to come up with a drawing in three dimensions – in other words you will have to be able to walk around or through the work. You could utilize string, drawing on pavement with chalk, cut paper. There are many variations and permutations this could take and it will become clearer as the term progresses.
Key Words: Principles of Design, Elements of Design, Non-objective, Non-literal, invisible force description, Micro/Macro distinction, Scientific imagery, the Grid, Minimalism, Geometric, Mathematical, Overallness, Field, Beyond sight, Structure
Artists: Vassily Kandinsky, Kurt Schwitters, Agnes Martin, Vija Clemens, Atsuko Tanaka, Julie Mehretu, Anna Maria, Gego Maiolino, Sol Lewitt, Luanne Martineau, Edward Krasiński, Zilvinas Kempinas, Nancy Rubens, André Masson
Sketchbook 15%
The sketchbook should be used to capture fleeting ideas or do studied drawings. These are usually small works often of speculations. Many great ideas have come about because of small sketches that both chronicle part of your life as an artist and allow insight into a thought process. Sketchbooks capture the world like nothing else and they allow you to make notes about things that you see that perhaps others fail to notice.
Here are some ideas to get you started.
Portfolio 30%
In the portfolio you should have completed six large drawings by the end of the course. What I mean by large drawings are drawings done on a high quality paper with a size of at least 19" x 24" or 48.26 x 60.96 cm. Link for paper.
Bienfang Graphics 360 is a 100% rag is a great non-bleeding, translucent marker paper. It retains true color with permanent as well as water-colour markers and best of all it works with ink. (Bienfang should definitely hire me as a salesperson but I can assure you that I don't want to quit my day job.) If you can find a better paper on the market with the same versatility then you may use anything you want. Just choose a paper that fits whatever project you are doing. If there is a problem acquiring paper - good quality assorted drawing papers such as, Stonehenge, Translucent Mylar, Vellum, Canson are great substitutes.
I also recommend Stadler graphite pencils and white erasers and prismacolour coloured pencils. It seems as though pencils break too easily nowadays. Most are made very cheaply and you will regret buying cheaper versions when your pencils break every time you sharpen them.
A mechanical eraser is also a good investment for doing fine detailed eraser work.
See "Links"--- "Materials" in this website for more details.
Project #1 Perception: Drawing on Psychology 15%
This project deals with topics you are concerned about or subjects you find interesting including but not limited to: identity, social concerns, environmentalism and politics. Each student will produce a large-scale drawing that will depict some of these concerns through literal representation and realism. This section is about perceptive skills – indeed copying what you see in front of you. This could take the form of drawing on a theme. As an example the student may take the profile of a person they relate too and use this to create a visual essay on a particular person using photographs and/or life drawing.
Key Words: Emotion, Feeling, Concrete, Actual, Perception, Literal, Recognizable, Expressive, Interpretation, Sensation, Detail, Figuration, The Human Condition
Artists: Louise Bourgeois, Lucian Freud, Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, Paula Cowan, Ben Reeves, Chuck Close, William Kentridge, Trisha Brown
Project #2 Speculative Drawing Using Information 15%
The real power of drawing exists in its immediacy - its ability to capture ideas on the fly. In this section the student will create a drawing over an extended time and could take the form of a mind map, flow-chat, scribbles and doodles. Think of this a plan for something to be built or perhaps it's a philosophy of life articulated through drawn fragments. It could also take the shape of data that you collect in your sketchbook to finally execute near the end of the project deadline. Drawing, in this instance, may be linked with performance and possibly a two-person collaboration. (This will be left up to the discretion of each instructor.) I will also accept computer-aided compositions but only if they are combined with manual methods. We will cover many areas having to do with proportion in this section including measurement and perspective.
Key Words: Perspective, Uncertainty, Theoretical, Wonder, Muse, Creative Play, Venture, Invent, Innovate, Text, Notation, Mapping, Experimentation, Projection, Data analysis, Systems, Propose.
Artists: Olafur Eliasson, Agnes Denes, Mark Lombardi, Alex Hay, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Smithson, John Scott, Richard Tuttle
Project #3 Structure and Abstraction 15%
What will be explored in this project is the 20th Century history of abstraction, which was a complete paradigm shift in the academies even though it came from non-academic roots. In this work I would like you to come up with a drawing in three dimensions – in other words you will have to be able to walk around or through the work. You could utilize string, drawing on pavement with chalk, cut paper. There are many variations and permutations this could take and it will become clearer as the term progresses.
Key Words: Principles of Design, Elements of Design, Non-objective, Non-literal, invisible force description, Micro/Macro distinction, Scientific imagery, the Grid, Minimalism, Geometric, Mathematical, Overallness, Field, Beyond sight, Structure
Artists: Vassily Kandinsky, Kurt Schwitters, Agnes Martin, Vija Clemens, Atsuko Tanaka, Julie Mehretu, Anna Maria, Gego Maiolino, Sol Lewitt, Luanne Martineau, Edward Krasiński, Zilvinas Kempinas, Nancy Rubens, André Masson
Sketchbook 15%
The sketchbook should be used to capture fleeting ideas or do studied drawings. These are usually small works often of speculations. Many great ideas have come about because of small sketches that both chronicle part of your life as an artist and allow insight into a thought process. Sketchbooks capture the world like nothing else and they allow you to make notes about things that you see that perhaps others fail to notice.
Here are some ideas to get you started.
- experiment with form and mark making variations
- jot down ideas combined with visual notations
- experiment with different mediums
- observe, analyze, test out different combinations and collage techniques
- think about serial work over sustained periods of time - (self portrait every morning at 8AM for 30 days for example)
- make speculative drawings for projects, designs either functional or non-functional or in-between
- use your sketchbook as a diary or journal, recording your interests and activities
- make comments on artwork; yours and others
- attach clippings that interest you
- draw from memory; draw your feelings
- make thumbnails, doodles and scribbles
- record dream imagery (please no eyeballs or brains)
Portfolio 30%
In the portfolio you should have completed six large drawings by the end of the course. What I mean by large drawings are drawings done on a high quality paper with a size of at least 19" x 24" or 48.26 x 60.96 cm. Link for paper.
Bienfang Graphics 360 is a 100% rag is a great non-bleeding, translucent marker paper. It retains true color with permanent as well as water-colour markers and best of all it works with ink. (Bienfang should definitely hire me as a salesperson but I can assure you that I don't want to quit my day job.) If you can find a better paper on the market with the same versatility then you may use anything you want. Just choose a paper that fits whatever project you are doing. If there is a problem acquiring paper - good quality assorted drawing papers such as, Stonehenge, Translucent Mylar, Vellum, Canson are great substitutes.
I also recommend Stadler graphite pencils and white erasers and prismacolour coloured pencils. It seems as though pencils break too easily nowadays. Most are made very cheaply and you will regret buying cheaper versions when your pencils break every time you sharpen them.
A mechanical eraser is also a good investment for doing fine detailed eraser work.
See "Links"--- "Materials" in this website for more details.