jux·ta·po·si·tionˌ(jəkstəpəˈziSH) the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. As a class we made a list of about 25 or so opposite themes like: Hot and Cold, Good and Bad, Up and Down, Fast and Slow, Hard and Soft ……We then individually came up with ways to illustrate about 5 of those themes for example: Snow in the Desert, Halo and a Pitchfork, Elevator Buttons, Snail on a Rocket, Pillow on a Brick…..The goal was to arrange two opposites within a single composition, as we learned that one way to think of Juxtaposition is a balance of opposites.
We spent a week doing value charts and value studies creating many shades of gray. We worked on making smooth changes from black to dark grays to light grays to white. We later used color pencils and made value charts with them. After a lot of practice we sat three pieces of fruit on our desks and came up with some pretty fantastic results.
Value Study: Mrs. BQ
We worked for several weeks creating value scales with different artist techniques. We looked at black and white images through tracing paper and recreated them using the previously learned techniques. Lastly we got a 2 x2 inch piece of a larger image not knowing what it was. The pieces where mostly unrecognizable and appeared to be nothing more that value changes from white, to grays to black. We recreated those 2 x 2 inch images into 4 x 4 drawings and finally pieced them all together to create an image of Mrs. BQ. Our beloved retiring teacher. Withen our six Art classes we created two images, one of Mrs. BQ from around the time she first started teaching and one of her present day.
Interior One-Point Perspective Drawings
We learned how to set up a one-point perspective drawing. We learned to draw specific furniture common to our rooms. We then worked to add personal flair and style to each of them through color choices, Artwork on the wall, accessories and so on.
Surrealism
We looked at five Surrealist Artists and focused on one thing each one of them did specifically within their work that defined the genre. From Ernst we created our own "loplop", from Dali we incorporated everyday objects, from Tanguy we incorporated what we learned from perspective drawing and created a vast, barren landscape and lastly from Miro we designed our own transportation or transcendent device.
It was a long lesson, we played exquisite corpse, we drew our dreams, we finished each others dreams and looked at a ton of Surrealist examples.
Check out our Loplops lesson as well
Loplops
The Surrealist painter Max Ernst coined the term "Loplop" to describe his half bird half whatever-else creatures. Other Surrealist painters played a game known as Exquisite Corpse to come up with thier combination creatures. The results typically looked life like and of course surreal. While working on creating a surreal-like image of our own we spent some time playing the exquisite corpse game. Ideas were shared, combined and elaborated on as we came up with some Ernst-like Loplops of our own
Our Loplops gave us a chance to paint as we turned them into an individual lesson
Ton Schulten
We looked at work by the artist Ton Schulten who is widely considered to be Holland's most successful contemporary painter. Schulten creates prismatic landscapes in vibrant, saturated color, that are openly optimistic, joyful, and stunning expressions of his own inner peace and zest for life. We broke down his work into four sections and learned of four color schemes" Monochromatic, Analogous, Triadic and Complementary. We then applied a color scheme to each section in our own Schulten inspired images.
Greek Vases
No clay, no kiln, no problem. We wanted to make some Greek vases so we did! Definitely our messiest project and possibly the most fun. We looked at many images of greek vases. We looked at different shapes, popular images, common colors and overall basic make up of the vase. Starting with a ballon we made the body and from there attached whatever we saw fit. We brought objects in or we made things from scratch to create the base, the neck, the lip and the handles. Very similar to an additive process when working with clay or sculpture.
TALAVERA TILES
Oh to walk the streets of Puebla Mexico, must be a beautiful sight....Almost as beautiful as walking along the sidewalk of our school after we turned each square into a Talavera tile!