Crushed Paper and Memory

The next project dealt with creating mixed media drawings based on memory.  First the teachers drew a crushed piece of paper from observation with full value.  The next part of the activity is that they had to study their drawing for a few minutes along with their crushed paper.  Then they put these two items aside and created abstract drawings/images from memory, trying to keep the drawing in same scale.  The results varied and it was great to see how each person's personality came through when working form memory.  (Images #5 and 6 by B.B. were either for this or later tool project; I really liked the abstract quality of these images - very Picasso/surrealist-esque - but cannot remember which project they were for!  Sorry B.B!)

Mixed Media Drawing class: Collage Drawings (finished)

You can see how line, texture, pattern, and rhythm plays into each drawing.  And how important it is to emphasize that the more mark making one does, the more lines, layered, detailed you can be, the better... (only a few of the finished pieces... if you were in my class and have an image of your finished piece, please email it to me; I'll add it to the blog!)

Mixed Media Drawing Class: Collage Drawings (in process)

I took random images from an old encyclopedia/nature book.  The images emphasized patterns and interesting textures on objects.  The teachers had to take one of these images, collage them somewhere on their page, and be inspired by them to continue/create a drawing around their image.  These first set of photos are as the teachers are working...

Mixed Media Drawing Class, June 4 - 6

Ok.  So I have not finished posting from the Altered Books course.  I promise to add more this summer!  However, I wanted to start posted the most recent course I finished teaching and show some of the in class work.  As the teachers' outside studio work begins to roll in, I'll update.  Goal is to have all posted by end of July.

June 4th we started out with a little "get to know you" drawing/game.  It's called "Exquisite Corpse."  Originally a game Surrealist artists invented, but now other artists use for inspiration as well.  If you haven't done this with an art class, it is fun and a great way to just have students free up their mind and work with line drawing and collage potentially.  Sometimes students think that they can work from memory - but when you have them do it, they are stumped!  Good idea to have reference books available of animals, bugs, creatures, anything that can spark an idea.  Luckily, these teachers came with great imaginations so we ended up with some fun pieces!  One person starts with the first 3rd of the paper on top - the head.  Next person would work on the middle - withour seeing what's on top, only a few overlapping lines.  Last person on the bottom/feet - again without seeing the middle or top.  When they are done, it is fun to reveal what is made!

The one I think that turned out most successful was the one with the alligator head in the first section and then tiger arm in the second.  These teachers were REALLY creative in thinking about the positive and negative space (last image).