This document provides instructions and examples for several art projects involving musical response, still life drawing, and architecture. For the musical response project, students will create drawings inspired by and incorporating elements of a song, focusing on mood, rhythm, and complexity. They will then select their best work to transfer to their portfolio. The still life project involves practicing gesture, contour, and value drawing techniques to realistically depict objects. Examples of architectural styles and structures from different time periods are provided in a comparative chart addressing elements like materials, scale, and distinctive features. Students are then asked to design their own building using at least two characteristics from the styles studied and to draw it using two-point perspective techniques.
1. Portfolio Project: Musical Response
Pick a song that has a strong mood.
While you listen to it, you will respond to it by drawing. In
your sketchbook, create 3 practise responses.
Somehow you must incorporate your first and last
name into your design.
Focus on the different rhythms, tonal changes, pitch,
harmony, and complexity.
2. Portfolio Project: Musical Response
You will pick your best response from your sketchbook,
and transfer it onto your Portfolio. You may use
coloured pencils, markers, and oil pastels.
You will be marked on these categories:
Creativity – unique images, no copying (10 pts)
Complexity/ Detail – layers (background), blended
colours, fill the space (10 pts)
Neatness – no accidental smudges, tears or wrinkles
(10 pts)
3. Other Artists Who Were Musically Inspired
Piet Mondrian “Broadway Boogie Woogie” (’42-43)
4. Other Artists Who Were Musically Inspired
Wassily Kandinsky “Improvisation 28” (’11)
5. Other Artists Who Were Musically Inspired
Bertram Brooker “Sounds Assembling” (’28)
8. Artist’s Statement: Musical Response
1)Describe the mood of the song you responded to.
Be sure to discuss how certain instruments and
melodies contributed to the mood.
1)Explain how you came up with your design. Why did
you pick certain colours and shapes?
1)Do you think your design is successful overall?
Explain.
9. Your Inspirations
No artist works alone.
Use your sketchbook to record the artists
who inspire you.
Cut out pictures, jot down ideas and quotes,
doodle!
10. Still Life Project
You will experiment with 3 types of drawing to build up your
confidence.
You will create a still life, incorporating at least 3 different
objects.
After practise using calligraphy pens, you will create value
using ink!
GOALS:
To create chiaroscuro (extreme contrast between light and
dark)
To make objects look 3D
11. Types of Drawing
Gesture
basic shapes
Contour
outlines only
Value
realism using
shading
12. How to Create Value
Graded value (blended shading;
using pencil)
Hatching (lines go in one direction)
Cross-hatching (lines go in 2
directions)
Stippling (lots of dots)
13. Using India ink
It stains! Be careful!
Clean all spills immediately!
Demonstrations:
hatching / cross-hatching all applicable to
stippling watercolours also
masking
Practise drawing and shading basic objects with pen &
ink.
14. Artist’s Statement: Still Life
1)Why did you choose to draw these objects?
1)How successful were you in portraying the
still life realistically? Explain how certain
areas could have been better.
1)Explain what you enjoyed or didn't enjoy in
this project? Explain what you found difficult.
15. Architecture
Compare the following
pairs of architectural
structures in the T-charts
provided on your note.
Consider the following:
structure, scale, materials,
interior space,
decoration (colour), rhythm,
distinctive elements (unique
pieces)
Architectural Comparisons
17. Architectural Comparisons
Egyptian pyramids
Stone, covered in
limestone, and capped in
gold
Royal tombs
Buried riches, etc. for the
afterlife
Greek Parthenon
Temple for Athena
Limestone foundations,
marble columns
Golden Ratio (a mathematical
equation for measuring size)
statue of Athena that was
made of gold and ivory
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian
columns
19. Architectural Comparisons
Romanesque
grand cathedrals
Thick stone walls
Arches
Groin vaults for support
Large towers
Gothic
Grand cathedrals
Pointed arch (pointing to God)
Ribbed vault
Flying buttresses for support
Lots of windows to let in light
(Divine inspiration)
21. Architectural Comparisons
Crystal Palace
Built with cast iron and
glass
New technology
allowed it to use more
glass than ever before
Didn't need lights
Built for the Great
Exhibition of 1851, an
international event to
show off new
technologies of the
Industrial Revolution.
Bauhaus
A German school of
crafts and fine arts
This style influenced
Modern architecture in
its lack of ornamentation
and its harmony between
the purpose of the
building and the design.
Simple design;
usefulness was more
important than beauty.
22. Architectural Comparisons
Modernism
Less is more! SIMPLICITY
Focus on function
Lots of glass and metal
(born out of the Industrial
Revolution)
Very little ornamentation
Smooth faced (don’t even
have window ledges)
Seagram Building, NYC, 1958
24. Architectural Comparisons
Postmodernism
Less is a bore!
Return of “wit, ornament, and reference”
Diverse styles (anything goes) – individual
expression!
Design for its own sake (not just for
function)
New ways of viewing familiar structures
Frank Gehry, Concert Hall in L.A.
Rem Koolhaas, CCTV Building, China
25. Architectural Design
Design your own building for whatever
purpose you want. (Keep it appropriate)
Incorporate 2 characteristics from the
architectural periods that we’ve studied.
Draw your building using 2 - Point
Perspective.
26. One-Point Perspective
Creates the illusion of deep space.
The illusion is created by using a vanishing
point & guidelines.
Either lines are vertical or they connect to
your vanishing point.
28. Two-Point Perspective
Creates the illusion of deep space that starts at a
corner.
The illusion is created by using two vanishing
points & guidelines.
Either lines are vertical or they connect to one of
your vanishing points.
Demo (lines on the right side right v.p.
lines on the left side left v.p.)