Important Reminder

Hey guys!

I just wanted to make sure the sketches you bring in this week are mounted on board and made to look pretty in a professional way. If they are not mounted with borders and taped down, you will lose points in presentation.

Also, some of you asked for the images from last weeks slideshow, they can be found behind this link:  photos

Shakespeare Assignment

10/25 Shakespeare Assignment

Assignment: Final Black and whites Due 11/15
Final Color Due 11/29

Concept:
Using models and reference from class combined with reference that you gather outside of class, develop a scene from Shakespeare.


Overall Assignment:
Create One Full color full page illustration(12 x 18)
and Two finished black and white illustrations one a frontispiece (4w x 12h) the other a spot ( 12w x 6 h) for a book illustrated version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Techniques:
One of the two black and white pieces should include a silhouette.Black and white pieces can be done in any medium as long as it looks good reproduced black and white, my suggestion would be ink or scratchboard.

The Color must be in a wet medium including ink, watercolor, acrylics, oils or in a dry medium such as pastel.





Week 1 
Part 1 Assignment Due November 1st:

Read through the text, read the scene descriptions, pull out areas of text and create 3 strong, clear thumbnails ( at least 4x6 for the big piece mounted on board) for each of the 3 illustrations. This will require you to think about the text you are illustrating and shape and sizing of the text. Collect reference for background and scenery elements. Trees, buildings, props, costumery etc. Bring sketchbooks and camera to the next class. We will be working with models.


Here is an analysis of the scene:
http://m.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/section5.rhtml

Here is the original text:

http://www.shakespeare-literature.com/A_Midsummer_Night's_Dream/5.html

Check "no fear Shakespeare" online for more thoughts on the chapter and characters.

Research, design, planning and conceptualizing are key to making this a successful assignment!

Next Assignment

10/25 Shakespeare Assignment


        Assignment:  Final Black and whites Due 11/15 Final Color Due  11/29
Create One Full color full page illustration(12 x 18)and two finished black and white spot illustrations  one (4w x 12h) the other ( 12w x 6 h)  for a book illustrated version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream.

        Using models and reference from class combined with reference that you gather outside of class, develop a scene from Shakespeare. Costumes, Settings and Props will be important for the final image.
        I will have text from Shakespeare on hand for this assignment to read through and get ideas from.

Week 1 Assignment: read through the text, read the scene descriptions, pull out areas of text and create 10 thumbnails ( 4x6 mounted on board) for each of the 3 illustration due at the end of the assignment. Collect reference for background and scenery elements Trees, buildings, props, costumery etc.

Bring sketchbooks and camera to the next class. We will be working with models.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 3 Scene 1

Read The original Text here:
http://www.shakespeare-literature.com/A_Midsummer_Night%27s_Dream/5.html
SparkNotes( modern translation of text)

http://nfs.sparknotes.com/msnd/page_66.html

Summary
The craftsmen meet in the woods at the appointed time to rehearse their play. Since they will be performing in front of a large group of nobles (and since they have an exaggerated sense of the delicacy of noble ladies), Bottom declares that certain elements of the play must be changed. He fears that Pyramus’s suicide and the lion’s roaring will frighten the ladies and lead to the actors’ executions. The other men share Bottom’s concern, and they decide to write a prologue explaining that the lion is not really a lion nor the sword really a sword and assuring the ladies that no one will really die. They decide also that, to clarify the fact that the story takes place at night and that Pyramus and Thisbe are separated by a wall, one man must play the wall and another the moonlight by carrying a bush and a lantern.

As the craftsmen rehearse, Puck enters and marvels at the scene of the “hempen homespuns” trying to act (III.i.65). When Bottom steps aside, temporarily out of view of the other craftsmen, Puck transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass. When the ass-headed Bottom reenters the scene, the other men become terrified and run for their lives. Delighting in the mischief, Puck chases after them. Bottom, perplexed, remains behind.
In the same grove, the sleeping Titania wakes. When she sees Bottom, the flower juice on her eyelids works its magic, and she falls deeply and instantly in love with the ass-headed weaver. She insists that he remain with her, embraces him, and appoints a group of fairies—Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed—to see to his every wish. Bottom takes these events in stride, having no notion that his head has been replaced with that of an ass. He comments that his friends have acted like asses in leaving him, and he introduces himself to the fairies. Titania looks on him with undisguised love as he follows her to her forest bower.
Analysis
The structure of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is roughly such that Act I introduces the main characters and the conflict; Act II sets up the interaction among the Athenian lovers, the fairies, and the craftsmen (the lovers wander through the forest, the fairies make mischief with the love potion); and Act III develops the comical possibilities of these interactions. As Act III is the first act in which all three groups appear, the fantastic contrasts between them are at their most visible.
The craftsmen’s attempt at drama is a comedy of incongruity, as the rough, unsophisticated men demonstrate their utter inability to conceive a competent theatrical production. Their proposal to let the audience know that it is night by having a character play the role of Moonshine exemplifies their straightforward, literal manner of thinking and their lack of regard for subtlety. In their earthy and practical natures, the craftsmen stand in stark contrast to the airy and impish fairies.
The fairies’ magic is one of the main components of the dreamlike atmosphere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and it is integral to the plot’s progression. It throws love increasingly out of balance and brings the farce into its most frenzied state. With the youths’ love tangle already affected by the potion, Shakespeare creates further havoc by generating a romance across groups, as Titania falls in love with the ass-headed Bottom. Obviously, the delicate fairy queen is dramatically unsuited to the clumsy, monstrous craftsman. Shakespeare develops this romance with fantastic aplomb and heightens the comedy of the incongruity by making Bottom fully unaware of his transformed state. Rather, Bottom is so self-confident that he finds it fairly unremarkable that the beautiful fairy queen should wish desperately to become his lover. Further, his ironic reference to his colleagues as asses and his hunger for hay emphasize the ridiculousness of his lofty self-estimation.

https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B_bICZCCGROfT3hIRl9ZQlpHaTA/edit

Here is the link for the photos for the 3 cloth/figure drawings due this week. Focus on both the figure and the cloth. They should be toned and one of the three needs to be brought tow finished drawing. You can either go with a tonal drawing or a finished line/tone drawing( think Mucha...if you don't know Mucha, look him up) whichever goes best with your sense of style 

The historical portrait finals are due this week. They are to be 3 images, two fully rendered black and white  and one fully painted with wet medium. All should be taped off and in the proportions of 9x12.

Please let me know if there are any questions. Follow up with me with photos of your progress if you need help.

Tips!

Tips for Human Head Drawing
•    loosely gesture out drawing
•    figure out perspective
•    create structure either box or sphere to establish the basic shapes
•    build basic head shape, remember ears are in the middle of the head
•    establish center line which split the head/face in two
•    establish the basic planes of the face, front, side etc. use temple, cheekbone and     edge of chin as guides
•    establish eye line( halfway between top of head and bottom of chin.)
•    mark place where nose sits( halfway between eyeline and bottom of chin
•    mark place for mouth ( halfway between bottom of nose and chin
•    eyes are approximately the same width as the nose
•    establish ears ( ears start at the top of the brow end at the tip of the nose.)
•    remember the structure of the skull will dictate the shadow shapes of the head,     eye sockets, cheekbones, nose and muzzle around mouth(under nose over teeth     and above the chin)
•    begin to place in shadow shapes lightly to help establish positions and     placement.

•    connect shadow shapes. all shadows on one side of the head should at some     point meld together.

•    The important shadow shapes are: The eye sockets, under the nose, the cheek     bones, the upper lip shadow,the shadow under the lower lip(forming the chin)     and the shadow under the chin which forms the shape of the face.

  now start drawing features.If you have established the important shadow shapes    well enough, the head will look like the person
•    The nose acts like a sundial, whichever side the nose is shaded on the entire     face will also be shaded similarly.

Tommorow 10/18 Important!!!

Hi Class-

Tommorow As I've stated in an earlier message, we'll be working on our Historic Portraits in Class so I will need you to bring in the following:

• materials( paints and drawing materials for use in class)
• (canvas paper, or illustration board)
• drawings for the three historic portraits( see previous email for sizes and such)
• all the reference you are using to create the images.
•sketchbooks

•Also, I want you to bring  in the underpaintings from last week and the 20 portraits 

IF you are missing any of these tommorow it will make the class very difficult to manage!

If you are looking for help working with the photographs look at the pdf I linked to for the book Creative Illustration on the blog

Reminder

I want to remind everyone to bring yellow ochre, white, and Burnt Sienna Acrylic paint with them to this weeks class as well as 11x17" canvas paper pads. Bristol will be an ok substitute,but not optimal.

Also, bring in the portraits as far as you have them and the final Traveler pieces.

Thanks,
Steve

Important!!! For this Thursdays Class,

You will be required to have:

Canvas paper 11x14 

Yellow ochre and burnt sienna acrylic paint

Also
Bring in wet medium on the 18th to finish out the portraits of the famous historic people. 

Expressions and portrait assignments due October 18th...Read Carefully

Due October 18th

There are two full weeks for this assignment! I expect all the parameters of these assignments fulfilled or your grade will be negatively affected!!!I want to see all your reference on the day of October 18th!

Expressions!

This assignment is to challenge you to work on creating personality in your figures. Illustration works primarily with humans and expressions can tell more about the story than almost any other element.

Part 1

Find a model with an expressive face( If you must, you can use yourself)
Get a single light source( side lighting from a desk lamp) lighting from upper side right or left works best. Keep the light source consistent throughout the shoot.
 Draw 12 finished naturalistic and fully rendered expression drawings using a finished pencil and/or ink drawing method to complete.
 All the illustrations should be 5" x 7" with a 1/2" border around the entire image.
The drawings must be drawn to the finished poiint that anyone who looks at the drawings can tell the expressions from the piece. Fully rendered to the edges of the panels.

Expressions needed:

Concern
Sorrow
Pleasure
Anger
Frustration
Confusion
Surprise
Agreement
Contemplation
Amazement
Suspicion
Happiness


Also Due October 18th!!!!!


Part 2!!!!!!!!!

Draw 3 fully rendered 8 x 10 portraits of  3 famous historical icons. Must be someone who is recognizable and have photographic or painted reference from a portrait. Something in the portrait must tell something about the person.

Have pieces pencilled on illustration board/ watercolor paper and ready to work in a wet medium on October 18th!

There are two full weeks for this assignment! I expect all the parameters of these assignments
fulfilled or your grade will be negatively affected!!!


For this Thursdays class!!! Under painting!

Canvas paper 11x14  burnt sienna and yellow ochre acrylic paint. Bring other colors as well!

Yellow ochre and burnt sienna acrylic paint

Bring in wet medium on the 18th to finish out the portraits of the famous historic people. 













The elements of strong illustration

Telling the story:
1 Visualization: creating a concrete image based on abstract concepts
2. Dramatization: arranging figures and expressions and elements like lighting to best develop your image
3. Characterization: Casting your characters and settings to best realize the personalities of your characters.
4. Arrangement: Placing objects and figures and other pictorial elements( settings props etc.)
5. Embellishment: How you carry the piece to completion( making sure you have the necessary reference and life drawings to support the image.)

PDFs to read

Here are some PDFs I think you should all read. If you read through pages 18 - 49 ( drawing balls and moving toward drawing heads well) and read pages 97 - 112 on perspective.

Fun with a Pencil

Also, for more information on Composition, and drawing and color, look at 

Creative Illustration