Sketch Marathon June 2014

2014 June Sketch Marathon

Heleni always has surprises up her sleeve to help us out of our creative boxes. Yesterday was no exception.
I usually take group photos of all participants in these challenges but in this time it was impossible because of the time factor.  Heleni collected photographs from various magazines and newspapers which she gave out and we were to do 10 minutes works in any size,format,and materials we wanted. After 10 minutes we passed the photo to our neighbor.  The only stipulation was that the works should be in a finished state.

 After the first round of about 5 sketches we had a break, need coffee and stuff. Then each chose 2 works for a quick general critique. Then we continued on to the next group. The last few were 5 minute sketches. I barely had time to photograph my own work let alone 20 others... These are definitely not works of art but I found this a very good exercise looking at shapes, tones and composition.   Most were photographed with the reference image.

I used mainly charcoal stick with chalk or wax crayons. Paper was regular news print divided into quarter sections 35 x 50 cm.

First Group

Second Group

Project Color Charts

Red Ochre  Maimeri

I have decided that I need to do some color charts.  Every time I start mixing, my intentions to be methodical, I seem to get carried away.  I loose the path and even when I get a really great color I don't know how I got there.  After googling for ideas of a good system I found three that really caught my fancy.

The first was Thomas Baker. He is very amusing and I watched all three videos.  The third was really helpful in how to square out the sections.  I basically used his format for my chart but some other videos also helped me, one by David Grey and another by Pat Fiorello. They are all basically based on the book Alla Prima by Richard Schmid.  A book that will probably remain only in my wish list....

David and Pat  only did 5 values and I ended up with 7 as suggested by Thomas.
So here is my very FIRST serious color chart.  I have done other exercises in color that I am not counting.
I found an old piece of gatorboard and started dividing it to sections.  Used 1/2" masking tape, which I think was a good thing because being not the neatest it kept things relatively clean.

On the left hand side the base color for this chart...... Red Ochre [Maimeri]
On the top the colors for each mixed for that base color. They are not a 50 50 mix because each color has a different staining quality. They mix should tend to be on the side of the base color.
L-R Red Ochre  / yellow ochre lemom yellow/cadmium yellow pale/ultramarine blue/viridian  green/cadmium red/raw umber/crimson alizarin.  All these colors are Daler Rowney Georgian line.  I know these are "student' brand but if I were to use artist brand I wouldn't be painting at all....Total of 9 colors .

Now to make a chart for the other 8 colors.  I found this work very satisfying and very time consuming but well worth the effort. Another plus very therapeutic. .

 Cadmium red

 Ultramarine Blue

 Viridian Green

Yellow Ochre

Required Assignment 3: Work of Art Redux (Track A) Coursera

Required Assignment 3: Work of Art Redux (Track A)

Live!: A History of Art for Artists, Animators and Gamers

We’ve done a bit of research and have identified at least thirty artists who created work based on Velazquez’s Las Meninas. See here for a short list. Now it’s your turn. Make a work or series of works, in whatever media you choose, that takes its inspiration from Las Meninas. You can: 

• take apart and put back together selected elements of the painting (as Picasso did). 
• riff on a theme of the painting (looking and being seen, reality and reflection, a moment in time, stillness, the painter’s process, etc. Note that many of these themes have actually been modules for this course). 

Both of the above are possibilities, but there are certainly more. At any rate your approach needs to be deliberate. Consider the difference between making a “copy” of the original, “appropriating” the original (as a creative strategy) and working “off” the original. Along with your images, post a short (2-3 sentence) explanation of why you did what you did.

After much thought   I felt that Las Meminas  reminded me of the pageants for young girls that sort of exploit their femininity and sexuality.  At my weekly workshop I noticed two Barbie dolls that my friend Riva was working on and photographed them to use on my assignment.  It is a riff on the some of the themes, exploitation,reflections, looking in and being seen and in this case the "photographers" process. A photo montage plus some digital sketching.