Project #3 Inspired By A Favorite Artist

Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue, 1931 Georgia O' Keefe- Oil

My Version- Cow Skull 2008 Alesha Fowlie- Watercolour

This project is fairly straightforward; 

1. Find an artist or favorite piece of art and study it carefully.
2. Do your own version which is inspired by this work. It's important that your artwork be original, you dont want to copy but instead try and tap into what inpired this artist or particular work and see if thier muse can spark your work as well.

I suggest using a different medium than the original work; for example if you were to work from a Matisse work you may use charcoal or graphite instead of paint. You may work very realistically from a semi abstract work or vice versa. 

Variation: You can do this on as well as or instead of the above project. Create a drawing inspired by a favorite story, poem or piece of music.
Be creative!

Side Project-Keep a Book

           
Welcome Back!                                                                                                   
Before we embark on our class have a little look at this one optional side project. I would like you to consider keeping a Creative Source Book; it can be a sketchbook, journal, notebook, scrapbook or a combination of all of these elements. You may already do this in which case you may consider ways to make it more effective.
In the Happiness Project Gretchen Rubin wrote about returning to activities that made her happy as a child and trying to relive these experiences as an adult. One of her favorite activities was keeping “Blank Books.” In the pages of these blank hardcover books she would write, draw, and collage pictures, and remnants or collectables from her life.
 As an artist Ive always wanted to keep one of those fabulous sketchbooks some of my artists friends have, the kind that could be featured in Drawing From Life, The Journal As Art by Jennifer New, (which I am currently reading.) But Ive always been more inclined to draw on loose paper which isn’t near as satisfying when you are wanting to look back at this work later on.  In art school we would have to keep sketchbooks for every course and hand it in to show our work processes, (sometimes we would fake this by creating the record after the work was done!) While these records were not always honest they are an interesting record of what I was about when I was in my twenties and I both enjoy and dread looking at them. I’ve been striving lately to create some new records and capture my ideas for projects and paintings. 
 Ive solved my sketchbook reluctance by adapting Gretchen’s Blank book idea suit myself. I find that if I don’t treat the sketchbook as precious and feel free to paste things into it or make notes in it the creative energy flows much more freely through it. Here are some ideas for creating your own Creative Catcher, Journal, Blank Book, or whatever you want to call it. 
 -Spend some time decorating or making a new cover with paint, paper, or whatever you can think of. Make the book itself a work of art and consider making pockets out of envelopes for the inside covers.
-Don’t buy a new sketchbook if you can help it, get an old partially filled one and flip it over, working from the back.
-Consider making your own book
-Instead of a sketchbook or other type of blank book, convert an old hardcover book. You could also use an old photo or card album and cut a bunch of paper to fit into the pockets.
-Try not to  rip pages out, paste something over a rejected page or paint some or all of the drawing with gesso or other type of white paint so you can draw over it.
-Don’t use a book so large you wont carry it around with you.

Inspired By Science And Nature

I may have given you a project similar to this at some point, but the possibilities are endless so I'm sure you won't be repeating yourself too much.  I recommend pen and ink or another medium that allows you to achieve fine detail. Alternately you could work large (18 by 24 or similar) and use pastel or charcoal. I sometimes use acrylic gesso, or some other white paint to paint over, or partially paint over some previously drawn areas. If you add a little water or acrylic medium to your paint you can increase the transparency. While the paint is still wet you can draw into it with the end of your brush or charcoal. If using pens, make sure you allow the paint to dry if you decide to mix media.
Use a heavier weight paper such as card stock or watercolour paper, You may work small if you are going to do a detailed drawing. Consider using a coloured paper rather than white.
 



There are a couple of options for your subject matter;
1. Find a scientific photo like the one above of pollen under a microscope above, (you can use that one if you like)
 2. Go for a walk and find a natural object that has a lot of detail. Get a magnifying glass and look very carefully at it, then do a drawing based on what you see.
Whatever option you choose let your mind wander while you are drawing, allowing yourself to get lost in it a little. At some point you will forget about what the reference object or photo actually is, encourage that process. You may start to think of the drawing as an inspired landscape or an interesting patterned abstraction. Whatever form the drawing starts to take, allow your creativity to take charge.
Ive posted a couple of photos taken at the beach this summer as an example.
Use colour or stick to black and white, either way pay special attention to value making sure you have a good range of lights and darks. Choose a focal point in the drawing and make sure that area draws the eye somehow, either with a different colour, change of type of mark, darkest dark next to the lightest light, or some combination of these elements.

Still Life as Portrait

Image taken from http://thepaintednote.com/

This project is related to objects that are related or represent a person's personality. Find something that you associate with someone special or relevant to your life and draw or paint with materials appropriate to the subject.
If you who love working in portraiture you can render the person with the object, or you can focus on  just the object itself.
Some examples:
If your daughter likes horses you could draw her riding gear
Does your significant other have a favorite coffee cup or chair?
Your grandchild's  favorite toy?
Is your son a musician? Draw his guitar or drum set.

This project examines how colour and materials used in a drawing makes an impact on the visual impact of the drawing.
 This project would be best suited to working from life but photos or memory is acceptable too.  Consider the materials and colour of the paper carefully, what would best suit the personality of the subject of this drawing? These may be different than the actual object you are using for subject matter. Cool blues and grays on smooth paper? Rough charcoal or pastel on heavy textured brown paper? Soft  washes on creamy watercolour paper? Pen and ink on recycled paper like sheet music or other "found" paper? Try to bring some experimental approaches to this project.
If this project moves you, repeat it again with a different person and different materials.