Fashion Illustration—Fall Session

Picasso's Bull Series 

I had the students study Picasso's bulls and take note of how he broke down the image, and how he took parts away each time. He simplified the image and brought it to a more abstract form. I then had them do the same thing with their fashion illustration. This is a great exercise in making decisions about what to minus from their image to bring it to an abstract form, yet also be able to recognize the original drawing/painting. Below are black and white and color versions.

Large Fashion Illustrations

Here I had the students first do a sketch from a magazine photo on 8.5'x11" paper. After they had a feel for the drawing they worked in conte crayons and pastels to bring the drawing to an almost life like size. We do a lot of practice drawing to learn proportions. We sketch the figure, either from mannequins, or pose for each other. These large pieces were done at the end of the eight week session, and showcase some of the skills the students learned throughout their class time.

More Summer Camp Fun! (a little late, I know)

 COLLAGE STORIES—ERIC CARLE INSPIRED BOOKMAKING (see link to right to view finished book)

DRAWING

                          

Summer Camp Sketchbooking

Every morning we started camp with a sketchbook drawing. Before drawing, we always began this portion of the day by looking at examples of artist's notebooks, followed by a demonstration of materials or a process. Then, the class was prompted to take on a specific challenge. I also read to them, as well as gave a demonstration in response to the readings, to model a technique or idea. The above movie highlights one student's notebook, followed by still-photo excerpts from others.

Paul Klee

We began this project by looking at Paul Klee’s painting, “Picture Album”. We looked at the painting in a book called Art Start Very First Art books for Children by Ernest Raboff. In the book Raboff calls the painting “a sheet of pictures”, and says it looks like both a treasure hunting game and an ancient stone carving. As a class they searched for all the “treasures” in Klee’s painting, and then made a list of treasures that they would like to include in their “carving”. Klee used paint to make his painting, but I had the children use layers of craypas. I wanted them to have the sensation of actually carving into it, so I sanded popsicle sticks to have a point, and the children carved out their treasures, revealing the black paper underneath. They had free choice of what they included in their art, my only stipulation for them was to    include the “red sun” as seen in Klee’s painting. The results are colorful, whimsical, and personal to each child.

Emily Carr

Emily Carr (1871-1945) was one of the first Canadian painters to adopt a post-impressionist painting style. Later in her life her imagery shifted from aboriginal themes to landscapes. In our class we talked about what we saw in her landscapes, and used them as inspiration. The students kept in mind the movement of the sky and trees, and the concept of foreground, middle ground and back ground.

                    This class was made up of K-2nd grade students. Acrylic on canvas board.

Fashion Illustration

This past winter session I offered fashion illustration for ages 10 and up and it was a huge success. The students learned about the figure (proportion), gesture drawing, and the use of a variety of materials. We looked at different styles of fashion illustrators past and present. Working from photographs, the students were able to  practice their new skills. At the end of the class students worked on their own designs and presented them in a storyboard composition.