PRACTICE CRITIQUE WITH ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES
ELEMENTS OF ART
1. Line
o Directions: Vertical , Horizontal , Diagonal
o Types of line: straight , fat , squiggly , zig zag .
2. Shape (2-dimensional): square , triangle , ---- Form (3-dimensional): cube , pyramid
o Types of shape/form: Geometric is usually man made such as square , triangle
o Organic is from nature such as trees, flowers, people.
3. Space: foreground, middleground, background.
o Space is positive – the main objects in the art, OR negative – the background
4. Colour schemes we explored this year.
o Warm – yellow, orange, red
o Cool – blue, green, purple
o Complementary (opposite on colour wheel): orange and blue, red and green, purple and yellow
o Monochromatic (one colour): all blue, or all orange, or all red, etc.
5. Texture is how something feels. It might feel bumpy, rough, soft, hard, smooth, ….
6. Value is when it is light or dark. Pencil shading and colours might be light or dark (light blue and dark blue).
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
1. Emphasis – you have primary and secondary emphasis. Use the rule of thirds (tic-tac-toe) to locate your primary emphasis.
2. Movement – the eye moves from primary to secondary emphasis and back to primary emphasis. Usually line moves the eye.
3. Balance – the central axis divides the art in half.
o The work is usually asymmetrical balance – meaning it is “different” on right and left side of central axis. It is still balanced.
4. Contrast – a strong difference
o Contrast in value – lights to darks in pencil or colour (light to dark blue). Mention that you used a spot light on white still life.
o Contrast in texture – rough, smooth, bumpy, soft, hard, jagged, …
5. Pattern – most art has some “random” patterns (trees randomly placed in background, random lines in the shading, …)
6. Unity – the artwork feels like it is one work of art. It may have similar types of lines, colours, textures, values, etc. over the entire surface. A work of art that is a red, white, and blue flag on left side and a pencil drawing of a lake with ducks on the right side would not be unified.
When you chat with the juror, talk about: J
1. The project – What were you expected to do for the project?
2. The process – What steps did you take to do the project?
· For the landscape in India ink and marker: Talk about how you sketched leaves, pine cones, bark, etc. from life to understand nature. Talk about how you worked from an actual photo you or family took to avoid copyright issues. You could not outline. Tell about the difficulty of using India ink. Explain how you used alcohol and salt for textures. Explain how you achieved contrast in texture and value. Explain how you kept starting over and over till you understood the process.
· For the white still life: Talk about how you had to lightly pencil in all the forms. Explain how it was difficult and you had to start over several times because you outlined too heavily instead of shading the forms. Explain how you used a viewfinder to find the best composition, overlapped the forms, sighted the proportions of the form using your pencil in front of your eyes, noticed the lights and darks with the spot light, showed strong contrast in lights and darks by shading, shaded the background (negative space), cleaned the smudges? Explain how you learned to use the kneaded eraser and a good white eraser. Did you use graphite stick? Tell how you learned about geometric forms (cube, cone, cylinder, sphere)? Explain how you shaded the cloth.
· For the self-portrait in pencil: Tell how you looked at a DVD of Chuck Close and how he drew his face huge. Explain the proportions of the face (an oval divided in fractions to place the eyes, nose, lips, ears, and hair in the right locations). Talk about how it was hard to draw the hair high. Explain how you did the hair. Explain how you drew the eyes, nose, lips, and ears without outlining.
· For the blind contour: Tell the judge about drawing your face with hand in paper bag so you could not see your drawing. Tell the judge the difficulty with not looking at yourself and how funny you looked in the drawing. Explain that you had to choose a colour scheme (read colour schemes above). Explain for the judge how you had to show highlights with the warm colours and shadows with the cool colours. Explain how you had to draw the things behind you in the mirror and images about yourself for the negative space.
3. Tell juror that you worked from life (a white still life, a drawing of you looking in mirror). If it was a photo for the landscape, explain that the photo was taken by you, mom, grandmother, teacher, …
4. Explain the media (materials): pencil, graphite stick, Prisma pencil, oil pastel, watercolour
5. Explain your composition – how you used the “rule of thirds” (the tic-tac-toe lines) to decide where to put the primary emphasis.
6. Tell what problems and successes you had with the media. For example, watercolour was hard to control, I enjoyed spraying watercolour with alcohol and salt, oil pastel smeared, could not get dark with a pencil, etc.
7. Explain that you had to choose a colour scheme. Know the colour schemes listed above.
8. Remember that the still life and portraits are “forms,” not shapes. The white still life consisted of geometric (manmade) forms. Your self-portrait was organic form (from nature).
9. Tell the story about you behind the work. What does the work tell about you? Are you shy and hardly talked when little and the cool colours show that you are shy? Are you outgoing and love to talk and the warm colours show that?
10. When you did the landscape in India ink and marker and worked from a family photo, tell the story behind the photo. Did mom or grandmother take it? Did you swim or hike or play there? How old were you then?
11. Talk about the elements and principles of design: What is the primary emphasis? What moves (movement) the eye from primary to secondary and back to primary emphasis (vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines)? Show where there is contrast in texture. Show the contrast in value and how you achieved it. Explain that it is asymmetrical balance because it is different on left and right side of central axis.
12. Explain what is the one thing you would change if you could. Explain what you like most in your work. Tell them favorite artists.
Here is an example of a chat with the juror: J (Do not memorize this. By looking at the art, it will tell you what to say.)