Ms. Myers' Art Class

A Coat of Arms is the arrangement of symbols , colors, and shapes on a shield and it is used to identify families or individuals. Sometimes countries also have a Coat of Arms, like this example from the United Kingdom: A symbol is a solid, recognizable thing—like an animal, a plant, an object, etc. —that stands for something more complex that would be hard to show in a picture or a sculpture. It’s an object with a deeper meaning than just what’s on the surface. Emojis are a great example of symbols. They are simple pictures but you can use them to express your feelings or thoughts. For your assignment, you will design and draw a Coat of Arms with at least 4 symbols that represent your personality, interests, hobbies, family, culture, and anything else important to you. Step 1: Draw a shield LARGE in the middle of your paper. Step 2: Draw at least 4 personal symbols on your shield. You can arrange them however you like. For example: You might draw the Albanian flag if your family is fr...

Contrast is a Principle of Design. Contrast is all about opposites. For this assignment, you will use both contrasting ideas and contrasting Elements of Art. First, choose one pair of opposite ideas to base your artwork on: Fast & Slow      New & Old      Agree & Disagree      Alone & Together Never & Always           Beginning & Ending           Loud & Quiet           North & South Left & Right           Boil & Freeze           Hope & Despair           Allow & Forbid Dangerous & Safe           Closed & Open           Sweet & Sour           Strong & Weak Next, choose TWO types of artistic co...

 Balance is one of the Principles of Design. It refers to arranging the different elements of a picture in an even, equal way. There are three main ways to create balance: Symmetrical Balance (also called Bilateral Symmetry) is when the picture can be divided in half and both sides are the same. Radial Balance (also called Radial Symmetry) is when the picture can be divided into multiple sections, like slices of a pie, and each section is the same. Asymmetrical Balance is a little trickier. The two halves of the picture are NOT the same but feel "equal." You might have two different objects of equal sizes, like this example: You might also have one big object balanced by two smaller objects, like this: For your assignment, you will be making a cut paper collage with three sections - one for each of the types of balance. Step 1: Choose a layout Step 2: Choose your color scheme. Pick a base color and UP TO 4 other colors. Use the same colors in all three of your designs.  In th...

Watercolor Landscape Requirements: Draw a landscape with at least one object in each section – foreground, middle ground, and background. Paint the landscape using at least 2 watercolor techniques. NOTE: if you do not have materials to do this at home, you can complete this during Homeroom time, or talk to Ms. Myers to figure out another time that works. Watercolor techniques: 1.       Wet on Dry a.       Wet paint on dry paper. The way you would “normally” paint. 2.       Wet on Wet a.       Get your paper damp with plain, clean water first. Then paint on top. 3.       Dry Brush a.       Dry off your brush and don’t add any extra water to the watercolor paint. This should look rough and streaky. 4.       Salt a.       Paint part of your artwork, then sprin...

  Wayne Thiebaud: Oil Pastel Desserts Start by completing the practice packet . This is a SEPARATE grade from the main drawing!   Wayne Thiebaud was an American artist who became known for his colorful paintings of desserts. He uses basic 3D forms (cubes, spheres, pyramids, cylinders…) to create his desserts and then adds details to bring them to life.   He also usually used cool colors (blue, green, or purple) for his cast shadows . Cast shadows are the shadows made by an object. This is the shadow you see on the plate or table.   Form shadows are the dark areas ON an object. You can also use cool colors, or another dark color like brown to make form shadows.   Success Criteria: ·        At least 3 desserts (or other 3D foods) ·        Form shadows ·        Cast shadows ·        A background, fully colored ...

Value in art is a description of how light or dark a color is. Black would be the darkest value, and white would be the lightest value. A value scale  is a series of values from light to dark. It can be just white, gray, and black, or it can include a color, like these examples: Artists practice making value scales in pencil because it helps you learn how hard to push on your pencil to get the shade that you want. Even professional artists will sometimes make value scales to "warm up" before a more detailed drawing. You'll be making a "shattered value drawing" which just means including many small value scales to create a 'shattered glass' effect, like this: Assignment Steps: 1. Choose a simple animal, object, or logo. Draw it normally, but make sure it's nice and large on your paper. 2. Draw lines all over your paper and through your drawing. They can be straight, curved, or zig zag. Most of them should go all the way across, but you can experiment ...

  Texture is the way an object feels or looks like it would feel if you could touch it. Every object has a texture! See if you can spot an object near you and describe its texture. For example, my water bottle is smooth  but the cap is bumpy. Some artists use UNUSUAL textures in their art to create something new and original. For your assignment, you'll be adding unusual textures to fruits and vegetables. You can pick three different fruits/veggies (for example, a carrot and a blueberry and a strawberry) or you can do three of the same (for example, three bell peppers). For each fruit/veggie, add an unusual texture  to it. You might draw a spiky orange, or a furry tomato. Don't forget to color your drawings! Success Criteria: Three fruits or vegetables, drawn with three different unusual textures Label the textures Color or shade the fruits/veggies Review Book Success Criteria: Draw one object of your choice Give it an unusual texture (for example, a furry basketball)...

A color scheme is the combination of colors used within a single artwork. Learning specific color schemes helps you decide what color combination will work best for your artwork. Color schemes are based on where the colors are located on the color wheel. For example, a complementary color scheme is a color scheme that uses any two opposite colors - like red and green. You can use the color wheel to find other opposite pairs! Can you find a couple more complementary color pairs? There are a lot of different color schemes, but we'll look at six of them: MONOCHROMATIC "mono" = one, "chroma" = color, so "monochrome" = one color A monochrome picture uses different values  of one single color. Example: light blue, medium blue, and dark blue. ANALOGOUS Similar or "neighbor" colors Example: red, red-orange, and orange COMPLEMENTARY Complementary = opposites A complementary color scheme uses two colors that are opposites on the color wheel. Example: ...

 There are two categories of shapes: geometric and organic. Geometric shapes have regular, even, and usually straight lines. They are shapes with names. Organic shapes do NOT have regular, even, straight outlines. They can be the shape of a real object from nature, or just irregular "blob" shapes. Your challenge is to take something that is usually an organic shape (an animal) and draw it using only geometric shapes! Assignment Steps: 1. LIGHTLY sketch the shape of an animal of your choice 2. Trace the animal outline using ONLY straight lines. 3. Add more geometric shapes inside your animal. 4. Add color using watercolor paint. If you include a background, make sure that you continue to only use geometric shapes and straight lines. Success Criteria: Draw an animal with only straight lines Fill the inside of the animal with geometric shapes Carefully fill in the geometric shapes of your animal with watercolor paint Add a background (if you have time) Review Book Success Cr...