Color, Unity, Contrast

Today’s essential question: How can I use a color scheme to create unity and/or contrast?

How have the students below created unity through color? How have they created contrast? What ideas do these posters give you for your own project?

 

Next Project: Propaganda Posters

Essential Question: What makes an effective propaganda poster?

Learning Objectives (What you will learn by doing this project):

• I can use visual hierarchy and the rule of thirds to create an interesting composition with a prominent focal point
• I can create art as a means of communication and persuasion

For our next project, we will create a propaganda poster. We will begin by examining posters from World War II, but will spend most of our time looking at modern day propaganda posters. These posters should look familiar. What are some techniques the artists have used to persuade the viewer?

Featured Artist: Shepard Fairey

from artsy.net

“Expanding on the legacies of artists such as Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, Shepard Fairey’s practice disrupts the distinction between fine and commercial art. A major artist of the street art movement, Fairey rose to prominence in the early 1990s through the dispersion of posters, stickers, and murals, related to his Obey Giant campaign, which yielded an international cultural phenomenon. Fairey’s iconic poster of President Barack Obama was adopted as the official emblem associated with the presidential campaign and encapsulates a number of recurring concerns in the artist’s work, including propaganda, portraiture, and political power.”

You can learn more about Shepard Fairey on his official website.

Examples of Shepard Fairey’s work

Project Requirements:

Part I: 3 Thumbnail sketches

You will show Ms. Lawson all three, and she will help you pick the strongest one to turn into a full-size poster.
Here are some examples of acceptable thumbnail sketches:

Part II: Final Poster

• 14×17, 16×20, or 18×24 (you will work smaller with colored pencil and larger with Sharpie)
• Created with Sharpie Marker or Colored Pencil
• Effectively communicates an idea
• Clear focal point created through visual hierarchy and the rule of thirds
• Displays understanding of the principals of design (contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity)
• Contains a text tagline (ie. “Hope,” “Make Art Not War,” “We Can Do It!”)
  Text adds to the design and does not feel like an afterthought
• High-quality craftsmanship.

Things to think about:

• Abstraction vs. realism
• How will you establish a clear focal point?
• Flat design vs. shading
• Mood
• Color Scheme

Today we will:

• Brainstorm potential project concepts
• Create 3 different thumbnail sketches for your chosen concept

New Project: Candy Still Life

Today we will begin working on our candy still life drawings.

Learning Target (“Why are we doing this project?”): At the completion of this project, I can draw realistically from observation with colored pencil.

Here are some examples created by past 10th grade students:

Project Requirements:

• Strong composition (fills paper, follows rule of thirds, balance of positive and negative space)
• Candy still life is photorealistically drawn from reference photo
  • Proportions and angle of view accurately depicted
  • Realistic colors and values created with colored pencil
• Good craftsmanship

Option for customization:

Add something to the background to increase the expressive quality of the artwork. The candy must still be photorealistically drawn from reference, and the background environment must go with the existing layout of the candy. Here are some examples:

Project components/sketchbook exercises:

• photograph and post still life to blog (and Ms. Lawson has approved the composition)
• colored pencil sphere practice shading
• colored pencil candy shading practice worksheet (must complete in order to receive final project paper) – graded
• final still life project (due Tuesday, November 22)