Art+Foundations

= = =Overall Course expectations= Art Foundations course is a fundamentals course for the high school Visual Arts courses. The course is organized in quarter sessions with each quarter focused on a particular area of the visual arts: Drawing, Painting, Ceramics/Sculpture and Printmaking. The course incorporates all aspects of Visual Arts study including Concept, Research and Skill. These aspects are covered in both the Studio (school work) and Journaling (homework) expectations of the course.

Studio works are the larger more complicated images that require specific tools and materials. Criteria and deadlines are set for these projects with enough time allotted to finish during school hours. Journal work is designed as homework that can be completed outside of school hours. The journal assignments encourage practice, research and planning for studio works. Up to five journal assignments are given for approximately each month of the semester. Deadlines are set for these assignments, which should take about one hour/week to complete. Request this homework list from your child for review.


 * Sample Journal Pages (research, exploration, plans, ideas...usually done as homework).** I encourage pages that integrate words, pictures and sketches on all assignments. The documentation of information is important as the also is the design or composition of the page.

**Leaf Expressions in Charcoal:**
observational still life of leaves in class with a focus on values and the elimination of line in a drawing.




 * Experimenting with Pastel techniques and Complementary Colors:** Focusing on observation with the integration of complementary colors to accent the image.




 * Pastel Expressions of Chinese Cultural Still Life:** focusing on observation, composition and color mixing skills to develop a still life image of Chinese objects in pastel.


 * Ink Manipulations:** manipulating ink blot into a meaningful image (ink, acrylic, stamps, mixed media)




 * Figurative Exaggerations:** charcoal portrait observations with a expressive body depicting a particular idea

Paul Klee Henri Matisse Diego Rivera Pablo Picasso
 * Large Painting Reproductions:** group painting of a famous artist’s image to: Klee (Switzerland), Matisse (France) Picasso (Spain), and Rivera (Mexico) (acrylic and watercolor paint) focusing on the development of a concept and composition as well as use of the Art Elements and Principles in the construction of an image.


 * Three Part Fruit and Medium Exploration:** Painting from observation in waterolor, creating a cropped and manipulated version of the fruit in Photoshop and reproducing the Photoshop image in oil pastel.


 * Exam Piece/Personal Painting:** Conceptual and meaningful images created with influential assistance of two or more artists but with a personal choice of concept, image and use of acrylic and collage materi//als. In this case students Developed a painting with acrylic using Aesop's Fables as conceptual starting point.//



//**Second Semester:**//
Throughout the second semester the Art Foundations Classes focus on sculpture and printmaking.


 * Insects and Insect drawings in colored pencil:** students will draw and research a chosen insect that will be applied to a pinch pot, culture pot and finally a mixed media sculpture. This first exercise is about getting to know the insect from multiple angles.


 * Pinch Pots with texture, applications and cuts:** students created multiple pinch pots before developing one to it's final state. The final pinch pot included needed to include an interesting shape, textural qualities, cut outs for candle light to show and attachments. This is a beginning project to get to know clay as well as the techniques and possibilities in working with clay. Experimentation with finishing techniques will include the use of oxides as well as glazes on the surface of the pieces.


 * Culture Pots:** students will focus on coiling techniques in order to develop the likeness of a researched pot from a particular culture. They will focus on the form of the pot at first but will then integrate their insect designs into the surface of the pot by cutting, attaching, texturing and glazing the piece.

Insect sculptures: Using the insects already researched, students will apply the insects into a third image, from drawing, to functional piece and into a fine art sculpture. Students will use mixed media in order learn technical qualities of developing a three-dimensional: wire, string, papers, flat and round reeds, bamboo and decorative materials.



