23 September 2008

syllabus

art-4o1-oo1 & art-4o1-oo2
life drawing 2
fall 2008
monday/wednesday
2:30 – 5:35 pm
applied arts 303

save all drawings done during the semester

pre•requisites
you must have completed life drawing 1 (art 3o1) before participating in life drawing 2.


course•objectives
in life drawing 2, you will:
  • deepen your understanding of artistic anatomy.
  • refine your use of line, mark-making, and value to describe the figure in illusionistic space.
  • wrestle with complex drawing issues such as exaggeration and distortion of forms, description of the environment around the figure, development of multiple-figure compositions, etc.
  • expand the use of media, scale, and point of view in your drawings.
  • examine ways of representing the body.
  • develop and research ideas, concerns, and obsessions you want to attend to in your drawings.
  • look at historical and contemporary examples of other artists’ representations of the figure.
  • find source material and imagery for creating your own drawings.
  • use writing to explore influences, clarify ideas, and analyze drawings.

coursework
i expect you to
  • attend class
  • give considerable focus and energy to the drawing process, ask questions, engage in class discussions, communicate with me any concerns about the class or course work
  • complete assigned course work:
in-class drawings
homework assignments
blog posts
final project

attendance
it’s important that you are in class—for access to the model, to hear comments i make, and to experience drawing in a studio setting. the class happens because all of you are here working together.

let me know via e-mail if you can’t make it to class.

rely on your classmates to show you drawings and notes you may have missed.

final exam
we will meet during the final exam time:
friday, december 19 from 2:00 - 3:50 p.m.


grading policy
• your grade will be based primarily on your final e-portfolio in which you showcase your learning over the semester and best examples from the class. this e-portfolio will include gesture drawings, long-pose drawings, maniken work, and blog summaries.

• a mid-term e-portfolio will be graded to give you an idea of your standing in the class at that point, but may be overridden by the quality of your final portfolio. In other words, the two grades will not be “averaged” for your final grade.

• your grade will also be affected by such “subjective” qualities as these:
1. are you present?
2. in mind as well as body?
3. open to suggestions?
4. helpful in class discussions?
5. awake during lecture time?

it is part of my job—my responsibility—to give you a grade that lets you and other art “authorities” (other professors, employers, grad schools, gallery owners, etc.) know how your final portfolio and overall attitude during class measure up to given standards.

one useful way to think about grades is to consider them guides as to how other art professionals (besides me) would view your portfolio. how would a design firm see your work? a graduate school acceptance committee? other professors in the art & design department? gallery owners?

if i imagine i am an employer of designers, an A would mean you could start right away, a B would mean you might get hired if you get some more experience and refine your portfolio, a C would mean you are not ready for the job.

likewise, if you are considering graduate school, an A would mean your work is of the quality that would get you accepted into a grad program, a B would indicate that you might get accepted if you worked on your portfolio some more, a C would mean you are not ready to apply for graduate studies (in drawing/life drawing, anyway).


materials
newsprint (18" x 24" or 24” x 36”)
large drawing paper (Strathmore 100 lb. rolls, 42” x 10 yds.)
other drawing paper and supports, depending on your needs
drawing board and clips
masking tape
ruler
charcoal
charcoal pencil
conte
conte pencil
erasers
ink with pen or brush
pastels
x-acto knife
sand paper

texts
atlas of human musculature in clay (volumes 1 – 5), jon zahourek, ed. kenneth morgareidge, zahourek systems, inc., 1994.

in addition to the texts, each student will be checked out a half maniken for his/her use during the semester. The manikens are property of uw-stout instructional resources services. you are responsible for the maniken checked out to you. if the maniken is missing, lost, damaged, etc., you are financially responsible to replace it through irs.

videos
world famous lectures on artistic anatomy & figure drawing
robert beverly hale

lecture 1 rib cage [78 minutes]
lecture 2 pelvis [ 81 minutes]
lecture 3 leg [74 minutes]
lecture 4 foot [ 72 minutes]
lecture 5 shoulder girdle I [77 minutes]
lecture 6 shoulder girdle ll [ 68 minutes]
lecture 7 arm [76 minutes]
lecture 8 hand [80 minutes]
lecture 9 head/skull [80 minutes]
lecture 10 head and features [97 minutes]

these are available in the library.

art education artifacts
the course objectives of this course meet:
• wisconsin standard 1: the teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches.
• uw stout school of education domain 1a: demonstrating knowledge of content and pedagogy.
• wisconsin standard 9: the teacher is a reflective practitioner.

portfolio artifact: final project
• art education students will be required to reflect in writing on this artifact.
• art education students will be required to upload papers and digital images of their studio works into their e-portfolios.

22 September 2008

gray's anatomy


here is one of the many links to images and text from gray's anatomy:

http://www.prohealthsys.com/anatomy/index.php

noticing

assignment for monday, september 29
  1. finish a vertebra/rib connection drawing if you haven't done so
  2. post the written noticing comments you wrote for karen, nou chee, sai, xai, and kalvin on their respective blogs.
  3. karen, nou chee, sai, xai, and kalvin: post images of your vertebra/rib drawings on your blogs so that others can post comments on them.
  4. sue and mike: post images of your homework, including the comments tim e-mailed to you from the class session.
  5. everyone: visit gallery 209 before friday, september 26. there is a show up by several students who studied and made art in germany last year. choose one piece or one series by an artist and spend 30 minutes noticing what is happening in the work. write or speak these noticings (i can show you how to audio comments if you'd like), addressing the artist.
  6. post this writing/audio on your blog with the corresponding images.
  7. e-mail this post to the artist.

16 September 2008

fig drawing


fig drawing
here's a great figure drawing blog with beautiful examples. you'll want to come back to this one. from the profile info: the blog's creator is chris muller, teaching on fig(ure) drawing at new york university's tisch school of the arts, in the design for theater and film department.

here's an image on the rib cage:

12 September 2008

art 4o1-oo1 and 4o1-oo2 blog groups

group one:
karen barthels (Life Drawing)
chris mattox
michael tentis
kalvin yang

group two:
megan harder (Life Drawing)
sue her (xue life drawing)
xai lao (mr. x. l.)
nick ross (wisconsin winter world)

group three:
nou chee her
andrea kappelman (sketchkapp)
nicole nelms (life drawing ii)
sai xiong
alex courier

group four:
alan briggs
time howe (drawing board)
chrissy pergande

group five:
noah berkeland (figures, forms, and life blogging)
miranda haugli (in the name of art)
kalyn meisner (figures)
ashley suddendorf (landing strip)

responding

assignment for tuesday, before class: read your group members blog posts and respond to each of the other members in your group by leaving a comment on their blogs.


here are a few ideas as you respond to your group members' blog posts:
  • look at their work and read their writing carefully, taking time
  • as you begin to respond, write what you notice about the images/text, what sticks out in your mind, what you appreciate, what you've learned
  • avoid giving advice
  • instead of giving advice, ask questions: what do you still wonder about after looking at their post? what would you like to know more about?
  • while you are responding, think about how you would like to have your images seen and your writing read. what would you want people to ask you about? or notice about your work? what questions would you like them to ask? then use those thoughts to guide your response to others.
  • as i have mentioned a few times, these blogs are yours. individually, and in small groups, and for the larger class. take ownership of this space by being an active, supportive, questioning, thoughtful responder in your small group.

11 September 2008

meditations

A Breathing Exercise (3:11)
How simple attention to breath enhances our awareness and enjoyment of the present moment. Courtesy of Sounds True.

Calm Waters (3:22)
Using the metaphor of a mountain lake, this meditation focuses on calming turbulent feelings. Courtesy of Sounds True.

click here to listen

more about thich nhat hanh

10 September 2008

assignment

life drawing two students:

your assignment:


create a blog post in which you present yourself to me, the other life drawing students, other art majors and faculty, and even outside art & design professionals who may now or in the future see your blog. present yourself as the artist you are now, at the beginning of the fall semseter 2008.

start by introducing yourself (remembering this is a professional space). where are you from? what concentration/year are you at stout? how did you choose your concentration? where do you hope to go after stout? what does your ideal life as an artist/designer look like?

include at least three images. ideally, these images will be of your best artwork or designs you have produced as a student at stout. if you do not have access to those artworks, present the best that you have.

write at least one paragraph for each image: describe your process of creating it, what problem you were trying to solve, what course it was for, what you trying to achieve, why you think it is a successful work, etc. you do not have to follow these questions exactly. they are examples of questions to ask yourself as you write about your work.

basically, show and tell us who you are as an artist through texts and images. begin your story of this semester in life drawing.

today during class, i will assign small groups so you will each have three (+/- depending on the class numbers) students to respond to over the weekend.

if you haven't created your blog yet...

...you're falling behind!


alex courier
nicole nelms
chrissy pergande
ashley suddendorf


also, all of you please check for your blog in the lists to the side and let me know if your blog is in the wrong class section. this organizing of names and sections is hairier than i thought it would be.


p.s. is anyone's blog titled "the cage"? it is in my "blogs i'm following" list, but there are no posts on it yet and i can't figure out who it belongs to. let me know!

let me know if you need help creating your blog, sending me the url, or posting your first assignment. or if i have somehow missed what you sent me.

06 September 2008

population:485

for a wonderful story of a small town in wisconsin (new auburn, an hour north of here).

michael perry is a writer who embodies both the guy from the small-town (supposedly "uncultured") with the meditative story-telling, acute observations, and careful language of an artist.

he writes the story from the perspective of a volunteer fire fighter--so you can imagine how he gets into the realities of life and death, even from chapter one.

as a visual artist (who grew up in small-town iowa myself and now call wisconsin home) i really appreciated perry's observations, his humor, and the way he weaves together the characters and events of his hometown to tell the story of his life, and how he found his place in a community.

this is the book we read this year at stout for into the book. the library has a web page on it, too. here


find an excerpt here:
chapter one

an audio excerpt here:
harper collins

& perry's website:
sneezingcow.com


04 September 2008

animation podcast


here is the podcast i mentioned in class yesterday. this website/radio station from PS1 has a ton of good info.

03 September 2008

advanced life drawing (for those of you taking LD II for the 2nd [or 3rd, or 4th] time)

advanced life drawing students
your assignment:
  1. create your blog as listed in the previous entry.
to begin, as one of your first blog entries, write your answer[s] (as part of a professional space, but also including enough of your own ideas and self in the writing to make it meaningful to you) to the following questions:
  • what would you like to spend at least half (maybe the whole) semester learning about?
  • what field of study does it typically reside in (psychology, biology, english, art history, etc.)?
  • what interests you about it?
  • how will you use/incorporate the figure to explore these questions?
  • what is your planned method of investigation and research?
  • where will you learn about this subject?
  • what media, scale, format, etc. will you use as you create your drawings?

this writing assignment will begin a half-semester project as described below (see images and link below):
  1. create a body of work (due at midterm, approximately October 23) in which you are asking a question, researching a new topic, learning about something you'd like to know more about.
  2. rather than simply creating drawings that are expressive, creative, beautiful, etc. you need to begin with the idea of learning something.
  3. this something does not have to be art-related, though it can be.
  4. find a subject that you'd like to explore, question, learn about, become familiar with through drawing.
  5. research it by reading, observing, and drawing.
  6. refine/redefine your questions about your subject.
  7. create more/finished drawings by midterm.
  8. we will discuss this in more detail in class and have scheduled one-on-one time as well as group critiques.

learning by drawing





first things first
















the first assignment for each of you is to:
  1. create your own blog for this course. you can do this at blogspot (where this blog is hosted) or any other blogging site.
  2. send a comment or link to this blog (www.lifedrawingtwo.blogspot.com) indicating your blog's title and url.
  3. your blog will be the place you upload images of your drawings, images of your classmates' drawings for comments, and create your own set of information relating to the course.
  4. your blog will serve as a type of electronic sketchbook--a public one, one that will be available to me and the other students in the course.
  5. it will also serve as a type of portfolio, or the beginning of a more formal e-portfolio that can build/merge into a professional tool as you move through your curriculum at stout and out into the art & design world.
  6. your blog will be a professional space for you to track your progress in life drawing 2, to reflect on your process and work, and to create/present your self as an artist who has particular interests (for one reason or another) in life drawing.
  7. your blog will offer images, links, and other information that will help other students in the course learn about you and life drawing--consider it a place to present ideas that you may not have time to in class, especially if you are the quiet type who has difficulty speaking up in class.
  8. your blog will be in-progress, just as a sketchbook.
  9. it will be graded to the extent that it lives up to the criteria i set for it, and sometimes i will give you specific assignments to due on your blog. i also expect you to work on it on your own, to have a certain number of posts that you create without my prompting.
  10. so... it is a professional space, an artist's space, and will have some criteria that will be graded in the end, but part of the criteria will be to be reflective in your blog, to write with language that is authentic, to be honest with yourself and your classmates. and to feel free to "express yourself" (though i hate the stereotyped meaning of that phrase, it can still mean something if you're serious about it) through your images, writing, links, and comments so that the viewer/reader of your blog can get a sense of who you are as an artist and how you are different than any other college student/emerging artist by what you choose to include in your blog.


sketchbook stack photo: http://www.fixpert.com/artwork/illustration-history/

villard sketchbook image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Villard_de_Honnecourt_-_Sketchbook_-_17.jpg
  • Author: Villard de Honnecourt
  • Source: Sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt (about 1230)
  • MS. 19093 French Collection, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (No. 1104 Library of Saint-Germain-des Prés until c.1800)

welcome










life drawing 2 students:

welcome to (one of) our new home(s). and semesters.

i am not shy about my strong dislike of D2L (or learn@stout)--mostly because it is so non-visual. how are artists supposed to learn like that? or have a desire to do so?

this blog is my answer to this. it will be the place to look for assignments, discussions, examples of artists' work, etc. plus anything else i find of interest or relevancy to what we're working on in class or just in general what may interest life drawing artists.

feel free to pass on information and links that i should add.

this blog will, of course, be a work-in-progress, as the semester (and academic year[s]) moves ahead.

so...here's our best to a new semester (fall 2008).