Quick Draw #1 - Charcoal and Pencil Portraits

The Quick Draw is a lesson I developed for students to warm up their hands, eyes and minds for the forthcoming lesson we are working on for that day.

The Quick Draw is a timed drawing for nearly 10 minutes and gives the students one specific medium to work in. My goal for the quick draws are to teach the students to do many quick drawings as introductions, then when it comes time to do a drawing that takes longer, they can succeed far more than without the small practice drawings. It is a lesson in muscle memory and technique, challenging the students to make quick adjustments and refine techniques we are learning in class. 

These quick draws were simple portraits of people and animals I found in magazines that showed straight on and profile examples. I drew step by step examples on the white board of how to put the portrait sketch together, then left them to add the details. 

The third grade students created some exquisite renderings in only 15 to 20 minutes. Some students decided to use charcoal to create a background and add value.

Henri Mattise - The Dance (Le Danse)

One of my favorite works of art by Henri Matisse is his painting "The Dance" (Le Danse).

The  oil painting on canvas created in 1909 is now hanging in New York's Museum of Modern Art and can be seen in the same gallery as artists Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet.

 In this lesson I wanted to teach my first graders how to properly draw a human body using shapes. 

When an artist uses circles and ovals to show proper proportion, the human body looks completely different than some normal drawing habits of children at this age. 

Stick figure is the term we use for children around the age of 6 and 7 who rather than perceive humans arms and legs as solid forms, they are simply lines. On the whiteboard I drew a demonstration how to draw the human body in many different poses. Asking some students to stand in various positions, I showed the class how to start with an oval head, an oval body, long ovals for the arms and legs and circles for parts of the body that move. The next step is to use the eraser to erase away all of the inside lines that are not necessary, resulting in a body that shows muscles rather than long lines. 

Each student drew various people dancing around in their own personal, playful dance circle. Students were free to draw themselves, family, friends and even famous characters from pop culture dancing along together in a circle.

Here are some examples of the original sketches. I will be posting the final color process in the near future. 

Michael Heizer - "Actual Size" @ Los Angeles County Museum of Art

If you live in the mid-city neighborhood of Los Angeles, chances are you have noticed a massive rock on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. At first glance you would think this rock may have come from some nearby place in Los Angeles, but on the contrary this rock has had quite a journey. Quarried from somewhere in the hot desert of Arizona, the rock was then loaded onto a massive hydraulic truck only to begin a slow month long journey to our city of Los Angeles. In the wee hours of the night in June of 2012, the rock made it's final descent into the pre-made cement holding place behind LACMA where it will live for a very long time.
the most interesting aspect of this sculpture is the fact that you can walk under the 340 ton rock with ease! A special cement walkway was constructed to hold the rock and allow viewers to go where no man has gone before with such a massive object. The sculpture changes our perception of the world around us and challenges our previous ideas about a rock of this size.

Artist and photographer Michael Heizer was responsible for bringing this massive earth creature to us, but this is not the first time he has brought the art world such formations. Michael Heizer travels to various places in the world to find specific rocks that he uses as photo models. He measures the size and possible weight of the rock then takes photos of the rock using professional cameras. To put the finishing touches on the work of art, he uses computers and large printers to print his photographs in the "actual size" of the rocks. The result are life size photographs that stretch from floor to ceiling and give the viewer the feeling as if the flat photo is three dimensionally popping off the wall.

Please make your way over to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art LACMA

and take the huge elevator up to the top floor of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum

to see Michael Heizner's photos and rock sculpture.

 Photos on the top floor of Broad Contemporary

 

  Photos on the top floor of Broad Contemporary

  

The rock on the hydraulic truck leaving Arizona

 

 "Actual Size" opening day

 My trip to the rock.
Yes, I walked under it. It's safe.

Christo and Jean Claude - Installation on a Grand Level

Christo and Jean Claude are a married couple who have changed the landscape of installation 

art as we know it. Christo and Jean Claude seek to cover all areas of a space by draping various types of fabric over hundreds of feet and sometimes almost a mile in length.

Imagine when you were a child and your parents tucked you into bed at night, the feeling of the blanket running across your body, eventually engulfing you in it's size was soothing and comforting. 

Christo and Jean Claude accomplish the same effect or feeling in nature and in the city. 

Their most recent project came in 2005 installed in New York City's Central Park, "The Gates", in which they constructed hundreds of orange painted metal "gates" with hanging and flowing pieces of orange fabric throughout the entire park. The hanging fabric changed the landscape of Central Park and gave the viewer a constant reminder of the art of installation. 

Blum and Poe Art Show September 8, 2012

The Blum and Poe Art Gallery located on La Cienega Blvd just south of Venice Blvd is a large 3 room space that spares not one inch in their recent show. 

 Using hyper-realist sculpture techniques, Friederich Kunath arranges an array of larger than life penny loafers stuffed with obscure objects, living organisms and of course, cheese.

I will be venturing back to the gallery later this week for photos without 

such a large crowd, but enjoy these for now.

Friederich Kunath 

Lacans Haircut

@ Blum and Poe

September 8th - October 27th, 2012

 A fruit mix

 Toad Stool

 Match Stick

 Seals balancing large sculpture

 This painting is actually about 10 feet wide and 10 feet tall

 Fried Egg. Just how I like it.

 Reminds me of my favorite cheese. 

 Strawberry

 This was a massize polyester pin for your shirt! 

 Meer Cats with binoculars. Amazing.