Other things: Time, Seasons & Weather
Art Making Activities
Activity 1:Time
The most interesting time of day to paint is early morning or late afternoon. For this activity take the class outside in the afternoon as the sun is casting long shadows. This also has the effect of making it easier to see objects 3 dimensionally as they are backlight by the sun.
Activity 2: Seasons
Gather leaves from ground outside and place them on a table (can overlap some leaves). Place a white piece of paper over the leaves carefully and use wax or oil crayons (can remove paper on crayons and use the side of crayon rather than tip) press drawing firmly onto the paper to make a rubbing of the leaves. Use autumn leaf colours and change your colours regularly when drawing.
Activity 3: Depth of Field, Landscape drawing
Remember that you can create a depth of field (perspective) in landscape painting with colours. Warm colours come forward and cool colours recede. Either draw a landscape scene from memory or your imagination or draw a place from real life using your observation skills. Using chalk pastels or colour pencils first focus on the background (furthest away from you) landscape using cool colours (light tones of blues, blue/grey and purples) .The next step is to do the middle ground- maybe trees or a river appear in the middle ground (colours should be still cool but gradually getting stronger in tone) Finally draw objects in the foreground (flowers, objects) and draw these using warmer colours (yellows, browns, reds ). Have you created a feeling of distance and space in your work? Tip: you need to overlap shapes and objects so that the background, middle ground and foreground so that there are no gaps or spaces between them. Draw objects further away smaller than those that are close to you.
Activity 4: Weather (Stage 2 or 3)
Look at pictures of the sea during storms and notice how the waves move. Many artists have tried to depict the movement of the sea in wild weather (eg. Hokusai- The Great Wave or Brett Whiteley’s screenprint titled, Waves or painting titled, Thebes Revenge.
For this activity you will focus on movement/ rhythm/ repetition/ and the use of colour. Using acrylic paint mix a variety of blue or green tones adding either black, white or grey paint to create a variety of tints or shades. Paint with the palette you have created to show the movement of the waves in a storm. If you wish you can wait until after the paint is dry to paint or draw a boat that may be trying to sail in the stormy sea.
