3/26/15 2D Design

Today's Class- Tonight I opened with a slide presentation about text as a visual element.   Visual artists have long used letters and numbers in their art, and I presented examples ranging from illuminated religious texts, to details on depicted items. to modern movements such as dada, surrealism, cubism, pop, etc that found ways to use the shapes and meanings of text.  I also showed some examples of wartime propaganda and early 1960's advertising, and discussed how lettering styles and image choices contributed to the meanings and messages.  Then the class began a few portfolio exercises that dealt with those concepts, as well as provide an introduction to ideas we will deal with in some later graded projects.  Meanwhile, I helped individual students print their woodblock black and white book illustrations; tonight's results can be seen above.

How to make this up- The first exercise involved words, designing them to convey their meanings through such variations as locations on the page, size and shape, fonts etc.  The second exercise involved creating a logo and using simple images to convey meanings.  Full details and student examples can be found here.

These are portfolio exercises and can be made up for full credit any time before the end of the semester, however I recommend doing them soon for two reasons.  First, there are a lot more graded projects in the second half of the semester so you'll have less time going forward, and second, these relate to aspects of at least two of the remaining projects and may help prepare you for them.

Homework-  Nothing new, but several students still need to turn in their wood blocks to be printed.  I won't be bringing all the printing stuff again, but I will collect blocks as they come in, print them at home, and bring the results back to class the following week.

For next class 4/2/15-  We are returning to our study of color, which will be part of everything for the rest of the semester.  Bring your 18" x 24" pad, pencil and eraser, all your paints, brushes, palette, palette knife, water container, along with scissors or x-acto knife and glue or rubber cement, as we begin a graded project involving color temperature.