ART
FOR MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL
IMAGINATION AND IDEAS
How to Develop Your Ideas
AN IDEA LIST CONCEPT: "Primary Breakup": (The content
of Pictures)
First:
Think of the whole picture space as a puzzle which has
numerous pieces which become the design of your drawing or painting.
Phase 2 is developing these areas with detail. In the attempt
to become more creative, the first consideration for you and me as artists
is deciding what to do. What will be subject of my work? The suggestions
offered in this lesson describe how you can change your thinking and your
ideas to make visual creations more interesting and more creative. One
of the tell-tale signs of unskilled and untrained artist is that their
pictures often lack creative Visual content.
Without Visual Content, pictures are not very interesting
and do not engage the interest of viewers. Simply put, without creative
Visual content the picture is BORING! Breaking up the Space is the beginning
of developing visual content. I refer to this stage of development as
"primary breakup forms or objects". You can think of this as part of the
creative process. It is idea development. It is thinking through the image
content in a picture. A less creative, less interesting, picture will
have a short list. Following is a sample of the idea building process
where we actually think about what goes into a picture:
Sample of how to develop an Idea List:
Selection of Forms or Objects: What will I choose for
my theme? You are now faced with an infinite set of choices. You need
to target one. What is current in your life? What do you like? What do
you know something about? What is meaningful or expressive to an idea
or attitude?
WHAT?? Here is one random example. I choose "Garden Patch" as the subject
or main idea of the picture.
Primary Breakup Form 1 foreground earth with a watermelon
(If we stop with that one watermelon it will be very boring.)
- - - - - -Form 2 Interesting tree -- others further away
- - - - - -Form 3 Flowers or Vines
- - - - - -Form 4 A interesting fence
- - - - - -Form 5 Bird on Fence
- - - - - -Form 6 Scarecrow
- - - - - -Form 7 Distant Hills
- - - - - -Form 8 An old tractor
- - - - - -Form 9 Skyline
- - - - - -Form 10 Clouds in Sky
After "brainstorming" the list like the one above, we can think about how place and organize these forms in our picture. Each object listed will have its own space, size and qualities.
The use of the space, the size and position of these objects, and detail. This problem is focusing on PRIMARY BREAK UP. Therefore, do not worry too much about detail today. The final part is the step of filling in the open areas of the primary breakup form. This phase can be called development where you add your interpretations of color, tone, texture or detail so that your spaces become rich and visually interesting. If you look at a picture by Maxfield Parrish you will see the simplicity of the basic primary break up but the developed pictures are AMAZING because of the wonderful color, detail and textures that he uses inside of the primary outlines.
EXERCISE:
ON A 8 x 11 SIZE PAGE
Make a list that is similar to the example above. List your main theme
object, and then think of other objects which can fit in the environment
of the theme object.
Art
Ideas:
Interpretation of Themes:
About ideas: Any idea when transformed through a medium
can become art. But --No idea, no art. Ideas are not hard
to find. They come from our reactions to life. The following
list came from a single brainstorming session. When one
brainstorms you come up with a whole lot of ideas, some
will be useful others may just be discarded.
Time:
Seasons
as time: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer; A season to ---
(plant, harvest, build, grow, suffer, destroy, want, plenty,
trials; Time as Age; age of innocence, golden age, in
the prime, old age; Time the destroyer, victim of time,
man's dilemma in the age of machines.
Love: Self
absorbing love, brotherly love; Love as lust; Lust for
--- (money, power, fame, blood) Love unrequited love,
unloving, love goddess; Love of --- (country, justice,
peace, security, etc;
Places, Realms: Realms as rooms; Old rooms, large rooms,
small rooms, pool rooms, bar rooms, school rooms, light
rooms, dark rooms; Realms as worlds; new world, old world,
day world, night world, business world, other world, other
worldly; Outer space, Fairy land,
Mother Goose land, --- Sea places, air places, rocky places,
sandy places, glassy places, grassy places; mountains
and seas, animal homes, the realm of dreams;
Feelings: Joy,
Sorrow, Loneliness, Longing, Longing for --- , Confusion,
Frustration, Hatred of -- Social Concerns:
Roles of people; Issues of life and death; Heaven and
hell; Peace, Security, Being with people; Parties, Wild
or interesting characters, Caricatures; Mothers, Fathers,
Clergy, Human rights, Generation gap;
Institutions: Home scenes;
Sport scenes; Entertainment industry; Hospitals, Politics,
Religious themes; Art Abstraction:
Abstract art can
be of several kinds, One kind is "expressionistic" a category
of art that brings emotional expression through distortion
and extreme colors. Color can become symbolic such as
green for envy and red for passion or energy; At times
expressionism appears distorted or chaotic and quite out
of control. This kind frequently gets a response like,
"My two year old kid could do better than that!" In cases
like that the view is probably missing a lot of the visual
content within the work.
Another kind is
intellectual abstraction that tries to develop a sense
of relationship between lines, forms and color. Relationship
can be such as small to large, dark to light, rough to
smooth, curved to strait, etc. Sometimes this kind of
art can be very precise but yet hard to interpret. Symbolism
is another area for free interpretation. The actual content
may use objects to represent other meanings than "reality."
Art Ideas: Viewing
and Interpretation Reality Real subjects taken from Nature
provide an unlimited source for drawings, paintings and
design.
Human beings have interpreted the natural world
since before the Egyptians. Approaches to interpreting
reality can vary a lot. From photo realism to semi realism.
Some artists use nature for a source of "Motifs'
which are then used in a decorative crafty way. Clay designs
with fish on them for example or clothing printed with
flower patterns. Being able to draw or paint realistically
is not the only basis for 'good work' from nature. It
is an even more important to bring out a personal viewpoint
or interpretation than to make it look like a photo. Ordinary
sights from everyday life would be a great treasure if
we only had them from some observer who lived hundreds
or thousands of years ago. Likewise your own every day
life and environment would be a treasure to anyone who
might wonder what life was like when you went to school
as a young person.
Human subjects:
Working, Playing, Studying, Working out, Playing a sport;
The very fact that the action is so common place usually
makes it a very good candidate for a picture. But at the
same time, because it is so common we think it is not
a good idea.
Treasures from everyday
life might include your mom in the kitchen with an apron,
your father on the tractor with his cap. Your little brother
sprawled in front of the TV, your sister styling her hair
with a blow dryer. Outdoor Subjects (landscape scenes)
Places in the wild,
out of doors; Buildings, Fields, Trees, Fence Rows; Rivers
or Lakes; Natural park; Townscapes or Cityscapes are details
of buildings and streets; Views of the streets and store
fronts. Indoor Subjects, (Interiors) Interesting places
seen from the inside; Living rooms, dining rooms, ball
rooms, bedrooms, basements, bathrooms, studios, deserted
rooms, malls. Still life Subjects,
all sorts of objects, flowers, fruit, vegetables, non
living forms, displayed for composition for paintings
or drawings.
Click
on pages below
3
Challenges of The Creative Process
Art?? Why Art in School
Art Graduation and Achievement Projects
Art
Skills, Skills for Art Proficiency
3
Challenges of The Creative Process
7, 8 Art Class Assignments
Art
Links to some Great Art on Net
Artwork by Students
Art
Ideas -Concepts to Aid Creativity
Basics of Composition Organization in Art
Beginning A Picture, Checklist
Class
7, design, " breakup"
Clay
Projects EZ
Additional Clay Designs slab and coil
Cropping, finding a Picture Inside a Picture
Detail:
Little Things Make Interesting Pictures
Discovery
& Invention things which enhance creativity
Drawing Assignments,
Fantasy
& Imagination, Exercises
General Info for New Students
How to Transform 2d to 3d
How to look at Art
Developing
Ideas for Art
Ideas that
follow Themes
Idea
Development in Art
Index of Design Lessons
Judging
Good Art?
Learning
to Look at Art, Part one
Learning to Look at Art, Part Two
Painting and Color Assignments
Picture Analysis
Pinkmeister's Demo
Pinkmeister's
Art Links
Students at Work or - -
Themes Styles