Exploring Charcoal Art

For this lesson we studied the human limbs and learned how to use charcoal to outline things and then blend and smudge to create shadows and hair strands etc-

I love drawing and traditional art. I had never used charcoal before though but I enjoyed the assignments tremendously! 

What an alien skull could look like

A foot that is tan

Saint Clare of Assisi

The Skeleton of a giraffe

My self portrait

De Stijl art and Dadaism art merges

    I was highly inspired by Theo van Doesburg and John Heartfield. Theo was heavily influenced by Wassily Kandinsky. Theo van Doesburg made the switch from a representational painting style to one that prioritized a minimalistic and geometric approach because of this influence. The Dutch artist championed the De Stijl artistic movement and has inspired many graphic designers over the decades with his thought-provoking art theories. The artists of De Stijl produced artworks that stretched far beyond painting and sculpture. They aimed for a unified synthesis of form and function in all media, covering literature, music, typography, and industrial design in addition to the fine and applied arts. Founded in 1917 by the ground-breaking abstract artists Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. De Stijl magazine’s name literally translates to “The Style” in Dutch. The De Stijl movement emerged as an Interwar Period artistic expression in reaction to the catastrophic devastation of World War I. In its effort to separate from the intricately ornamental and excessive artwork of previous eras, the movement strived for simplified and minimalist works of art.

In 1916, John Heartfield and George Grosz experimented with a form of art and combining images created what is now recognized as Photomontage. John Heartfield crafted highly political images that left a lasting impression with the Photomontage technique. He was known for taking iconic images from the illustrated press - like photos of well-known politicians or noteworthy events - and re-arranging them to form new and provocative messages. John Heartfield and George Grosz were pioneers of the German Dadaist movement, actively participating in the renowned Berlin Club Dada (1916-1920). Through their trailblazing work, they were instrumental in elevating the concept of montage to an art form that is recognized worldwide today.

My Creative Rationale: In much the same way that the De Stijl artists did, I recognized the boundaries of my poster space and filled it with geometric shapes. The background of the poster is made up of original De Stijl magazine pages that I found online. I added the De Stijl magazine name at the top. I also used a font that resembles Theo van Doesburg’s original lettering at the bottom page. The words written make a sentence that is similar to what John Heartfield wrote on the photomontage art piece of “The Happy Elephants.” I changed it to happy animals because in my art I included elephants and cows. Theo van Doesburg created cow art. He began with a series of figurative sketches of the cow and then transformed them into a geometrical composition. I wanted to be different but still show how I was influenced by Theo and John, so I drew John Heartfield’s happy elephants with wings with my pencils and then I turned them into shapes in Adobe Illustrator. I added both the pencil drawing and the shape components in my poster. Theo’s cows thus were turned into a photomontage in my art and I added wings to the cows to match the happy winged elephants. Photomontage is the method and outcome of combining multiple photos by cutting, pasting, rearranging and layering them together to form a unique image and that is what I did in my art poster. Dadaists revolted against the capitalistic logic and reasoning of their bourgeois society, which had driven them to war, by utilizing artistic forms that appeared to disregard rationality and instead celebrate chaos and absurdity. Thus, my art poster has a bit of chaos in the layering of the geometric shapes in the background. I merged Theo and John’s art styles to create my art piece. Combining them was thrilling. This was a fun artistic experiment for me.

The next page has original works from Theo van Doesburg and John Heartfield. After this are pictures of my art poster inspired by them.

My geometric shape sketch

My drawing of the Happy Elephants

The first rough draft

The final product

The Gestalt Principles in Design

    Gestaltism was founded in the early 20th century by a group of psychologists. The Gestalt Principles describes how humans group similar objects, recognize patterns, and simplify complex images. These principles are divided up into five categories: proximity, similarity, continuity, connectedness, and closure. Artists and Designers of all types use it to organize content and make it appealing. It's also great for building logos.

    For this topic's assignment I had to take an object and simplify it. Breaking it down to abstract lines and shapes. This project was fun and stimulating! I will definitely use this method in the future to make logos and banners in business cards and websites.

    I stuck with my ladderback chair image and deconstructed it:

The Final image illustration of the Chair Story

    Design Assignment 1, Personality Personification of a man-made object. My story is about "The cycle of life from the perspective of a chair." This is the scene I chose to illustrate in greater detail: The senior couple living happily together in their home, watching TV still utilizing the man's childhood chairs that his father made. 3 artworks. 2 digital collages.

The rough draft

Storyboarding, The Story of a Chair

    Design Assignment 1, Personality Personification of a man-made object. I chose to draw a chair. The cycle of life from the perspective of a chair. The storyboard has 20 thumbnails. 5 strips.

    I wanted to create a cute love story. And this is what materialized.

Here's a quick summary of the story beginning with the first row: The chair is being made in a workshop by a man who then brings it home to another chair.

Second row: The chairs like each other. The man's family consist of a young child who grows into a man.

Row three and four: The son who is now a man, falls in love with a woman. They sit and live their lives by utilizing the chairs who are also in love with one another. Time goes by and the adults become senior citizens, then the old lady passes away. The lady's chair eventually breaks too and is used as fodder for a fire. The other chair is sad, and daydreams about past memories.

Final row: Eventually the old man passes away and relatives drive the furniture, possessions, and chair to a consignment store that sells furniture. The old man's chair is surrounded by new chairs and furniture. Eventually someone buys the chair and it is recycled to a new home. Life continues.

The last drawing page is a detailed rough draft that highlights moments that could be in the story.

Click on picture to enlarge it