Information about still life, elements of art, realism, cubism and surrealism and practical task instructions

1. Art courseYear 8
1. Picasso ResearchTask due week 4/5 weight (20%)
2. Drawing Unit weight (40%)
■ Concept –Styles of representation:Art movements: : Realism, Surrealism, Cubism
■ Experimentations with free association, observational drawing and drawing from memory
using different materials; Design Development
■ Final Piece: Cubist mixed media drawing
■ Reflection
3. Painting Unit weight (40%)
■ Concept - Styles of representation: Art movements: Impressionism & Expressionism
■ Experimentations with painting techniques, applyingArt Effect filters and Design
Development.Appropriating style from a significant artist in Impressionism or Expressionism
■ Final Piece: acrylic landscape painting on canvas (appropriation of style of significant
Impressionist or Expressionist)
■ Reflection
■

2. DRAWING FOLIO:
STYLES OF REPRESENTATION

3. Free association slideshow
is a practice in psychoanalytic therapy. In this practice, a therapist asks a person in
therapy to freely share thoughts, words, and anything else that comes to mind.
Look at words of inspiration.
Task 1:You will have 2 minutes to complete a drawing
related to the word shown. Use your imagination and
create an interesting frontcover for your visual diary.

4. Task 2: Research the artist Picasso
■ This assignment requires you to research the
famous artist Pablo Picasso.
■ Throughout his career he explored many
different styles in his art practice.
■ You will explore his other styles of
representation through your investigations
using the internet.
■ Carefully read the task description and
assessment criteria (rubric)
■ Task can be found on STL link Year 8 Art.

5. Elements of Art: what do you know?

7. Discuss in pairs: Elements of Art in
this still-life (use your handouts)
■ Line
■ Shape/Form
■ Tone (value)
■ Texture
■ Colour
■ Space
■ Think about the following 2 items:
■ What is the subject matter (=what
do you see in the image)
■ Are the objects in the still life
represented in a realist or
abstract way?

8. Fun facts about “Still-life”
■ A still-life can be a drawing or painting of a group of objects. ‘Still’ refers to
the fact that the objects do not move and and also may contain items like
flowers, food or dead animals – hence 'life'.
■ The French word for still-life is 'nature morte', meaning 'dead nature'.
■ Romans and Greeks used still-life’s to decorate the thick walls or floors of
their villas.
■ 17th century: Northern Europe still life paintings look very realistic and often
tell a story with moral. Certain objects symbolise something: Citrusfruit:
wealth (comes from southern Europe)The owner of the painting shows of
their wealth: they have expensive food in abundance
■ Wine, fallen glass, musical instruments refer to moderation. Don’t drink
alcohol/feast too much/smoke a pipe
■ Skull, hourglass, candle, withered flowers symbolize mortality.These still
life’s are called ‘vanitas”
■ Dutch artists are very famous for their still life’s.They paint the textures and
tones very realistic.

9. Invention of photo camera around 1840
■ The start of a new century often
coincides with change
■ What impact did the invention
of the photo camera have on
the practice of artists?
■ How did it change the way they
looked at things?

10. Invention of the photo camera;
Result painters don’t need to paint what they see.They can paint their
version of reality. Start of variety of art movements in early 1900
■ Artists experiment
focussing on colour, shape,
light or use different
painting techniques.
■ Which painting focusses on:
exaggerating colour;
simplifying shape; analysing
tone; applying lots of
texture? Explain why.
■ Which one is the most
abstract? Explain why.
■ Which painting is realistic,
but in a weird way?Explain.
■ Do you think these
paintings have symbolic
meanings like the 17th
century paintings?
Image
numbers
1, 2
3, 4, 5

11. Task 4a: Observational drawing
Focus on line, shape and proportion.
Use structural lines.

12. Task 4b:Tonal drawing
techniques
Create a gradient ladder using a B/2B pencil
using rendering techniques such as parallel
and cross hatching.
Focus on the light direction, the shadows
and cast shadows of the object on the table.

13. Surrealism
■ = a modern movement in art and
literature, in which an attempt is made
to portray or interpret the workings of
the unconscious mind as manifested in
dreams: it is characterized by an
irrational, fantastic arrangement of
material.
■ Salvador Dali is one of the most
famous Surrealist artists.The painting
persistence of memory, 1931, refers to
personal experiences.What do you
see?Why is it surreal?
■ Rene Magritte (left) and Giorgio de
Chirico (right) are also famous
surrealists.
■ What makes these artworks surreal?

14. Task 4c:
Surrealist
research and
drawing

15. Perception: looking at
different
angles/perspectives =
Cubism
Juan Gris, George Braque and Pablo Picasso tried
to capture: - different angles from objects in one
painting.
-They used tonal colours
= different shades of limited colour palette
and geometrical shapes./ simplified shapes
This is called Analytic Cubism. Synthetic Cubism is when artists start
using collage materials in their
artworks: newspaper, patterned paper
etc.

16. Picasso:
cubist still-life

17. Task 4d: How to create a Cubist drawing?
Watch the video how studio artist Aaron Wemer creates a Cubist still life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V15rXg1nJ6w&feature=youtu.be

18. Task 5: Materials
andTechniques
Create a page in your visual diary where
you experiment with different materials:
use charcoal, soft pastel and/or oil pastel.
Make lines, smudge, use a paper stump to
blend etc. Annotate your findings on the
sheet. What worked well, what didn’t.…
Draw a circle, turn it into a sphere by
adding tones and highlights, using
charcoal, compressed charcoal, paperstum
and kneedable rubber. Include a cast
shadow on the floor.

19. Task 6a
Take 4-5 photos of the still-
life’s in the class or create
one at home with personal
objects
Shoot from different angles:
Birds eye view, side, frogs
perspective, close-up etc.
Create pic collage with the
best 4 photos. Print out Pic
collage and put in your visual
diary.

20. Task 6b:
Composition
sketches
Look at your
photos, draw
objects from
different angles
and arrange two
different
composition
sketches. Annotate
your ideas.

21. Task 7: Concept Resolution:
create your final Cubist/Surrealist artwork.
Take process photos for your reflection!

22. Task 8 Reflecting on your work
■ See task sheet