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Daily Participation Points

Every day is worth 1 point if you follow all the guidelines below.  If not you lose your daily point.  Daily participation point totals account for 40% of the semester grade.

Areas of focus for managing your own classroom behavior

-Getting needed supplies ready without being asked. (Usually the supply list is on the chalkboard if not ask or get the supplies needed for project currently in progress)


-Listening not talking during the review of daily expectations.


-Being a self motivator, striving to discover possible solutions to the supplied questions of the day even if the issues are tough. 


-Taking good care of supplies including cleaning and returning used supplies to the proper storage location and cleaning work area.  

-Taking care of art work including craftsmanship and neatness while working. 

-Respect the artwork of other students.  Respect the art room and all the items in it.  Respect other students and refrain from spreading gossip or talking trash.

-Maintaining focus during the entirety of the class period.  If you choose to converse with others be able to multitask and not let the conversation distract learning or steal work time.  If this is something you cannot manage I will intervene and solve the issue.

-Refusing to engage in horseplay, throwing things, distracting others, traveling to chat or using inappropriate language.

-Respecting the smart device/cell phone policy.

-Working in your assigned area. 

3-D Art: Slab Constructed Vase

Stamped for Texture

1.  Google image search, Slab Constructed Vases.  The vase you create must have 4 sides.  The vase must be stamped to create texture.  All stabs should be stamped prior to cutting for assembly.

2. On a 9 X 12 sheet of white drawing paper:  Fold the paper in half hot dog style.  Sketch 3 vase design examples on the fold line.  You only need half of each vase design because it will be symmetrical. 

3. Choose one design and sketch it on one half of the paper back side.  Fold the paper then cut out paper template shape.

4. Create a slab out of Raku clay.  The Raku clay should be taken from the blue barrel label Raku.  The Raku clay should be Ram’s Head Kneaded and/or Wedged prior to use.

5. Use the paper template to trace and cut out the desired vase design shape.  At this point you will only need one side of the vase because only two sides of the vase will follow the design shape.

6.  Create three slabs.  Two of the slabs will be the sides of the vase and one for the bottom.  The sides should not be as wide as the face slabs.  The sides do not have to be equal in width but may be.  Score and slip the sides and bottom onto the first face slab.  Be careful to preserve the stamped texture and if necessary re stamp where needed.

7.  When sides and bottom are attached to face one, create a slab for face 2 and trace/cut out the shape then score and slip to complete the vase.  Be careful to preserve the stamped texture and if necessary re stamp where needed.

8.  Clean up the rim and the seams inside and out.  When bone dry the vase will be bisque fired.  Then glazed and finish fired.                         

 

3-D Art- Clay Check List

Clay Check List:

1. Ram’s Head Knead and Wedge any clay before using it in construction.

2. Score and add slip to any connections between pieces of clay.

3. Make sure the wall thickness of a piece is consistently even throughout the entire piece so it may dry evenly.

4. Seal or cover unfinished projects in plastic to stop or slow the drying process in order to preserve plasticity.

5. Constantly monitor the overall moisture content of the piece.  Too much moisture and the piece will not hold shape, too little and it hardens past a workable state.

6. Do not handle or move others work unless asked to.

7. Wash bisque fired work prior to glazing.

8. Allow each layer of glaze to dry before adding another.

9. Follow the recommended number of coats for glaze.

10. Be aware of glaze verses under glaze.

11. Do not glaze the bottom of a piece.

 

3-D Art- Essential Terminology

3-D Essentials:

Plasticity - The ability of clay to be formed into and hold various shapes. This ability is lost if the clay is too wet or too dry.

Shrinkage - All clays shrink in size as they dry and when fired. Shrinkage can be measured and planned for the fitting of separate parts of a piece. (lid on a tea pot)

Grog – Sand like particles of bisque fired clay added to clay bodies to reduce shrinkage during drying and firing.  Clay bodies that contain grog are known as Open Clay Bodies.

Ram’s Head Kneading – Method of condensing clay by tightly twisting it to equalize moisture content and remove air pockets.

Wedging- Method of condensing clay by forcing it into a cube shape to equalize moisture content and remove air pockets.

Score and Slip - Score and slip refer to a method of joining two pieces of clay together.  First moisten the area of the pieces to be joined together.  Next use a tool (fork) to rough up the area add a little more moisture and attach the pieces.  Scoring creates tiny grooves that allow the clay pieces to fit together and adhere with water.  The slip is created by moistening the clay.

Slab Making - A method in which forms are created by joining flat pieces of clay; the pieces are thinned and flattened with a rolling pin or machine roller.

 

Stages of Dryness - When speaking of clay, we refer to four basic stages of dryness: slip, plastic clay, leather hard and bone dry.

Slip – A mixture of clay and water to the consistency of cream that will not hold form but can be used as a decorative element.

Plastic Clay – Clay with balanced moisture that is plastic enough to be formed into and hold various forms.

Leather Hard - Clay which is dried sufficiently to be stiff, but which is still damp enough to be joined to other pieces.

Bone Dry - Clay that is no longer malleable because it has lost nearly all moisture also known as Green ware.

Green ware - Unfired pottery that is bone-dry, a state in which clay forms are the most fragile.

 

2-D Art- Value Terminology

Unit: Value Applied to Form

Goal: To introduce the student to selected techniques that promote the accurate rendering of value applied to form in order to aid in the creation of illusionary 3-Dimensional space on a 2-D picture plane. 

Focus concepts and related vocabulary:

Aesthetic:  A given definition of visual beauty.  Aesthetics are both personal and social and they change often and dramatically from person to person and culture to culture.  What is visually pleasing today will not be tomorrow.  (i.e. Mullets. No offense if you have one!)

Technique:  A specific practice an artist applies to achieve a selected visual expression.  Specific techniques are directly influenced by the types of tools and material utilized.

Medium:  A selected type of tool or material used to create a visual image.  Medium varies from wet to dry, hard to soft, and monochrome to multicolor.

Direct Observation:  Drawing what you see not what you think it may be.

Subject Matter:  Anything an artist chooses to represent in a work of art.

Composition:  A specific selection of subject matter, point of view, medium, and style by an artist in a work of art.

Picture plane:  The area contained within the boundaries of a selected size and shaped 2-D surface on which art will be created.  This area contains a recreation of a specific subject matter from a specific point of view. 

View Finder:  A drawing aid that allows the artist to more effectively designate and define the borders of a composition as captured from direct observation.  The view finder is a small window with a rectangular shape similar to the shape of the picture plane.

Value: A visible range of lights, mediums, and darkness that is caused as light strikes and is blocked in varying degree by specific parts of a form.  This disturbance of light causes shadows that range in intensity from barely noticeable to the complete absence of light.  As color is concerned the diminishing of light is known as shade.  By applying techniques to recreate the visible ranges of value on form the artist can solidify an illusion of a forms existence in 3-Dimensions.

 

What Value does for a work of Art?

Value reveals and defines space, shape, form and specific surface characteristics. 

Value effects mood and feeling and can become an active narrative within a composition. 

Value designates levels of importance between objects within a composition.

Modeling: Refers to the application of value to create the illusion of form.

 

Gradation: The application of pigment to recreate a visible transition from dark to medium value to light. 

 

Ways to create Gradation:

1.  Applying more medium/pigment to create dark and less medium/pigment to leave light values.  This may also be explained in terms of opaque to transparent layering of paint or pencil.  Opaque layers mask under layers and transparent layers allow those under to remain visible.

2.  Pressure verses a lighter touch, some art mediums will get darker if pressed hard.

3.  Varied tool size, some tools have wide surface areas that allow for a thicker application of medium.

4.  Fusing or blending with finger or other paper

 

Ways to use line to create value:

Contour line, using descriptive lines that give enough information to represent specific subject matter.

Hatching, repeating lines in close proximity

Crosshatching, crisscrossing lines (like a chain link fence)

Stippling, using a multitude of dots in controlled spacing

Eraser, using an eraser to create light by removing applied value

 

 

3 - D Art: Wedging and Kneading

Welcome to the art blog!

Here is our "art blog" at the Ridge! Please follow this blog to keep tabs on things happening in the art department this semester. We are excited to start the process of bringing art back to the Ridge!

So far we have completed quite a few drawings focusing on form, value and the visual relationships between subject matter. We will continue to explore these inportant ideologies to develop the skill needed to accurately render both the internal and external enviornment!

Please check out the blog, visit the links to the right, and try the survey below!
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Form and Value in relationship to one another!