REworking your art: Taking creative risks

Stretch and explore: Cut and rearrange art pieces that do not have significance to you.

How to draw figure in proportion and How to create reductive charcoal drawing

How to create student GOOGLE SITES, How to create student ONLINE ART GALLERY using GOOGLE slides

Waltham Open Studios

Thank you for those who came out to explore and get inspired at Waltham Mills Open Studios.

painting wet sand in watercolor

Even more videos of working with ink wash

Sophia's artshare post

I really like this landscape because of the colors and the way the painter uses them to show the reflection on the water. I like how the sailboat is black but the rest of the painting is in color. 

I also like this watercolor painting because only the ears are in color, but the rest os black and white. The colors on the ears have a dripping effect which looks very cool.I love the shading on the trunk and how there is a little hint of blue

How to Draw Hair with Charcoal

Since I'm currently working with charcoal now, I found this video to be relevant to my project.

More Wet on Wet Ink Painting

Wet on Wet india ink and watercolor

Weston Middle school Mars project- with Ms. Burns

Sumi-E Ink Wash Painting Video

A demonstration of a wide variety of strokes created with a single bamboo brush can be seen here:

I found the way he prepared the brush before each type of stroke to be particularly interesting.

- CR

Ink Wash Gesture Painting

Objectives:

1. Become familiar with painting with the bamboo brush and ink washes.  What different types of marks and strokes can you make with the brush to add texture, depth and dynamism to your picture?  How is this process different than working with charcoal?
2. Continue to draw the figure from observation paying attention to:

Proportion - sight measuring.

Shading -  try to use as wide a variety of shades of gray and black as possible, in order to add depth and drama to your picture.

Figure’s placement in the picture space - how close to the edges of the frame is it?

Background - how can you differentiate it from foreground through value?  Foreground should probably have more intense darks and/or lights.

Gesture - continue to use gestural strokes to capture the essence of model’s pose.

3. Clean up - more involved than charcoal.  We will leave at least 10 minutes at the end of class to clean brushes and palettes.

Time-lapse Demo Video:

K-12 art show and Senior Ice cream social May 16th, 6-8pm

In a month, the most exciting K-12 Weston high school art show will be coming our way!

Save the date for May 16th (Tuesday, 6-8pm)

And we will all be a part of it.

Seniors-  Please type up an artist statement and complete by the end of this week, April 13th.  Below is the outline of question to consider:


Please email me the artist statement: homj@weston.org

§    Student Name

§   

§  Title of the Piece – this alone helps the viewer understand the subject or makes him/her think about the work in a different way

§   

§  What did I do? (Describe the artwork, including the medium, subject matter, and inspiration.)

§   

§  My artwork was inspired by whom or what?

§   

§  What happened along the way? (Did anything interesting or unusual happen?  Did I solve any problems in the process? Did I change my approach to doing the project? etc.)

§   

§  What did I learn through the art project?

§   

§  What would I do differently next time?

§   

§  Why is this piece important to me?

LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS

I am looking for at least 4 artist who would like to showcase a mini art project or skill that they would like to share with the audience. Please sign up. Need to know by end of week, April 13th.

Art 2-4 studio sign up

For Art show May 16^th 6-8pm

Name	Contact info (phone number, email)	Live demo	Time

Art work for art show:

Art 2- Surrealist and/or figure drawings

Art 3,4: Murals and personal projects

Need to know how work will be displayed.  

Work needs to be complete by May 5th (about 5 more classes).

Mr. Renna time lapse video

Gesture Drawing to Music

Charcoal allows one to put down large areas of tone quickly and expressively.  Here are some gesture drawings I made with charcoal while listening to and watching an improvisational jazz group called Adventure in Sound in Cambridge, MA:

The 2nd to last drawing was drawn with my eyes closed; just reacting to the sounds that were appearing in front of me.  I would often draw in rhythm with the music.  These musicians create music that is particularly fun to respond to this way as their music is very dynamic.  They explore many different sonic textures, rhythms and melodies.  They are constantly in the moment, responding to each other in what at times seems to be telepathy.  In the future I would like to video tape myself (or someone else) drawing in this manner to live music and have the video projected behind the band while they are performing.

Here is an example of this same group playing live (I shot this video):

Wildlife as Inspiration

In 2004 I went to the Peruvian Amazon and took a lot of photographs and video footage of the animals that my group of ecotourists and I found.  Our tour guides also would pay any local people who brought us interesting wildlife to see.  The following year I made some pen and ink sketches from photos I had taken there:
http://chrisrenna.com/old/Wildlife_Sketches.html

I also made a watercolor painting of a Titi Monkey that a young boy had adopted as a pet:

I recently uploaded a video slideshow of the photos I took on this particular trip:

I also made a video of the trip and added some of my original music to it:

I have taken 3 different trips to Costa Rican rain forests to look for wildlife.  Here is video footage I took from a day that was particularly full of wildlife:

The last ten years or so I have gotten more into video and have not been making drawings/paintings of the creatures I find in the wild, but it is an activity that I would like to return to at some point.

I have created music inspired by the sounds of wildlife.  In 2008 for my master's project at Emerson College I created a musical score to video I took of wildlife in Georgia and South Carolina.  Here is that project:

Some of the music incorporates actual sounds from the environment such as this piece:

https://chromatophones.bandcamp.com/track/out-music

Check out this video, Museum goers!

All the art in London in one day

Can programs that help the military save Federal Arts agencies?

NYTIMES: Art therapy with military serviceman/women

4/25 Weston Town Crier interview for Senior legacy mural

Mrs. Kauffmann, former WHS photo teacher will be interviewing Seniors for the Weston Town Crier on the vision and process of the two Senior murals, PEACE AND LOVE. Come picture ready.

THURSDAY, APRIL 25th