Starter Project Kit Final

ach of these projects is designed to help you in brainstorming creative project ideas. Some are designed more for honing skills, while others are better for competitions or portfolio. You can use each project as is, or it can be a springboard in developing your own ideas. You will get a sense from the projects here what judges or college screeners are looking for... they love to see technical mastery, but they also like to see your creativity and personality shine through. COLOR & FORM STUDY (skill honing) With this project, you will set up an object or objects and use two light sources of different colors (say red and blue). When two lights of different colors illuminate a form, the lit areas interact with each other in unexpected ways. This can create a dramatic and colorful drawing. It is recommended to use something white, a plaster cast, or at least neutral in color and light in value to get the maximum color effect. For a more advanced challenge, you can try something reflective, or dark and shiny. Best materials: paint or pastel. RIBBON PROJECT (skill honing) This is a great project to strengthen some core concepts, especially light and form interaction, and honing control of edge quality as this will involve sharp edges of the ribbons as well as many cast shadows stretching out on a surface with shadow edges that soften with distance. Students, with the help of the teacher will cut numerous long strips of paper, then on a board or foam-core, will twist and twirl the paper in interesting ways, attaching these “ribbons” to the surface. Strong light from one direction will create interesting shadows.

BROKEN COLOR Broken color refers to a method of painting in which many colors are layered in a manner to create Optical Color Mixing. Imagine a seascape where the green water is made of many individual marks of yellow and blue. When you step back, the water seems green, even though no green pigment was used. The Pointillist art movement started by Seurat and Signac illustrates this method very effectively. Small dots of numerous, vibrant colors converge and seem to make other colors when viewed from a short distance. The painting by Chuck Close, above, shows this technique with a close-up. Any subject matter can be used for this technique. 
 FOUND OBJECT PROJECT Collect & draw or paint small items that you find interesting as a collection. They can be bits & pieces found in the street, natural objects, or mechanical parts. It is important that you respond to the objects or that they relate to each other somehow.



ROOM WITH A VIEW (skill honing) In this project you will tackle the depiction of an interior room and show your mastery of 2 point perspective. At the studio, furniture will probably move and it will be hard to keep a consistent scene. So, in this case, you can photograph an interior space at home or somewhere else (museum, library, somewhere you’ve gone on vacation, etc) but you should think creatively. Perhaps it’s your favorite space, tells a story about your life at home, or simply shows interesting architecture. Make sure to take photographs that are easy to make out. You can take multiple photos and the teacher will show you how to splice them together in photoshop.

DISTORTED SELF PORTRAIT Draw or paint yourself as seen in reflective objects, mirrors that are obscured, numerous, or broken, or through a magnifying substance like water. Be creative. This can be a straight forward artwork from observation or it can be used to tell a story of some sort.

ARCIMBOLDO COPY (skill honing) Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portraits made entirely of objects (fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books). By doing a master copy of one of his portraits, you are in essence doing a still life, but much more interesting... Master copies are great learning exercises for honing drawing skills, color-matching abilities, and approximating a specific style and brushwork. BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION (skill honing) In this project, you can do a copy of an older botanical illustration, or you can create your own from references or life. Botanical illustration can be done in any medium, but historically has often used watercolor and gouache (opaque watercolor). This is a scientific depiction of a plant or flower specimen that clearly depicts all of the important anatomical parts in an idealized way or naturalistic way.



GLITCH Glitch: noun- “a fleeting malfunction with a digital or analog machine or software that interrupts smooth operation.” Are we in the matrix? Visualize how technology has affected, and perhaps invaded our lives. Are we aware of how much we are being manipulated by algorithms or big tech companies. Does this digital connectedness make us “connected” or more alone?

TABLEAUX (difficulty level- high) Tableaux is used to describe a painting or 
 drawing in which characters are arranged for picturesque or dramatic effect and appear absorbed and completely unaware of the existence of the viewer. This is a theatrical moment frozen in time that can be used to make social commentary or to depict some aspect of family life. In the 18th and 19th Century, tableaux paintings were often created to depict religious or mythological scenes that often had a moralistic purpose or an allegorical meaning. For this project, you will have to enlist your “actors” and stage them carefully for good photographic references. BEAUTIFUL DECAY Drawing or painting with subject matter that explores the beauty or elevation of something in decay (decay can mean biological decay, or structural decay as with buildings that have been abandoned and are being consumed by natural processes). Strong use of juxtaposition of contradictory elements. Celebrates or finds beauty in things that are transitory and don’t last. Could be used to invoke a melancholy reflection, challenge the viewers beliefs, or give a sense of comfort that beauty can be found in anything.

WABI SABI Wabi Sabi is a Japanese aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection (“flawed beauty”). Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes. Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. Wabi-Sabi can be explained nicely with this Japanese story: A young man was asked to tend to a master’s garden. He worked carefully sweeping and raking the garden until it was orderly and just perfect. Before showing the garden to his master, he shook a cherry tree, letting a few petals float randomly to the ground. Now the garden was beautiful. “There’s a a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”- Leonard Cohen

RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg, known best as Rube Goldberg, was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. The humorous cartoons led to the expression \"Rube Goldberg machines\" to describe similar gadgets and processes. Devise and create a visual Rube Goldberg machine to describe what makes you operate… THE STRING PROJECT 
 Use a a string to tell a story… Does it tie objects together to show connections? Does it bind or restrain something? Does it create a trap like a spider’s web?

THE i DENTITY PROJECT Whether we like it or not, we are defined every day by society. We are defined by gender (male, female, non-binary, or gender-fluid), sexual orientation, culture (asian-american, hispanic, etc), personality type (nerds, jocks, popular, etc), race, and socio-economic status. In this project, you can show how your identity, outward or inward, shapes you. Perhaps the things that define you are positive and make you proud of who you are. Perhaps there is a mismatch between how society defines you and how you think of yourself. THE ANCHOR PROJECT An “anchor” has the sense of what holds something in place in the chaos or keeps it from drifting, something that helps you when it seems like everything that was supposed to go right is going wrong. In this project, you will describe something or someone very special in your life that gives you comfort, support, or strength. It’s the one thing you can always rely on...

THE TEMPLE PROJECT A “temple” has the sense of some place that is sacred. It is a secret place of your own where you can go to reflect, unwind, or just be yourself. Others may not see it, but there is something a little magical about this place. Perhaps it is the overlooked corner niche at the library where you spend countless hours exploring places you could never go in real life. Perhaps it is the dusty attic where you can still play like a child, make forts, or daydream. Perhaps your temple is the sublime “cathedral” of Nature, where every living thing aches with beauty and you come here to feed your soul..