SchoolArts - January 2011

Materials

reproductions of Giorgio de •
Chirico’s Surrealist paintings
reproductions of architectural •
book illustrations
online one-point perspective •
tutorial, notes, and/or exercises
wooden artist’s mannequins •
visual source material •
color wheel •
white watercolor paper •
graphite pencils •
erasers •
ink pens •
watercolors •
brushes •
cartons of water •
ows, arcades and architectural façades
in dramatic and sometimes conflict-
ing one-point perspective; plaza
spaces; references to the passage of
time; geometric
solids; incon-
gruous objects,
somewhat flat,
acidic colors;
and a pervasive
feeling of mys-
tery with an occasional undercurrent
of foreboding. These became required
elements for this challenge.

The “atypical cities challenge,” is
an understanding of one-point
perspective as a means to an
end, rather than an end in itself.

Grace Morgan.

Adding Observational Drawing

The only additional component, which was not found in de Chirico’s paintings, yet related to some of his statues, was a wooden artist’s mannequin. This ensured that students’ compositions included something drawn from observation—a practice I stress in virtually every challenge.

Students found these seminal
characteristics to
be compelling as
components for
their own unique
pieces, some with a
stronger de Chirico
influence than
others, yet none
a knock-off of the
master.

dents had completed a challenge that required them to paint with acrylic and model in graphite, but they had done no other painting in this course, would extend our heavy emphasis on strong drawing—especially weighted lines, mark-making, and dramatic value contrast—yet introduce color in a nonthreatening and controlled way: hand-colored book illustration using watercolor in a triadic, analogous, or split-complementary color scheme. After they were shown a few architectural book illustrations as samples and discussed color harmonies fairly briefly, students created color keys to accompany their thumbnails.

Thumbnail
Sketches

Armed with a short
one-point perspective
tutorial, a little visual
background knowledge
of de Chirico, a list of
elements to include
in their work, man-
nequins, some archi-
tecture books from the
school library, and com-
puters for locating addi-
tional visual sources,
students set about creat-
ing thumbnail sketches
in color.

Convergence Most students began with the architectural elements that literally provided the basic structure for their compositions. Fitting in the other required components became like completing a puzzle. Though some degree of convergence is unavoidable when students are working with the same conceptual and formal parameters, my students’ results were surprisingly and pleasingly divergent despite the positive and welcome influence that they had on each other as “disquieting muses.”

Betsy DiJulio is a national board certified art teacher at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, Virgina, where she was the 2010 Citywide Teacher of the Year. betsy.dijulio@vbschools.com

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students create multiple solutions to specific visual arts problems that demonstrate competence in producing effective relationships between structural choices and artistic functions.