POINTILLISM / Seurat & Signac

A bit ahead of the schedule, we have learned that colours can be darkened not just by plain black, but by the respective complementary ones (which are the opposite colours on a Colour Wheel). We will be expanding on this topic pretty soon.
    Now you can see some of the most successful pointillistic pieces you and your classmates have drawn.

 

And here you can find some useful information about Seurat (here too) and Signac. Who were they?... How would you describe Pointillism?...

SEA BOTTOM-II

-   SUBJECT: You must imagine and design an Undersea World.

-   OBJECTIVE: It does not matter whether it is realistic or not. What IS REALLY IMPORTANT is that a combination of spots, lines and planes should prevail. Another important aspect is the design of the “creatures”: imagination and creativity must be the main criteria.

-   MATERIALS: Paper for drawing (minimum DIN-A4, 130 gr.), pencils (graphite), colour pencils and/or felt-tip pens.

-   DEADLINE: Not yet decided.

-   A FEW PIECES OF ADVICE: Have a look at these drawings...

SEA BOTTOM (Activity)

What am I looking for? Well: a bit more this sort of approach...

Virginia Díaz, 2009

I.E.S. "Ría del Carmen", 2006

I.E.S. "Ría del Carmen", 2006

... rather than this other kind of approach...

Sandra Rodriguez, 2007

Belén Cagigal, 2009 (Well, this is just right, excellent actually, but the "main characters"...)

 

It´s BRILLIANT!, but AVOID IT.

GIL, AGAIN

Have a look!

http://www.eldiariomontanes.es/v/20111118/cultura/arte/diseno-grafico-como-puente-20111118.html
 

Spots, Lines, Planes, Surfaces, Textures & Colours

Here you can find a couple of documents on interesting and actually some of the most important concepts in Art. Just click HERE & HERE.
 

BUZÓN de RESPUESTAS / THE LETTER BOX

As you can see, there is a new and very special post: the letter box. I will be answering you any question you put by this means. For instance: 

  - November the fifteenth, 2011:

    To Alba Diago: ¿A qué fotos te refieres?... Creo que hay unas cuantas fotos e ilustraciones en el blog.

    To "anonymous": El plazo de entrega de los últimos trabajos encargados no ha sido especificado todavía al grupo 1º-2/3; al 1º-1 sí se le ha dicho que la entrega de la actividad 2 de la Unidad Didáctica 2 (pag. 17 del Cuaderno de Actividades, el de las frutas) es el día 16 (mañana, miércoles) y la de la Actividad 1 de la pág. 31 del Libro de Texto será el próximo día 18. Creo que los del grupo 1º-2/3 me lo deberéis entregar, finalmente, el día 22, martes. Ya os lo confirmo en clase mañana mismo. Not at all!

  - November the twenty-ninth, 2011:

    To "anonymous" (again): You can find everything about the comic at "The Curious Incident Project" tag.

    To Matías Llona (1º-1): I will tell you all about it (deadline) tomorrow. Thanks for asking!

  - The fourth of December, 2011:

    To Matías Llona (1º-1): You can normally find any activity by clicking on the ACTIVITIES and PROJECTS tag.

  - 5th December 2011:

    To Sofía Vilela (1º-1): Thanks to you, Sofía. I am glad to know it could help.

  - The eleventh of December, 2011:

    To Sara, Paula, Natalia and Marina (1º-1): Well, I guess that what you all are looking for should be somewhere around here...

  - 27th December 2011:

    To Natalia Moreno (1º-1): Just click on the "ACTIVITIES & PROJECTS" tag, on your right-hand side in the screen. You will see all the posts about it... Read patiently and look for the proper links.

  - The twenty-eighth of December, 2011:

    To Natalia Moreno (1º-1): There is much more to it than meets the eye!... I am not sure what you are looking for, Natalia, but I think that in eight posts (Van Gogh, Gestalt, etc.) you might (see the third meaning when you click on it) find something else, apart from the "Sea Bottom" stuff... Mightn´t you?... Try again!

  - January the fifth, 2012: 

    To Marta Martínez, Sandra García and Julia Andrés (1º-1): You can use DIN-A3 plus. I think this is the right size. Minimun, DIN-A3. 200 gr., approximately.

  - 26th February 2012:

    To Sofía Vilela (1º-1): If you feel comfortable using water-colours, you can use them. Good luck!

  - The seventh of March, 2012: To Candela Mullet (1º-1): Quite well, Candela. I can´t believe you couldn´t find something about "esmerilado" in the RAE dictionary! Try with "esmerilar"... The plural for "retina" is "retinae" (or retinas). It comes from Latin. La "retina" de la cámara es, obviamente, el... cristal esmerilado. And about getting the images into focus: read again the post and try to find out. Good luck!

  - March the twenty third, 2012: 

    To "Anonymous": Frankly, my dear pupils... Alguno de vosotros aun me pregunta, a estas alturas, ¡¡que no sabe cómo hacer "lo del cómic"!!; ¡que no sabe "nada de eso", que no ha oído nunca nada sobre ello, que no tiene "ni idea" de qué va, que ni "pajolera idea" de "aonde hay que dirigirse"!... Pues me temo que ya es un poco tarde... Y, por cierto: todo, todo, todo está en este blog; desde hace meses. Good luck!

  - 25th Mars 2012:

    To Alex, Omar & Lamberto (1º-1): No idea what you are talking about, whatsoever. By the way: Alex, your group is Matias´, Ivan´s and Sergiu´s. Who´s wrong?... Have you even started your work?...
 

GESTALT / Laws of Grouping

Maybe you can remember these really simple designs. I showed them to you once in class, and we talked about its meaning. They try to explain, in a very schematic way, the ideas behind visual perception, according to Gestaltism, which was originally a German school of psychology.  
    At the begining of the twentieth century, those Gestalt * specialists thought (many people still think they were right) that we are all born with basic but complex ways of visually-grasping the environment around us. They argued, very significantly, that the whole is much more than the sum of its parts (What do you think this sentence means?).

Aquí se ve expresada la idea básica -a través de un aspecto concreto: la BUENA CONTINUIDAD- de la preeminencia del CONJUNTO sobre la suma de las PARTES

   
What you see here (again) are representations of some of the Gestalt Laws of Grouping:

-1-

-2-

-3-

-4-

-5-

If you pay attention, in these diagrams you will maybe recognise several of those Laws at the same time. 
  
-  What do you think?... (Try to find out in HERE... Sorry!: for some reason or another this "Hot Potatoes" device doesn´t work properly!... En español: no se pueden ver la imágenes, a la izquierda del "matching exercise". Sin embargo, tened en cuenta que son las mismas que preceden a este párrafo, a excepción de la última; por lo tanto, se trata de las numeradas como 1, 2, 3 y 4). 
-  What sort of attributes can make two shapes similar or even equal?... 
-  Try to point out these attributes in images 1, 2 and 3. 

There is a Gestalt concept called prägnanz (beware!: nothing to do with "pregnancy"). It might be described as "pithiness" (en español, más o menos, CONCISIÓN, aunque se aplica el germanismo "PREGNANCIA"). From this concept the so-called Law of Prägnanz is derived, which says that we tend to order our experience in a manner that is regular, orderly, symmetrical and simple.

Now, you can find a multiple-choice quiz on this LINK where you can find out whether you have understood a few ideas or not. 


* Gestalt - "Essence or shape of an entity's complete form"
 

VINCENT (By Gombrich & Don McLean... Anyone else?)

Self-portrait

 

El otro día tuvimos la oportunidad de leer un pasaje de una famosa obra: "La historia del arte", de Ernst Gombrich. Se trataba de su admirado resumen de la vida y obra de Vincent Van Gogh, famoso -e incluso popular- pintor holandés. Resulta irónico y triste que, alguien tan admirado hoy en día, fuese ignorado en vida por la mayoría de sus contemporáneos; con una media-sonrisa que no quiero ocultar del todo, os sugiero que ese desprecio e indiferencia, tal vez, nos compensó al resto de los mortales (ciertamente, no igual que al propio Vincent) con un arte sublime e inmortal... Aunque, ¡a qué alto precio! (me refiero a la vida de Van Gogh, arrebatada por sí mismo, no a las altas cotizaciones de sus cuadros).
    Os recuerdo que los cuestionarios que os di y las actividades que se os sugerían, deberían ser entregadas lo antes posible. Si lo habéis perdido, podéis descargar el texto AQUÍ... Del multiple-choice "quiz" ya hablamos más adelante.
    ¿Qué más?... ¡Ah, sí!: quisiera que escucháseis una hermosa canción, bastante famosa también. Se trata de "Vincent", de Don McLean. Puede que os suene aun más otra canción de este autor: "American Pie". Sí, ya sé que sois bastante jóvenes aún, pero no pierdo la esperanza de tener algún melómano entre vosotr@s... ¿Y a qué viene todo esto?: pues os hago escuchar la canción, en primer lugar, para que disfrutéis de ella; y, sobre todo, para que leáis su letra y me la traduzcáis... Enjoy it!

 

¡Lo siento, os rescato del estado de ensoñación!... Esto no ha acabado aún, pues tengo otro encarguito: quiero que averigüéis qué directores de cine han explotado el tema de Van Gogh (o, simplemente, "Vincent"). Al menos se me ocurren tres americanos (uno de ellos está vivo, aunque le obsesionen los muertos, las "novias cadavéricas" y demás "zumos de escarabajo") y también uno francés... Os propongo algún enlace, para empezar:

- http://www.allrovi.com/movies?r=allmovie

- http://www.filmaffinity.com/es/
- http://www.imdb.com/

(NOTA: Cuando hayáis terminado con las indagaciones cinéfilas, os propongo que os conectéis a esta sencilla prueba. Tened en cuenta que sólo dispondréis de cinco minutos)

Bien, lo prometido es deuda: ahora echad un vistazo a esto... ¿Os resulta familiar?... ¡No dejéis de responder! Cheerio!
 

Documents on VISUAL PERCEPTION, Classification of SHAPES, GESTALT Laws, etc.

Is there or is there not a rectangle?...

Dear pupils,

As you can see, I am arranging a few more links with theoretical material. This doesn´t mean that you will have to study all of it: it is just to help you, in case it is necesary to improve or widen both your knowledge and data. It is convenient, anyway, to have it at hand. We might resort to these documents, someday.

    They are about VISUAL PERCEPTION & VISUAL COMUNICATION, SHAPES (FORMS), the German "GESTALT" SCHOOL (Psychologists)... If you feel "overwhelmed", don´t panic!. I insist: this is just extra stuff...

- What is an image?

- FORMA (Tipos de Formas: clasificación), IMAGEN, FIGURA (Figura Vs. Fondo: Leyes de Rubin; contorno), REPRESENTACIÓN... La Constancia Perceptiva, Grado de Iconicidad (Degree of Likeness) y Representación... 
- Versión algo reducida de lo anterior

- GESTALT Laws
- Shapes, Parts of a Shape, Visual Communication, Types of Images & Shapes, Degree of Likeness...
 

    Before I say "see you later", I would like to remind you of THIS (click). And beware!: some interesting links about all this are coming soon!... Cheerio!.
 

DEADLINE & OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES (About the "Curious Incident" Project)

¡Saludos, alumn@s! Ya veis que os estoy ofreciendo estos días "plenty of material to work with & think about"... No os agobiéis: ¡poco a poco! (What is the English for "poco a poco"?... Lo podéis leer en la entrada anterior).
    Desde esta entrada tendréis acceso al documento "Word" que ya visteis en clase: se trata de la descripción e instrucciones correspondientes al Proyecto "Curioso incidente". En él podréis leer la fecha definitiva de entrega.
    En adelante deberíais estar atentos a otras entradas semejantes a ésta: encontraréis "links" para descargaros documentos en inglés sobre los contenidos que hemos estudiado o que trataremos en breve. ¡Ánimo!...

Unfinished HERGÉ

Remember something: what you see now are parts of Hergé´s last project, which remained unfinished (Hergé died at the age of 75, in 1983). It is very interesting to realize that the first sketches are so simple, almost as if an "amateurish" cartoonist was at work. Nevertheless, you should keep in mind that first steps must be as simple as possible: fast and clear. Little by little, the pages (both drawings and texts) evolve and become recognizable pieces of art. 
    Consequently, try to draw some conclusions and a few important lessons: work in stages, without thinking that you will get the definitive "artwork" immediately; share your work with your team; try to specialize. 
    Good luck!

Designing a character