Mr. Briscoe's Class: 1/11-1/15

Hello Class,
This blog is used as a way for you to stay up-to-date on what is going on in my class. If you've missed school or if you have questions about an assignment or project this site is intended to help you. The title of your class will always appear within the content of the posting. Look under your class for instruction regarding that weeks lessons and assignment.

Have a great semester!

Foundations of Drawing:

This week we introduced you to two basic elements of art: line and value. We discussed how line, more specifically the stroke of a line, is used as the basic structure for a drawing. Stroke refers to the weight of the line that gives variance (or difference) to the structure of a drawing. Differences of stroke can give a drawing a sense of texture, expression or the illusion of three-dimensions if used correctly.

Value is the relationship between light and dark. Many students think of shading when they think of value but shading is just one way of showing the relationship between light and dark. Using a basic understanding of value one can create a sense of depth in their drawings. For instance, lighter areas tend to pop off the page or come to the forefront of the drawing. Darker areas tend to recede and move into the back ground.

Our current project employs both your basic understanding of line and value to create a drawing on the front of your semester portfolio. This project is worth 75 points.

Portfolio Drawing Rubric: 75 pts
1. Student demonstrated basic knowledge of line, stroke & value - 15 pts
2. Student did 5 or more drawings/designs on their portfolio - 10 pts
3. Student used a high degree of detail - 10 pts
4. Effort - Student took time to develop their idea and completed the project - 20 pts
5. Craftsmanship - Student was neat, clean & complete in their project - 20 pts

Foundations of Design:

We started the class this week discussing four major ideas: line, value, repetition and color.

The element of art known as line is simply defined as a continuous mark on a surface. We discussed how differences of stroke (or difference of the weight of a line) can be used to give a drawing a sense of texture, expression or the illusion of three-dimensions when used correctly. The line is the basic structure for most drawings and will be addressed throughout the semester.

We also discussed value. Value is and element of art that refers to the relative lightness and darkness of an area. We discussed how value relationships between black and white as well as in light and dark colors can create a sense of depth on the page; lighter values creating the illusion of nearness, darker values the illusion of distance or recession.

Color is also very important to design. There are many theories about color and many different concepts to discuss. Our focus this week was on the differences between warm and cool colors. We discussed how warm colors (ex: red, yellow, orange) tell our minds that an image is close or in the foreground. Cool colors (ex: blue, purple and some greens) tend to have the opposite effect, telling our mind that a image is in the background or farther away. In our project we are focusing on this contrast between warm and cool colors. I want to see you use warm and cool colors as a way of pulling objects to the front of your design and pusing other objects or space into the background.

Lastly we are using all of these elements and applying them to the principle of repetition. Repetition is simply the recurrence of elements within a piece. In your project you've been asked to take your elements (line, values, color) and repeat them in order to creat a sense of pattern.

We are currently designing the covers of our semester portfolios. The rubric for this project is below:

Portfolio Design Rubric: 75 pts
1. Student demonstrated basic knowledge of line, color, repetition & value.
2. Student used 5 or more patterns - 10 pts
3. Student used high degree of detail - 10 pts
4. Effort - Student took time to develop their idea and completed the project - 20 pts
5. Craftsmanship - Student was neat, clean & complete in their project - 20 pts

Mr. Briscoe's Class: 11/2 - 11/6

Foundations of Drawing
Monday through Wednesday we continued working on our One Point Perspective Project. Wednesday was our last full work day. The complete project is due Wednesday, Nov. 13th. If you are unaware of the project guidelines please look at last weeks post.


Thursday we introduced Two Point Perspective. Two Point Perspective utilizes two vanishing points to create a different type of three diminsionality. Two Point Perspective requires that two separate sets of lines converge at one point to give the illusion of shapes receding in two directions. See example below:

We also did a practice worksheet that is worth 20 points. Here is a great online tutorial to show you how to use Two-Point Perspective properly.

Friday we continued working on the Two Point Perspective worksheet and introduced Three-Pt.Perspective (third vanishing point) to the mix. When students finished they had time to continue working on their One Pt. Perspective Project (due Wed. 13th

As always, e-mail me with any questions: brandon.briscoe@leesummit.k12.mo.us