Visual Arts Activity Mrs. Boyter

 Cubism was one of the most influential visual art styles of the early twentieth century.  It was created by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881– 1973) and Georges Braque (French, 1882–1963) in Paris between 1907 and 1914.Pablo Picasso

 When you look at an object your eye scans it, stopping to register on a certain detail before moving on to the next point of interest and so on. You can also change your viewpoint in relation to the object allowing you to look at it from above, below or from the side.  Therefore, the Cubists proposed that your sight of an object is the sum of many different views and your memory of an object is not constructed from one angle, as in perspective, but from many angles selected by your sight and movement.  Cubist painting, was an attempt at a more realistic way of seeing.

 In early Cubist paintings the artists broke down objects into such basic geometric shapes as cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones. The artists used the shapes to show many sides of the original object.

 The Cubist style from about 1910 to 1912 is called Analytical Cubism.  The artists analyzed subjects, meaning that they broke them down into forms that they could look at and paint from different angles.  They then painted the different parts with overlapping planes, or rectangular shapes. The painters used very few colors because they wanted the viewer to concentrate on the shapes more than anything else. They often used only shades of black, brown, cream, green, blue, and gray.

Some examples of Analytical Cubism

 After 1912 artists started using a new style called Synthetic Cubism. Painters mixed together different shapes. They also used more colors. Cubists during this period did not use just paint. They often pasted such objects as pieces of newspaper or cloth onto the canvas. This new style of art was called collage.

Some examples of Synthetic Cubism

 Student expectations:  To create an original cubism using different shading values and colour techniques.

 Select a subject of which you can make a contour line drawing. Focus on a single object, such as a car, insect, person or fish.

 Enlarge that subject to fit 12" X 18" inch (30.5 x 46 cm) paper using the grid method.

 "Shatter" the subject in some way by breaking it up with lines or shapes or patterns of some sort. These lines will overlap your first drawing.  (There are numerous methods you could use…be creative. Think of various ways that lines break up objects: shattered glass, wavy lines of water, spiral lines as seen on a snail shell, geometrical divisions of shapes.) The objective is to create more shapes in your drawing, like a giant puzzle.

 In your drawing, focus on each individual shape you have created, and apply the entire range of value (from black to light gray OR a certain colour scheme) in each shape. Proceed from shape to shape, deciding which part should be the richest black and which should be the lightest gray.  Sometimes you may want to alternate from one shape to the next. You may also want to vary the direction of your shading inside your object from that outside your object in order to emphasize it.

 Trace your hand in the middle of the page.  Then use a template of your choice (I used the circular shape of a duct tape roll), breaking up the largest spaces.  Shade each space with a pencil only.  I encourage you to figure out your own 'rule' for shading - for example, darkest towards the middle of the page or darkest towards the bottom. ** THIS IS YOUR FIRST SKETCHBOOK ENTRY**