Summer Sketchbooks will be discussed/looked at and a few selected pages critiqued the first day of class – then turned in for a grade!

Summer Sketchbook Assignments:

Your sketchbook should be your “new best friend” this summer. You will need to buy an 80-100 sheet good quality sketchbook at least 5” x 12” large (9” x 12” is preferred). It can be larger, however, keep it in mind that you will be taking your “new best friend” where ever you go this summer to work on sketches. You will want a size that is easy to carry and use, for this reason the smaller books are better.

Open it up first thing in the morning and draw your dreams that you had during the night. Work on it though out the day and draw in it the last thing you do at night. Draw in it, write in it, scribble in it, paint in it, glue things into it, cut the pages, tear the pages, change the way it looks to make it look like your own book. At the end of the summer it should reflect YOU and your experiences you had throughout the summer!!

The work you do in your sketchbook is an ongoing process that will help you make informed and critical decisions about the progress of your work. Your sketchbook is the perfect place to try a variety of concepts and techniques as you develop your own voice and style.

1. Alter the current sketchbook cover making it your own – personalize it!  What is the emphasis of the cover?  What does it say about you/your art?
2. On the first page of sketchbook begin a list of concentration possibilities.  Keep in mind that even words can be designed – your list does not have to be in a typical list form.  Add to this “list” as ideas come to you throughout the summer/semester.
3. Magnify an object of your choice.  Try to render the object with as much detail as possible, recording every highlight and value transition possible. 
4. Design a landscape page.  Use a real landscape as inspiration for an illustration that incorporates the elements and principles of design.  You may need to alter reality in order to have a stronger design.
5. Free choice pages – add to you sketchbook as ideas come to your mind.
6. Do not make perfect drawings. Make imperfect drawings; make mistakes; make false starts. Let your hand follow your feelings, not what your brain is telling you to do.
7. Always fill the page you are working on. Go off the edges whenever possible. Do not make dinky little drawings in the center of the page. Make every square inch count for something else. Being able to rescue band beginnings is the sing of a creative mind.
8. Always finish what you start not matter how much you don’t like it.
9. fill at least half of your sketchbook before August – (the first day of school) that means 40 – 50 pages.
10. Put the date on every page.
11. Do not draw from photographs, magazines, etc. Remember this is referred to as PLAGIARISM. Draw from observation and your imagination.
12. No cute, pretty, precious, adorable, or trite images. This is a college lever art class, not a recreation program to create pretty little pictures to hang on your fridge! Expect your ideas about what makes good art to be challenged.
13. Don’t be boring with your work – Challenge us – overlap images or fracture a terrible drawing to make it more interesting. (that means cut it up and glue it back on in a different order!)
14. Avoid showing your work to others unless you know they are going to understand what you are trying to do in your sketchbook. You don’t need negative feedback when you are trying out new ideas or experimenting. This is a place for risk taking.

Ways to Work in your Sketchbook:

·         Draw, draw, draw, paint, paint, paint, draw, collage, etc.

·         Use pencils, pens, crayons, sticks, charcoal, burnt matches, pastel, watercolor, acrylic, pine straw, fingers, basically anything that will make a mark. You have the power to make a mark!

·         Draw what you SEE in the world. Remember no drawings from published images or personal photos. You need to learn to draw without the crutch of someone else’s composition – plus it creates a flattening of space.

·         Use gesture, line, and value in your drawings.

·         Use the principles of perspective to show depth in a drawing.

·         Glue stuff into your sketchbook, ticket stubs, gum wrappers, tinfoil, lace, lists receipts, a leaf, twigs, earrings, shoe laces, whatever (get the idea)! Make a collage of stuff!

·         Build the pages up by layering newspaper and pieces of fabric and photographs and paint over the top or not! What are you trying to say?

·         Express yourself! Work to develop mastery in concept, composition and execution of your ideas.

·         Take a news story and interpret it visually, use abstraction to express an idea. Play around with geometric and organic forms, interlocking and overlapping to create an interesting composition. Use color to finish the work.

·         Create a self-portrait using Distortion, or Cubism, or Impressionism, or Expressionism, or Surrealism or Pop Art. Don’t know what these are? Look them up – find out and explore the possibilities.

·         Make 100 gesture drawings from observation of the figure. Put 5 to 8 on a page and overlap them.

·         Make 25 contour drawings from observation of anything around you. Remember to use the whole page and fill the negative with objects. Make it count for something!

·         Make a simple contour line drawing of an arrangement of objects. Repeat the drawing four times. Explore different color schemes in each of the four drawings. Write about how the color changes the feeling in each image.

·         Write about your work. Write about what you like about a drawing, what you dislike about it. Write about your hopes for your artwork and why you like to make art.

·         Write about how your artwork could impact another’s thinking or feeling. Write about what you want to say with your artwork, and what it means to you in the larger sense.

·         Lastly, this experience should be for your growth as an art student, as a person who values art as a means of expression. Keep it for yourself so that you will feel free to work without judgment. Remember this is an ongoing process that using informed and critical decision making to develop ideas.

·         Bring your sketchbook to the first class in August. You will have an opportunity to select the pages you want to share. We will use your experience as an introduction to some of the thinking that you will be engaged in during the AP Studio Art Course.

·         There will be PRIZES for: Thickest Sketchbook, Most pages filled, Most Expressive/imaginative use of Media, Most Risks Taken, and Best cover Design.