Something that you pass everyday Studio Project

This year I started doing Something that you pass everyday Studio Project. This encourages students to become more aware of inspiration that they might find all around them. The goal of the project is to find something that they pass everyday that they can use as inspiration for a drawing.

Once the drawing is complete, they colour it traditionally (with watercolour paint, pastels, pencil crayons or markers- depending on the available supplies), or digitally (Photoshop or another image program- depending on available resources).

Here is an example the I recently completed of a window that I pass by everyday. Most days, I walk by it without noticing it, but one day, it caught my eye and I saw how beautiful it was and took a quick picture for future reference. I did a drawing from the photo and the coloured it in Photoshop.

Cool Light, Warm Shadows Landscape Painting

Here's a recent pen and ink sketch that I enjoyed putting together- scanned, and then coloured in photoshop. This made me think of an art history/ studio project that would be fun to try out in class.

Project: cool light, warm shadows landscape painting

Part One: students analyze oil sketches and paintings of winter landscapes by Tom Thomson and Lawren Harris with attention to the colour they used for light and shadows.

Part Two: students complete a Creative Process booklet to develop their own sketch and painting about light and shadows.

Part Three: final painting and group critique.

Here are a few of Tom Thomson's:

- Patrick

How to deal with boredom

This fascinating article from the Behance blog "99%" tackles the subject: why boredom is good for the creative process.  Many creatives, teachers and students face boredom on a regular basis and this article provides some helpful insight on why it happens, and how to deal with it.

The name of the blog "99%" comes from a great quote by Thomas Edison: "Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration." It's easy to relate to and reminds me of an earlier post, featuring a great video of Milton Glaser : "Art is work."

Developing Your Creative Practice: Tips from Brian Eno

What do you do when you're stuck on a problem that you need to solve?
Where do great ideas come from?

This article, written by Scott McDowell, provides some answers from musician/composer/producer Brian Eno. Very insightful!

In it, Eno recalls:
 "There’s a proverb that says that the fruit takes a long time to ripen, but it falls suddenly ... And that seems to be the process."