Art 101 with Anne

Hi, Everyone! Based on the feedback I received from you all at the meeting and at lunch, I'm going to put together an exercise to play with the elements of line and value at the next meeting.  My goal is to provide an understanding of these terms and ideas so that everyone is comfortable using them in their quilting as well as in critiques.  This will provide a strong foundation for anyone who is interested in learning how to make quilts in an improvisational way.

--Anne

Art 101 with Anne

I found several websites which describe the Elements and Principles of Art and Design.  This is one with clear definitions.  www.projectarticulate.org/principles.php

Think about these Elements and Principles as being tools in your tool box.  Using them and focusing on them one at a time will get you more comfortable using the terms to describe images, and using the ideas to make stuff!

Excercise #1, you will need: magazines and or photos, black flair pen, paper, tracing paper. (optional: photocopier)

1. Collect two folders of images (they can be your own photos or cut from a magazine).  Get a variety, at least 6 to 12 in each folder.

One folder will have interesting LINES. (Curvy lines of trees against the sky, close up of wheat fields showing the curved lines of the plants, angular lines of city architecture, anything that appeals to you and has a line or lines in it. )  

The other folder should have some images which show a range of VALUE. ie; areas of light, medium and dark. Examples might be pictures of the sky at sunset, images of water often have a wide value range, etc. This set of images should be black and white, no color.  If you have a color image you really want to use, print it in black and white or photocopy it.  

2. If you want to start playing with the LINES images, select one and begin either making small doodles using the lines as inspiration.  If you don't know where to start, put some tracing paper over the image and trace (use a black flair pen) the main lines.  Every so often, stop and look at what you have.  Put a new piece of tracing paper over the same image and trace different lines.  See what you get.  Think about how these can be changed or combined in different ways.  

Just play! You can't do it wrong! bring what you have done, and we can all look at them and see what everyone has come up with.  In February,we can talk about how these sketches can be turned into designs for quilts.

(Note: if you want to make a quilt design based on a photograph without changing it significantly, you should use your OWN photo.)