Young Artist Studio Teaching Apprentice Blog

Artist Mathieu Tremblin recently took to the streets of France on a rather quixotic mission to improve the legibility of ugly graffiti. Mimicking the scale, color, and layering of each tag, Tremblin created his own replica in a perfectly crisp font. It’s hard to say if either version is more aesthetically pleasing, but he definitely gets an ‘A’ for effort. (via Design You Trust, thnx Nikki!)

This morning, I’d like you to decode an artwork in the gallery: DRAW WHAT YOU SEE.

So many times with Abstract Expressionism, viewers “see” something that is not there. This is your brain trying to make sense of what you are looking at.
—Find a painting in the gallery
—Draw what you see in the chaos of the image

Today was an exciting yet calm day at the CVA. We were fortunate enough to attend a panel discussion with four amazing and influential artists in the Denver community. They helped us imagine what their jobs were like and gave us ideas, inspiration, and advice on how to go about an artistic career.
LUNCH BREAK
In the afternoon Robyn prepared us for our professional future by giving us tips and tricks on how to make a LinkedIn account and helped us to create a resume entry for our Creative Industries Internship.

The interns started off the day with an exciting and in depth presentation from Cecily Cullen, Director and Curator for the Center for Visual Art. During the Presentation the interns learned about the process behind creating the WaterLine exhibition, the individual artists that have been chosen, and how they are trying to promote water issue awareness in their work. Cecily Cullen also discussed her career in art and the history leading up to achieving her current position at the Center for Visual Art at MSU Denver.

Please take your character for a walk in the gallery.

Find a work of art to sketch and then place your character in the artwork 🙂

Pencils only. Colored are ok. No food or drinks.

Create a machine animal mashup.

Robert Bowen

INTERN BLOG POST

Today we started the day off by doing a sketch book entry in our note books. The assignment was to write 3-5 things that our group needed to get done for the day. We then met in our groups to set that list into action. Most teams needed to start working on their design boards.

After lunch, we all walked down to the Denver Art Museum. With us, we carried our sketch books and took note of the visual aesthetics all around us, that we could incorporate into our game design. At the DAM, we took a look at the “Women of Abstract Expressionism” exhibit, and compared it to the similar display we see in the CVA every day.

Our last stop at DAM (which was probably the coolest), was #dancelab. DanceLab is a unique dance installation created by Wonderbound and Legwork Studio. You are invited to follow dance steps choreographed, or free style in front of a screen that records your moves. The lab speeds you up and plays different shots in different variations- as Matt and Aron told us at our Legwork tour. You can see your movements combined with other’s for a collective dance experience projected on a large wall. We got to experience it first hand, and it was cool knowing how it was created

Good:

Understand the audience and try to relate
Have a clear vision for your audience
Highlight benefits of product
Well rehearsed
Convincing/why?
Be prepared for all questions
Establish a connection
Call to action!
Confidence
Introduce yourself!
Present as a team

Bad:

Saying price too soon
Talking too fast
Don’t yell at your audience
- Don’t “Slap Chop” them
Don’t try to force your product
Don’t touch the audience
Don’t talk down to your audience
Don’t upstage someone

Illustrate a favorite moment in a movie, play or tv show.

These are highlights of the slide presentation. The presentation below covers typography basics as well as “Do’s and Don’ts” of design layout.

Please take a moment to jot down 3-5 things you would like your group to accomplish today. Thanks!

The groundbreaking exhibition Women of Abstract Expressionism celebrates the often unknown female artists of this mid-twentieth-century art movement. More than 50 major paintings are on view by artists working on the East and West Coasts during the 1940s and ’50s: Mary Abbott, Jay DeFeo, Perle Fine, Helen Frankenthaler, Sonia Gechtoff, Judith Godwin, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Deborah Remington, and Ethel Schwabacher. This is the first presentation of works by these artists together at one time.
Women of Abstract Expressionism focuses on the expressive freedom of direct gesture and process at the core of abstract expressionism, while revealing inward reverie and painterly expression in these works by individuals responding to particular places, memories, and life experiences.

While yesterday’s introduction to Adobe Illustrator barely scratched the surface of what this program can do, I wanted you all to have the opportunity to play around with it in a low stakes situation.

The Pen Tool games that teach the essential functions of this most important tool. If you can master the pen tool, there’s nothing you cannot create in Illustrator. For everything else, there is a wellspring of tutorials on youtube. While not all are top quality, you will certainly be able to teach yourself how to rock this program.

Here are links to the games we played as well as links to solid, helpful tutorials

adobe pen tool game

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/how-to/pen-tool-game.html

the bezier game

http://bezier.method.ac/#

tutorials

Image trace tutorial

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/image-trace.html

type tutorial

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/creating-text.html

Some examples of Adobe play

We have new opportunities so we are flexing the schedule 🙂

Tuesday – Design Boards and Illustrator Workshop
Wednesday – Design Boards and DAM visit
Thursday – Sales Pitch Workshop and Complete Design Boards
Friday – Asset Planning and Fun/Catch-up

Monday – Redline Visit and Sales Pitch Workshop
Tuesday – Arts and Culture Panel Discussion and Asset Building
Wednesday – Modeset Visit and Asset Completion
Thursday – Sales Pitch Rehearsal/Resume Writing and Intro to LinkedIn and DMNS Behind the Scenes
Friday – Deliver Game Proposals and Wrap-up

Friday August 5th – CVA Summer Party with OHY!

Design an avatar of yourself. Any style. Full body. In action. Portrait. Headshot. Glamour shot. You call it.

What is the role of the artist in society?

The end of week one at the CVA Internship and the fun has only just begun. This first week at the CVA has been tons of fun learning experiences. For example, learning about the diverse pool of interns and even visiting the Legworks studio. The experiences at the CVA are unlike any other because of the amazing people here and the incredible sense of community. Here, we come together to balance work and play.

INTERN BLOG POST

We were inspired by a start up company making it so far. Legwork has only been around for seven years and they already work with companies like Nike! We learned about the “procrastination monkey” from Tim Urban through TED Talk, and how when the deadline approaches the “panic monster” is activated. To end of the day, we worked with science to create light, utilizing circuits.

Team Design Challenge: A Seafaring Vessel.

On the butcher paper in front of you, as a TEAM, design a:

yacht for your moms
an intercontinental ship to bring 127 zebras to their new home across the sea
a ship for the future queen of Narnia

OR

the worlds most stealth pirate ship

Please say hello to all the people at the table before you jump in AND perhaps begin with a big list of brainstorming ideas before you start your illustrations.

Please complete your simple circuit and enjoy elaborating on it.

Grab your sketchbooks!

Take a couple minutes to draw yourself doing your favorite summer activity!

Playing football?
Soccer?
Swimming?
Camping!

Get out your sketchbooks and… Draw me!

Today we will be working on our artist statements for the show, and if need be
titles for our work. Lets take a look at some examples.

Today we are going to finish our projects

Your work needs:

1. Text
2. A Print
3. An Artist Statement

Sketchbook prompt:
How is your project going? What are you feeling confident about? What still needs development? Is there anything you would like feedback on?
And finally…
Draw the most amazing stick figure anyone has ever seen!

How was your spring break?

Today we are going to continue to work on our posters.

Cut out 3 images for your middle ground.

Cleanup Jobs:

Floors:
Scraps:
Tables:
Tools:

Brittany McDonald

Todays Topics:
Bachelor of Fine Arts
Brittany’s path
Brittany’s work
Your work!

Goals:
Discover inspiration from an artist
Finalize designs for our Zine

Groups!

Today we are going to use ipads to take photographs of each other!

Get into groups of 2. You will have one ipad each to photograph each other.

You will need to have at least 3 pictures you like that express an emotion, a feeling or idea.

Think about how you are standing, if your hood is up, if your moving, if your hiding, if your face can be seen, if your dancing or sitting.

Think about your posters you will be making as well! We will use these photographs in your final posters!

What is this a picture of?

What stands out to you about it?

Can this picture tell a story?

What is the meaning?

Is this picture happy? Sad? or does it make you feel a certain way?

What is this a picture of?

Does it tell a story? Can you come up with a story?

How does this person feel?

Do you think they knew they were being photographed?

What is happening here?

How is this photograph different than the first two?

Could all three of these photographs tell a story?

What story would that be?

Groups!

Today we are going to use ipads to take photographs of each other!

Get into groups of 2. You will have one ipad each to photograph each other.

You will need to have at least 3 pictures you like that express an emotion, a feeling or idea.

Think about how you are standing, if your hood is up, if your moving, if your hiding, if your face can be seen, if your dancing or sitting.

Think about your posters you will be making as well! We will use these photographs in your final posters!

What is this a picture of?

What stands out to you about it?

Can this picture tell a story?

What is the meaning?

Is this picture happy? Sad? or does it make you feel a certain way?

What is this a picture of?

Does it tell a story? Can you come up with a story?

How does this person feel?

Do you think they knew they were being photographed?

What is happening here?

How is this photograph different than the first two?

Could all three of these photographs tell a story?

What story would that be?

Illustrate 3 different textures using 5 different line qualities.

What is that thing that bugs you to no end?

Explore that “issue” and make a quick sketch.

Cleanup!

Today we will assign jobs for cleaning up the room.

Floors–Nico Sidi
Tables- Khadija G. Khadija M.
Tools- Greta Abdi
Boss- Ahmed A.
Photographer- Ahmed H. Bear
Paper-Angelo

We are going to make some prints today using brayers, ink, foam board and foam stickers and paper

Do you know what Printmaking is?

Today we celebrate the joys of our internship: what we have learned through shared experience, the friendships we have made, and the knowledge that we have gained and given. We also celebrate CVA(Center for Visual Art) turning 25 today! This gallery has graciously hosted us for these past three weeks and today we pay them back. The interns will be manning the OhHeckYeah! booth at CVA’s street fair and also providing art-making opportunities for every kiddo that wants to get creative! These interns, now well versed in OHY!’s games and mission of building community through play and steeped in professional practice, are ready to show the public what they’re made of and the skills they’ve gained. The weather was perfect, the music was amazing, and the food was on point! Like every good intern, our interns know that every successful event starts with group stretches…

Sketchbook Prompt: Today we are going to do the 10 second man activity. We will separate into two groups. Each person in the group will have 10 seconds to draw. After 10 seconds you will put your pencil down and pass the drawing to the next person to draw for 10 seconds.

Make a 5 minute sketch in your sketch book. Rip your paper in half and pass the right half to your left. Tape the page in to your sketch book and create a collaborative version of your image.

Mica Angela Handricks works with her daughter, who is a toddler! Their work is unmatched. What can you do? Who can you collaborate with?

Now for our class activity…

Gesture painting; let your emotions flow! Jackson Pollock, he’s just a normal guy that just so happens to walk on his paintings.

Gesture Drawing forms…
carving out forms with charcoal by focussing on the volume shapes: the light and dark shapes that define the shape of an object.

Sketchbook Prompt: Create your own cut up creature using the collage materials at the table.

Look at these for ideas and inspiration!

Sketchbook Prompt: Create your own cut up creature using the collage materials at the table.

Look at these for ideas and inspiration!

Ready?

With permission you may begin on your final draft. Please be prepared to show your storyboard and story outline before receiving final draft paper. Thank you.

Sketch some sort of weird or fantastical invention that solves a problem.

Bryan Talbot self portrait

John Watkiss

Jill Thompson

Sketchbook

Create a three panel comic of you getting ready in the morning.

Next Steps

Once your character study is complete you will create an Outline and a Storyboard.

Outline

Storyboard

Sketchbook

Draw yourself as a cartoon. Using a word bubble, write down how you are feeling today.

Compare/Contrast

What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can you find?

Update: New Exhibitions and New Learning!

As we begin the spring semester, all of our team members at the CVA are very excited about the new exhibitions that will be going up in the next few months. The current exhibition that is on display is titled Under the Guillotine, comprised of an impressive collections of James Gilray’s political cartoons as well as fellow contemporary counterparts, Chris Dacre, Molly Crabapple and Deb Sokolow.

For more information on the artists as well the exhibition, please visit the links below.

http://www.msudenver.edu/cva/exhibitions/onview/

http://msudenver.edu/newsroom/news/2016/january/14-jenna-miles-cva.shtml?emc=lm&m=1040151&l=2&v=788672

http://www.westword.com/event/under-the-guillotine-james-gillray-and-contemporary-counterparts-7396326

The Young Apprentices will be focusing on how to convey a message through art, particularly focusing on cartoons and the creative devices used by cartoonists, satirists, and illustrators in general. We will be developing technical skills with various media such as collage, painting, and printmaking. The technical skills with the various media will develop in conjunction with teaching the apprentices how to analyze art, how to critique art and how they can convey their personal message through an array of artistic styles.

We are very excited to have everyone back and will keep our Weebly updated as we further our exploration of art at the CVA!

Below are some images of Ben’s time spent traveling in Israel over the winter of 2015.

​Here are links to the games we played as well as links to solid, helpful tutorials

Some examples of Adobe play

We have new opportunities so we are flexing the schedule 🙂

What is the role of the artist in society?

Team Design Challenge: A Seafaring Vessel.

Brittany McDonald

Ready?

Sketch some sort of weird or fantastical invention that solves a problem.

Sketchbook

Next Steps

Compare/Contrast

Here are links to the games we played as well as links to solid, helpful tutorials