There are four sketchbook assignments in this class, and all of them are optional. (For required assignments, which are assigned in Weeks 4, 6, and 7, please go to Required Assignments.) All of the sketchbook assignments and their recommended follow up activity are posted on their respective weekly module page, but for your convenience, we have posted all of that have been assigned to date right here.Optional Sketchbook Assignment 1: My World and the Art World (Tracks A & B)This is an assignment I’ve given in my critique seminar for a number of years. It’s a good way to start a discussion about your assumptions about art (whatever they might be) and how those assumptions might constrain or enable your practice (whatever it might be). Again, this is an optional assignment but I encourage everyone to try it. If you are unsure about sharing your work in this class, I still encourage you to do it on your own. Don't think too much about it—just give it a go! Next week, we'll provide more information and examples about giving feedback to your peers' work. The critique is equally, if not more, important than the assignment itself.
To complete this and other assignments in this class, please refer to this page in the Course Overview.
INSTRUCTIONS:
- In your sketchbook, make or describe something (or choose a work by another artist) that stands for what youthink art really should be in your perfect world—if art was daring, bold, unique and special, if it was community-building or affirming, if it made the world a better place or turned the world on its head. Here, you get to decide.
- Then, make or describe something (or choose a work by another artist) that stands for what you think people in the world think art should be—because a teacher or expert told you that’s what art is, or because that’s what you think “good art" is, or because you think this is what the art market wants, etc.
- Photograph or scan your two images/descriptions, or if you are using a digital sketchbook, copy the permalink to your post. (If you are including a work by another artist, please do not post an image that you don't have permission to use; post a link instead.)
- Head over to this forum, and start a new thread. Paste your two images/texts/links into the post. Include a short description and citation if necessary. Add a title for your post, such as "Sketchbook Assignment 1 - my submission".
- Finally, if your version of what art should be like and what the world thinks art should be like are the same, great! If they are different, then think about those differences a bit and write down your thoughts below your uploaded images/text/links.
- Click "Create new thread". You're done!
- Visit the Sketchbook Assignment 1: My World and the Art World forum and choose an assignment. Try especially to spread your attention between assignments that may have already received a lot of feedback and ones that haven’t. Prioritize finding an undiscovered gem or two.
- Look at the student’s submission. Don’t respond immediately. Give yourself at least a few minutes to really look or study what the student has submitted.
- In your reply, describe, in words, exactly what you are seeing or reading in the student’s assignment.
- Then, select at least one of the following and add it to your comment:
- What is one thing about the submission that immediately caught your attention?
- What is one thing about the work that took you a little longer to discover?
- What are three questions you would ask this student about their submission?
- How does the medium/format that the student has chosen (drawing, text, chart, etc.) affect how you understand the meaning of the submission?
- Repeat for another assignment. Try to comment on at least three assignments this round.
Optional Sketchbook Assignment 2: Mental Map (Tracks A & B)It’s good to try to know yourself as an artist and visual thinker. And it’s interesting to learn from others. This week I’m asking you to tell your own story in images and words, and learn about things you might not know from other people’s stories.
- In your sketchbook, assemble ten (10) images, books, films, or even music/songs that provide a history and context for your current work or interests in art, animation and/or gaming, whether as a practitioner, viewer or player/participant. Choose works that are important to the way you think, and just as importantly, works that inspire you in ways that you can’t always perhaps put into words. Reach back into your childhood (where you may perhaps find some unexpected sources of inspiration) and look around you to collect some contemporary resources. (This assignment is particularly well-suited to a digital sketchbook, like a Tumblr or blog, but as before, if you are posting content that is not your own, please cite where you retrieved each image with a link.)
- Sequence your images/items in a way that makes sense to you, chronologically or thematically or some other way.
- In this forum, start a new thread. Give your thread a title, write a short intro (100-200 words), and post your images/list of links, or a link to your digital sketchbook/blog where you created your sequence.
- Click “Create New Thread.”
- Visit the Sketchbook Assignment 2: Mental Map forum and choose an assignment. Try to spread your attention between assignments that have already received a lot of feedback and ones that haven’t. Prioritize finding an undiscovered gem or two.
- Look at the student’s submission. Don’t respond immediately. Give yourself at least a few minutes to really look or study what the student has submitted.
- In your reply, describe, in words, exactly what you are seeing or reading in the student’s assignment.
- Then, select two of the following and add it to your comment:
- What is one thing about the submission that immediately caught your attention?
- What is one thing about the work that took you a little longer to discover?
- What are three questions you would ask this student about their submission?
- How does the medium/format that the student has chosen (drawing, text, chart, etc.) affect how you understand the meaning of the submission?
- Repeat for another assignment. Try to comment on at least three assignments this round.
Optional Sketchbook Assignment 3: Characters Drawn from Life (and Death)For this week’s sketchbook assignment we are offering two options: one for Track A learners (more visual-based), and one for Track B learners (a written response). Do one or the other, or both! Please note there is a separate forum for each track.
Track A
- Look in a local newspaper or online source for death or marriage notices. Find one that is interesting to you but don’t choose one that includes a photograph.
- Make a portrait of a person described in the notice (deceased man or woman, bride or groom). Use any means and style that you like--drawing, painting, photography, collage. Think about how much of the person you want to show, how s/he is posed or framed, how much context is given through background, accessories, etc. Whatever you choose to include in the portrait should say something about the character you have chosen to depict.
- Important: In respect of others' privacy, do not include any names from notices, or link to them, or use images without permission.
- In this forum ("Characters Drawn from Life (and Death) TRACK A"), start a new thread and post a scan of your image. Give your post a title, and submit!
Track B
- Find a public place. Sit down and make yourself comfortable. You might be here for a while.
- Watch the people.
- Choose one person and invent a life for them. Think about who might be in terms of occupation, relationships with family and friends, pets or lack of them, personal possessions or lack of them, personality quirks and flaws, likes and dislikes, obsessions and dreams, crimes or acts of bravery or charity in their past. Don’t give your imagination completely free rein; try instead to link everything you say to something you can observe in the person. Write about 300-400 words.
- Important: In respect of others' privacy, do not include any names, or take photographs or videos of your subjects.
- In this forum ("Characters Drawn from Life (and Death) TRACK B"), start a new thread and post your text. Give your post a title, and submit!
Optional Sketchbook Assignment Follow Up (1, 2, and 3)Given our attention shifted from sketchbooks to required assignments last week, we would like to encourage students to return to those initial submissions another time. Please take a moment to give some feedback to your peers. For our third critique we are building on the prompt given in the first two assignments:
- Visit any of the previous sketchbook forums (Sketchbook Assignments 1, 2, or 3 [Track A or B]), and choose an assignment. Try to focus your attention between assignments that have already received a lot of feedback and ones that haven’t. Prioritize finding an undiscovered gem or two.
- Look at the student’s submission. Don’t respond immediately. Give yourself at least a few minutes to really look or study what the student has submitted.
- In your reply, describe, in words, exactly what you are seeing or reading in the student’s assignment.
- Then, select three of the following and add it to your comment:
- What is one thing about the submission that immediately caught your attention?
- What is one thing about the submission that took you a little longer to discover?
- What are three questions you would ask this student about their submission?
- How does the medium/format that the student has chosen (drawing, descriptive text, photography, collage, etc. etc.) affect how you understand the meaning of the submission?
- If you could ask the student for just one more “clue” as to the character s/he has depicted, what would it be?
Optional Sketchbook Assignment 4: Keeping TimeAs last time, for this week’s (and the last) sketchbook assignment we are offering two options: one for Track A learners (more visual-based), and one for Track B learners (a written response). Do one or the other, or both. Please note there is a separate forum for each track.
Track A
- Using any media you like, make a work or manipulate an image in such a way as to exhibit the process of making or unmaking as a quality of time or duration -- from slow to fast, as a sequence of one thing after another, using repetition, or abrupt transitions or gaps and blanks, giving the effect of a single glance or a long slow stare or ?
- Using the same image, repeat the above two more times but differently each time.
- If you wish, select one of the images and post it in this forum (Sketchbook Assignment 4: Keeping Time TRACK A) to share it with your peers. Start a new thread, and include 2-3 sentences about your process and what aspect of time or duration you wanted to convey in the work.
- Write a long paragraph about something that happens very quickly (it can be something “real” that you observed or a made-up event).
- Then, write a sentence about something that takes a very long time indeed.
- Using the same events you chose to describe above, repeat steps #1 and #2 several times, rewriting the events differently each time.
- If you wish, select one of your texts (either one of your paragraphs or a sentence or both) and post it in this forum (Sketchbook Assignment 4: Keeping Time TRACK B) to share it with your peers. Start a new thread, and include 2-3 sentences about your process and what aspect of time or duration you wanted to convey in the work.
Optional Sketchbook Assignment 4 Follow UpRegardless if you did last week’s sketchbook assignment or not, or you are just joining us, please take a moment to give some feedback to your peers. For our fourth and last critique we are building on the previous prompt:
- Visit the TRACK A or TRACK B forums for Sketchbook Assignment 4: Keeping Time and choose an assignment. Try to spread your attention between assignments that have already received a lot of feedback and ones that haven’t. Prioritize finding an undiscovered gem or two.
- Look at the student’s submission. Don’t respond immediately. Give yourself at least a few minutes to really look or study what the student has submitted.
- In your reply, describe, in words, exactly what you are seeing or reading in the student’s assignment.
- Then, select three of the following and add it to your comment:
- What is one thing about the submission that immediately caught your attention?
- What is one thing about the submission that took you a little longer to discover?
- What is one question you would ask this student about their submission?
- How does the content of the submission affect your understanding of time or duration?
- How does the medium or format the student has chosen (drawing, descriptive text, photography, collage, etc.) affect your understanding of time or duration?