The Sketchbook

Varina High SchoolKate Duffy Dawn Kelly

Jason Ward Elizabeth WatkinsBritt Wiedmeier

Suggested Sketchbook Activities

Daily Warm UpsWeekly AssignmentsProject Design – especially for crafts and

ceramicsVisual JournalingAlter a Book to use as a SketchbookMake a Sketchbook

Daily Warm Ups

Gives the teacher time to take attendance and prepare for class

Brief assignment (10 minutes) at the beginning of each periodVocabulary wordsThinking statementsLine drawingsSimple still life drawings

Weekly Assignments

Sketchbook assignment every Monday – students are encouraged to work during ‘free time’ in class or finish for homework Class Oldenburg is an artist who designs unusual

monuments. Far different from anything you’d expect to see on a pedestal. By increasing the object’s size, Oldenburg enables you to see the beauty and importance of shape, despite its everyday purpose. Make a proposal for a monument. Think of a common object and a location in which to place it. Make a pencil drawing showing your monument in its surroundings.

Weekly Assignment

Once you have mastered the rules of proportion for the human face, you may then use a creative license to break them. Using yourself as the subject matter, you are to create an abstract self-portrait.

Suggestions to help you abstract your piece: Elongate your face Use only basic shapes Alter the colors Rearrange the features Change the placement Change what you are made of Change the proportions Change the texture

Japanese Stab Binding Cover

Pre-drill holes into paperUse felt (or other non-fraying fabric) that

is big enough to fold over your paperThread yarn needles with yarn or cordWalk class together on stitching book

together, following directions for stab binding

Stab Bindings

Handmade Sketchbook - MOLA

The mola is a traditional cloth panel made by the Kuna people of Panama. Molas feature complex designs made with multiple layers of cloth in a reverse appliqué technique.

Reverse Appliqué - Several layers (usually two to seven) of different-colored cloth (usually cotton) are sewn together; the design is then formed by cutting parts of each layer away. The edges of the layers are then sewn down; the finest molas have extremely fine stitching.

Mola

The largest pattern is typically cut from the top layer, and progressively smaller patterns from each subsequent layer, thus revealing the colors beneath in successive layers. This basic scheme can be varied by cutting through multiple layers at once, hence varying the sequence of colors; some molas also incorporate patches of contrasting colors, included in the design at certain points to introduce additional variations of color.

Mola Example

Mola Assignment

In class we will discuss the molas from Panama in Central America and look at pictures of molas. If you are interested in seeing more, look on the internet, there are several images.

Notice the different repeated shapes and patterns created. Also look at the colors and contrasts in the pictures

What types of symbolism of animals- silhouette, abstraction do you see?

Symmetry – The parts of an image or object organized so that one side duplicates, or mirrors the other, also known as formal balance.

Mola Covers

Create animal pattern -- draw on newsprint for your pattern. Use the pattern to cut out felt. Glue felt animal to the large piece of felt. You will only be working on the front cover. Using your pattern again, cut out the same animal, but this time, cutting it smaller and/or in sections on a different piece of felt. Choose a color of felt that has a strong contrast to your first piece.

Glue the piece(s) to the original animal, making sure that you show some of the original color. Continue adding repeated patterns on your animal with small pieces of felt. Use three to four colors. Remember to use symmetry in your animal patterns.

Add additional images to accompany animal for negative space. Create a pattern filling the open/negative spaces repeating colors

from the abstracted animal. These shapes can be dashes - ovals - dots – triangles or representative (water).

Students at Work