Jazz in the Jungle

Art IGCSE paper 2

Firstly…• Well done for your efforts so far – paper 1 looked great, and Im really happy

that you all worked so hard and got such good results – you should all feel very pleased with your efforts – if you can do the same thing for the next paper, then you will all do well.

• As we discussed…im not going to be able to help you as much for this preparation work, but I know you all have good ideas, you just have to get your preparation organised onto worksheets, and remember that we will have some time before your exam to work out any problems.

• You should also email me with pictures of your work, and explain your ideas – this is really important, and I will reply as soon as I can.

• I will include lots of pictures to help inspire you. If you like something – it could be just a colour or a shape…use that to help you – take the name of the artist and research more – what I have included here are just starting points really.

This artist is Piet Mondrian. He was very much inspired by Jazz music, towards the end of his career, when he moved to New York. This painting is of the city streets and all the action! Could you use simple patterns like this? Change the colours? – it could be a simple way to show influence of an artist

Look at this dress – try using some of the images that you like and experiment by changing the costume, or the instruments of your performers!

This example is a Mondrian dress – what other images have you been looking at that you could play around with in this way?

Jackson Pollock is an artist whos work is full of movement and energy. How could you use this kind of experimenting in your designs? Could the paint become parts of the jungle? Could it be the sound coming out of instruments? Could it be the sky? Could it be people dancing? Jazz is all about improvisation – do you think this is appropriate?

The next 6 slides are all by Henri Matisse. When he was too old to paint properly, he made these large collages by cutting out coloured paper. They are very simple, but they look awesome and they have lots of movement and energy. Matisse was also inspired by Jazz a lot, and seeing as how there are a lot of organic shapes, maybe you could try incorporating this into your prep.Try making your own paper cut outs – this is an easy way of experimenting, and it could be great for your background. Remember, its super important that you try lots of different techniques – put yourself in the position to have happy accidents, where the unexpected happens – you will never get that unless you try lots of different things!

Look at the border here. Could you do something simple like this? How about if you had 3 or more layers with simple cut out border like this? How about changing the colour palette to green? Try it!

Can you see the music? Of course you can! I hope youre listening to Jazz at all times girls! No K-Pop!

Next up its Saul Bass. Look how simple his shapes are. Look how well his colours work together.A good design should be simple. Ask yourself – ‘Is there too much going on in my work?’Making something that is simple and effective is not easy! Try reducing things into basic shapes, getting rid of any lines you don’t need. Use photoshop to quickly experiment with different colour palettes. Save and print different results.

Saul Bass matchbox designs – do you remember how to make repeat patterns? This might be a great way to experiment, and to create interesting patterns for trees or buildings. Try it!

Great colours!

Do you remember when I cut into the rubber to make windows for TG’s building? You can try the same – use anything, even a potato works well for this!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9CCYieyoJ4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3DT121kxx0&feature=related

This is just one simple line drawing that has been copied and repeated. You could do something similar on photoshop really easily…a good way to draw a city or jungle?

The next slides all contain images from people who have been heavily influenced by Saul Bass

Look at the orange tree. You could make that easily…with spray paint or watery splashes- then draw a trunk on top when its dry. What kind of different trees could you make? What could you have on the branches?

Look at the roof and the weather vein. – little details like that could make your design fun.

Great sky! Great house shapes! You could make shapes like that with your potato and then paint details on top of them!

Lovely silhouettes – also the perspective – notice how in these examples, things seem to get a bit larger as they go up the page

Look how simple the instruments are. Can you make your instruments this simple?

Look at the letters here – do you like the way the ‘L’ becomes the mans glasses?

So simple, but clever – and funny too! The Type in your design is important. Its better if you think about how it fits with the other things in your image…could you make a little joke like this?

I also like the pattern on his shirt, the shadow on his leg, and his funny feet. Great design!

These designs were by Pascal Blanchet– look him up!

The next slides are by Lesley Barnes

You could make wings like that with chalk. You could then use photoshop to invert the colours. Try it!

Great trousers!

The moustache and the medals are lovely little details

Birds of paradise?

For a completely different style, look at some lovely line drawings – Google has many more examples…

How good would it look if you had a contrast between this style and some of the other things we have looked at?

(very good)

Could you make those buildings spell ‘Jazz’?

Or the shadows around the buildings?

This artist does drawings of strange structures in lines. Visit his website and download the activity – maybe you could use it as part of your preparation?Could you use this style and make it relevant to our project? Try it!

His name is Vasco Mourao,

And his website is :

http://www.zigaziga.com/

As mentioned earlier…the font is really important…I don’t want you to spend lots of time designing your own font, but you can take someone elses design and add to it, or change it to make it yours:

Try these websites, or use the posters that you have been looking at for inspiration:

http://creativenerds.co.uk/freebies/50-best-free-fonts-from-2009/

http://www.unstage.com/2010/02/70-of-the-best-free-fonts-for-graphic-designers/

http://www.addictivefonts.com/basic/best-free-fonts/

http://simplythebest.net/fonts/

Links: some of the other sites I have been looking at.

http://www.marimekko.com/http://grainedit.com/2008/09/http://grainedit.com/2010/05/24/dan-stiles-interview/http://grainedit.com/2008/02/25/charles-harper-illustrations-giant-golden-book-of-biology/http://wordsandeggs.squarespace.com/imported-20100206003717/?currentPage=34http://www.studiotota.com/blog/2008_11_01_archive.htmlhttp://theanimalarium.blogspot.com/2010/11/magic-feathers-marching-bands.htmlhttp://vimeo.com/1322323http://vimeo.com/5013224http://theanimalarium.blogspot.com/http://cineleet.com/2008/03/16/the-inimitable-graphic-genius-of-saul-bass/

Good luck!Remember to email me with pictures and updates.

Samhebden@gmail.com

See you in a few weeks!