Graffuturism design

August 2014

This project focused on the art element of shape.  With line we can create an infinite variety of shapes.   The process is simple.  Draw at least 8-10 lines across the paper (wavy or straight).  They had the option of tracing shapes on top of the lines.  If the wanted to they could trace the lines with colored markers.  Then they colored the resulting shapes with colored pencils.  I asked them to color at least some of the shapes brightly.  Many students color so lightly with colored pencils that you can hardly see what color it is.  Yes, it takes a little work! We are learning that effort is directly connected to quality.

To introduce this project and to get them fired up, I showed them some paintings created by the artist Poesia Transcend.  He is an local, abstract graffiti artist and also the uncle of one of my students!  He came up with the word graffuturism as a term to describe this abstract style of graffiti.  Check it out at Graffuturism.com.

We talked about abstract art and how it does not depict anything we would see in reality.  This was a real eye opener because most of my students believe that good artists are those that can draw something that looks real.  Quite the contrary!  Good art can be created by using your intuition and simply doing what you feel.  This concept is exciting for many of my students who are under the impression that they are not "good at art"  because they can't make something look real.  

One of my students commented that this is the kind of art you would see in a museum.  Yes.  This is good stuff!