Intro to Painting
Assignment 5
Narrative Painting with a combination of
Opaque color and Transparent washes
Narrative painting or Illustration- is a work of art that emphasizes story telling. Works of art often tell stories.
Artists can present narrative in many ways—by using a series of images that representing moments in a story, or by
selecting a central moment to stand for the whole story. Narrative art works often illustrate well-known historical,
religious, legendary, or mythic stories.
Problem: Your final painting will be an illustration that is derived from a short story, poem, or song. The painting
should be something you have heard or read. This painting should be well thought out and challenging.
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In your paintings be original; do not copy an existing illustrations or photographs. I am looking for you to
be inventive and creative with this series of drawings.
In your paintings challenge yourself and integrate some complexity into your artwork, for example:
challenging your use of color, value, texture, mark making and or develop the background of your subject.
You can paint text (portion of story) or collage into this painting if you like but do not include title of the
story, song or poem etc. into the painting.
Incorporate both the opaque painting technique from (assignments 1 &2) and transparent color technique
from (assignments 3 &4) into this paining.
One Thousand Summers: Hyakunin Isshu: Poem 13
Sketch book:
a. Create two pencil studies before you start painting.
Is it necessary to plan a painting in thorough detail before you start, or should you let it develop as you go along?
Planning a painting can be a help as you know exactly what you're going to do, but it could also inhibit spontaneity.
Letting a painting evolve as you work is very free and lets you be spontaneous, but also leaves you open to the
possibility that the painting won't go anywhere and you'll end up with a mess. Ultimately the degree to which you
plan out a painting depends on your personality; some people find it essential and others a hindrance. But regardless
of how detailed you like to plan (or not), there are numerous decisions that have to be made before you to start to
paint.
b. Take a 4” x 6” color digital image of the final painting and place into the sketch book. Make sure your digital
image is in focus, squared off and color and value are comparable to original painting.
c. Your description and analysis will be part of your final paper and you do not have to include these paragraphs in
your sketch book.
Materials: acrylic paint (full pallet of colors), canvas panel or water color paper, paint brushes (nylon hair and or
hog hair), pencil, liquid frisket
“Rioting Bloom”, R. M. Drake
“Strawberry Fields Forever” The Beatles
Final Paper: After you have completed your painting write a double space three page paper. Your paper should be
divided into two main subjects: Objective and Subjective and four sub-topics: description, analysis, interpretation
and judgment.
Look over the following ideas and use them as guiding questions and incorporate them into your paper
accordingly. Your paper will be divided into the following four sections: description, analysis, interpretation and
judgment.
Objective part
I. Description
You will make observations about what you see. You must be objective. For this part please make no inferences or
express opinions. Become a detective at the scene of the crime. You are going to create a list of what you see. List
only the facts about the artwork.
A. subject matter: landscape, still life, portrait, genre scene, figurative, historical, abstract, non-objective
B. Medium: acrylic, pencil, charcoal, collage, mixed media
C. Style: impressionism, expressionism, hard edge, pop art, abstract expressionism, photo-realism,
pointillism
D. Technique: painterly, flat color, opaque, transparent, hard edge, soft edges
How are you using the transparent technique and opaque technique?
Do you have a style that you can describe? How did you arrive at this style? Is it traditional, contemporary, avantgarde, realistic, impressionistic, surreal, expressionistic, abstract etc? Explain.
II. Analysis
How do you compose (organize) your painting? This is where your knowledge of the design elements and the
Design Principles play an important role. The combinations of these, elements and principles help the artist create
the mood of the work or express a particular point of view or message.
A.
B.
Design elements: line, shape, value, color, size, direction, texture, focal point
Design Principles: repetition and rhythm, dominance and subordination, unity and variety, contrast,
balance, emphasis, scale and proportion
What is your light source and how dose is affect your value range?
How do you use value in your painting? Contrast, low key high key
What is your focal point? What elements are dominating and what are subordinate?
How do you lead the viewer to your focal point? Size, texture, detail, contrast
How do you use texture in your painting? Simulated, actual, invented
How do you do you create the sense of space in your drawing? Flat, cubical (3D), ambiguous (combination of flat
and cubical)
How did you use color in your painting? Is any portion/part of color in your painting monochromatic,
complementary, and analogous or a combination?
Subjective part
III. Interpretation
What does this work say to me? You can make guesses and inferences. However, these should be educated guesses
and not just random guesses. Don’t make up meaning, but use what you see to construct and support reasonable
interpretations. You must be able to articulate, or express yourself intelligently using words, and provide insightful
comments as to why you feel the mood or the meaning of the work is? Interpretation is very personal.
Where do your ideas come from? Do your ideas come from pop culture, childhood memories, dreams, culture, and
history?
How did you pick your subject (story, poem, song)? Why did you pick this subject?
Talk about the story, song, poem etc. you are illustrating.
What is content of your artwork?
What is your story about? Keep this short!
Do you copy what you see, or do you visualize from your imagined, or are you symbolizing an idea and or concept?
IV. Judgment:
Everyone is going to have reasons for liking or disliking their painting. Saying "I think this is good art" is not
enough. Be sure to support your opinions with specific things you see in your final painting. How you value your
painting is a personal judgment. But, it is important that you recognize what works in your painting and what does
not.
Is your painting successful? How is it successful with technique, message and or psychological etc?
How do you feel about this piece?
Does your painting have artistic merit?
What kinds of things do you learn about yourself by making art?
What are some of the surprises that you have discovered while working?
What technical problems did you encounter while creating this piece?
How/what would you do to improve your painting?
Student examples:
“The Tell-tale Heart”, by Edgar Allen Poe
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Tree House in a Storm” by Rachelle Burk
“Box of Rain” by the Grateful Dead
“You’re Brains” by Jonathan Coulton
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“One day I Will Fly Away” song from the movie Moulin Rouge