Artistic Process

Submitted by: Becky Thornton

ARTISTIC PROCESS

1. Organizing your ideas.
2. Plan how to carry them out.
3. Select the materials.
4. Arrange the parts.
5. Use line, shape, form, color, value, texture, and space.
6. Exhibit your work.

What is the Artistic Process?

The artistic process is a general guideline for a process of creating artwork. It is necessary to organize your ideas. While you are getting ideas together, you must be quiet. It is necessary to be quiet so that you can think and let your right brain process ideas. You should get many ideas. Go to the part where you decide how to carry them out. While you are doing this, you should consider ALL of the directions given to you regarding the project, and your capabilities of carrying out specific ideas. You should stay within project guidelines, while trying to create a piece of artwork that YOU enjoy. Artwork done for this class should stay within the boundaries of what is acceptable at this school.

Sometimes you will get to select the materials, and sometimes I will have chosen the materials that can be used. Materials have different properties. Some materials give lines a distinctly different character. Check your materials. Find ways to make tools work in different ways.

Arrange the parts refers to the composition of the page. Try to give your page some balance. In art, it is generally preferred to use an odd number of objects.

GENERALLY, NOT ALWAYS! It is a suggested practice to make the bottom of the page heavier than the top. Another practice is to divide the page so that it is in thirds. This does not mean that you should fold your paper. DO NOT FOLD YOUR PAPER!

Presentation is very important in artwork. Many times it will be referred to as execution.
That means:

Was the artwork colored in one direction? Is the entire page colored?
Did you follow all directions? Does it look neat?
If there are words, are they spelled correctly? Is the artwork shaded in?
Are shadows cast?

Use line, shape, form, color, texture, value, and space.
This means: did you use the elements of art effectively?
Effective use of the elements results in unity, which is a principle of art. The elements of art are like bricks, and the principles act as the cement that holds it all together.

Publish your work. In my class, this means that you should hand it in the finished work folder for your class. Artwork is then displayed in the cafeteria, in the halls and in the art room. Each of you can be an artist. It is within each of you! Think about your work and the art processes. Go for it. Do your best. Turn in all of your work in a timely manner in the finished work folder!