Theme and variation: the crosshatch portrait.

Theme and variation: the crosshatch portrait. Picture this: At a typical high school, art teachers find studentsenrolled in the "Art 1" courses who aren't there of theirown volition vo��li��tionn.1. The act or an instance of making a conscious choice or decision.2. A conscious choice or decision.3. The power or faculty of choosing; the will. . Having a limited amount of courses offered as"electives," the counselors invariably in��var��i��a��ble?adj.Not changing or subject to change; constant.in��vari��a��bil place kids in yourclass for a variety of reasons. So the sturdy art teacher is now faced with several students who(the students think) are not artistic, who don't particularly wantto participate and may provide teachers with problems we would rathernot have. Sound familiar? I am always inventing projects with the motive of"hooking" my potential artists--those that don't thinkthey are artistic enough to produce anything of value or beauty. Afterwitnessing their own artistic potential, they may willingly and eagerlyenroll in more art courses. At this point, I got 'em! Here's aproject that produces artwork both of value and beauty ... and is agreat "hook." Among the very first techniques taught in art classes are how torender objects in a variety of ways: line, shadows, contour line,stippling stippling/stip��pling/ (stip��ling) a spotted condition or appearance, as an appearance of the retina as if dotted with light and dark points, or the appearance of red blood cells in basophilia. , cross-hatching and so on. But prior to using ,thesetechniques, I strongly stress to students the importance of improvingobservational skills. Looking at an object and closely observing it isof utmost importance. I use many blind contour drawing exercises to honetheir observational skills. Once the students know what I expect them tolook for, we begin with the dreaded self-portrait! My "end" is always to reinforce my student's senseof artistic self-esteem ... and my "means" are whatever ittakes. Colleagues steeped in "fine arts" traditions sometimeshave mixed feelings about using today's technology to produce worksof art. But my students enjoy learning to use technology in our projectsand are always willing to follow my lead to investigate whatever is new.For this project you need a portrait photograph, a scanner, computersoftware to enhance the brightness and contrast of the photograph, alight table, a thin roller-marker and a computer printer. I use a digital camera (Sony Mavica Mavica was a brand of Sony cameras which used removable disks as the main recording media. In August, 1981, Sony released the Sony Mavica electronic still camera, the camera which was the first commercial electronic camera. [R]) to take extreme close-uppictures of my students' faces. Each student then uses computersoftware (Adobe Photoshop See Photoshop. [R]) to change their colored photograph toblack and white. The black-and-white photo is then manipulated by usingthe brightness and contrast controls to create a higher contrastphotograph accentuating the shadows and highlights, but maintaining someof the middle tones. Once their photograph is finished, it is printed on a regular pieceof 8 1/2" x 11" white paper. The final portrait size is around6" x 9". On a separate piece of paper, a series of six 1-inchsquares are drawn in pencil. A thin black roller-ball marker is given toeach student. I previously used the traditional pen and India ink, butfound the roller-ball marker as successful and much cleaner to use. The object is to darken the first square as much as possible usingcrosshatch A criss-crossed pattern used to fill in sections of a drawing to distinguish them from each other. strokes, and create a dark-to-light value scale using lesserand lesser amounts of cross-hatching. Once this exercise is completed,it's on to their self-portrait. A plain piece of 8 1/2" x11" paper is stapled in two places over their black-and-whitephoto, allowing a corner of the top sheet to be free. Then both sheetsare placed on a light table. The darkest black areas are carefullydarkened first. With care and a close eye, the middle tones are dealt with next.The light table is no longer used beyond this point. Using a cartoonisttechnique, the top sheet is frequently flipped up while thestudent's eye fixes on the various parts of the photograph, thenrenders the value using crosshatch. I keep reminding my student that"where it's white, there are no lines," and to "slowdown!" I may be biased because I am their teacher, but the results arespectacular! Even more spectacular is the kids' newly discoveredassurance in their artistic capabilities. But we aren't done yet!There are at least three more steps involved. The best is yet to come. I cut tan butcher paper into 8 1/2" x 11" pieces,although any light-weight paper could be used. The students then scantheir original crosshatched cross��hatch?tr.v. cross��hatched, cross��hatch��ing, cross��hatch��esTo mark or shade with two or more sets of intersecting parallel lines.n.1. A pattern made by such lines.2. The symbol (#). portraits at 72 dpi (dots per inch) minimumand print them out on the computer's printer, substituting thebutcher paper for the regular printer paper. Some students elect to takea white pencil to slightly indicate highlights, while others add a thintempera tempera(tĕm`pərə), painting method in which finely ground pigment is mixed with a solidifying base such as albumen, fig sap, or thin glue. whitewash whitewash,white fluid commonly used as an inexpensive, impermanent coating for walls, fences, stables, and other exterior structures. It varies in composition, being generally a mixture of lime (quicklime), water, flour, salt, glue, and whiting, with other to the background. Since I print one for the student plus one for me, I dry-mount acopy of each portrait on illustration board. Each time I gather nine or12, I arrange them on a larger poster board, glue risers under a few,and arrange them so they project three-dimensionally and glue them down. But the project still is not complete. Next, students takeclassified ads, tear them in strips and haphazardly glue them down on aplain white piece of 8 1/2"x 11" paper (glue sticks were usedhere). I suggest not using any newspaper photographs because thenewspaper photo will distract from their self-portrait. Strips of colored tissue paper are then offered to the students.Keeping in mind where their portraits would print out on thisnewsprint-covered paper, they carefully place the tissue over thenewsprint newsprintlow grade paper used for newspapers. Old newspapers are fed to cattle as an alternative roughage and may occasionally be ingested by dogs. Significant amounts of lead are accumulated in tissues; no cases of poisoning have been recorded in cattle, though it has been and adhere it with a white-glue-and-water wash. Then as afinal touch, students may give the entire newsprint/tissue sheet awhite-tempera-paint-and-water "whitewash." When each sheet is dry, I iron it flat and place it in the printerinstead of the regular computer paper. Well ... this takes on anentirely new look. Again, when I amass nine or 12, I dry-mount them andmake another three-dimensional montage of their self-portraits, but thistime in color. This is a very exciting project. The students have a copy of theirportrait, not to mention I have a copy for my walls, and the finalportrait montages hang in our library for all to admire for years tocome. Truly a win-win-win situation for everyone. What's next? Since this project began at the end of our schoolyear, many of the students signed up for Art 2 (hooray!) to continuewith their art training. As one student suggested (a non-art major), weare going to take 3/4 length, posed self-portraits, divide them intonine sections, crosshatch each section, and deal with the sections likeour montages by realigning the sections to create a completedthree-dimensional portrait. Gee ... I wish I had thought of that! Len Mathes teaches art at South El Monte South El Monte,city (1990 pop. 20,850), Los Angeles co., S Calif., in the San Gabriel Valley; inc. 1958. Manufactures include transportation equipment, electrical and plastic products, clothing, textiles, machinery, and furniture. There is poultry processing. (California) High School.