Tempera

TEMPERA PAINT PRELIMS.

BEGINNING 2-D ART

tempera paint on cardstock

Tempera paint is the go-to paint of all Public High Schools.

It's one of the only supplies we can get from our district warehouses,

but my oh my,

 is it hard to work with!

It's not so bad if you are painting in a graphic hard edge technique that you want to be opaque,

other then the yellow being a bit too transparent.

But trying to paint realistically with it is a nightmare

 because it dries way to quickly before you are done with an area.

And if you go over that spot a second time,

 it just might dry and crack off.

The upside,

it washes off the brushes with soap and water.  

Yeah!

Showing the kids how to paint with Tempera is my most challenging demo that I do,

and every year I stress over it.

My second most difficult demo is getting a clay chamber to whistle

(just in case you were wondering)  

:)

Anyways, 

for this assignment subject matter was up to the kids

just as long as they moved it as well as fore and backgrounds thru each colors value ranges. 

I adored this first one by junior Tiffany Chen for several reasons.

I am a lover of cacti and succulents so her subject was right up my alley.

 And I was so impressed with how she painted that very difficult patina on the sides of the pots

 with as much value and texture as she did.

Also the fact that she painted this in a peaceful setting 

and the colors she chose to work with are all highly appealing.

Bravo young woman!

For the kids that were anxious to get started and didn't want to think or find a subject,

they were allowed to use a sphere.

So here we have junior Sarah Oh & 8th grader Ashley Gong.

Both these girls have so much artistic talent,

and both pieces are well done,

but I sure would have loved to see what they could have done with another subject.

We all enjoyed the subject that junior Varisha Azmi chose.

She is mixing and moving the paint really well with many wonderful highlights.

I also like how her subject goes off the paper on both top and bottom.

So scale played an important role in the arrangement of this composition.

Next we have juniors Gauri Deshpande &  Julie Guan.

I love how the soft turquoises and oranges pulls these two together 

even though they are completely different.

Another reason they are so pretty

 is that the oranges and turquoises are a complimentary color scheme 

and automatically will look fabulous together.

It's so crucial to understand color before you use it in an art piece. 

Lastly we have juniors Maddy Uchiyama & Mary Kim.

Maddy choose a difficult subject to bring in with her sphere,

the steps.

She had to make sure the perspective was correct as well as the lighting.

I also like she has created a sense of bounce by the circling around the sphere.

And Mary delights us with her ladybug and Vincent Van Gogh sky.

Congrats to all of you for doing a great job with a killer medium.

SIMPLY BRILLIANT

PRELIMINARY TEMPERA

BEGINNING 2-D ART

tempera on recycled paper

Junior Vivian nailed this piece with her color choices, 

value ranges,

 textural backdrop 

& simple composition.

The students found the egg based tempera

 one of the most challenging mediums they tried out all year.

Vivian Chang took to it like a duck to water.

It can be used fresh out of the bottle or watered down like watercolor.

Vivian chose to try it both ways in this piece for a dramatic work of art. 

PAINTING DIMENSIONALLY

PRELIMINARY TEMPERA PAINTING

BEGINNING 2-D ART

tempera on recycled white posterboard

In September,

 at the beginning of the school year,

 I had my beginners use tempera in a flat graphic style.  

But in May,

during 4th quarter,

after the kids have learned to draw and design,

I had them try to use the tempera in a 3-D painterly manner.

 (much more difficult) 

I was so thrilled at how well the kids performed 

that I'm showcasing off a few more then I usually do.

Enjoy!

Let's start with 8th grader Emily Chen.

Emily excelled in my beginning class this year and really did a great job with the tempera.

She also is becoming quite adept with landscapes.

Em used them quite successfully in several of her last works this year.

Junior Bernice Lin, 

another art star this year,

painted this lovely and sensitive piece above.

It was definitely a class favorite.

I'm hoping that both Em and Bernice will be back again next year!

Sadly,

 junior Christopher Wongsavanh will be moving during the summer,

and I was so hoping he'd be back with me next year. 

I really enjoyed getting to know him,

 and always looked forward to his unique designs,

Good luck Chris with your new school,

hopefully they have an art class for you.

And junior Melissa Lanto,

what a cool design idea she came up with!

She painted each of those little balls,

carefully cut them out, 

and then glued them down to her black backdrop.

Stunning! 

Cyrus Salvani, 

one of my top senior artists this year,

blew us out of the water with this brilliant work above.

Besides his striking design,

I also love the texture he thought to bring into this piece.

And junior Hazel Cruz knocked it out of the park with this exciting piece.

She did an amazing job painting her balls,

and then how cool to float them atop the waves.

Also note the tiny bit of tye-dye paper peeking out from around all the edges.

And check this out by junior Risha Bhakta.

I just love how these kids are thinking to cut their work apart

 and re-mount it atop another piece of art.

In this case,

 Risha found a piece of monoprinted paper that was in the recycle drawer to use.

Whenever the kids use tempera,

there is always so much paint that gets partially washed down the sink,

so after the kids leave, 

I take big pieces of white construction paper 

and press it into the bottom of the sink to pick up multiple colored prints

 that change with each rubbing.

These are monoprints and their ghosts.

Lastly senior Karisma Dev also did one of the class favorites.

They really liked her primary palette, 

and the contrast between smooth and textured painting techniques,

along with her bold composition. 

All of you worked so hard and made me so very proud!

Thank you!!!!

Oops!

PRELIMINARY  TEMPERA

BEGINNING 2-D ART

tempera, pen & ink, and graphite on canvas

My sincere apologies to junior Elias Rodriguez for accidentally leaving this very important work from my May 27th post on Beginners learning to work Realistically in Tempera.

This is such a cool and unique piece.

First of all Elias asked if he could work on canvas rather then bristol paper, and work larger as well.

Absolutely!

I can always count on Elias to do something completely out of the box so I was excited to see what he had in mind.

Instead of doing the whole piece in tempera, as the other students did, he mixed his media and incorporated the graphite house and the pen and ink zentangle with his flower that he painted in tempera.

I also really like how he controlled his color scheme, working in a neutral palette until he painted the flower.

Brilliant work Elias, it really shows off your artist gifts!

You will go far!

Going for a Bit of Realism in Tempera

PRELIMINARY PAINT IN TEMPERA

BEGINNING 2-D ART

tempera, cardstock

At the beginning of the school year my beginners were introduced to tempera in their color theory unit.

I asked them to paint their color wheel and schemes in a very flat, opaque and graphic style.

But during 4th quarter we re-visit it in a much more realistic way.

This first one was done by junior Sunny Kim.

She is easily one of my strongest beginners this year and I'm sure hoping to see her next year in the Intermediate class.

Her designs are always lovely and beautifully crafted.

Junior Michael Cantu, whose work we've seen this year several times is also doing an outstanding job with the very tricky tempera.  

It's a frustrating medium to work in because it dries so quickly.

And junior Nathan Chong gives us an equally wonderful work with this piece above.

Note:  I want all you young ones back next year, I still have so much to teach you!

More Works in Color - Preliminary Tempera -Student Work

This time the work comes from my amazing beginners in 2-D.  They worked in tempera for their very first Color Theory assignment, but in a flat, graphic style.  This time I wanted them to use their right brain skills and their understanding of light and shadow to create something more realistic or 3-dimensional.

This first one above really shows off the enormous skills that senior Alice Zhang has under her belt.  So lovely and sensitive as is all her work, and in this one I really enjoyed her subject matter.  It reminds me of the tide pools in Laguna Beach that my children take me to on Mother's Day.

In this next work junior Hannah Hwang demonstrates great control with a very challenging medium.  These kids practiced for several days before they did this piece to find their working style.  Hannah is also moving the paint from light to dark with skill, and I really like how she's laid that flower on top of the sphere.

We see a lot of wonderful movement in this next piece below by senior May Luong.  I especially love how she has brought in each of the sphere's colors into the background swirls, so appealing to the eye!

Junior Deena Younan has brought one of my favorite elements into her beautiful piece, repetitious line in the form of stitch, both real and implied.  I also really like that she's included a bit of text to convey her message.  Deena has also chosen to dilute the tempera (in fore and background) with a bit of water which makes it easier to work with and gives the piece transparency and softness.

And lastly we have the work of junior Cathy Luo who also shows us great skill with paint and brush.  Plus what a terrific design and use of color.  Fantastic piece Cathy, make sure you show this to your dad and William,  2 of your biggest supporters!  :)

Preliminary Painting with Tempera - Student Work

At the beginning of the school year my Beginning 2-D Art students did a Color Theory project with tempera paint where they were required to paint in a very flat, graphic style, but now in 4th Quarter they understand light and shadow, so we came back to the tempera and tried painting in a more realistic way.  The minimum requirement was to paint a sphere but of course my kids did so much more like junior Janice Min above.  what a striking piece.

Above junior Michelle Lee scratches thru her paint to create a very interesting texture.  Love it!  And below junior Crislyn Ogawa came up with such a cool subject and made such a beautiful piece. 

Senior Rachel Kim worked in a lovely color scheme above and senior Tiffany Wang did the adorable cat and mouse piece below.

Preliminary Paintings in Tempera - Student Art

Now that my Beginning 2-d students have an understanding of drawing and design I have been taking them through several color units like oil and water pastels, watercolor, and now tempera. They actually used tempera in the beginning of the year in a very graphic, flat way (see color theory under side label), but now that they get the basics of light and shadow we can work in a more painterly way, thus these sweet little tempera pieces. The very eerie one above was done by junior Michael Jo, love his composition, his monochromatic color scheme and that he took extra time to mount the piece.

And look at the painting skills of junior Shirley Sun, wow, was I impressed when she turned this dynamic piece in, she's got so much good design going on here from the diagonally placed sunglasses to the textural foreground and strong cast shadows. And then there is senior Brian Choi below who always comes up with thought provoking designs that make the other kids ooh and aah.

We also have the very sensitive stylings of senior Alan Tsim who is a master with the paint. This is so gorgeous Alan, love it!

The 3 pieces above belong to seniors Javier Figueroa, Meliza Panganiban, and Sarah Lee. What I love about all these pieces are the creative design solutions these kids come up with, especially when they only had to paint a simple sphere, horizon and cast shadow. All these children went way beyond the basic minimum requirements.

And lastly we have senior Sonya Liu and junior Paul Kim, both of whom are using delicious colors that really pop. All in all a tremendous job by all!

Color Theory/Tempera - Student Art

Last school year I posted these four remarkable color theory assignments done by my Beginning 2-d art students. Since my new 2-d kids are working on the same assignment I wanted them to see these as well as the two other posts below, also done in tempera (if interested in names on the four pieces above, please see side panel and click on color theory)

I've honestly forgotten who did these three gorgeous prelims in tempera for our realistic unit last year so I'm gonna take a guess here. The top two I believe belong to seniors this year, Brandon Liao and Esther Lee, and the one below belongs to alum Krystal Rodriguez. I forgot to write it down, so I apologize for my guesses. It's a bitch getting old! For 1 point of EXTRA CREDIT on a piece of green paper put your name, period and answer this question:What would someone close to you describe as your best and worst traits?