SURREALISM is a style of art in which anything goes. I mean anything. Weird, strange, unusual, fantastic. The crazier, the better. It is all about dreams and fantasies. Melting clocks and bizarre landscapes. Your job is to create a Surrealist landscape. A scene that is impossible. With things that could only be found in a dream or some sort of impossible fantasy. Be imaginative and creative. There are no rules for what exists in your Surrealist landscape. In fact, if you're following rules about what makes sense, you've already missed the point. Check out my little teacher example below. Does this look like the work of someone trying to make sense?!?! YOUR JOB is to create a Surrealist picture.
BEGIN by creating an image in Pixlr, Gimp or Photoshop measuring 3300 px X 2550 px. (or larger... mine above measured 3300 x 3300). It can be in the "Landscape" or "Portrait" format. THEN create a background by putting together two different scenes that don't normally go together. For the background in mine I put together the ocean and interstellar space. CONTINUE by placing in your scene NO FEWER than 30 objects or things that are not usually found in either of the two places you used to make your background. You have two main goals: 1 Make you scene look as realistic as possible. Think about lighting effects and highlights/shadows as you're choosing images. 2 Make your picture AS BIZARRE, SENSELESS, DREAM-LIKE AND WEIRD AS POSSIBLE. The stranger the better. Have fun. Be weird. And above all, do good work. In a drawing, painting or photograph, there are two kinds of space. Positive Space is the are in the Composition (picture) that is filled with objects. Negative Space is any blank or empty area around the objects.
Your assignment is to create a "digital" collage, using Pixlr, Gimp or Photoshop, in which there is no Negative Space. Fill EVERYTHING WITH STUFF! You can use photographs or other images of just about anything. That part is up to you. The objects can be related in some way. Or your choice of objects can be completely random. You finished collage can have some sort of meaning or central theme (I do recommend this but it is not necessary and won't affect your grade either way) or it can mean absolutely nothing. Requirements: 1 Your collage will be 2550 x 3300 pixels in size. It can be either in the "Portrait" or "Landscape" orientation. 2 Your collage will contain NO FEWER THAN 100 images. The images can be photos, drawings or paintings. 3 Each of the images that you use contain no background of their own. You must trim them out of the photos from which they are taken. 4 When complete, your collage has no Negative (empty) Space larger than 10 pixels. |
AuthorDaniel P. Loughran is an artist and art educator who lives in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Archives
September 2020
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