Looking Through a Window of Aperture

Using a window aperture enable us to isolate or focus on an area of interest. We use this approach to form a frame to look through when we paint. By eliminating other information we can really see our subject and focus on the colours within it more intensely.

We will isolate an area in a photograph, determine the proportions of colour and follow a series of exercises using coloured pencil and cut magazine papers to translate this information.

Subject: The Monkeys in the Jungle, by Henri Rousseau in 1909.

Genre: Wildlife painting and sculpture Year: 1909 Tags:Tags: #wild_animals, #monkeys, #jungles, #tropicals #gorilla, #elephant #tocan #birds #rainforest #wildlife

One of my favourite artists is Henri Rousseau, he was a French post-impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner.Henri Rousseau was a post-impressionist. Rousseau was inspired by the jungle, but he never was there. His sources of imagination were illustrated books and visits to the Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Paris.

I'll use one of Henri Rousseau's images to begin with. We have three templates to work with to translate the colour information.

Materials:

1.A photograph has 8- 10 different colours, including lighter and darker versions of one colour and neutrals like brown, beige, and perhap black.

2. Coloured pencils.

3. The templates

4. Magazines to cut up (interior, gerdenning, or style magazines)

5. Thin card 12.5 cm x18 cm

6. Paper scissors

7. Cutting board, craft knife

8. Glue stick

Method:

1. Using a scissors cut the templates from the card with 2.5 cm, 5 cm, 7.5 cm square apertures as shown below;

By analyzing a section of interest of your reference and being able to see more colours you will also start looking at shpe and textures as well.

Think about using a collage of mixed media as a source of reference instead, or perhaps matching up your colour selection with rectangles of collage.

2. Choose a window depending on the size and select an area. Think about colour for interest.

3. Carefully select 8 -10 different coloured pencils to match the colours in the picture. Think about proportions of colour.