Landscape Painting in the Style of Vincent Van Gogh

Landscape Painting in the Style of Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh lived more than 115 years ago, and yet his artwork is still altering the way mankind views beauty, persona, individuality, and style in art. His thousands of paintings and drawings have various characteristics that have been copied by thousands and duplicated by none. Van Gogh's unique life has inspired millions to become active in art. In fact, what many people today consider to be the typical "artist persona" is largely a result of his influence. Perhaps the most impressive aspect is that artists continue to copy the style that Van Gogh created over one hundred years ago.

PART I – VOCABULARY
Define the following:
Compositional Movement
Regular Rhythm
Flowing Rhythm
Alternating Rhythm
Progressive Rhythm
Unexpected Rhythm
Part II – RESEARCH
1. On the Internet go to www.vangoghgallery.com /painting/starryindex.html to see Van Gogh’s painting ‘Starry Night”
2. In Word open a new document. Copy a thumbnail size image onto your document and answer the following questions in paragraph form.
* How would your describe the texture of the painting?
* How does Van Gogh use texture to create Compositional Movement?
* What image stands out the most in the painting?
* How does Van Gogh make that image stand out (use of color, shape, size, placement, Etc)?
* What kind of rhythm is crated in this painting? How?
3. Go to www.kmm.nl/, type in Country Road in Provence by Night in search box toward thed bottom of the page. Click on link to see Van Gogh’s painting
4. Copy a thumbnail size image onto the same document and answer the following questions in paragraph form
* How would your describe the texture of the painting?
* How does Van Gogh use texture to create Compositional Movement?
* What image stands out the most in the painting?
* How does Van Gogh make that image stand out (use of color, shape, size, placement, Etc)?
5. In a third paragraph on the same document compare and contrast the two works, include the following:
* What textures, if any, are common to both works?
* How does Van Gogh create Compositional Movement in each work?
* How are the works similar?
* How are the works different?
Part III – Creation
1. Use a digital camera to take four photographs in the grotto. Two photographs will be in landscape orientation (wider than tall), two in portrait orientation (taller than wide). All four photographs must meet the following criteria:
• Include at least one entire tree
• At least one half of the photo must be sky
• Do not have the tree centered in the photograph – shoot so that the tree is to the right or left of center
2. Download photographs to computer
3. Check with instructor to see which photo to use of project.
4. Open photograph in Photoshop
5. Resize photograph: Go to Image > Image Size, for LANDSCAPE orientation set DOCUMENT size width to 11 inches, the height will change automatically, for PORTRAIT orientation set DOCUMET size width to 8.25 inches, the height will set automatically.
6. In Image Size set Resolution to 150.
7. In Layers Pallet change Background Layer to Layer: double click on word Background, New Layers Window will appear, click OK, name of Background Layer will change to Layer 0



8. Separate photograph into three Layers; Background (sky), Middle ground (trees), and Foreground (ground). Use the Magic Wand to select background. Click on Magic Wand in Toolbox, in active Window set Tolerance to 100, click in sky area. Area selected will be outlined with a moving dotted line, go to Edit > Cut, Edit > Paste to paste to new layer.
9. Use the Move Tool to move the sky back to the top of the artboard.
10. In the Layers Pallet drag the sky layer down below the tree layer.
11. Hide tree layer. Click on sky layer in Layers Pallet to activate. Use the Magic Wand to select the area that is not sky.
12. Double click in color box in the Color Pallet to select a bright blue.
13. Use the Paint Bucket Tool to fill the Layer with blue. Go to Select > Deselect to make dotted line go away.
14. Click on the Tree Layer (Layer 0) to activate. Use the Magnetic Lasso to select the ground and buildings.
15. Edit > Cut, Edit > Paste to paste on to new layer, use Move tool to move back down to bottom of art board.
16. There are now three layers, Foreground (ground), Middle Ground (trees) and Background (sky). Move Sky Layer (Layer 1), down below the other two layers.
17. Starting on the left side of the Sky, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select small (about 1” to 2” square) areas of the sky. Try to have both the bright and light blues in the same square.
18. With a section of the sky selected go to Filter > Distort> Twirl. In the Twirl Window move the slider all the way to the right, to 999, click OK. Go to Filter >Distort > Twirl to apply effect one or two more times, to mimic Van Gogh’s swirls in his “Starry Night” and “Country Road” painting.
19. Go to Select > Deselect. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select an area of sky, 1” to 2” square, next to the area you just changed. Go to Filter > Distort > Twirl and apply Twirl effect 2 or 3 times.
20. Referring back to Van Gogh’s paintings, repeat step 19 until you have changed the entire sky area. Don’t be afraid to overlap the areas to which you have already applied the effect, overlapping the swirls results in a better sky.
21. Activate the Foreground (Layer 2) by clicking on it in the Layers Pallet.
22. Use the Magnetic Lasso to select the ground – no buildings or sky. Go to Filter > Filter Gallery. Click on Brush Strokes Folder to Open, choose Dark Strokes, set Balance to 10, Black Intensity to 5 and White Intensity to 5. Click OK.
23. Use the Magnetic Lasso Tool to select the Buildings of your ground layer. Go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Angled Strokes, set Directional Balance to 50, Stroke Length to 50 and Sharpness to 10. Click OK.
24. In The Layers Pallet select your Tree Layer (Layer 0). Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Move Saturation slider to the right to +100. Move Lightness to the left to –25, click OK.
25. Go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Artistic > Paint Daubs. Set the Brush Size to 15 and the Sharpness to 25. Leave the Brush Type on Simple. Click OK.
PART IV
1. Get Canvas sheet from instructor. In Photoshop go to File > Print with Preview, Click on Page Set Up > Choose the printer in your row, for Paper Size choose Borderless 8.5” x 11”, click OK. Click Print, choose the same printer, load canvas into printer and print.
2. In a paragraph format answer the following questions, restate the questions in your answers.
• Does your artwork have good craftsmanship? How is this demonstrated?
• How does your work reflect Van Gogh’s style?
• What did you learn during this project?
• What do you like best about your ‘painting’?
• What might you do differently if you create another Van Gogh style landscape?
3. Turn in your definitions, critiques, Van Gogh landscape the project, your reflection and the grade sheet.