Fauve Tree Drawing/Painting

Fauvism Fauvism is the style of les Fauves (French for “the wild beasts”), a group of early twentieth-century artists whose works emphasized strong color. These images are paintings by founders of the Fauve movement. Notice how color is used for both highlight and shadow, rather than black and white making parts appear lighter or darker.

Student Objectives Criteria: Subject Matter- Tree Process: Use acrylic paint to create a landscape in exaggerated and often strange colors. Brown may NOT be used on the tree trunk or branches. Green may NOT may not be used on the leaves. Your painting surface should have intense color (prime canvas w/ color) 1. Take (or find) a photo of a tree that you find inspiring. Pay close attention to the composition. Symmetrical (tree or road right in the middle of paper) is NOT good. Have parts of the composition go off the edge of the page in areas *Photos must get pre-approved by me. Your photo is only a GUIDE. It will help you create some depth, guide your composition, but you’re NOT just copying the photo. You will have to simplify and alter things to make it work for this assignment. 2. Lightly sketch composition in pencil first keeping the RULE of THIRDS in mind. 3. Begin adding color!

What is the Rule of Thirds? The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image. Not only this – but it also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo. The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally.

Student Examples