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St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal School Computer Lab |
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The Artist In Me
Vincent van Gogh
(1853-1890)
Impressionism / Post-Impressionism
Vincent van Gogh was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland on March 30, 1853. His father was a minister and his mother was the daughter of a bookseller. By the time Vincent was 27 years old he had been a salesman in an art gallery, a French tutor, had studied to be a minister and had been a lay preacher in Belgium. While in Belgium, in 1880, Vincent decided to become an artist.
Vincent's early work features dark colors and shows the lives of the poor in Belgium. After Vincent moved to Paris in late 1885, he was influenced by the work of Impressionist painters and he began using lighter colors and experimenting with shorter brush strokes or pure color. In 1888, Vincent moved to the south of France hoping to create a community of artists there. During his time there, 444 days, Vincent's style again changed to reflect the influence of Japanese art and he created about 200 paintings and over 100 drawings and wrote about 200 letters to his brother Théo.
While in the south of France, Vincent suffered a breakdown even cutting off part of one of his ears. Vincent ended up in a mental hospital as a result. It is now believe that he may have suffered from epilepsy. For the rest of his life, Vincent was either in hospitals or under the direct care of doctors. He continued to create many works of art during this time. On July 27, 1890, Vincent attempted suicide and died two days later. He was only 37 years old and had created almost 900 paintings and more than 1000 drawings and written more than 700 letters in the 10 year period from 1880-1890.
Vincent had started to receive critical praise for his work at the time of his death but only sold one painting during his lifetime.
Create Your Own Art in the Style of van Gogh's Starry Night
The following is a tutorial on how to use KidPix to create a piece in the style of van Gogh. You do not have to use KidPix to do this; you may use Paint or PhotoFiltre if you wish. If you are using KidPix, read through the tutorial and then ask me for a printed copy of the instructions that you can use while you are in KidPix - you will return the instructions at the end of class or when you have completed your art piece.
Remember we are using van Gogh's painting as inspiration. We are not trying to duplicate this image directly. Try to capture the mood and general feel of the work with similar colors, the swirl effect, moon and stars in the sky, the dark trees, etc. Use tools that mimic the short brush strokes used by Picasso when he created Starry Night.
KidPix Tutorial:
- Choose a blue color and use the flood fill tool to fill in the canvas.
- Draw rectangles in blues, purples, yellows and gold in the sky. These will be used to create the swirly effect in the sky. Keep in mind that the most prominent color will show the most when you’re done. See the example below - this one probably has too much gold - van Gogh's swirls were primarily in tones of blue.
- SAVE YOUR WORK as: vanGogh. Now using the hand mixer, create a swirl pattern in your rectangles. I found that the tool highlighted below worked fairly well, You’ll have to swirl multiple times to get the effect you want. It’s a good idea to save OFTEN and don’t forget if you don’t like what you just did, click the Undo Guy before you do anything else.
- SAVE YOUR WORK as: vanGogh. Now it’s time for the large mixer. You may want to use one of the warp effects and I found the one highlighted below added a nice brush stroke effect to the image. Try these out and remember use the Undo Guy if you don't like the effect.
- SAVE YOUR WORK as: vanGogh. The large mixer will probably cause your image to have white around the blue areas. Just use your flood fill tool and fill those back in as needed. Here’s what I ended up with after using the mixer tools on the rectangles pictured above:
- Draw in the horizon and add in the ground effects using whatever tools you think appropriate for this. Remember van Gogh used short brush strokes when he created his painting.
- SAVE YOUR WORK as: vanGogh. Now it’s time to add in the trees on the left. Set your color to black and use the tree tool under your paint brush to create a silhouetted tree or draw them yourself.
- SAVE YOUR WORK as: vanGogh. After you add in your trees, draw some buildings or use the rectangle or other tools to make buildings. Use colors that go with the mood of the piece. Here's a sample - I used some of the options under the paint brush tool to create my "buildings":
- SAVE YOUR WORK as: vanGogh. Then go to File > Export a Graphic and save your work in a jpeg format so we can easily use it in your Powerpoint Gallery.
- Now go to your Powerpoint Art Gallery and add your Starry Night image and add a small image for van Gogh to the title page of your Art Gallery.
Back to The Artist In Me - Grades 3-5
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal School
7136 Winnetka Avenue
Winnetka, CA 91306
Phone: (818) 340-5144 Fax: (818) 340-5882
E-mail: stmartinsschool@aol.com