Ribbon Lettering Pencil Drawing
Project Description: Students will be creating a pencil drawing of a constructed still life. Students will construct a 3D still life of a word that holds a lot of meaning to them. Students will use pencil blending techniques to create shadows and give the drawing the effect of 3D qualities.
Kent Bellows
(June 26, 1949 – September 14, 2005) is an artist best known for his figurative works in the realist style. His artwork is sometimes referred to as meticulous realism, a subcategory referring to the artist’s startling attention to detail.
Kent Bellows was born on June 26, 1949, in Blair, Nebraska. As a young boy, Bellows attended Saturday film matinees at the Town Theater and became enamored with cinema, an interest that continued throughout his life and was influential to his art. He was known in the small community as “that kid who can draw”
Making a decision to focus solely on developing his artistic talent, Bellows sought out patrons in the tradition of the old masters for financial support. These included Omaha native Warren Buffett. Mr. Buffett referred Bellows to his wife, Susie, a lover of the arts. Mrs. Buffett agreed to provide support for one year in exchange for artwork. Out of this relationship developed a lifelong friendship. In 1970, Bellows resided briefly in Connecticut and then moved to Berkeley, California, but soon settled back in Omaha, where he lived for the remainder of his life.
Bellows’ early works were included in Joslyn Art Museum’s 1970 Midwest Biennial Show as well as other exhibitions around Omaha. His early works included abstracts and figurative pieces, some with a Native American theme. Acrylic was his primary medium during this period.
In 1971, Bellows took his first trip to Europe to study the art of the great masters throughout Italy and France.
In 1972, his work was halted due to pain caused by a ganglion cyst that was wound around the tendons of his left wrist. This was crippling for Bellows, who was left-handed. He was referred to the Mayo Clinic, where the cyst was removed in a long and complicated surgery. Bellows soaked his wrist in a therapeutic hot wax bath daily for the rest of his life to treat his lingering wrist pain.
After renting a house with a friend and then living in a patron’s carriage house for a year, Bellows moved into a midtown Omaha apartment, where he lived and worked for the remainder of the decade. He lived there with Elizabeth Irvin, to whom he was married in 1976. Bellows earned a portion of his living during this period through illustration work for publications such as Omni and Rolling Stone, often with a science fiction theme. One such illustration, which appeared in Rolling Stone in 1975, featured science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, who later wrote in a letter to Bellows, “You gave me a reflected self or identity and I suddenly believed I was real…From the moment I saw your picture, I was changed back to my old, real self…you cured me of my identity-less sickness. This is heavy stuff, but true.”
Kent Bellows was born on June 26, 1949, in Blair, Nebraska. As a young boy, Bellows attended Saturday film matinees at the Town Theater and became enamored with cinema, an interest that continued throughout his life and was influential to his art. He was known in the small community as “that kid who can draw”
Making a decision to focus solely on developing his artistic talent, Bellows sought out patrons in the tradition of the old masters for financial support. These included Omaha native Warren Buffett. Mr. Buffett referred Bellows to his wife, Susie, a lover of the arts. Mrs. Buffett agreed to provide support for one year in exchange for artwork. Out of this relationship developed a lifelong friendship. In 1970, Bellows resided briefly in Connecticut and then moved to Berkeley, California, but soon settled back in Omaha, where he lived for the remainder of his life.
Bellows’ early works were included in Joslyn Art Museum’s 1970 Midwest Biennial Show as well as other exhibitions around Omaha. His early works included abstracts and figurative pieces, some with a Native American theme. Acrylic was his primary medium during this period.
In 1971, Bellows took his first trip to Europe to study the art of the great masters throughout Italy and France.
In 1972, his work was halted due to pain caused by a ganglion cyst that was wound around the tendons of his left wrist. This was crippling for Bellows, who was left-handed. He was referred to the Mayo Clinic, where the cyst was removed in a long and complicated surgery. Bellows soaked his wrist in a therapeutic hot wax bath daily for the rest of his life to treat his lingering wrist pain.
After renting a house with a friend and then living in a patron’s carriage house for a year, Bellows moved into a midtown Omaha apartment, where he lived and worked for the remainder of the decade. He lived there with Elizabeth Irvin, to whom he was married in 1976. Bellows earned a portion of his living during this period through illustration work for publications such as Omni and Rolling Stone, often with a science fiction theme. One such illustration, which appeared in Rolling Stone in 1975, featured science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, who later wrote in a letter to Bellows, “You gave me a reflected self or identity and I suddenly believed I was real…From the moment I saw your picture, I was changed back to my old, real self…you cured me of my identity-less sickness. This is heavy stuff, but true.”
Step 1: Practice Shading and Blending with Pencil
Step 2: Build your word.
Step 3: Draw your word using 3D pencil shading techniques.
GOALS (aka LEARNING TARGETS) I can...
-Create VALUES using blending techniques
-Blend smoothly from dark to light.
-Identify where shadows are in real life. (No guessing! Look at your built structure!)
-Make connections with you and your artwork (The word chosen should be meaningful to you.)
-Create VALUES using blending techniques
-Blend smoothly from dark to light.
-Identify where shadows are in real life. (No guessing! Look at your built structure!)
-Make connections with you and your artwork (The word chosen should be meaningful to you.)