ART 2201/02 Life Drawing - Krista Varsbergs: Introduction

Welcome! This guide contains links to resources to help you research your artist for your presentation.  

See the blue menu on the right to find books, articles, and museum sites related to the study and appreciation of art.  If you need additional help, stop by the Reference Desk or contact references services for assistance.  

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Image:  Angela Fraleigh. Slight. oil on panel, 2007. JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.14220761.

Library Overview

• Getting Help
• Library Card
• Citations
• Research Guide

Finding Sources

• Searching for images
• Searching for biographical information
• Searching for criticism and/or reviews

Assignment: Artist Presentation

Since you’re involved in drawing the human body, it's good to pay attention to the way other figurative artists work with the same subject matter. Each of you will choose and research one contemporary or historic artist whose work directly or indirectly references the human body. You will then present a slideshow to the class.

TASKS:

1. CHOOSE an artist who's work resonates with you in some way.

2. RESEARCH the artist. Find a headshot, their birth/(death) year(s), where they were born and/or live(d), and the ideas that defined their work. Also find and download TEN quality images of their work.

3. PREPARE a Powerpoint (PPT), Google Slides or Keynote presentation with the following slides:

Intro slide: Name, headshot, current age or era in which they lived, location (and birthplace, if different), brief description of their artistic interests

Image slides: Keep them simple (plain black or white background) and place ONE IMAGE PER SLIDE, as big as possible. Where to find quality, high-res images:

• JSTOR is an excellent source for historical and major artists’ images. Login w/your COD credentials. In the “Advanced Search” window, select “Images” tab; type artist’s name in that search bar.

• Personal websites or museum or gallery sites (especially for contemporary artists). Try to download images by right (option)/clicking on them and selecting “download image” if possible.

• Google images: make sure the artwork is by the artist you searched for! Click through to websites to download higher-res images than the thumbnails that show up in a Google search. DO NOT just take screen shots of the tiny images—they’ll be blurred when viewed on screen in class.

Access Online Resources

You'll need your COD MyAccess username and password to access the COD Library's databases.  Materials accessible include ebooks, scholarly and peer-reviewed articles, magazine and newspaper articles, films, and sound recordings.