11/22/13- Basic Drawing

Today's Class- Today we explored our last new medium of the semester.  Conte crayons are a bit harder than familiar wax crayons (the base is clay), to they are less likely to smear than charcoal, which means they take a little more effort to blend.  Today the class did portfolio exercises, drawing from familiar still life set ups while getting a feel for the medium.

How to make this up-  Set up a still life in our typical fashion- draped box, a variety of medium sized objects of varying value on and around, light to create patterns of light and shadow.  You will do two drawings from the still life.  First use the black crayon by itself.  The black marks are not unlike compressed charcoal, though the feel will be different and it will take a little more effort to blend.  (fingers probably won't be abrasive enough- try paper blending stumps or a bit of paper towel)  Then rearrange the objects and draw the new set up using just the red crayon.  The value range won't extend as far as the black crayon, so you may have to adjust how you depict relative areas of light and dark.  Above are student examples from previous semesters.  An additional example and specific directions can be found here.

These are portfolio exercises and must be made up by the end of the semester to receive full credit.

Homework- Put together a typical place setting of utensils- fork, spoon and knife.  Place on a table in front of you so that none are parallel to each other, and light so that shadows and possible reflections on the surface will be seen.  Draw the whole grouping on a page in your sketchbook, first with the black crayon, then on a second page with just the red.  Rearrange the three utensils and again draw the set on one page with black, and the other page with red.  Total of four drawings.

For next class 12/6/13-  We will continue with conte crayons, but this time combining the red and black together in chiaroscuro style drawings.  Bring your 18" x 24" pad, both red and black crayons, erasers, and anything you think may help you blend.