12/6/13 Basic Drawing

Today's Class-  Today we continued using conte crayons, but instead of monochromatic drawings, we used the red and black crayons together.  This is based on the idea of chiaroscuro drawing and prints, an artistic process that dates back to the Renaissance.  In traditional chiaroscuro drawing, the artist starts with paper made with a medium value tone (color or neutral) and draws with both white (such as conte, chalk) to create highlights, and black (such as conte, ink, charcoal) to build shadows.  Rather than have you spend money on colored paper, we can simulate some the same effect with your white paper and the combination of red and black crayons.  I showed historical examples of the process, slides of student drawings in this style, and even a few actual drawings on paper left behind by students from previous semesters.

How to make this up-  This week we broke away from our usual still life objects and broke out the mannequins, a little more complex but forms that relate in some ways to the bottles and shoes that we are more familiar with.  I set up several of them around the room, as well as making some of the plaster body parts available.  Students did two value drawings, each for about half the class period.  They could do both in a traditional carefully blended style (as in the student drawing above), or had the option to do one in more hard edged three tone graphic style as demonstrated in slides.  Additional examples of both styles, and the specific instructions for the assignment, can be found here.

These are portfolio exercises that must be made up by the last week of the semester to receive credit.

Homework- Find a shoe and shine a direct light on it to create patterns of light and shadow.  Do a full value drawing of the shoe on a page in your sketchbook using the red and black crayons together as we did in class.  Then find a second, different shoe, light the same way, and do a second full value drawing using both red and black crayon together.  Total of two drawings.

For next class 12/13/13- We will be doing the final still life drawing of the semester.  I'll have something set up by 2:00 and you'll have the full class to make your drawing.  You have the option of using charcoal (vine or compressed), ink wash, or conte crayon (red, black, or both).  Bring your 18" x 24" pad, your medium of choice, and any materials or tools related to your chosen process (such as brushes, blending tools, spray fixative, etc).