10/10/14 Basic Drawing

Today's Class- Today we began our study of value, which will be a part of everything we do for the rest of the semester.  In this case value refers to the use of light and dark in two dimensional art to imply or suggest volume, form, distance, weight and space, as well as to focus attention and provide other information.  I showed a few dozen slides of historical art, explaining the evolution of using value in 2D art, and showing the effect it had in each case.  Then I set up some still lifes in the center of the room and the class did two drawings using a different type of charcoal for each.

How to make this up- Put a medium-small box on a table and drape it with a white or light colored cloth (towel or sheet) .  Gather three white or light colored objects of similar size to be used as subjects.  Place one on top of the draped box, and the others on the table around it.   The still life should be lit with a single light source in order to create patterns of light and shadow.  The first drawing will be done as a reductive vine charcoal drawing (drawing the light) and the second will be a more traditional value drawing using compressed charcoal on white paper.  Example student drawings and the full instructions can be found here.

These are portfolio drawings, which must be completed before the first half grading day (October 24, 2014) in order to receive full credit, but if you've never done any charcoal before, I suggest doing them before next week to make sure you are caught up.

Homework- Set up a still life as in the one mentioned in "how to make this up" above.  Draw the still life on a page in your sketchbook using a soft pencil (such as a 4B or 6B) paying attention to shape, size, negative space, and trying to match values as closely as possible, filling the whole page.  As in class today, try to eliminate contour lines in favor of edges of value shapes.  Then rearrange the three objects and draw it again, for a total of two pages.

**mid-semester portfolio grading will be done in class in two weeks.  details will be announced in class and on this blog next week.**

For next class 10/17/14- We will continue with value, this time adding in objects with a variety of local color, not just white. Bring your 18" x 24" pad, both vine and compressed charcoal, your kneaded eraser, and spray fixative.  Any blending tools you might have are optional.