4/3/15 Basic Drawing

Today's Class-  We have concluded charcoal, but we are still sticking with value drawing for several more weeks.  Today the medium was ink wash, diluted drawing ink, which was applied with brushes.  I  showed a few historical slides and student ink drawings, as well as a demonstration piece I made a few years ago that simulates the stages of value drawing with ink wash.  Then I set up a simple still life, and had the class do two portfolio exercises.  I left time at the end of class to look at last week's charcoal drawings, which were returned graded.

How to make this up-  Today we did two portfolio exercises, simple still life drawings of white objects, eliminating the local values in favor of just the effects of light and shadow.  Above and below are student examples similar to today's work.  As is typical for this semester, everyone was in today and completed the exercises, and seems to have taken to the process.  However, if you want a reminder of exactly what we did, or want to see additional student examples, they can be found here.

Homework-  Set up something similar to what we did in class today.  Hang a white or light colored cloth from something tall, with the cloth flowing down and covering a level surface.  Place on top of that level surface a white or light colored object, and illuminate with a directional light to create patterns of light and shadow.  Sketch the basic shapes with light pencil, then use ink wash to gradually fill in the values for the still life.  Then find a second white or light colored object, swap it for the first, and do a second drawing.  Total of 2 pages of ink wash still life drawings.  You have the option of combining the wash with pen lines, from a quill tip or fountain pen loaded with the same ink that was used to make the wash.

For next class 4/10/15- We will continue with ink wash, doing a graded drawing.  Bring in your 18" x 24" pad (or an equivalent size piece of watercolor paper if you want to try it), waterproof black drawing ink, brushes suitable for watercolor, pencil and eraser, and two water containers.  I'll provide the subject for the final ink drawing of the semester.