9/25/15 Basic Drawing

Today's Class-  Today we continued our study of line, a series of exercises that cover some basic drawing concepts.  First I set up some flexible bamboo shoots in an arrangement in the center of the room and had students draw it using a continually diminishing number of lines, an exercise in gesture and reductive drawing.   Next,  an old wooden chair was put up on the center table and the students were asked to draw the negative spaces- all the spaces that were completely surrounded by wood.  For the last thing, I set up a still life of medium large bottles and had the class draw it, using negative space to help establish the relative size and space of the items.  Student examples and the complete instructions can be found here.

These are portfolio exercises that must be completed by the mid semester portfolio review to receive full credit.

Homework-  Gather four similar sized bottles (wine bottles, soda bottle, perfume bottles, shampoo bottles, etc) and set them up in a group on a table at near eye level.  Draw the still life on a full page of your small sketchbook, paying attention to the specific shapes and locations of the bottles.  Draw the bottles, but use negative space to assist in finding the spacing and locations of the bottles, pencil line only.  Without touching the bottles, move yourself to a different location and draw the set up again, then two more spots for a total of four drawings.  (or, have the four bottles on a flat rigid item and rotate the whole set between drawings, so that the bottles maintain their relative position to each other)

For next class 10/2/15- We will continue with line, this time with an exercise dealing with perspective in drawing.  This is the process by which artists can depict multiple objects in space in such a way that the viewer can understand their relative size and positions.  Bring your 18" x 24" pad, pencils and eraser.  I'll provide the subject matter, which will not include bottles, shoes, or chairs.