10/16/15 Basic Drawing

Today's Class-  Today we introduced the idea of value drawing, using light and dark, which will be a part of what we do for the rest of the semester.  I showed about 40 slides of art through history, pointing out how value has been used to imply form and volume in two dimensional work, and can be used to focus attention, tell time of day, show texture, imply weight, and create space.  Then I had the class do two portfolio exercises involving charcoal, the value medium closest to the pencil we've been using up to now.  I also returned last week's graded final pencil line drawings.

How to make this up-  Students did two charcoal drawings today, each on a full sheet of the 18" x 24" paper.  One was a reductive value drawing in vine charcoal, where people started by filing in the whole page with the charcoal and then using their kneaded eraser to draw the lights in the still life.  The other was a more traditional approach, drawing with compressed charcoal on the white paper.  In both cases the goal was to match shape, size, space, perspective, plus now values.  Student examples from previous semesters, as well a more detailed instructions, can be found here.

Homework- Place a small box on a table and drape with a white or light colored cloth.  Find three white or light colored objects of similar size and place on and around the box.  Light the set up with a direct light to create patterns of light and shadows.  Draw on a page in your sketchbook using your softest pencil, such as a 6B, paying attention to shape, size, negative space, perspective, while trying to match values as closely as possible.  Try to eliminate lines in the final version of the drawing, using edges of shapes instead.  Then either rearrange the objects or move your location and draw it a second time, for a total of two drawings.

For next class 10/23/15- We will continue value drawing with charcoal, but this time introduce the idea of local value, dealing with the light and dark values of the objects themselves as well as the effects of light and shadows on the still life.  Bring your 18" x 24" pad, both vine and compressed charcoal, your kneaded eraser, and spray fixative.