Friday 3/29 India Ink

The Friday class started drawing with India Ink yesterday. Class began with an introduction to the techniques of creating values and textures followed by a game of "The Exquisite Corpse." Above are two examples of the characters spawned from the game.

After the lunch break, students made drawings of a small still-life arrangement consisting of a rock, a lemon and a little house-like form. Mike's drawing a the top illustrates wash techniques that we will explore as a class next week. The placement of the rock gives the effect of a distant mountain top homestead.
Katherine's drawing illustrates a varied range of mark-making with controlled gradations and a strong sense of light. Notice how she alternates between dark and light values criss-crossing the composition establishing a rhythm.
Chris's drawing is very poetic recalling stories of a New England sea-port fishing village. Note how his rendering of the lemon maintains a consistent directional hatching technique addressing the categories of light.

WED. 3/27 INK (rocks and lemons)

Emilee Rivera

Last night, the class made ink drawings of a small still life arrangement consisting of a lemon, a rock and a small, geometric, house-like form. Students used the technique of their choosing. Emilee's drawing above illustrates the cross-hatching technique. The centralized location of the still life establishes depth giving the feeling of one peering at this tiny "cliff" from afar. The criss-crossing marks chisel out the structure of the rock while addressing light and dark areas of the forms and space. Furthermore, notice how she has addressed the contours and edges of the forms with broken (or lost and found lines) and juxtaposing light and dark values.

MON. 3/25 INK: The Exquisite Corpse

Last night students began drawing with India Ink using pen and nib. The class was introduced to the techniques of hatching and stippling, etc., before playing the Dadaist/ Surrealist game of "The Exquisite Corpse". This is a collaborative game where three players draw a different section of a character. The two examples above illustrate the fantastical and whimsical results of the randomly combined creatures as well as the fine line and detail work indicative of pen drawings.

HOMEWORK #4 The Meal Setting

Above are two excellent examples of this project. Put together a still life of items for a meal, place, setting. Your still life should be the before or after setting of a meal. Create an asymmetrical composition including plates, glassware, silverware, etc. You may also include cereal boxes or condiment bottles and the like for a stronger narrative. Pay attention to the linear perspective and possibly the atmospheric perspective (as in the top drawing). Your objective is to address the local values and the categories of light. Use graphite pencils on 18 x 24 in. drawing paper.

Mon. 3/11 to Fri. 3/15 Imaginary Space Project

Students worked on their imaginary space projects all week employing Two-Point Linear Perspective. We will critique these drawings when we return from Spring Break. No classes next week. Enjoy the break and see on March 25th at which time I'll post images of the project.

Fri. 3/8 Linear Perspective

Students in the Friday class made drawings addressing Local Value in the morning section. In the afternoon section, students started the imaginary space project using Two-Point Linear Perspective. See previous post.

WED. 3/6 Linear Perspective

Last night we began the "Imaginary Space" project in Two-Point Linear Perspective. Examples of past student work was shown and we drew the template for the project (the ground plane and back walls). We will continue working on this project all next week.

Mon. 3/4 Rendering Light

Colton Davis

Up to this point we've addressed value by design (subjective value project), value concerning light and form (local value and the categories of light) with some incidental moments of value used for dramatic effect. Last night, students made drawings emphasizing light. To do this they chose the technique of single directional hatching or the scribble technique (as seen above). The reason why this emphasizes light is do to the rendering of marks and lines that address the light patterns and gradations in a manner that ignores (scribble) or flattens (hatching) the cross contours.

HOMEWORK #3 Local Value

Arrange a still life of at least one light object, one dark and one medium valued object. Make a drawing on 18 x 24 in. drawing paper with graphite pencils addressing the local values of the arrangement. In other words, draw the values that you see within the still life. In addition, illustrate the categories of light.
The drawing above has masterfully captured the local values as well as the categories of light and reflective surfaces with additive and reductive drawing techniques.

Fri. 3/1 Value Patterns

Chris Larson

Students in the Friday class made drawings addressing the value patterns observed on paper with holes cut away. Notice the rhythms established by repeating shapes and values within the paper wall. Chris has also added a sense of place to the composition by drawing in a sky, landscape, road and tree. The additional elements bring a sense of whimsy and imagination to the image.