MON. 4/29 Self-Portraits continued

Colton Davis

Students began work on self-portraits in the method and medium of their choice. In the drawing above, Colton has decided to work with colored pencils. His method utilizes long parallel hatch lines that follow the cross-contours of the face. The icy-blue color of his eyes is set of by the warm, reddish-orange accents in the flesh tones.

FRI. 4/26 PORTRAITS

Students in the Friday class explored proportions and construction of the human head in the morning and light and volume in the afternoon. I apologize for not taking pix. Next week we will talk about adding more "subjectivity" to the portrait. Bring a mirror if you have one.

4/24 PORTRAITS: Light and Form

Rachel Edelstein

Last night, we added value to our portrait studies. The greatest sense of volume will be achieved when the subtleties of "light" are addressed. First, even the fairest complexion should have a light tone so use the white of the paper selectively (for highlights). The main areas for establishing tonalities are in the temple and brow areas, the eye sockets, cheeks, around and under the nose and lastly the neck. With overhead lighting, the gradations will be smooth and soft. Notice the strongest values are in the cast shadow of the nose and jaw line.

MON. 4/22 PORTRAITS: Constructing the Head

Stephany Valencia

Last night, we began with a discussion concerning the proportions of the head. The most widely used method is the "rule of thirds." You can divide the face into thirds beginning with 1. the hairline to the bottom of the eyebrows, 2. brows to the bottom of the nose, 3. bottom of the nose to the bottom of the chin. We also discussed the majors "planes" of the face and features as well as the direction of their cross-contours. Notice the "hatch" work in Stephany's drawing above. All the lines flow in the directions that are most complementary to the volumes as opposed to crossing the volumes in a manner that would emphasize the "light" but diminish the volume. For instance, the contours swoop down across the cheeks and then rise over the nose.

Fri. 4/19 Large Scale Compositions

Mike Loucks

Students in the Friday drawing class made large scale compositions of toy, tools and items brought from their homes. The objective was to create an image of something more subjective or personal. In other words to use the objects as reference for how light strikes form, etc. Mike's drawing above exhibits strong dramatic lighting to complement this image of impending doom. The electric split-complementary color scheme of yellow-orange, yellow-green and violet adds to the intensity of the situation.

WED. 4/17 Large Scale Color Compositions (cont.)

Bradley Williams

Students continued working on their color compositions. Bradley's drawing above reveals a narrative by drawing the same two objects - a bottle and a red pepper- repeatedly from differing views. Notice how "the eye" searches for similarity moving throughout the composition. In addition, the colors of the bottle and pepper are more or less a split-complementary color scheme (red, yellow-green and blue-green).

MON. 4/15 COLOR: Large Scale Compositons

Students began work on large compositions in color. This is a two class project. Students must use 3-5 objects and may include elements from their imagination as well. Pix to follow.

HOMEWORK #6 Color Composition

Mike Koonce

On black paper using colored pencils, draw a still life arrangement of 5 to 7 objects. Choose a color scheme that complements the subjects in mood and/or function. Pay close attention to composition, negative space and eye level. Not the asymmetrical balance (leaning to the right) in the composition above. In addition, balance and rhythm are reinforced by the distribution of the blues and yellows throughout the composition. Paper size: approx. 18 x 24 in.

Fri. 4/12 COLOR PENCILS

Laura Mueller

Class began with a brief lecture on color and color schemes (standard color combinations). Then students drew still life arrangements of balls and dice. Laura has taken a more expressive, almost painterly, approach to rendering the colors. She has confidently captured the volumes and light of the objects and space by layering and embedding warm and cool colors under one another.

Sierra Kline

After the lunch break, students drew bones and antlers exploring more subjective possibilities. Sierra has beautifully rendered the the light and shadows of this antler with a fine, short hatch technique. The colors gradually flow into one another and the highlights pop addressing all the little nodes around the end of the antler.

Wed. 4/10 COLOR: Bones and Antlers

Colton Davis

Jess Torres

Wed. night students continued with color studies drawing from bones and antlers. The objective here was to explore the possibilities of mark-making and color schemes resulting in a more subjective image. Colton's drawing above exhibits a very porous texture similar to that of the actual bone. The bone itself has been transformed into something reminiscent of an elephant skull. Jess has employed a scribble technique that makes the antler appear wrapped in yarn. She has beautifully captured the subtleties of light and color through her method of layering.

MON 4/8 COLOR PENCILS: Dice and Balls

Steven Freebairn

Elliot Yung

Students began working with colored pencils last night. We had a brief discussion about color and color schemes - standard color combinations. The still life consisted of variously colored combinations of dice, balls and numbers or letters. Both examples here have benefited from the students use of mark-making and layering.
Close observation of Steven's drawing above reveals short, horizontal hatching of white,yellow and blue within the cube. His use of complementary colors in the ground plane allows the colors to stand out while creating a stage-like sense of lighting.
Elliot's drawing has taken the mark-making a step further employing a pattern of radiating hatches around the cross-contours of the ball and wiggly, meandering lines in the ground. He too has used much layering as well as placing a little of all the colors of his palette in all the objects creating a very unified and balanced composition.

HOMEWORK #5: INK

In your sketchbook, draw 5 to 7 small objects from observation using India Ink. Consider carefully the methods of cross-hatching, stippling or a combination of techniques. You may draw one object per page or arrange the objects into a still life. Note in the drawing above how the techniques address the value patterns as well as the individual textures of the objects.

FRI. 4/5 Ink: Still Life

Students made ink drawings from two different still life arrangements- small and large scale.

Philip Elias

Philip's drawing above illustrates the stipple technique. Note the smooth, gradual transitions in tone achieved with this method. Furthermore, he has situated the still life so as to have a balanced, centralized composition that draws us into the space.

Katherine Imhoff

Katherine has employed various hatching techniques in her drawing. Like Philip's, she has captured not only the light patterns on the objects but the textures as well. Katherine's fine line technique has beautifully rendered all the subtleties of light and shadow.

WED. 4/3 INK: Large Still Life

Colton Davis

Rachel Edelstein

Last night, students were presented with the largest still life arrangement to date. The goal was to translate the still life with a technique that was more personal and subjective rather than focusing on absolute volume and light. The two examples above both have very strong illustrative qualities. Colton's drawing is very warm due to his limited and controlled use of white combined with the continuous gray tones. It is reminiscent of Mad Magazine and Cracked comics.
Rachel's drawing exhibits a clean, bold graphic style. Her line quality appears as though it were engraved and then printed. Note how the soft wash in the background holds the composition together pushing the still life forward.

MON. 4/1 Ink Drawings: Still Life

Forrest Lucero

Adriana Orozco

Students continued with drawing in India Ink. Forrest's drawing above relies on the contributions of both contour and tone together. The line quality is clean, confident and consistent throughout. Adriana has made a drawing exploring symbolic and invented textures. Each object has been given a texture that loosely interprets the actual surface of the object. Compositional balance is achieved by repeating the textures in multiple objects throughout the composition.