PORTRAITS : The Andrew Loomis Method

Diana

Jill

For our second attempt at portrait drawing, we employed the methods of illustrator Andrew Loomis. Starting with a sphere, locating the length between brow and nose and then establishing the remaining two-thirds of the proportions before addressing the contours and features. Both drawings exhibit a large scale portrait well proportioned to the dimensions of the paper. The planes of the face have been well addressed and value has aided in locating their placement. Diana's drawing skillfully illustrates how the hair sets over the head like a hat. Jill has created a very soft drawing emphasizing the the eyes, gently balanced with the shadow under the chin wrapping around behind the ear.

PORTRAITS: Head Construction

Ryan

Brendan

Last night the class finished addressing the individual features with studies of mouths before moving on to drawing the whole head. We discussed dividing the face into thirds as well as addressing the topography of the face through advancing and receding planes.

PORTRAITS: The Features

Dylan

Rio

Last night the class began working on Portraits. Before trying to draw the whole head, we focused on the individual features of the face. Students drew eyes and then noses before we ran out of time. Tomorrow night we will draw mouths and then discuss the proportions of the head.

TWO-POINT LINEAR PERSPECTIVE: Imaginary Space

Archway demo

This week the class continued working on the Imaginary Space project. We will critique these drawings first thing Monday before moving on to Portraits. Pix to follow.

TWO-POINT LINEAR PERSPECTIVE: Imaginary Space

This week students have been working on creating an imaginary space in two-point linear perspective. We will continue working on these drawings all next week. Below are examples from previous classes.

COLOR: Individual Still Life Arrangements

Last night the students made their own still life arrangements of three to five objects.
Kate took a limited amount of objects and repeated them throughout the composition creating rhythms of similar colors and shapes. The colors are electric and luminous like a video game. The objects and placement is also reminiscent of a game where the player wanders through a landscape of prizes and pitfalls.
Rachel's drawing has a very dramatic almost narrative quality. The light creeps across the floor pooling around the objects as if escaping from a cracked door. Notice how she has swapped the colors on the objects to unify the arrangement.

NEXT WEEK: LINEAR PERSPECTIVE (BRING RULERS AND YARD STICKS, PENCILS AND ERASERS)

COLOR: Dice and Balls

Christian

David

Veroncia

Last night the class made colored pencil drawings on black paper. When working on toned paper, it is beneficial to take advantage of the local value of the paper. In the case of black paper, the shadows are already present. Therefore, the approach is to work from dark to light as opposed to white paper where one works from light to dark. First the light areas are sketched in with white pencil working around the shadows. Then the colors are applied.
Christian's drawing at the top has a lot of character with a complementary color scheme of tertiary colors (yellow-green and red-violet or magenta). The quirky shapes are complemented by expressive rendering of the values and simple, stylized marks in the background.
David's drawing too exhibits lively mark-making and bold highlights. His drawing illustrates the power and importance in using the white pencil.
Veronica's drawing exhibits very acidic and electrified complementary colors. Again the mark-making supports the colors in a very active way. In addition, notice how she has placed proportional amounts of each color across the composition to reinforce unity.

WET MEDIA: Wash Drawings

David

Dylan

Michelle

Last night the class made wash drawings employing mostly a "dry on dry" technique. This approach requires working in layers of the same water/ink mixture. Each layer is allowed to dry before successive layers are applied. This yields clearly defined values illustrated in David and Dylan's drawings. In contrast, Michelle has applied a "wet on wet" technique in addition to the previously mentioned method. This is how she achieved the cosmic effects with splatters and bursting shapes within the background.

PEN AND INK: Tondo

Brandon

Diana

Jill

Rachel

Ryan

Last night the class made drawings within a circular format (aka Tondo). The tondo introduces a number of effects on compositional balance. 1. It changes the speed and flow around the border. 2. It creates interesting negative areas. 3. It has the potential to draw the viewer into the space or suggest a "zoomed in" effect. And lastly, it sets up a pleasing contrast to vertical subjects. This is evident in Brandon's drawing. His hatching is very meditated and even. The grid, tile-like background adds to the stability of the image.
Diana's drawing illustrates an exploration in technique. Each object has been rendered with a different method adding to the individuality of the forms as well as a textural element.
The tondo format has created a very focused composition in Jill's drawing. It seems to highlight the small water pale in the foreground.
Rachel's drawing has soft light with smooth transitions in tonality indicative of the "stipple" technique.
Ryan has created a tonally rich image with a full range of values and mark-making that addresses light and form.

PEN AND INK: Mini Sculptures

Michelle

Rachel

Rio

Last night the class made little sculptures out of clay and wood scraps and then drew them using pen and ink. Michelle's drawing illustrates the more expressive qualities of drawing with ink using a twig. By diluting the ink with water, she achieved various tonalities of gray. They angles of the sculpture combined with the drawing style and tonal range have created a very powerful and weighted image. Rio and Rachel have both used traditional quill nibs. Throughout their images they have employed the various techniques of hatching and stippling indicative of pen and ink drawings. Notice that each technique addresses light and form while also suggesting texture.

WET MEDIA: Pen and Ink

Last night the class began working with pen and ink. As an introduction to the materials and techniques we played the Surrealist game "The Exquisite Corpse." The techniques addressed in class were: 1. hatching and cross-hatching 2. stippling 3. scribble 4. pattern.

MIDTERM

Diana

Emily

Jennifer

All this week the class was working on their Midterm Drawings during portfolio review. The still life consisted of all white objects. The objective was to create a balanced composition addressing light and form. Diana's drawing is well balanced illustrating soft, even values of a high key range. The dark areas are very well balanced against the lighter areas adding support to central forms.
Emily has also employed a high key value range. The placement of the forms encloses the negative areas allowing the gradation in the background to support the still life.
Jen has managed to engage with all four sides of the picture plane. The values are rich, skillfully addressing the light and form. The full value range is complemented with energetic and dynamic mark-making.

COMPOSITION: Atmospheric Perspective

Leslie

Rio

Last night the class made drawings employing the Distal Cues specifically addressing atmospheric perspective. Both compositions above exhibit strong attention to the negative areas as well as the edge of the paper. Notice that the objects touch all four sides of the paper. Leslie's drawing exhibits a high horizon line, located in the top third of the paper. The objects are very well proportioned to the paper. The horizon line in Rio's drawing is off the page, above the image area. Again the forms are large with boldly rendered values. Both drawings have very well balanced compositions illustrating the importance of paying attention to the relationship between positive and negative areas. In addition, the two drawings have successfully divided the space into foreground, middleground and background, a key component of using atmospheric perspective.

VALUE: Still Life

Jennifer

Last night the class continued with the concepts introduced last week. Instead of imagining the ideal solids the class drew from a still life. The objective was to touch at least two sides of the picture plan and to start the process of developing values by addressing one at a time throughout the composition. In other words, place all the white areas, then light gray, dark gray and lastly black. Once a base value had been established throughout, the values were then modeled to add volume.

COMPOSITION: The Distal Cues

Dylan

Jennifer

Ryan

Last night the class made drawings employing the Distal Cues (more info on that in the tab above). The objective for these drawings was to create a composition addressing the Distal Cues and touching 3 to 4 edges of the paper. Notice in Dylan's drawing the absence of pure white and black. Working primarily with a midtone value range creates a very unified and calming, somewhat somber atmosphere.
In contrast to Dylan's, Jennifer's drawing is very dynamic with a full range of values and energized and active mark-making accentuating the volume of the forms and suggesting turbulence in the background.
Ryan has very effectively used value for dramatic effect. The objects appear as if they are about to be pushed forward by an incoming dark mass. The dynamics of the values is increased by using extreme contrasts of white and black juxtaposed against each other. The forward thrust is enhanced by the tilt of the cube.

COMPOSITION: Cropping

Jill

Rio

Last night we made a series of studies exploring different ways of "cropping" a single object. Students then chose the best one to develop into a finished drawing. One of the issues raised last night was the use of verticals and horizontals vs. diagonals. Vertical and horizontal compositions, like Jill's at the top, establish stability. Think about architecture. Diagonals as in Rio's drawing, are more dynamic. Placing an object on a diagonal introduces triangular negative areas into the rectangular frame. Cropping, in general, may enclose and/or divide the space resulting in more interesting and active negative areas.

VALUE: Emphasizing light

David

Dylan

Last Wednesday the class made drawings emphasizing the light patterns over volume by employing a single directional hatch or scribble technique. David has created a very dynamic composition with rich values and energetic marks that sweep across the space and around the forms. The location of similar values throughout the image establishes a rhythm that keeps the "eye" moving.
Dylan's drawing exhibits a very strong sense of light and mood. The transitions in value are very controlled as is the hatching. The limited value range has created a very unified and warm environment.

VALUE: Local Value 3

Emily

Jennifer

Ryan

Last night we continued with Value. The objective was to render three objects with three different local values; dark, medium and light. Emily's drawing clearly illustrates the three different local values. Furthermore, she has rendered each object with volume and light without employing contour lines. The edges are defined with contrasting values. Volume and light is illustrated with smooth, even gradations.
The objects are very well proportioned to the paper's dimensions in Jennifer's drawing. She has emphasized the light patterns. This is most evident in the reflections of the dark vase. In addition, the negative space is divided into two rectangles with the inclusion of the horizontal line suggesting the table edge.
Ryan, too, has divided the negative space with a horizontal line. His drawing is different in that he has used line and tone together. The two elements are very complementary, neither over powering the other, both striving to address form and volume. Like Emily's drawing, the bold values and smooth gradations illustrate the light and volume of the forms.

VALUE: Seeing the Light in White

Last night we started discussing Value: the gradations between light and dark. The objective was to render the categories of light observed on white objects. Emily has very skillfully rendered the value and light patterns with soft, even and gradual transitions from light to dark. In addition, she has energized the form with a zig-zag pattern, indicative of wavelengths or wood grain, in the negative areas.
Jennifer's drawing is more expressive with rapid cross-hatched marks to address the light and value patterns. The tonal shapes are bold and lively adding weight to the cast shadow and propelling the light value of the object forward. Where Emily's drawing is more symbolic or iconic exhibited in an open and undetermined space, Jennifer's drawing, with a background that is more about light than pattern or texture and with the inclusion of the table edge,  presents a sense of the environment surrounding the object.

PROPORTION: Sighting Diagonals

Corbin

Christian

Last night we continued addressing proportion and sighting techniques. The still life consisted of large and small blocks placed at various angles. The objective was to draw the blocks maintaining a consistent eye level. In addition to rendering the still life, Corbin has fully explored the materials and their application with additive and reductive techniques. The boxes illustrate light, texture and volume sometimes in a solid dimensional manner and others  ambiguously and transparently. Christian's objectivity is in stark contrast to Corbin's more subjective approach. Where Corbin has been expressive and inventive, Christian has observed the still life with a critical "eye" illustrating the blocks with clean, sharp contours and soft values.

PROPORTION: Sighting

Dylan

Emily

Rachel

Ryan

Last night we discussed Proportion and the measuring technique called "sighting."First the class made drawings by trying to identify the ideal solids within each object. For example, a wine bottle has a large cylinder for the body, a cone for the shoulders and another cylinder for the neck. The objective was to establish a three-dimensional armature of the objects. Important things to note in the drawings above are 1. The use of central axis lines for symmetrical objects. 2. Identify the parts (i.e. ideal solids). 3. Draw the forms transparently (see Rachel's drawing). 4. Pay attention to the negative space and relate the proportions of one object to another (see Ryan's drawing). Once the objects were drawn, students then used the "sighting" technique to check proportions and make corrections.