INK: Tondo Compositions and Subjective/ Space

Jim Paschal

Sabin Thapa

Friday morning began with ink drawings applied to a tondo composition. Jim's drawing above exhibits a strong, crisp light rendered with hatching and cross-hatching. Sabin's drawing, below it, is a very focused and zoomed-in composition. The negative areas are especially participatory in the arrangement. Again the drawing illustrates hatching techniques with a full range of values. Notice the repetition of the half moon or quarter round shapes throughout.

Apollonio Fontanilla

Lyric Croxford

In the afternoon, the class drew from a large still life arrangement. Apo's drawing (top) is rendered in  cartoonish contours with organic, wavy hatches addressing the wrinkles and surface variations of the objects. Lyric's drawing (bottom) is an illustrative and objective approach to addressing the light patterns and various textures. The side view of the still life allowed for a deeper rendering of the space and the ability to apply atmospheric perspective.

INK: Tondo Compositions

Crysta Maguire

Gretta Collaso

Martin Little

Last night the class made still life drawings within a circular format aka the "Tondo." The circular format creates a very focused and zoomed in appearance. The movement around the format is fluid in comparison to the abrupt turns of the standard rectangle or square. This creates for interesting contrasts against vertical and horizontal lines within the image. In addition, it forces the artist to make new considerations of the negative areas.

INDIA INK: The Exquisite Corpse and Bones

Last Friday began with a game of the "Exquisite Corpse." The class explored the various mark-making techniques using pen and ink. Notice in the drawings below the techniques of hatching, cross-hatiching and the use of patterns. In addition, the middle section of the top drawing is drawn with a brush.

In the afternoon, the class made drawings from bones. Ruth's drawing of an antler illustrates the hatching and cross-hatching techniques. She has very skillfully used light and dark rhythms to address the peaks and valleys of the surface. Notice the importance of the cast shadow to create the bend in the antler.

Ruth Hickman

INK: Bones

Benjamin Farren

Elijah Schwarz

Joanna Alvarez

Last night the class made pen and ink drawings from bones. Ben has very keenly observed the volumes and details of the bone with a very "objective" eye. The placement of the bone penetrating or receding into space is particularly effective and dynamic. Elijah's drawing of the skull is more "expressive" in his mark-making and use of tone. The contrasting lines and tonalities accentuate the volumes while adding a dramatic intensity to the light. Joanna's drawing is more "subjective" with her stylization of the thick and thin contours. The wavy, organic lines are very complementary to the form and add a sense of texture.

WET MEDIA: India Ink and "The Exquisite Corpse"

Last night students experimented with various pen and ink techniques while playing the Dadaist/ Surrealist game "The Exquisite Corpse". The drawing above illustrates brush lines in the head, parallel hatch and cross-hatch lines in the torso and short-hatch and stippling in the legs.

INDIA INK: Still Life

Lauren Tokunaga

Last night students continued drawing with India ink. Lauren's drawing above is an example of the stippling technique for creating value (dots). The stipple technique yields smooth gradations and soft tonalities.

Jane Collier

Hatching techniques tend to be bolder images as evidenced in Jane's drawing. By employing criss-crossing patterns of lines, she has established strong, contrasting tonalities. In addition, she has diluted the ink with water to create light gray lines as well.

INK: Still Life

Nicole Tabor

Last night students continued working with pen and ink. Nicole's drawing demonstrates the parallel hatching and cross-hatching techniques. We've already discussed the benefits of contrasting values to establish depth and define edges of shapes and forms. In addition to this, when using ink, you may also use various techniques and the direction of the "marks" to illustrate objects and their location. For example, the small jar in the foreground exhibits arcing, parallel lines moving across the contour. In contrast, the gas can behind it exhibits contrasting values as well as the cross-hatch technique.

INK: The Exquisite Corpse

Last night students began working with India Ink. For the introduction of wet media, we played the Surrealist game, the "Exquisite Corpse." It is a game of collaboration requiring a minimum of three players. One for the head, one for the torso and one for the legs. Like all Surrealist games it is based on irrational thought and combinations pulled from the subconscious. Aside from the game, the objective was to explore various value and textural techniques in a fun and inventive way and to gain a better understanding of what it is to work with a wet medium.

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.

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.

10/20 INk: Still Life

Wednesday night students made individual still life arrangements of two to three objects.  These were rendered in india ink using the techniques of hatching and stippling. Kyle Cobly's drawing illustrates a uniform and cohesive quality when the stipple technique is used whereas the drawing by Leah Erickson illustrates the rich variety of tonalities and textures when multiple techniques are employed.

4/5 Ink drawings continued

M/W's class finished up ink studies with bones, skulls, and antlers.  All previous ink lectures and techniques applied.  Nothing new really other than the objective was to create a sense of texture. Drawing by Katie Bogner.

3/31 Ink Studies

Wednesday night the class made single subject studies of tools.  The paper was torn to 12 x 18 in.  The class was instructed to employ the various line/value techniques of stippling, hatching, cross-hatching and invented textures as well.  This drawing by Elaine Gutsch exhibits a clear understanding of using line quality to suggest volume while employing different line techniques (stippling, cross-hatching) to suggest the various materials comprising the tool.

This drawing by Kate Picchiexhibits excellent line quality while beautifully addressing the negative space through stippling.  The combination of line and stippled areas also provides a strong sense of weight to the object's placement on the table.