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.