6/21 Composing Ideal Solids

Today Art 7A continued to work with Ideal Solids.  This time the project was to place the various forms within a composition addressing spatial relationships as well as the categories of light.  Here are two examples by Lexi Mason-Davis (above) and Katelyn Ashby (below). Both of these compositions are playful and inventive.  The extreme change of scale in Lexi's drawing creates a stage complete with balancing act for the various forms while the tilted cones and repetition of the spheres in Kaitlin's drawing not only establishes directional movement throughout the composition but also creates a carnival like environment.

6/17 Ideal Geometric Solids

Today the class worked on rendering ellipses and Ideal Solids-- geometric forms that are the root shapes of many other shapes (ex. a bottle is composed of a long cylinder, a cone and a cylinder). Students drew five Ideal Solids-cone, cylinder, open cylinder, sphere and a cube- on a sheet of paper in charcoal and render the categories of light.

Homework #1 Overlapping Forms & Mark-making (Art 7B)

Repeat the class assignment of working with layers and overlapping forms. Choose a subject that is important to you (ex. a bicycle if you're a cyclist, kitchen utensils if you like to cook, musical instrument if you're a musician, etc.)

Homework #1 Contour Line (Art 7A)

Make a contour line drawing of a complex subject (i.e. a subject with many parts and pieces, bicycle, engine, old typewriter, car truck or motorcycle,etc.) Use 18 x 24 in. drawing paper and graphite pencil. Employ line and weight variations (thick & thin, dark & light).

6/16 Contour Line Drawing

After the slide lecture on Line, the class made a series of drawings of tools in Contour Line.  Contour is a slow, single, incisive line that defines interior volumes as well as exterior volumes.  It is different from "outlining" because outlines only define exterior volumes like a silhouette.

6/15 A Means Towards Gesture

Today we worked on developing volume through gestural techniques.  We started with cross-contour drawings then to continuous line drawing, scribble gesture, mass and finally a combination of techniques. Gesture drawings should be quick, spontaneous and all encompassing of your subject.  In other words, you draw all the way around the forms and through them treating them as though they were transparent.

6/14 First Day of Class

Today we covered the syllabus and materials list.  Tomorrow we will start with some gesture drawings.