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.