Week #4

Objectives:

Continue working on drawing skills.
We will integrate compositional techniques with contour and gesture drawing and work specifically with composition and arrangement. Additionally we will work with perspective and space in a composition.

We will begin to discuss linear perspective and the illusion of three-dimensional shapes. Work on drawing skills with emphasis on the illusionistic properties of two-dimensional shapes. Continue work with composing an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of shapes (a picture).

Review contour drawing. Work at drawing linear perspective. Discuss ways that line quality can influence the drawing.

Reading Assignment: On reserve in Abell Library. If you missed class this is the required reading to make up for the work missed. The Natural Way to Draw, Section 1, Contour and Gesture, pgs 5-22

Homework:Homework: In your sketch book, draw two objects together in a relationship, e.g. a book on a table. 

Continue working with Shapes and space. Today we will construct a drawing instrument and learn to draw special relationships and perspective.  I call this tool the Viewfinder Grid.  Remainder of class will be spent drawing a landscape that involves lines rapidly receding in space. 

Reading Assignment: On reserve in Abell Library
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain- chapter 6, Getting Around Your Symbol System, pgs, 88-104

Homework: Compose and draw a scene that utilizes receding planes as a primary method for achieving depth in a composition.  You will be drawing from nature (meaning real life) but you are in charge of picking that reality.  Before you begin look carefully at the scene you are going to render.  Compose using the drawing tool that we made in class, compose carefully and think of our discussions on how artists have you experience their work through lines and shapes.  Buildings and interiors work well for this assignment.  Trees and bushes can be edited; don’t worry about drawing every branch or every brick in a wall.  Start lightly and work with an additive process to gradually flush out your drawing. With this method there should be no need to erase, you are editing as you go. Your composition should take up a full sheet of paper out of your sketch-pad. These compositions are primarily meant as an exercise to help you draw objects and space with accurate perspective. Look carefully at your scene and be sure you are drawing what you see through your Viewmaster 2015 drawing machine and not what you think you see.  Many people in class wanted to draw from a photo.  That is a way to do this assignment but that is not a way to learn to draw.  Drawing from life is a completely different skill.