Today's Class- Today we reviewed slides of art from the Romans to the present, discussing how artists used value to achieve form, space, and focus. Then we did some charcoal still life drawing.How to make up this class- Put a small box on a table and drape with a white or light colored sheet. Place on and around it at least 4 white or light colored objects, as in the example above. Set up a direct light to create strong light and shadows. Then do the following drawings, spending about 90 minutes on each-
A) Vine Charcoal- use the vine charcoal to coat your whole 18"x24" sheet of paper with a dark, even layer of charcoal. Use your kneaded eraser to draw from the still life, erasing out the lights. You may add more charcoal as necessary to deepen shadows.
B) Compressed Charcoal- DO NOT coat the paper with charcoal first this time, just draw the objects directly on the white paper with the compressed charcoal. Go with a light touch at first, as this doesn't erase easily. Use the charcoal to build values, matching the lights and darks as closely as possible.
These drawings are portfolio exercises, to be graded as part of the final portfolio. As such, they are not due until the end of the semester, but doing them this week will be good practice for the graded charcoal drawing we will do in class next week.
