10/19/11 Drawing I

Today's Class- Today we continued our study of value drawing with charcoal, using both vine and compressed. What was different today was that we added into the still life some objects and drapery that were not white, so that we had to deal with the local color values in addition to the effect of light and shadow.

How to make this up- Set up a still life grouping. Place a box on a table, and drape with one white or light colored cloth, and one dark colored cloth, arranged so that parts of both are visible. Find four objects of similar size, two of which are white or very light colored, two of which are a solid color (medium or dark). Use a direct light source to light the set up. Then do the following drawings on your 18" x 24" paper, paying attention to shapes, proportions, spacing, and value of the objects:

1) Vine Charcoal- Arrange the two white objects and one dark object on and around the draped box, and draw the set up using vine charcoal. Unlike last week, do not fill the page with charcoal first, but instead draw with the charcoal on white paper. In class students spent about 90 minutes on it. Make sure to spray it with fixative when you are done.

2) Compressed Charcoal- Replace one of the white objects with the other dark object, rearrange the three objects, and draw again, this time using your compressed charcoal. Students in class spent about two hours working on it.

These are portfolio exercises that must be made up by October 26th (next week) to receive credit.

Homework- Put a box on a table, drape with a patterned cloth (stripes, checks, etc), and shine on it a direct light source to create strong light and shadow patterns. Arrange on and around the box two white or light colored objects, and two solidly dark colored objects. Draw the set up in your sketchbook using a soft pencil (6B or 4B), matching the light and shadow. Rearrange the objects and draw it again. Do a total of 2 sketches of the still life, one per page.

********Midterm Portfolio Collection**********

The midterm portfolio (all drawings done in class except the graded pencil line still life) for this class will be graded during class time on Wednesday, October 26th. If you have not missed any classes and did all the drawings we did in class each day, you're all set. If you missed any classes, the following list covers what I expect to see, and the dates that each can be found on this blog. All September exercises are in pencil, the October drawings are charcoal.

9/14/11- Contour line exercises (shoes and hands)

9/21/11- Reductive line drawing (bamboo)

-Contour line drawing (bamboo)

-Negative space drawing of chair

-Still life group of bottles

9/28/11- Two point perspective (room corner)

-Still life of boxes and cans

10/12/11- Value studies of all white objects (vine and compressed)

10/19/11- Value studies of mixed value objects (vine and compressed)

For next class 10/26/11- We will do our final charcoal drawing of the semester. Bring your 18" x 24" pad, your charcoal of choice, appropriate erasers for the charcoal, and spray fixative. Also bring the midterm portfolio art.