11/2/11 Drawing I

Today's Class- Today we opened with a short group critique of the charcoal drawings done in class last week. After that we looked at a few slides of art done in the medium of ink wash- drawing ink that has been diluted with water to make washes of various gray values, and applied to the paper with brushes. Then students did two portfolio exercises involving ink wash drawing.

How to make this up- Set up a still life as in the examples shown above and below. Put a small box on a table, and hang a white or light colored cloth so that it covers the box and creates a backdrop behind it as well. Find two white or light colored objects to act as your subjects, and light with a direct light source to create patterns of light and shadow. Make some ink wash by putting some water in a disposable container (cup, can), and add a few drops of your drawing ink. Test the resulting ink on a piece of scrap paper to see how dark it is. Then do the following drawings:

1) Place one of the objects on the cloth covered box. Do a simple contour line sketch of the set with light pencil on a sheet of your 18" x 24" paper. Use the ink wash to start filling in values to match the values seen in the still life. Brushes designed to use with watercolors work best for this material. Add ink to your wash a few drops at a time to create darker washes. It's best to work from light values toward dark values. Continue until all the values in the still life are reproduced in your drawing. Spend about 90 minutes working on it.

2) Place one of the objects on the cloth covered box, and the second one in front of it. Draw with pencil, then ink, as in the first drawing. Spend up to 2.5 hours working on the drawing.

These are portfolio exercises, which must be made up by the end of the semester in order to receive credit. However, because we are doing a graded project involving ink wash next week, I strongly recommend you complete these before next Wednesday for the practice.

Homework- Set up a still life in the same manner as listed in the section above. Use two white or light colored objects of similar size, with one on the box and one on the table near it. Do an ink wash sketch of it in your sketchbook. Switch the objects and draw it again, for a total of two pages.

For next class 11/9/11- We will continue with ink wash, using it to do a graded drawing. Bring your 18" x 24" paper, pencil and eraser, drawing ink, brushes, and water containers. Students have the option of using a piece of watercolor paper of similar size if they wish to purchase one on their own.