Today's Class- Today was devoted to the concept of value in two dimensional art. Value was a part of the stipple drawing assignment, but now we're using a more traditional medium, charcoal. We discussed some related vocabulary and definitions from the textbook, looked at slides of historical art from antiquity through the present, and discussed the way value was used to imply form and volume, space, to highlight specific details, and to focus attention. After that the class did two still life drawings using different types of charcoal.
How to make this up- You will need to set up a still life to draw from, which will be lit by a single directional light source to create patterns of light and shadow. You will do one drawing as a value reduction using vine charcoal, filling a page with it and using your kneaded eraser to draw the lights from the set up. You will also do a more traditional value drawing using compressed charcoal on clean white paper. Specific instructions as to how to put together the still life and what to focus on, and additional student examples, can be seen here.
These are portfolio exercises and must be completed by the end of the semester to receive full credit, but I recommend that you complete them before next week as practice for a graded charcoal assignment, especially if have never tried charcoal before.
Homework- Nothing new, but a few students still owe me the graded projects involving stipple drawing and pencil line still life drawing. The longer the delay, the fewer points they will be worth.
For next class 10/15/12- We will finish our study of value with a graded project involving charcoal still life value drawing. Bring your 18" x 24" pad, preferred type of charcoal (vine, compressed, or both), kneaded eraser, and spray fixative. We will use part of the class to discuss printmaking in preparation for the project we will start the week after that.
