Skip to main content

Notes from Tuesday, October 6

Drawing 2 #5

-Need good quality largish photo of a tree- preferably black and white

1.   Review homework

a.   Animal drawing.

b.   Tree: Your homework was to

c.   find or take a tree photo (close enough to see the texture of the tree), 

d.   draw thumbnails to plan a simple composition focusing on the tree trunk, but have interest in the positive and negative spaces, 

e.   start a first draft, and experiment with texture.


2.  Tree drawing:

a.   To believably draw a tree, you need to:

1)   First outline the shape of the trunk and branches.




2)   Next look at the value patterns (lightness and darkness) underneath the texture. You can see them better if you squint your eyes and blur the details. Outline the different value areas.


3)   Bark texture is indicated by using marks that imitate bark shape and a suggestion of texture that our mind interprets. You don’t have to draw the texture in great detail but use the stokes that convey the feel: 

-Slightly wandering line that convey a feel of bark grooves. 

-Cross-hatches

Check out this web site: https://pendrawings.me/how-to-draw-tree-trunks/


3.   Collage project:

a.   Look at samples... Think of a theme, then anything goes, but I will ask you about your composition choices- Consider emphasis, simplicity, variety and harmony:

1)   Variety: Using different shapes, lines, colors, and textures to create interest.

2)   Harmony: Using similar shapes, lines, colors, and textures to help the design hold together.

b.   Tips:

1)   Supports: Try a mat board, canvas board, davey board, cardboard, hardboard

2)   Match textures of paper- rice paper, sketch paper, etc. -aim for an even texture and a well-blended piece.

3)   UHU glue sticks, acrylic medium


4.   Homework

a.   Tree- finish.

b.   Collage- have fun.

c.   New portrait- We will start a face in a simple line style such as those by Picasso and Matisse (see samples). Choose a photo of a face you like. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paint Application and Mark-Making

We've   been talking about brushwork and palette knives, and I want to talk a little about paint application and mark-making. Paint can be applied with so many different tools. We all started out with finger painting, and brushes seem to be an extension of our fingers, but you can put paint onto a ground with a palette knife, old credit card, sponge, roller, etc. And besides the tools you use, you have options with the techniques. I took the following list of paint application techniques from a  Craftsy  Post: 1. Dry brushing: This is where you scrub layers of colors on using small amounts of paint. 2. Washing: This is when you apply a thin layer of diluted paint over the colors already applied. The thin veil of color allows the colors underneath to still shine through. 3. Dabbing: For adding texture. Apply thick paint with a stiff bristle brush or a sponge, with a pouncing motion or with quick dabs. Dabbing can be done in multiple layers to build depth. 4. Detailing: Thi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review assignments

Drawing is a process that is intertwined with seeing. To draw, you need to see the way an artist sees. How to see like an artist is a hard thing to explain, so most people never learn the skill-- but it is learnable by anyone, with practice. Seeing like an artist involves shifting from the verbal/logical use of your brain to the visual/intuitive side. When you use the right side of your brain, you will enter that state where you can't access words, awareness of time disappears, yet you feel alert, relaxed, and happy. And then you will also begin to see things the way artists do. Vase-Face Drawing:   This exercise is one way to practice the shift from left to right brain.  Using pencil, draw a symbol of a profile of a face- the left brain can easily draw a symbol from memory. Begin on the left side of your paper, so the face is facing to the right. (If you are left-handed, reverse it). Start at the top of the head, and use one uninterrupted line. Make the face approximately 5" ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Abstract Landscapes

I'm  starting out the New Year (2021) with some thought about themes. I think we are all tending towards abstraction, so I want to give a little introduction today into the history of  abstraction, as it applies to landscape.  I found this great article at  Ideelart.com , and I'll quote a bit here, then hope you go check out the entire article:   What Landscape Art Gave Abstraction In the Mid-1800s, landscape artists began utilizing a style of painting called “plein-air,” or open-air painting. Plein-air brought painters away from their studios to paint outside. This instantly made landscape painting the most sensual way a painter could work. Compare the alternatives of historic or religious paintings, portraits, slices-of-life, still lives or animal scenes. Plein-air painting offered a world of sensual delights, such as the flickering of light off water, the changing colors of the sky, the miraculous multitude of  colors  lines and forms in nature. Pl...
Post a Comment
Read more