Art with Cynthia

-Need ruler, pencil, triangle 1. Review homework a. You experimented with an anonymous expressive face-- trying only to capture the expressive nature of a face, in its simplest form. We used Matisse's process, and end up with as few lines as possible, which you then transferred to a clean page and finished with any medium you wished (ink, pencil, charcoal, etc.) 2. Cubes and 2-point perspective: 2-point perspective is one way of drawing objects in 3D. The cube drawn with two vanishing points looks as if the sides are slowly fading away into the distance. 1) First mark a horizon line 3/4's up on the paper, with vanishing points on each side (VP). Then draw one edge of the cube beneath and perpendicular to the horizon line, and centered between the vanishing points. 2) Draw faint lines from each end of the first edge of the cube to the vanishing points. Draw two more edges of the cube so that two sides of the cube can be clearly seen. 3) To add the top of the cube, draw two more...

Drawing #6 -Need good quality largish photo of a face facing front- preferably black and white 1.     10 min. Review homework a.     Collage-  c.     New portrait-  Choose a photo of a face you like. 2.     Face proportions- 15 min. a.  Proportion is how the parts of the face relate to each other. It’s the correct size and placement of the eyes, mouth and nose. If you mess up the shape of the head and the location of the features, you will not capture a likeness. 1)     As a rule, the face has a more or less oval shape. Draw an oval. 2)     Start with guide lines: ]   Eye line: Most eyes are at about the center of the face. Measure and draw an eye-line. ]   Nose line: Make a light mark higher than halfway between the eyeline and chin line. ]   Mouth: Measure the distance between the nose and eye lines and place the mouth line the same distance above the chin. 3)  ...

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...

1.    Review & Homework:  Last week  we discussed gesture drawing and experimented with charcoal... Gesture is just one useful tool for starting a drawing, especially one with lots of variation of form, as in a human body or an animal. You can also use contour outlines, and negative space drawings, or any combination. b.     Animal drawing:  Your homework was to do thumbnails and start a first draft for this drawing, and experiment with texture- how far did you get? 1)     Did you do thumbnails to decide on the composition? 2)     Did you try a gesture? How did it work for you? 2.     Negative space drawing: a.     Drawings have 2 kinds of space, the positive (the object), and the negative (the background).  One basic skill of drawing is to see the negative spaces. b.     When we draw or paint, we tend to concentrate on the subject and ignore the negative space aro...

-Need vine charcoal (soft), charcoal and drawing pencils, white pencil, kneaded eraser, sketch paper, spray fixative, good quality largish photo- preferably black and white 1. Review & Homework: a. Last week we discussed expressive drawing and experimented with ink and brush... What do you think creates expression in your drawings? b. Still life drawing: You were asked to express a feeling of order and simplicity with these drawings. How successful do you think you were? 1) How did you decide on the shapes to emphasize and how to do it? 2) How did you think about what kind of lines to make? 2. Review Gesture: a. In the Beginning class you learned that one basic skill of drawing is to see the form of things. Form in drawing refers to the 3-dimensional bulk of what you are drawing- the height, width, and depth. In drawing we translate the 3-dimentional form into 2-dimentional shapes. b. Gesture drawing is a loose kind of sketching or scribbling that attempts to quickly ca...

1. Review & Homework: a. Last week we discussed composition and principles of design, specifically emphasis and simplicity... review: 1) Emphasis: Decide which part you want to draw most attention to, and which will be secondary points of interest that help to move the eye around. -The dominant element, or focal point, is the part with the greatest visual weight, that attracts the eye first. -You can emphasize a part with bolder lines, darkened shapes, or more textural marks. -Usually best to put the focal point in a "sweet spot", not the center and not too close to the edge: 2) Simplicity: Leave out unimportant details that don't add to the meaning of your picture, in order to emphasize what is important. Consider the inclusion of each thing based on the contribution it makes to the overall design. Much of the beauty and skill in good artwork comes with learning what to leave out. b. Homework: I asked you to draw at least 1 more composition of your veggies. How did y...

1. Design Introduction: This month we will continue to draw from life and photos, and we will use some new tools. We'll do some more expressive (less realistic) drawings; Also, we will do more study of composition. a. Still life- I asked you to collect 3 to 5 vegetables with interesting shapes and set up a still life, preferably with a blank background behind it. Ideally, your still life will have some form of natural light or a good lamp nearby. The light source doesn’t have to shine directly on the center of your objects. Light coming from one side can make for an interesting sketch too. b. Homework- And I asked you to make at least one blind contour drawing of your arrangement - A blind contour is a good warm up, to bypass the L-brain idea of "how to draw vegetables" and go to R-brain seeing the shapes and curves. c. Review- Some concepts we covered last time are: 1) Contours (the edges of things.) 2) Form (the 3-dimensional bulk of what you are drawing translated int...