Gesture

As the evening class gets closer to beginning their creative study the figure, we are beginning to explore the importance and necessity of gesture drawing.  Gesture drawing is about the rhythmic movements and energies coursing through a subject rather than simply the subjects parts.  It's about seeing and empathizing with the whole dynamic, concentrating on the essential pattern and general form of all the parts rather than the edges, or contours. I know it's hard to break away from those contours, but doing so will open up whole new arena of expression.  A gesture drawing tells us what the figure is doing rather that what it looks like.  Gesture drawing tells us about the actions, the tensions, and the pulsations that come from a figure's masses and their alignment in space.  Gesture drawings are about the spirit rather than the specific.  Practice in your journals gesturing folks you observe in the food court waiting in line, in the lobby by the gallery, studying in the lounge upstairs.  30 seconds here, 30 seconds there.  Don't worry about what it looks like, but instead feel what it feels like.  Practice.

Some Stuff

Annie McCollum, a BFA Drawing major, will be part of the 2009 BFA Senior exhibition that will open on April 2nd.  She's hard at work getting a body of drawing completed and ready by that time.  Her drawings are exploring conservation and endangered species.  The above is the beginning of one of those pieces, a large Salamander. When that little critter is complete, she'll cut it from its current context and essentially add it to another large scaled drawing. That image will be one in a group of interesting drawing constructions.

The other image is Connie Goodwin's hand at work on a reductive charcoal drawing from the F100 class.  They've been working with charcoal this week.  On Monday Connie wasn't very excited about the medium; today she was! 

BA in Fine Arts 2009

The seniors who will be graduating with a BA degree in Fine Arts will be opening their exhibition on Thursday from 5:00 - 7:00 in the Ronald Barr Gallery.  The areas represented in this exhibit are Graphic Design, Painting, and Printmaking.  The evening drawing class should plan to stop by the gallery between 6:00 - 6:30, and then we'll meet for class (of course, you can come earlier).

Hands Full of Food

Each of the drawing sections are on their way into the second out-of-class projects.  The afternoon class is exploring line, shape, texture, and space by magnifying food.  We looked at many examples of fruits, vegetables, breads, crackers, cantaloupes, artichokes, and so on.  I think by the time they got through an in-class grid exercise and working with charcoal, they're ready to find their subjects.  They'll begin the project during class tomorrow and then finish it out of class for March 4 midterm critique.

The evening class will be putting together a "Show of Hands." Each one creating an out-of-class drawing of their hands expressing something about who they are, a self-portrait of sorts. Each image will be based on close observation and contextualized to reveal an interesting facet of the individual. Their midterm critique will be on march 3.

Both groups will be utilizing their sketchbooks to generate and expand on initial ideas, looking for unique and engaging subjects.  Digital images will also play a part, I suspect, particularly with the Food project, since the subject would likely rot before the image is completed. I doubt the hands will rot, but since the "Show of Hands" pieces will involve greater depth of field, care should be given to overcome and/or compensate for photographic distortions.

BRIDGES

Click on any image to enlarge.

Amanda Straley
Will Garner
Wende Cudmore
Troy Haggard
Susan Brown
Shawn McPherson
Greg Truesdel
Alex Kennedy

The images above represent some of the drawings that were submitted for critique this past Thursday evening.  It was an engaging critique with interesting discussions about how ideas originated in regard to the concept of bridge, and what those ideas went through to get to these final visual expressions. Each participant was thorough with their presentations and the ensuing dialogue was enlightening.  Prior to the drawing critique, the class went to the Israel Davis lecture.  Davis' presentation was very interesting and honest, so it was a good lead-in to our critique.  I'll post the other bridge images after the suggestions and recommendations that were raised during the critique are incorporated into the works.  

Visiting Artist Israel Davis

Israel Davis will be demonstrating his technique of printing on clay February 12 and 13 in the clay studio.  Everyone is welcome to stop in for all or parts of the workshop.  On Thursday night at 6:00, Davis will be giving a slide lecture about his work.  The evening drawing class will meet for that presentation and then we'll have the bridge critique afterwards.  The lecture will be in KV035.  For additional information see the clay bucket.

Linear Perspective

Just click on the image above to see a large and more detailed view.

Linear Perspective is a system developed by architects and artists during the Renaissance for projecting the illusion of objects in depth from a particular point of view.  Originally developed for building imaginary scenes and most useful when drawing geometrically regular objects such as boxes and buildings, linear perspective simulates the experience of real vision while existing as a system somewhat apart. Still, linear perspective can provide great insight into the nature of spatial relationships in depth, while giving powerful interest to drawings involving space and a convenient means to organize and build coherent compositions in relation to a specific position of the viewer.

The four images above are examples from the afternoon Basic Drawing class, first time efforts into the world of perspective.  Although some of the image quality was lost in the digital translation, they clearly represent a knowledge of horizon lines, receding parallels, vanishing points, and a consistent point-of-view.  Exploring the world of depth in drawing can be difficult because, obviously, drawings are flat.  Space in drawing is an illusion that must be carefully nurtured from the very beginning .  Understanding perspective can "bridge" us to the illusion and ultimately allow our powers of observation to strengthen so we can knowingly order space in our images consciously and convincingly. 

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