FOOD MAGNIFICATION

The next project has been assigned and I trust everyone is on their way to 'cook' up ideas for their food drawings.  It might be a good idea to look back at past posts about the project from last winter's F100 class.  Look at Thursday, March 5, 2009 and Tuesday February 17, 2009.  There are a few images from that class, plus the pdf I sent you yesterday should provide you with a lot of inspiration. Mmmmm, can't wait to see your ideas.

Drapery Studies

Sam Chumley's drawing breaks the various surfaces down into fairly aggressive marks that accumulate into a wide range of value. The effectiveness of the open composition creates some strong diagonals of lights and darks.

Gilbert Garcilazo's marks are much more subtle and suggestive of the reality of the space and the gravity of the drapery.

 
Coby Vaughan's drawing has an energetic approach to mark-making that adds a sense of urgency to the image allowing her point of view to be expressed.

Camille Stettenbenz's drawing explores the abstract qualities of the light and dark patterns of the fabric, setting up a strong sense of repetition and rhythm.

Jessica Hagedorn's drawing is a strong open composition that is enhanced by the way she explored her marks relative to the surfaces she was viewing.

So we exercised our seeing and mark-making skills with drapery as subject, hanging on the wall with a strong light coming from one direction. I thought there was some good progress in many of the pieces. Developing a sensitivity to the touch of the pencil on the drawing surface and the ability to discriminate subtle changes in the marks of the pencil, or any drawing tool, on that surface are some of the most important parts of the drawing process. Developing our powers of observation is also hugely important, not only as human beings, but also for many in our F100 class who are growing and emerging artists.

These are very basic sensitivities but ones that, because of the refinement and energy they require, are both sophisticated and challenging. It is challenging to invest extraordinary concentration in an activity that is generally perceived as utilitarian.  Focusing attention on something as routine as using a hand-held tool to make marks on paper requires that we temporarily detach ourselves from the distractions of our over-stimulating environment and devote our attention to the simple experience of direct sensory awareness.  That actually may be one of the biggest challenges.  Drawing demands active and purposeful participation.  

Drapery Study by Leonardo Da Vinci

The value of value.

Our exercise today involved white forms on green drapery (or at least I was told it was green), and to work with the values as they described the forms and the spaces. There was a lot to deal with and, in turn, there was a lot of frustration expressed. So we're going to simplify on Thursday and try to get more involved with drawing from observation and developing a mark-making approach to building up values.

Drawings with value compositions allow us to take all kinds of visual journeys. Each of our processes set up different rhythms in our work as we discussed at the end of class and the most expeditious means to an end doesn't necessarily teach us very much.  But those rhythms are important. Some of us draw with a fast tempo and others may be slower; some of us are precise and others may wander.  However, as our eyes move around our subject, like the one depicted above, we tend to look for groupings and patterns to organize so that our values and shapes make sense in the final image.  Value needs to describe those volumes and spaces in our work, and it needs to move our eyes around the image, it needs to engage us on all kinds of levels.

We all understand now, I think, that an important use of value in drawing is the development of compositions based on light and dark. Chiaroscuro (chiaro=light, scuro=dark) creates the illusion of solid form in a believable space.  One of the best ways to learn that is to draw drapery strongly lit from one side.  We'll explore that on Thursday. 

GUIDE TO STUDIO FOUNDATION BASICS

The on-line text for foundation courses (F100, F101, F102) is now available through our class Oncourse site.  It's gone through a lot of improvements and is much more user-friendly. Remember that this is the text that your pretest was based on, and will also be used for your post-test at the end of the semester.  Start spending some time with it.  You'll be glad you did.

See you shortly.

COMPOSITION

Hey, everyone, check out the PowerPoint about composition on Debra's blog, yourmindseyes.blogspot.com, it's pretty good and a good introduction to our next ventures. It's located on the left side of the page under PowerPoints (for class). See you soon.

Also, check out Shawn's comment, he has a link to a short video about composition.