Course Title: ART213 Drawing II
Term: Fall and Spring
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Major, Elective credit. Prerequisite: ART 113. This course examines drawing as a creative process, focusing on the study and representation of objects and natural forms in the problems of visualization and composition and the exploration of images in various media using figurative and non-figurative subject matter.
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
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To broaden one’s knowledge of drawing processes.
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Develop a working knowledge on the techniques of drawing the human figure.
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Utilize a working knowledge of design principles and elements.
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Develop an understanding of the process of concept development and personal expression within one’s own artwork.
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Evaluate art critically, both orally and written utilizing a visual vocabulary.
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Develop a basic understanding of documentation of artwork and its purpose for fine artists.
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COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES:
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Students will produce drawings that utilize a varied range of drawing techniques, and successful use of design element and principles beyond the introductory level.
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Students will produce drawings using the figure with accurate proportions and use of foreshortening.
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Students will provide articulate presentation of their artistic concepts during critiques and in written statements.
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Students will participate in class critiques and in written exhibition reviews using terminology appropriate to the course.
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Selection of appropriate archival papers for final drawings
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Students will produce a set of digital images of drawings created during the term.
Digital Portfolio: All art and design students are required to establish a Digital Portfolio in which all artwork created during your time at Converse is documented and turned into me at the end of the semester. Documentation techniques will be covered in the class and students are expected to document all drawings created in the course.
Skill Building Exercises:
Exercise 1: Birdhouse Project.
In this lesson we will study worms eye view, birds eye view and both views through drawing birdhouses. Students will learn to compose the bird house from shapes much like the way we will construct a figure using shapes. Students will also practice line sensitivity, ellipses and foreshortened circles and biomorphic form. This lesson serves an introduction to figure drawing.
Figure Drawing Exercises:
Most days we work from the figure in the class, with the exception of critique days. At the end of each class we will display what we completed for the rest of the class to see. All lessons are cumulative.
Exercise 2: Line Sensitivity/Gesture.
Students practice drawing from a live model with special attention to perceptual drawing skills and line sensitivity. Our motto is “draw what you see, not what you know”. Poses range from 10 seconds to 25 mins and students learn how a gesture must be open to change and that it determines size and placement on the page early on in a drawings.
Exercise 3: Angle Transfers (clock angles).
Students practice line sensitivity, gesture and now checking the correct angles of that gesture by either transferring the angle over using a straight edge or imagining the angle to be the hands of a clock.
Exercise 4: Sighting/Intuitive Gesture.
Students practice line sensitivity, gesture, angle transfers and now sighting and intuitive perspective using a straight edge and a horizontal and vertical grid to help determine relationships between various parts of the figure.
Exercise 5: Proportion
Students practice line sensitivity, gesture, angle transfers, sighting and now proportion. Students use a straight edge to compare one part of the figure (typically the head) to the whole, inorder to measure and check accurate proportion of the figure. Students also learn that they can use the same unit of measurement to check smaller sections of the figure (ex. Width of the shoulders or perhaps just a leg or arm, etc..)
Exercise 6: Anatomy: Follow Along
Using a skeleton as our model, students draw alongside the professor while she points out specific major skeletal structures. Students learn generalized proportions, unique qualities between male and female forms, and other generalizations for units of measurement that are helpful, while drawing from a model and while drawing from the imagination.
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Exercise 7: Long Pose
Over the course of two days students utilize the skills they have learned (gesture, line sensitivity, angles, sighting, proportion, knowledge of anatomy) to construct a complete and accurate line drawing of the figure. This is the last line drawing before the introduction of shading techniques with the figure. These techniques continue throughout the semester.
Exercise 8: Directional Shading/Additive Shading Techniques.
After a brief introduction to muscular structure, students learn the technique of “blocking in” and then shading using one direction mark making. Over the course of several day’s students begin to shade following contour and expanding their tonal range.
Exercise 9: Reductive Shading/Chiaroscuro
Students explore more varied approaches to shading; in this exercise they begin with a mid-tone using powdered charcoal and are encouraged to erase their lights and add their darks.
Exercise 10: Experimentation, Giacometti and drawing “diagrammatically”.
Towards the end of the semester students are encouraged to experiment with materials. After a lecture on Alberto Giacometti, students work with a variety of materials to create a more expressive approach to the human form.
Exercise 11 (Homework 1): Contour Line and Overlap
Students create a composition that explores line, line sensitivity and the abstract qualities that occur from overlapping line. Students use a variety of methods to do this. Artists we look at are: Jenny Saville, Alex Kanevsky, Alberto Giacometti, Richard Diebenkorn, Julie Merehtu, Larry Rivers, Ingrid Calame.
Assignment Parameters: Must be larger than 18”x 24”.
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All materials welcome as long as they don’t poison us.
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Must research two artists.
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Must complete two preliminary works.
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Must include line sensitivity.
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Must include contour line and overlap.
Exercise 12 (Homework 2): Body by Video Light.
In this exercise students explore the abstract nature of light and the effects it has on the figure. Artists we look at are: Monet, Brett Amory, Tim Eitel, Francis Bacon, Eric Fischil and Luc Tuymans.
Assignment Parameters:
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All materials welcome as long as they don’t poison us.
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Must research two artists.
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Must complete two preliminary works.
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Larger than 18”x24” or a series of smaller works.
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The figure(s) can be on a TV screen, lit by a TV screen, or engage with any kind of light a means of abstraction.
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Be aware of what contrast scheme you are using, establish your lightest light and darkest dark
Exercise 13 (Homework 3): Something in the Water.
In this exercise students explore the abstract nature of water and the effect it has on form. Water is transparent and fluid affects a subject in many ways. It distorts, hides, and crops. It alters color, value and space in a way that can be jarring when depicted on a 2-Dimensional surface. How is the figure interacting with the water? Is the figure/ subject submerged in water? Covered with water? Reflected in water? Consider the light source. What color is the water and why? Artists we look at are: Monet, Turner, Alyssa Monks, David Hockney, Samantha French, Peter Doig.
Assignment Parameters:
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All materials welcome as long as they don’t poison us.
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Must research two artists.
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Must complete two preliminary works.
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Larger than 18”x24” or a series of smaller works-NO CANVAS
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Must utilize water or some other physical transparency as a means of abstraction.
Exercise 14 (Homework 4): Open Choice Final
In this assignment students are encouraged to take all that they have learned semester to make something that they are excited about and perhaps something with a strong enough theme that they will want to continue to pursue it in Drawing III. The idea is that it sets them up for their “Source Project” in Drawing III.
Assignment Parameters:
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All materials welcome as long as they don’t poison us.
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Must research two artists.
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Must complete two preliminary works.
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Must write a three-paragraph statement: What did you make? Why did you make it? How did you make it?
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Larger than 18”x24” or a series of smaller works-NO CANVAS
