Observational Drawing: Learning to SEE
Drawings Skills:
1. Negative Space 2. Value and Mark Making 3. Proportions |
Studio Project Outcome:
Students will create a large scale drawing of 1 -3 parts of their body pulling from gesture, memory and past experiences, and how they are stored in the body. Students will work on toned paper to portray dimensional form and use the entire value range from white to black. |
In this first unit, we will focus on observational drawing. Observational Drawing is drawing from life, from real objects in front of you. Drawing is about much more than copying an accurate representation of what you see. Throughout history, the most pivotal drawings have been images that a photograph could never make. When an artist draws, they are offering an artistic interpretation of what they have experienced. A drawing copied verbatim from a photograph provides no individual opinion; the process just mechanically replicates what the photograph already said. At that point, there’s no point to making the drawing, you’re just making a bad xerox of the photograph.
Drawing from life is wonderful because you get to fully experience your subject. Compare the difference between drawing from a photograph of a person and drawing that person in real life. If you draw from direct observation, you would get to talk to the person, hear their voice, and learn about their personality. All of these aspects of the person that you experience will vastly influence your drawing process.
Drawing from life is wonderful because you get to fully experience your subject. Compare the difference between drawing from a photograph of a person and drawing that person in real life. If you draw from direct observation, you would get to talk to the person, hear their voice, and learn about their personality. All of these aspects of the person that you experience will vastly influence your drawing process.
VIDEO LINK: ART Through Time-THE BODY
From painting to sculpture, body art to performance art, the body has figured prominently in the creative expression of nearly all cultures from the beginning of civilization. Through art, the body becomes a site for defining individual identity, constructing sex and gender ideals, negotiating power, and experimenting with the nature of representation itself.
Questions to answer during/post-video:
Questions to answer during/post-video:
- Why do you think so many cultures represent idealized bodies in their art? Think about the idealized bodies represented in your own visual culture. Might such images have the power to influence the way we look at and think about our bodies in life?
Negative Space
Pre-Studio Project Practice: 1 object/ 9 Times
In this drawing exercise, you will explore drawing 1 object 9 times using a viewfinder to help you frame your object . You will use 2 types of toned paper (grey and tan) and white paper to draw your chosen object. Media used will be pencil, white charcoal pencil, black charcoal pencil and india ink.
Artists who explore the human body in their work
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Leonardo Da Vinci
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JENNY SAVILLE (LINK) AND (LINK)
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