Perspective for Grade Nine Students....literally!

Perspective

Perspective is a method of representing subjects (and the individual parts of subjects) in a drawing, in such a way that they seem to recede into distant space, and appear smaller the farther they are away from you. When you are drawing trees and flowers, minor errors in perspective tend to be negligible. However, most human-made objects, people, and animals need to be drawn with proper perspective in order to appear believable and proportionately correct. Proportion is the relationship in size of one component of a drawing to another or others.

YOUR EYE LEVEL IS ON THE HORIZON

In art, a horizon line is a horizontal line (usually invisible in real life) sometimes referred to as eye level, that divides your line of vision when you look straight ahead. Objects below this line are below your eye level, and objects above it are above your eye level. Remember, your eye level and the horizon line, are one and the same. Look straight ahead (rather than up or down), and the horizon line is directly in front of you. Wherever you go, from the top of the highest mountain, to the lowest valley, your eye level always stays with you. The easiest way to identify the location of the horizon line in an actual scene is to visually mark it with your eye level.  Try to find the horizon line in this example:

In the example below, notice how every line that travels away from your view travels to the view point (VP).  See how perspective shapes the buildings, or how the buildings form perspective.

Bored on a snow day?

Then check out this prehistoric art slide show I made just for you!!

Drawing Technique - Charcoal

"Untitled" by Hillary Brace

Drawing with charcoal presents a new set of challenges for the burgeoning artist.  Because charcoal is applied in large particles that do not bind with the paper it is applied to, it is relatively unstable.  This may be part of its charm.  Until charcoal is sprayed with a fixative, it is workable.  Here are some tips:

- if you want to smudge charcoal, first make sure your fingertip is covered with charcoal.  If you smudge with a clean finger, the oil on your skin will bind with the charcoal..

- you may use a clean finger to reduce the depth of tone and value in your charcoal drawing.

- try alternating between clean and charcoal soak fingers to learn the effects that you can create with this medium.

- hold charcoal in an "underhand" way (as we discussed in the pencil crayon blog). This way, your hand will be removed from the paper, preventing skin oil binding and smudging.

- at any point during the drawing process, you can wipe your composition clean with a tissue.  The ghost image that remains can be reworked as you choose.

- use erasers to remove darkness or add highlights.

When you are satisfied with your work, spray it with fixative to lock down your masterly creation!

If you get a free moment, try this charcoal task at wikihow:

http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-With-Charcoal

Drawing Technique - Colour Pencils

Today's discussion centred around the specific qualities and techniques of working with coloured pencils (pencil crayons).  Here are the highlights of our discussion:

Colour pencils are unlike graphite pencils and should not be used in the same manner.
- that are transparent (think watercolour paint).
- you can layer the colours to create new hues.
- unmixed colours convey simplistic rawness, similar to oil paints
- because they are colour, you can vary tone and depth by pressure, layers, paper texture, etc.
- vary the way that you hold the colour pencil.  Upright for precision; underhand for gestural strokes and large areas.
- they are forgiving (room for error and recovery).
- note that the colours you choose may convey mood.
- can be used on colour paper.
- can be layered over markers and ink.
- colour alone can build some of a structure's illusions.
- colour allows you to layer hatch marks or stippling over other colours for effect.
- you may use solvents such as water or turpentine to create wet technique.
- layering dark hues will allow colours to "read as black" ie.) blue + brown + purple.

Sgraffito
Lay down one colour, then lay down a second colour over it with some kind of hatching technique.  Then take a razor blade and scrape across the coloured patch .  It will remove portions of the top colour, allowing the bottom colour to show through.
source: www.elfwood.com

source: www.artistdaily.com

Burnishing
Applying lighter hues over darker hues creates the effect of light, metal, sparkling glass, etc.

excerpts from: "The Colored Pencil" by Bet Borgeson

Drawing Technique - Pen and Ink

When you look at Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna and Child with Cat", you see the stunning effect that ink drawing can have.  Here are a few drawing techniques to help you get started with your ink drawing:

- remember to use your viewfinder to frame your composition and adjust as necessary.
- lightly draw the main features, decisive lines, divisions made by roads, etc. using a pencil
- save fine details for later; do not over-emphasize details at this stage.
- keep the weights (tones and textures) balanced.
- record what you see accurately.
- if something is drawn wrong, draw over it: restate it so there is no doubt as to your meaning.  Have a look at the da Vinci drawing again...you will see the areas he has redrawn and emphasized.
- by using pencil in the early stages, it becomes a tool for mapping out your composition.
- as you work toward your ink application stage, be careful not to just mindlessly ink over your work.  Maintain accuracy and tonal balance in that stage.
- Consider the importance of the wash stage and where it best suits your finished product.

Elements of Composition

The Raising of Lazarus by Geerten tot Sint Jans

Today we reviewed the elements of composition.  Photographylife.com defines composition in the following way:

The term “composition” applies not only to visual arts, but to music, dance, literature and virtually any other kind of art. In certain contexts, such as writing, this term may not be as widely used, but is just as valid nonetheless. In general, the term “composition” has two distinctive, yet related meanings.

First and foremost, “composition” describes placement of relative objects and elements in a work of art. Consequently, composition is a key aspect of a good work of art. There is hardly a way to overemphasize the importance of composition. Any aspiring artist ought to give composition of his work a lot of attention. A good composition is one that has just enough detail. Too few elements is bad because it robs the work of art of necessary detail that makes correct interpretation possible. It also ruins the balance of an image. And too many elements can be very distracting as well. Good composition requires good balance. It is best to make sure all the elements present are necessary for the idea or story you are trying to pass on.

In some cases, composition can mean the work of art itself and is a synonymous to that term. For example, when talking about a specific installation or dance, a phrase “This composition…” can be used. Such a definition also widely applies to music (creators of which are known as composers) and paintings.

Read more: http://photographylife.com/what-is-composition-in-photography#ixzz2uGWdiGEV

We talked about the following tips for good composition:

- it is a natural function that embodies a sense of design. When you raise a camera and look through the viewfinder, you naturally compose your pictures in a way that is visually pleasing, with a "sense of design".
- study your subject or subject area.  How will you arrange your composition to reflect the feeling you experience as a witness to that scene.  Is it hot, cold, windy, etc. and are their components you could focus on to bring that out in the picture, such as icicles, featured prominently.
- create a viewfinder to better frame the composition in your mind

- plan your drawing
- consider other factors, such as perspective, eye-level, tones and lighting, and arrangement of objects.
- What objects belong?  What objects do not belong?  What's missing?

Consider the many elements of design that we have studied since Grade 9.  All of these elements play a role in how you compose and complete your works.

*excerpts from "Drawing" by Janet Allen.  

Grade 10 Art: Literacy Task

For today's literacy task, the students were placed in four different groups.  Each group was given one marker colour.  Each group started out with a 18 x 24" sheet that had one of the following quotes on it from Picasso:

"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."

"My Mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general.  If you are a monk, you will become the pope.' Instead I was painter, and I became Picasso."

"Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?"

"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth"

The students had to analyze as a group what they thought Picasso was implying in his quote.  When time was up, the quote was moved to a different group and the students could then comment on the original quote or the thoughts that the other members had written down.  By building upon what the others had written, they could follow the trail of thought that their classmates left for them, while pondering the original quote in their own way.  Here is the result:

We then had a great discussion as a group as to the meaning of these quotes and their implication in our society.  We also focussed on the importance of implicit vs explicit questioning on the upcoming literacy test.  This was one of the most fun and interactive classes we have had this term.  Way to go 10s!

Multi-Stage Attention Hypothesis

In their paper, "A Multi-Stage Attention Hypothesis of Drawing Ability", Justin Ostrofsky and Aaron Kozbelt, both of Brooklyn College, attempt to help explain what makes one person draw more accurately, and with a finished product that better resembles the original subject, than another person.

Why can some people draw so well compared to others?  The multi-stage attention hypothesis argues that drawing is influenced by two factors:

1) What visual information is selected vs not selected to be included in the drawing;
2) The degree to which the visual system enhances the processing of selected visual information and suppresses the processing of non-selected visual information during drawing.

Ostrofsky and Kozbelt write that the selection of visual information is a continual decision making process; observational drawing requires constant looking back and forth from the subject to the drawing  as the brain can only store and draw small amounts of information at any given time.  Good artists select very particular information to draw: not all visual information is equally important for the recognition of the subject.  They develop an understanding, through training and what comes naturally, of what information will best capture the illusion of a 3D form in a 2D depiction.

Take a look at a timed observational drawing that our grade 10 students conducted here at GDCI. These eight examples show the variety of visual information that each artist chose to render into their drawing.  Certain chosen visual elements, be it values or shapes, either added to or took away from their attempt to replicate the image that they saw.

Moving forward, try to focus on the elements of a subject that are most important to the recognition of that subject.  Ask yourself what details are the most important in reconstructing a 3D object in 2D on your paper!

Grounding Drawing in Philosophy Part 3

Building upon what we discussed yesterday, one of the greatest challenges of applying the rationalist aesthetic to drawing is that it does not allow for expressive/creative art.  A good example would be to try to apply rationalism to a Jackson Pollock painting.  How could you apply the logic and mathematics to the following?:

One of the greatest challenges to the academic method we discussed came in the theory of knowledge called Empiricism.  Put simply, Empiricism stresses that knowledge comes from sensory experience.  We created the following mind map of Empiricism applied to art, using concepts from the teachings of John Ruskin, Betty Edwards, and Seymour Simmons, III:

Grounding Drawing in Philosophy Part 2

Grounding Drawing in Philosophy

In this lecture, we reviewed the work of Seymour Simmons III, an Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Winthrop University, and his paper, "Philosophical Dimensions of Drawing Instruction". 

In much of what we have learned thus far, taken from the Thinking Through Drawing Symposium, we have been learning how important it is to rethink how drawing has been historically left to artists.  We have been studying how drawing is essential to other disciplines from the sciences to musical notation. Simmons' paper further asserts how the symposium subverted "the belief that drawing has nothing to do with thinking, and that, indeed, one necessarily impedes the other" (Simmons).  

It is important not to reduce drawing to a right or left-brain specific activity.   Have a look at this advertisement from Mercedes Benz:

Drawing comes from both sides of the brain.  It is not anti-intellectual.  These many lectures and papers we are reviewing base their research in science, psychology, neurobiological research, and art education resources to show us that drawing allows us to "transfer knowledge and skills back and forth between disciplines" (Simmons).  

Have a look at this drawing by Leonardo da Vinci:

Leonardo famously combined his ability as an artist, mathematician, and scholar to record and demonstrate his multidimensional thought processes.  This approach was "emblematic of an educational and cultural climate in which drawing was considered of universal value and general utility, and so was taught to individuals of all level of society, ranging from artisans to nobility" (Simmons).  

We will build more on this tomorrow!!

The Bigger Picture....Completed!!

A very busy mind map!  But we will break down each section tomorrow to better understand what Stephen Farthing's intent was in "The Bigger Picture of Drawing".  I am curious to see what each of you thought of when you analyzed the original mind-map.

Farthing gives the following examples to help us understand his taxonomy:

"Most maps sit quite happily on the Conceptual side of drawing. During their formative stages they
will be to some degree Speculative. In their final version however, the expectation of the audience is
that they should be accurate, Definitive and disinterestedly Descriptive.

A portrait of Jane Austen cut as a profile into black paper with a pair of scissors is Pictorial. It
is Descriptive of her appearance and, in so far as it conditions our view of what she actually looked
like, it is Defining. As a cut tonal drawing it is Pictorial, Descriptive and Definitive.

The measured line drawing that is the football v pitch is Conceptual, in that it functions in conjunc-
tion with a narrative – the rules of the game. Each sports field drawing Defines the area of play; it Instructs the players. It doesn’t passively describe. So the drawn sports field is Conceptual, Definitive and Instructive.

A circle drawn freehand is Conceptual. Its shape may be Speculative, but if it is reasonably accurate it remains Descriptive. A circle drawn with a compass is also Conceptual. If accurately drawn it becomes Definitive and Descriptive.

The gender-based icon on a toilet door is Pictorial, Defining and Instructive. A landscape drawn by the English Landscape painter JMW Turner is always Pictorial, always Descriptive, but some- times Definitive, other times Speculative."

The Bigger Picture....

Today, the grade 12s are challenged to analyze the following mind map for our discussion tomorrow.

Redrawn from "The Bigger Picture of Drawing", Stephen Farthing, London University of Arts.

Drawing: Line and Invention Part 2 (AVI4M)

As we learned yesterday, lines can be neat and orderly, used to convey the essence of neat and orderly ideas.  However, messy lines can also aid thought because they are messy.  Messy lines are ambiguous and allow for interpretation.  The promote discovery.  Artists can convey their ideas through preliminary sketches.

"Constructive Perception" - Getting New Ideas Can Come in Two Ways:

1) Perceptual Skill  - reinterpret your sketches; try to see smaller forms embedded in larger ones
2) Cognitive Skill - generating ideas by finding meaning in seemingly unrelated things

Something to think about:

Orderly lines = ideas that are ordered
Messy, unstructured lines = ideas that are waiting for structure

Excerpts for this discussion taken from (and inspired by): "Obsessed by Lines", by Barbara Tversky, Stanford University.

Drawing: Lines and Invention (AVI4M) Part 1

Here is an excerpt from our discussion today.

Lines are everywhere.  The streets around us form lines.  The buildings we live in are shaped by lines.  But lines also serve our behaviour and our thoughts.  Lines help us invent!

Invention: How do we think about things that do not exist?  How do we invent? Here are two ways:

1) From the bottom-up
2) From the top down

Bottom up invention includes:
- altering, combining, rearranging existing things
- this is often easier because we have existing things to help us conceptualize
- evolution is a great example of bottom up creation.

Top- Down Creation includes:
- abstract thoughts
- start with goals, instances, principles
- allows for flights of fancy
- difficult because we may not know where to begin

Thinking!  Thinking is hard.  When thoughts overwhelm us, our minds send them out into the world!  We talk. We gesture.  We model.  WE SKETCH!!  The lines in our sketches enable thought, play, discovery, and invention!

Excerpts for this discussion taken from (and inspired by): "Obsessed by Lines", by Barbara Tversky, Stanford University.

Great Quote

Since we were short on time today because of the "House of Blue" celebration, I just wanted to present this quote for your consideration.

"To make a mark or trace a single line upon a surface immediately transforms that surface, energizes its neutrality; the graphic imposition turns the actual flatness of the ground into virtual space, translates its material reality into the fiction of imagination."

- David Rosand, Drawing Acts

Drawing and the Brain Discussion

Drawing and the Brain

Drawing is micro-movement and the synchronizing of eyes and hands.  It is "thinking with our bodies" and a way to develop cognitive skills and processes.

Drawing, whether from life or memory involves relationships, articulations, and connections.

In a recent collaboration, an artist and a surgeon worked to find similarities in their respective crafts. The following correlations between surgery and drawing became apparent.  Both relied on:
- thinking of how to respond to sensations
- thinking about how you are moving
- fine-grained temporal and spatial analyses
- thinking about where you are
- gestural tasks
- performative tasks

Parting note:

The confidence to draw in whatever method is relevant to the individual student. "Good drawing" does not belong to a specific group of students.  Instead, we should use drawing to understand our past, construct your future, and to build new neural pathways.

Excerpts from "Drawing Connections", Brew, Fava, Kantrowitz.  

Light and Shade Discussion Excerpts

Light and Shade

How will you light your drawing?  If you have light, you have shadows.

1) Determine where your light is coming from

2) Shadows will naturally occur where the light cannot reach

Shadows primarily occur on solids. 

Reflections primarily occur on water.

Work to remove the inconsistencies between light and shadow.

If possible, don't be afraid to move your light or your subject to increase the values the scene before you draw.