Art Period A for 3/4/2014

Thanks to Mrs. Ford for filling in on such short notice!  She said you all did a fantastic job in class and also came with wonderful tree drawings in your nature journals.  Keep up the good work.

 Last week we did blind contour drawings which is a drawing exercise that teaches your eye and hand to work together.  Often if we look at what we are drawing on the paper as we draw we forget to study our object!  This trains the eye and hand to move together and figure out proportion and distance while drawing.  It is a quick exercise that can be done easily.  Simply use paper and pencil and set an object in front of you.  Take 5-10 seconds to draw the object without looking at your paper and without lifting you pencil.  Yes it may look funny but it is helping you learn to draw.  We also did some larger sketching of birds using charcoal and graphite sticks standing up.  This helps you be more free in your arms and hand movement as you draw. 

 We did blind contour drawings of fruit to warm up and then really observed the object and the way the light hit the fruit.  I demonstrated shading using lines and discussed how different kinds of lines can be used to achieve a different feel in the drawing.  Vertical lines create a rustic mood, horizontal lines create a peaceful mood, diagonal lines create an active or fresh drawing (like on a tree), and shadow modeling are a series of lines that go around (like a finger) and these best express form. I also showed them value using a diagonal line diagram.

 

The students observed from where they were sitting, the still life of fruit set up in the middle of the room that was partially lit. They used watercolors and expressed beautifully different gradations from light and dark in their work. For the background they used a wet on wet technique.  Wet on wet is simply the process of applying pigment to wet paper. The results vary from soft undefined shapes to slightly blurred marks, depending on how wet the paper is. The wet on wet technique can be applied over existing washes provided they are thoroughly dry. Simply wet the paper with a large brush and paint into the dampness. The soft marks made by painting wet on wet are great for subtle background regions of your painting.

 

Assignment:  Come with a color (not black and white) picture of a bird that you want to use for a painting.  If it is in a book it may be helpful to have a copy made of it so it can lay flat while you look to draw it.  Keep using your nature journals to record something you see out the window!  I saw robins and even a red-bellied wood pecker today.  What have you seen flying around your house?