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Beginners Drawing Class - Week 6 - Logical Lights and Self Portrait Round Two: Fight!
anable
North TexasRegistered User regular
North TexasRegistered User regular
Originally I started off putting each week into it's own thread, but now I'm going to just update this thread with lessons each week.
Week One can be found in this thread.
Week Two can be found in this thread.
Week Three can be found in this very post!
Week Four can be found in this post.
Week Five can be found in this post.
Week Six can be found in this post.
Edges, Spaces, Relationships, oh my!
Drawing can be described as a combination of five perceptual skills:
Becoming proficient in these areas is essential for a well-rounded artist. This week we focus on edges, spaces, and relationships. Using the plastic plane and viewfinder, we are able to capture the 3D world on a 2D sheet of paper. Even famous artists like Van Gogh and Holbein utilized equipment similar to our plastic plane and viewfinder to help them get a handle on these ideas.
To ensure you get the most out of the lessons, it is a very good idea to read all of the instructions before beginning a given exercise. Also, lessons are beginning to build on one another more than before, so it is a good idea to do them in order.
Drawing on the picture plane:
The result should look something like this:
Modified contour drawing of your hand:
The end result should looking something like this:
Negative space drawing of a chair:
Before beginning this exercise it's important to get an understanding of what negative spaces are. The example used by Betty is to think of Bugs Bunny running through a hallway at high speed. He smashes through the door at the end of the hallway, leaving just the outline of his body in the door. The rest of the door is the "negative space" of Bugs Bunny. Part of our vases/faces exercise was also an example of negative spaces.
Negative space of a set of chairs:
Week One can be found in this thread.
Week Two can be found in this thread.
Week Three can be found in this very post!
Week Four can be found in this post.
Week Five can be found in this post.
Week Six can be found in this post.
Edges, Spaces, Relationships, oh my!
Drawing can be described as a combination of five perceptual skills:
- Edges (the "shared" edges of a drawing)
- Spaces (called negative spaces)
- Relationships (perspective and proportion)
- Lights and Shadows (shading)
- Gestalt (the whole or "thingness" of that thing - not to be confused with "that thing I sent you")
Becoming proficient in these areas is essential for a well-rounded artist. This week we focus on edges, spaces, and relationships. Using the plastic plane and viewfinder, we are able to capture the 3D world on a 2D sheet of paper. Even famous artists like Van Gogh and Holbein utilized equipment similar to our plastic plane and viewfinder to help them get a handle on these ideas.
To ensure you get the most out of the lessons, it is a very good idea to read all of the instructions before beginning a given exercise. Also, lessons are beginning to build on one another more than before, so it is a good idea to do them in order.
Drawing on the picture plane:
- Bust out your viewfinder and plastic plane.
- Rest your hand on a table in front of you, pointing your fingers back up towards you. This should create a foreshortened view of your hand.
- Try the two viewfinders and decide which one more accurately captures your hand (males generally use the larger viewfinder, and females generally use the smaller viewfinder).
- Place the plastic plane and the viewfinder on your hand, positioning your fingers so that it is easy to balance. You may need to clip the view finder to the plane to keep it from moving.
- Close one eye, choose an edge and begin tracing your hand using your non-permanent marker.
- Be sure to avoid moving your head or hand so that the entire picture is from a single perspective. Closing one eye helps maintain that single point of view.
- Put your plastic plane on a blank sheet of paper to see the result.
The result should look something like this:
Modified contour drawing of your hand:
- Using the inside edge of your viewfinder, draw a border or frame on your paper.
- Tone the paper by rubbing the edge of your graphite stick lightly over the paper, staying inside of your frame.
- Once the paper is covered with a light application of graphite, use a paper towel to rub the graphite into the paper using circular motions and applying even pressure throughout.
- Next, draw horizontal and vertical lines in your frame to match those on your plastic plane. Don't draw the lines too dark as they are only a guideline and should not stand out from the finished picture.
- Draw the main edges of your hand, using the the plastic plane from the previous exercise as a reference. Feel free to erase as necessary and use the paper towel to rub in the missing graphite as needed.
- After the rough sketch is complete, pose your hand in the same position as the picture.
- Closing one eye again, focus on your hand from the same perspective as it is on sketch. Pick a point on your hand and place your pencil at that same point on your drawing.
- As with your Pure Contour drawing, follow the edges of your hand with your eye and capture it with your pencil. Imagine your cross hairs and viewfinder over your hand to help you keep proportion.
- You may choose to erase the graphite between the edges of your hand. This helps create negative space and makes your hand stand out from the rest of the paper.
The end result should looking something like this:
Negative space drawing of a chair:
Before beginning this exercise it's important to get an understanding of what negative spaces are. The example used by Betty is to think of Bugs Bunny running through a hallway at high speed. He smashes through the door at the end of the hallway, leaving just the outline of his body in the door. The rest of the door is the "negative space" of Bugs Bunny. Part of our vases/faces exercise was also an example of negative spaces.
- As with the hand contour drawing, frame, tone, and cross hair your paper.
- Choose any type of chair and place it against a simple background (such as a corner or a blank wall).
- Fasten your viewfinder to your plastic plane and place it in front of your face, closing one eye. Move the plastic plane around until you capture the chair in a composition that you like.
- Hold the plastic plane still and begin drawing the negative spaces around the chair. Again, do not draw the outline of the chair! Draw the spaces around it.
- Once you've completed this, find a "base unit" to begin transferring the image to paper. A base unit is a negative space that you use as a reference point for the rest of the picture. Pick a base unit that is of medium size and is near the cross hairs.
- Continue to draw the spaces of the chair, moving out from the base unit and using the cross hairs for reference.
- Once you are finished, you can work up the drawing a bit by erasing the graphite in your negative spaces to make the chair stand out.
Negative space of a set of chairs:
anable on
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In any case, here's my plastic panel hand trace and following sketch:
I didn't get a chance to use the graphite because I bought the wrong type (pencil instead of stick). I'll use the graphite for the negative spaces chair drawing.
This started off well, but it went down hill when I tried to get the bottom negative spaces right. I also jacked up my proportions so that the chair didn't fit properly on the page. I couldn't get the plastic frame for the outline because it kept moving when I tried to hold it up in the air and draw the spaces. I realize now though why you're supposed to. Getting the proportions right is key.
I don't suffer from Insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
In any case. This week is wrapped up. I'm going to keep posting the lessons, but like I mentioned, I'll just keep them in one thread.
This week we focus on relationships, or proportions and perspective. Relationships are what give images depth and convey a sense of 3D on a 2D plane. In previous exercises, our plastic plane helped us capture that depth. Betty advocates using a simple technique called "Sighting" to gain control of the relationships in your piece. Sighting is essentially a very informal way to capture your "Base Unit" and begin drawing from there.
To ensure you get the most out of the lessons, it is a very good idea to read all of the instructions before beginning a given exercise. Also, lessons are beginning to build on one another more than before, so it is a good idea to do them in order.
Proportions practice:
I realize that these instructions look a bit daunting, so please do not hesitate to ask me wtf I was trying to say and I will attempt to be more clear. All together, this exercise should not take more than 10 minutes of your time. In the end, we should have a perfectly proportioned doorway.
Perspective practice:
You should now have a room corner that is in proper perspective.
A "Real" Relationship drawing:
You should now have a drawing that shows a basic understanding of the skills required to become a well rounded artist. This includes edges, spaces, relationships, and even shading. Congratulations!
Negative Space Drawing (Lawn Chair):
Modified Contour Drawing (My hand):
The "Real" Relationship Drawing:
I have a job - and it takes ALL of my time......
Please keep posting these anable. I am still following along and will be posting something sometime soon.
Edit: Err, or is it over already??
Also, Fohn: did you use a ruler on the "Real" relationship drawing? Those are amazingly straight.
Yeah, I tried sketching them out and just decided to go over 'em with a straight edge.
Also, the proportions of things (mostly in your last drawing...for instance, the door handle and the door) seem kinda off. Put the negative space to work!
This hand looks smaller than it should be?
And, I dunno what happened here...
This was kind of a pain in the ass - I really had no way to keep the viewfinder steady. I also found it difficult to keep from outlining the chair instead of actually drawing the negative space... I think... Nightdragon - does my negative space study look more like a positive space... study?
Eh, on with the show!
You can't really help outlining stuff when you're making a negative space drawing - I mean, that's essentially what you do. The more "intersections" of objects you have, though, the more complicated the exercise becomes. If you have a simple object, like the chair you chose to draw, you're going to be doing more "direct outlining" of the object. If you have things that overlap, it gets more complicated, and you and up working more with negative space.
Here's an example I did last year. When the branches/leaves were by themselves, yes, it was mostly just outlining. More of a "positive" study, I guess...but on the upper right-hand side, where there is a lot of overlapping of leaves, I had to work with the negative space quite a bit in order to define everything properly.
I as able to draw this with moderate success (though I need plenty of practice on estimating my angles). I decided to draw one of the posters I have on my wall which starts very close to the top and runs about half way down the wall. Here is where I run into my problem. The poster looks completely level on the top and bottom. Is is what Betty is talking about when she says L-mode thinking. My brain knows that this poster is evenly cut so when I transfer it to paper, that's what it wants to draw. It took me almost ten minutes to finally find a shallow angle coming off the bottom of the poster before I could properly draw it.
For me, this was my first real L-mode/R-mode conflict. Crazy stuff.
This may or may not be attributed to me trying to add more charcoal because I had erased a lot of it. I shaved some onto the paper and rubbed it in, fixing the eraser marks, but making the drawing unrecognisable. So I went over what linework I could see and ended up with that. Like I said, I dont know if that would have made it a 'positive space' study or not. Sorry if I sound like I'm making excuses.
Beginners Drawing Class - Week 5 - Portrait Drawing with Ease
Despite the variety of faces we see each day, there are several consistences across all human faces. Beginning artists often suffer from drawing portraits to reflect the most prominent features of the face while neglecting the actual structure of facial anatomy.
Here are some rules regarding the human face:
Here is an unfortunately small example of these rules followed properly in art:
And here is an unfortunately small example of these rules followed properly in life:
Now let's practice putting these rules to work.
As before, to ensure you get the most out of the lessons, it is a very good idea to read all of the instructions before beginning a given exercise. Also, lessons are building on one another more than before, so it is a good idea to do them in order.
Profile Warm-up Exercise:
This will take about an hour's worth of time. Attempt to avoid any interruptions while you are drawing.
Profile of a Person:
Congratulations! You have completed the portrait.
There are only two exercises this week, but don't rush through them. When you are done, they will both be excellent examples of the lessons learned regarding edges, spaces, relationships, lights and shadows, and the gestalt.
Beginners Drawing Class - Week 6 - Logical Lights and Self Portrait Round Two: Fight!
Shading (or in proper art terminology - light logic) helps tremendously in giving a pictures a sense of depth. Because of this, it is often one of the more sought after techniques by beginning artists. The key to learning light logic is remembering the types of shading created by light, and being able to actively see the difference in tones as they appear in real life. Pale, light tones are considered "high" in value, with darker tones considered "low" in value. The lightest tone is the white of the paper, and the darkest tone is where the graphite from the pencil is closest together.
Light logic is broken down into four types:
Highlight: The lightest portion(s) of the image where the source falls most directly on the object.
Cast shadow: The darkest shadow caused by the image blocking the source of light.
Reflected light: A dim light, bounced back onto the object by light falling on surfaces around the object.
Crest shadow: A shadow on the crest of a rounded form, between the highlight and the reflected light.
This portrait of artist Henry Fuseli utilizes highlights (on the forehead and cheek), cast shadows (from the bridge of the nose and under the chin), reflected light (on pretty much the entire right side of his face), and crest shadows (on the crest of the temple and hands).
One of the techniques used to control tone while drawing is known as crosshatching. Crosshatching is simply laying down a carpet of pencil strokes, often crossing strokes multiple times. The end result is looks something like:
Crosshatching does not require straight lines. Lines are often curved to help create tones on objects that are not flat. An important thing to remember when crosshatching is that the lines should be created by movement of your entire arm and not just your wrist. When crosshatching, your wrist should remain mostly stationary.
As before, to ensure you get the most out of the lessons, it is a very good idea to read all of the instructions before beginning a given exercise. Also, lessons should be done in order.
Warm Up: Gustave Corbet's Self Portrait:
Since this is our first light logic drawing, it may help to perform this exercise with the image upside down. Additionally, since we will be working with a toned paper and we want to heighten and lower tones as we proceed, you will need to cut the edge of your eraser into a < wedge for the higher tones, and you will need a #4B pencil for the lower tones.
Remember that Goustave's original portrait was done in charcoal so the exact texture and tone will not be the same. Still, you should be pleasantly satisfied with the finished result!
Self Portrait with Articulated Lights and Shadows:
In addition to those, there are a few more things to learn about facial structure when viewing it directly from the front (as with the picture of Scarlet Johanson):
Armed with this additional knowledge, we are ready for a second self portrait. If you are up for a challenge, make the second self portrait from a three quarter's angle rather than from the front or side.
Once you have completed the self portrait, compare it to the pre-instruction portrait. You should see a recognizable difference in your ability as an artist. Note the various techniques you used to create second image and how it creates a more realistic representation than your original image.
This is, technically, the end of the lessons taught by Betty in her five day class. There are a few more lessons in the book regarding the sixth and seventh artist skills (memory and imagination), as well as some information on utilizing colors. If anyone is interested, I can do those as well. If not, thank you to those who participated and helped motivate me to branch out and try this art thing.
The "Real" Perspective drawing:
Madame X:
I couldn't find anyone willing to pose for me for the profile picture. I think I will have someone on Monday though so it should be done then.
Goustav Courbet:
I am crazy happy with the way the Courbet drawing came out. At first, it was the hardest piece I had done because I felt like was running blind. It was so different from all of the other lessons so far. In the end though, it's definitely my best piece, in my opinion.
I still need to do the second self portrait. I hope to get it done early next week.