*Finish "Volume and Texture" assignment.
*Bring to class all supplies INCLUDING full range of acrylics - we will begin our investigations into color next week.
Review
Homework
After all is finished, you will basically be making a drawing, and then collage on top of that drawing. Successfully completing this assignment depends on your ability to follow simple steps. Each student's finished piece will be an example of their UNIQUE set of choices regarding the Principles and Elements. The editing and compositional choices are yours. One could easily spend hundreds of hours on this assignment; unfortunately we don't have that luxury. Read through the steps first, and make sure to budget your time. Think of this as a recipe for individual explorations.
1. Texture Drawing: Tape-frame Bristol. Using your pencils (full range), create a drawing combining both geometric and organic textures/patterns (remember to use implied AND invented). Use magazines, photos, images from the Internet, items in your possession, etc., as source material. How many examples should you use? Like I said in class, I expect you to use a good range of textures (both implied AND invented) and to combine them thoughtfully in a successful composition. For some, this may be using 25-30 different sources of texture and making very small but detailed collection of these - for others, you may choose to use 3 or 4 textures and really vary the scale relationships. Once your drawing is finished, set aside.
2. Value Stacks: Find and cut out (using x-acto) examples of texture/pattern (implied AND invented) from magazines, online images, newspapers, books (maybe you make copies?), etc - ALL IN FULL COLOR! Organize these clippings into 4 or five stacks or piles of value. You may need to make more piles, but you should not have less than 4. Example: Very light reds will be in the same pile as very light yellows and blues - same for each value regardless of hue. These piles of value will be used as our medium (like pools of diluted ink, or paint, or your soft and hard pencils). Don't spend too much time on this...just cut out whatever textures you come across. Each pile should contain enough cutout examples to fill about half a page or so. Set aside.
3. Organic Figure/Gesture Studies: In your sketchbook, use your ruler and create 10 squares approximately 2"x 2". Within each 2" x 2" frame, using HB pencil, let your arm/wrist flow around the picture plane creating a spontaneous and unexpected organic figure. DO NOT PICK UP YOUR PENCIL! For each square, try to change up the weight of the figures, the amount of line, position on the picture plane, scale, variety - remember the principles.
Example A (one of 10 organic figures sketches):
For 5 of your organic figures (you favorite ones), locate the figure's contour and emphasize this contour by drawing a darker contour line (use a softer pencil). We're looking for the contours of the shapes, there may be a few lines left over (grey in Example B) - or you may choose to draw them in darker. Feel free to SLIGHTLY adjust the organic figure if you need to by stretching a few shapes, or elongating them (see example B).
Example B
Similar to the last step, now locate and define the shapes INSIDE the contour (of the five figures that you chose). Remember to SLIGHTLY adjust the shapes wherever you need to - so you're not following the first drawing exactly, more like using it as a guide. You're further editing and refining the shapes, and composition - step by step.
EXAMPLE C
Chose your favorite and/or most successful one or two figures from the FIVE (out of the ones with added contours). Imagine the balloon like contours as a flat mapping of rounded shapes. Remember your value studies and the shading and creation of volume on spheres. Use this knowledge to build volume into the organic figures. Choose a light source/direction and give these figures (one or two of your favorites) volume and weight by indicating lightest light (direct), midtones (indirect), and shadow. I am looking for a smooth transition between bands of light. I'm not looking for miniature masterpieces here, just a good working knowledge of organic shape creation, contour defining, and volume construction. See Example D (my example is not a smooth transition of values, rather, I have used bands of value for clarity- but you get the picture! - yours should be smooth).
Example D
4. Figure and Texture Combination: Take out your drawing from step #1. Here is where you are combining your earlier drawing (step#1), a new Organic Figure (you're not copying one from your sketchbook), and the clippings of texture (seperated into piles of value).
A. With an HB pencil ON TOP of your drawing, create a new Organic Figure. HINT: Use a sheet or two of vellum, taped over the initial drawing, to test out a few organic figures if you need to - but remember to let the final organic figure be spontaneous and unexpected! Let the pencil glide naturally and calligraphically around/across the page. You're navigating the earlier drawing - using the past drawing as a sort of history to deal with compositionally.
As you're drawing remember: scale of shapes (large, small), use of the entire page, location of your shapes in relation to line/shape of initial drawing.
B. Similar to your sketchbook figures, I want you to locate and define the contour of your Organic Figure (using either darker pencil or ink). Again, you may have to SLIGHTLY adjust, elaborate, or stretch the shapes of the contour.
C. As you did in your sketchbook, locate and define the shapes INSIDE the Organic figure.
D. Now here's the difference from your sketchbook. You know how to add volume to these contoured shapes (as evidenced in your sketchbook). Now instead of using pencil, I want you to use the piles of cutout texture (the ones you cut out earlier). I want you to cut and paste your textures using the drawn contour lines of your organic figure as a guide. You're building the value and volume of these shapes the same way you did when using pencil - except you're now using collaged shapes/values! Locate the highlight of your contoured shapes (this will be the lightest light you have) and locate the shadow (this will be the darkest dark).
HINTS:
*It may be easiest to work dark to light.
*Before you collage, try to lightly pencil in the BANDS of greys (not filling in, just the zones of tint/shade) to help guide your cutting and pasting.
There is quite a bit going on with this assignment, but I think you can handle it! This will really allow you to explore implied/invented texture creation and application, value structures/volume (mass/light/structure), emphasis dominance, contrast (texture, color, rhythm), and like always....composition.
Good luck! I'm excited to see these!
