Grid Drawing Assignment
Learning Objectives:
students will demonstrate detail through observation in drawing
students will improve their recording in proportion
students will master basic rendering/shading technique
Week One - Drawing Exercises from Betty Edwards
"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"
Day One
A little explanation about the right and left hemispheres of the brain
often helps students understand that there is a radical shift in brain
use when drawing.
http://www.drawright.com/theory.htm
(for a brief explanation of the theory)
Perhaps playing some instrumental music for students while they work
on the exercises. Sometimes I have students do "pre-instructional"
drawings that they can compare their finished drawings to later.
I have them draw a picture of themselves and collect it to redistribute
at the end of the project, when they've turned in their finished grid drawing.
They enjoy looking at the difference in skill level.
First exercise: Blind Contour Drawing
After
talking a bit about the difference between using the Left (analytical,
logical) side of the brain, and the Right (intuitive, non-linear, emotive)
side of the brain, demonstrate a blind contour drawing of a hand on the
chalkboard, taking lots and lots of time to do it. Asking students
to draw behind their back helps to keep them from looking at their progress.
Emphasize that the point of this exercise is NOT a perfectly drawn hand,
but learning to see detail. Things to remind them to do:
go slow!
look for a lot of detail
go slow!
don't lift the pencil from the paper
go slow!
Have students do two or three blind drawings, and then they can do
one looking, but still using the same slow detailed observation and recording
process. Emphasize that what they are doing with this exercise is
using observation and line.
Day Two
Discussing that on the first day, the main thing everyone learned to
do was use line to record their observations. The reason the drawings
looked so funny when they weren't looking was because there was no use
of proportion. The next exercise will build on the observation and
line exercise, adding proportion.
Second exercise: Upside-down Picasso drawing
Handing
out a copy of a drawing of Igor Stravinsky by Pablo Picasso, talk a little
about Picasso and what he was trying to accomplish in this simple line
drawing. Explain that Picasso could draw completely detailed and
realistically, but often chose to draw in a simpler fashion in order to
emphasize different aspects. Igor Stravinsky was a composer, and
in this line drawing, he emphasizes Stravinsky's hands.
Students are going to copy this drawing, line for line. First,
they will fold the copy of the drawing into fourths vertically, then turn
the drawing upside down. When drawing upside down, it will be less
obvious to them what parts of the drawing they are working on, and they
will be able to concentrate on line and proportion. They will also
fold their drawing paper into a corresponding fold. They can draw
the first quarter, then fold open the next quarter. Emphasize that
they need to be sure everything is correct in proportion to the sides and
center of each section. By drawing in these segments, they can see
where the lines go in proportion to top/sides/bottom/center.
Remind students that they have taken their recording and observational
skills one step further by adding proportion to their line
and detail drawings. Students will probably not be able to
finish this one properly in one class period - they can finish it after
the next assignment.
Day Three
Review with students what skills they have practiced so far:
line, detail and proportion. Today they will practice looking at
objects in a new way - by observing both positive and negative space.
Third Exercise: Degas Racehorse - Negative Space Drawing
Hand
out a copy of the Degas drawing of racehorses, and explain how, after the
invention of the camera, artists had new concepts to explore, since simply
recording events was just as easily handled by photography. Have
students notice the unusual composition since the advent of the viewfinder.
Good site with information regarding Degas and racehorses as subject:
http://www.nga.gov/education/degas-01.htm
Students will need to understand positive and negative space.
Often times with complicated subjects, it's easier to draw around the positive
object, and by drawing its negative space, what is left is a silhouette
of the positive. Students will copy the Degas drawing by drawing
only the negative spaces left by the backgrounds. They can draw slowly
and carefully, like they drew their blind contour drawings. This
drawing doesn't take the entire hour, however, students will probably not
have finished the Picasso drawing, so they can use the extra time to complete
those drawings.
Day Four
Review with students what skills they have practiced to date:
line, detail, proportion, negative/positive space. So far, they have
been drawing from a two-dimensional surface (a copy of a drawing) onto
another two dimensional surface. Today, they are going to use the
skills they have acquired to transfer their observation and recording from
a three dimensional set-up to a two dimensional surface. The way
they will do this is to draw only the negative space.
Fourth Exercise: Negative Space drawing of Chairs/Stools
Have a jumbled set up of chairs and stools set up on a table top in the
center of the room. Demonstrate how to begin a drawing like this,
by looking only at negative space -- what you can see completely through the entire set up.
Emphasize that students need to draw big and that it's OK for the drawing
to extend off the page.
Make drawing boards accessible to students so that they might be able
to draw without turning around. Again, remind students to draw slowly
and carefully, to draw only the negative space, observe proportions, and
to be detail minded.
Day Five
Students have learned several skills and have gained a way to begin
a complex drawing: by dividing the subject into positive and negative space,
to create a contour line drawing that observes detail and proportion.
Now they need to add another aspect, the appearance of three dimensions
on a two dimensional surface. Students will need to practice shading
and rendering techniques.
Fifth Exercise - Shading Scale and Practice Forms
Have students begin by marking off their paper into 5 one inch boxes
along one long edge. Each box will be filled with a different value,
shaded so that it is not possible to see individual pencil strokes, but
have a even tone. They will be graded from dark to light, each with
a distinct shift from the previous tone.
Students will also mark off a circle that will be shaded to represent
a three dimensional sphere, using the range from light to dark in an even
continuous gradation. Students can also draw a cylinder (or any other
basic form) and shade that to practice their shading technique.
Week Two - The Big Drawing Assignment
Now that all the exercises have been completed, students will move on
to their drawing project, a pencil drawing done using a grid system.
Students will look at an artist who uses this technique and will complete
their own drawing from a photograph of themselves that they have supplied.
Students often do not remember to bring in a photograph, so it's a good
idea to start prompting them to bring one in well in advance. Students
who never remember to bring one in can have a picture taken in class using
a digital camera.
Suggested time frame for completion of this project: approximately
8 - 10 working days.
Introduction to the artist Chuck Close
Chuck Close
is an American artist (born in 1940) who works with portraits, drawn from
gridded off photographs that he has taken of family members and friends.
His work is amazingly detailed and realistic. His process is to work
on each individual marked off square, completing each one before moving
on to the next. Although he has a fairly rigid working process, his
paintings and artworks have a huge variety of technique and media.
He has used his method to work in paint, printmaking, papermaking, thumbprints,
and photography.
One of the most interesting things about Chuck Close's life is that
at the height of his career, he suffered a spinal cord collapse that partially
paralyzed him, confining him to a wheelchair. Although he does not
have full use of his hands, he is able to continue painting using a paintbrush
strapped to his hand, and a forklift that his wheelchair fits into so that
he can complete his large canvases. His work has progressed from
finely crafted seamless works to more spontaneous and painterly portraits.
Links to some of his works and information on Chuck Close:
http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/chuck_close_b.htm
http://artwell.com/features/archives/C-5-98.html
http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/Exhibitions/Close/default.htm
Excellent interactive site with lots of technique and bio info
http://www.artsnetmn.org/identity/close.html
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/close_chuck.html
After looking at the work of Chuck Close, students will take a copy
of their photograph and grid it off into 1/2" squares.
Teacher preparation: You can use a digital camera to
take a b/w picture of each student's photograph and print them out so that
they are all the same size. It's easier to have students all working
from the same size work.
Students will then lightly grid off an 18 x 24 sheet of white drawing
paper, using 1 1/2" squares. Remind students to use very light marks,
because they will be erasing this grid later on in the process. Students
will then label their photo copy with numbers across, and letters up and
down. They will label the white drawing paper grid the same way.
There will be areas on the white drawing paper that they will not be using,
so they can trim off the unused squares later.
Students will proceed to transfer a contour outline of the photograph
- at first only transferring negative space so that they are creating a
silhouette effect. Students need to be reminded that they should
still be drawing with a lighter touch in case they make errors. After
the negative space is determined, students can place facial features and
other details. Instruct students to hold off on shading until all
features and details are lightly penciled in. Before they begin shading,
students should erase the grid lines. Have students commence with
shading, working in their grading scale from darkest areas to lightest
areas.
As students progress with their work, it helps to hold regular group
critiques so that they have an opportunity to see their work from a distance.
Students may need to be encouraged to draw darker, it seems to be a common
problem.
After
talking a bit about the difference between using the Left (analytical,
logical) side of the brain, and the Right (intuitive, non-linear, emotive)
side of the brain, demonstrate a blind contour drawing of a hand on the
chalkboard, taking lots and lots of time to do it. Asking students
to draw behind their back helps to keep them from looking at their progress.
Emphasize that the point of this exercise is NOT a perfectly drawn hand,
but learning to see detail. Things to remind them to do:
Handing
out a copy of a drawing of Igor Stravinsky by Pablo Picasso, talk a little
about Picasso and what he was trying to accomplish in this simple line
drawing. Explain that Picasso could draw completely detailed and
realistically, but often chose to draw in a simpler fashion in order to
emphasize different aspects. Igor Stravinsky was a composer, and
in this line drawing, he emphasizes Stravinsky's hands.
Hand
out a copy of the Degas drawing of racehorses, and explain how, after the
invention of the camera, artists had new concepts to explore, since simply
recording events was just as easily handled by photography. Have
students notice the unusual composition since the advent of the viewfinder.
Chuck Close
is an American artist (born in 1940) who works with portraits, drawn from
gridded off photographs that he has taken of family members and friends.
His work is amazingly detailed and realistic. His process is to work
on each individual marked off square, completing each one before moving
on to the next. Although he has a fairly rigid working process, his
paintings and artworks have a huge variety of technique and media.
He has used his method to work in paint, printmaking, papermaking, thumbprints,
and photography.