This document provides an introduction to the textbook "Drawing From the Inside Out." It discusses how the book addresses drawing in the context of contemporary global art. The textbook begins with basic drawing skills and realism, then expands to incorporate non-Western perspectives. It uses "Aids to Drawing" to assist skill development. Beginning and Intermediate Drawing focus on black-and-white and color media, while Advanced Drawing explores more creative approaches. The introduction discusses different "scopic regimes" or ways of seeing, noting that Western perspective is just one method and other feelings-based perspectives are also valid. It provides examples of artworks to illustrate these concepts.
Arts integration and education for the non art classroom
Drawing from the Inside Out: Projects for Beginning through Advanced Drawing
1.
2. Drawing from the Inside Out
Projects for Beginning through Advanced Drawing
Barbara Kerwin
With Jon Measures
& Wendy Welch
ATS Art Textbook Society
Copyright 2015. Author, Barbara Kerwin. All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be
reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including but not
limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks or information
storage and retrieval systems except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 US Copyright Act, without the prior
written permission of the author.
3. Barbara Kerwin, author, has taught Fine
Art in colleges and universities in the Los
Angeles area since 1990. She is currently a
tenured Professor of Art at Los Angeles
Mission College, where she has supervised
Art for a decade and served the Los Angeles
Community College District’s nine colleges
as the District Arts Chair for several years.
Students from her classes at Pasadena City
College, L.A. Pierce College, College of the
Canyons and L.A. Mission College are
represented in the text. Kerwin holds an MFA
from the Claremont Graduate University,
where she received awards and fellowships.
She has exhibited her paintings in over 100 gallery and museum exhibitions throughout the United States
and abroad, and is collected widely. Kerwin has been reviewed in many publications and is included in
several books on contemporary art. Kerwin received a Los Angeles Artist Cultural Innovation Grant for
her 2012 painting survey exhibition GEOMETRIC PROGRESSIONS. Photo credit: Eric Minh Swenson
CONTRIBUTORS:
Wendy Welch is a Canadian visual artist whose practice includes
drawing, painting and installation. Welch has had several solo and group
exhibitions of her artwork in Canada and the US. She is founder and
director of the Vancouver Island School of Art (VISA), an accredited post-
secondary school, where she teaches drawing and painting courses. Wendy
is an art writer and has been published in the prominent Canadian art
magazines Canadian Art and Border Crossings. She was art writer for the
weekly Monday Magazine from 2000–2008. Her MFA is from University
of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Jon Measures is a British artist, based in Los Angeles. His fine art
degree is from Falmouth School of Art in the UK. He currently teaches Art
and Computer Design at several Los Angeles colleges. Jon is an exhibiting
artist and also works as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.
Themes in his exhibition work include personal identity and how it is
defined in the age of the Internet. Jon uses the layout of city streets,
telephone poles, maps and spider webs in his work to symbolize
interconnectedness, relating back to the web and social networking.
i.1. Cover: Still from The Mystery of Picasso (French: Le mystère Picasso), 1956
French documentary film about the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, directed by
Henri-Georges Clouzot.
4. PREFACE
I would like to thank Clark Baxter for his vision and for coming to my college to find out why the many
drawing courses I scheduled for my small college had no textbooks assigned. I pointed out that given the
demographics of my students, most cannot afford expensive books and further, they may skip the reading
altogether. After a good discussion involving the need for an affordable, concise textbook that covers all levels
of college drawing, Clark invited me to write this book. To freelance writer Tim Bradley, thanks for your timely
copyediting and for the creation of the Glossary. Clark Baxter suggested the Digital Drawing chapter and I
invited Jon Measures, a Computer Graphics colleague to contribute several projects to the text. In considering
the span of this project, I also invited Canadian artist, art school founder and director, Wendy Welch to
contribute 18 lessons; sixteen of these projects occur among the 40 presented in Advanced Drawing: The
Creative Portfolio. Her Vancouver Island School of Art (VISA) is known for its contemporary approach to
drawing. Wendy also wrote the Glossary of Materials and Surfaces found in the back of the text. Illustrating
each lesson are a master and student drawings. My hope is that our student drawing selections will help the new
artist see a solution to each project created by peers and that the master artists’ examples show each project’s
inspired reach.
A look through all 225 pages of the three college courses will show the comprehensive approach taken
to cover the great range of topics in this one textbook. There are more than 140 concepts and projects presented
in a succinct, art historical context. The projects follow in a sequential manner that provides the necessary
information for the next concept. Technique projects are followed by a creative-synthesis lesson. Many
professors will choose where to focus their courses and will naturally expand or condense these projects. Some
will combine Beginning Drawing (black and white mechanics, composition and structure) and Intermediate
Drawing (color drawing) into one course, editing where desired. The goal of this multi-course textbook is to
provide a thorough, condensed and affordable resource with inspiring artworks culled from our studies, teaching
and international travels.
The book is easy-to-use when open onto the studio table where the prompts and examples for each
project can be followed. The book is for use through several semesters and into the artist’s studio. This book
has taken a few years to write and has been a labor of a passion for art and creativity, drawn from the inside out.
Sponsors: It is with gratitude that I extend a most special thank you to the generosity of Dr. and Mrs.
George Owen Lamb, Abbott Brown, Robert and Robin Wood, Jay Belloli, various museums, galleries and
artists for their financial and artistic contributions that have allowed this book to exist. –Barbara Kerwin
i.5: Drawing From the Inside Out:
Student at work on Supersize Me!
Oil pastel on butcher paper, 3’ x 10’.
Photo courtesy Bethany Noel, 2010
5. Drawing From The Inside Out
Projects for Beginning through Advanced Drawing
--Preface v
Contents:
—An Introduction viii
I. Beginning Drawing 1
1. THE LANGUAGE OF ART 2
1.1: The Formal Elements and
Principles of Design, Defined.
1.2: The Critique.
2. CREATING WITH LINE 17
Mark Making:
2.1A: Mark Making.
2.1B: Balance and Placement.
2.2: Writing as Drawing.
Line Into Shape:
2.3A: Blind Hand.
2.3B: Blind Portrait.
3C: Blind Contour, Plants.
2.4: Gesture.
2.5: Controlled Contour.
AID TO DRAWING I: Scale & Proportion:
i. Plumb Line.
ii. Level.
iii. Copy the Angle.
iv. Trapped Shapes.
v. Comparative Measures.
vi. Standard Unit of Measure.
2.6: Erased Still Life.
2.7: Contour Line the Edge of Space
(Positive/Negative Spatial Relations).
2.8: Line into Form:
2.8A: Cross Contour.
2.8B: Gesture.
2.8C: Crosshatch.
2.8D: Hatch.
2.8E: Stipple.
2.8F: Ink Wash.
2.9A: NOTAN: Compositional Balance.
2.9B: Collage: Line Weights & Balance.
3. VALUE 44
Value Gradations:
3.1: Tonal Bars.
3.2: Values in a Sphere.
Use of the Grid: Photography And
The Grid In Contemporary Art
AID TO DRAWING II: vii. Grid Transfer.
3.3: Photo-match.
3.4: Copy the Masters
(Research Project/Homework 5 Weeks).
3.5: Self-Portrait with Master Elements
(Take home Final).
4. PERSPECTIVE & FORM 57
AID TO DRAWING III: viii. Ellipses.
4.2A: Symmetry Drawing.
4.2B: Symmetry & Elliptical Values.
4.3: Ellipses in Full Value System.
AID TO DRAWING IV: Perspective Systems:
ix. 2-Point Perspective.
x. 1-Pt, Perspective.
xi. 3-Point Perspective.
4.4A: Practice Boxes in 2-Pt Perspective.
4.4B: The Challenge.
4.5: Two-Point Boxes with Planar Values.
The Worlds of William Kentridge
5. TEXTURE 71
5.1: Da Vinci Drapery Study
5.2: Texture—Illusion of Softness in Drapery.
5.3: Shiny Objects
5.4: Reflections Water, Glass and Metal.
5.5: Texture In Still Life:
Additive/Subtractive Process (FINAL)
Richard Diebenkorn
II. Intermediate Drawing, Color 79
6. ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE 80
6.1: Boxes (Review)
TECHNIQUE I: Warm And Cool Marker.
6.2: Boxes, Warm & Cool Marker.
6.3: Practice Chair
Use of Overlays
6.4: Chair, Warm & Cool Markers
Atmospheric Perspective History
6.5: Building with Warm & Cool Marker.
6.6: Fantastic Scale—(Perspective Unit Final)
7. COLOR 91
Color in Art History.
Color Properties.
Color Schemes. Color Drawing.
7.1: Color Wheel.
Collage
6. 7.2: Collage & Color Match (Part I)
TECHNIQUE II: Colored Pencil &
TECHNIQUE III: Chalk Pastel.
7.3: Color Match Colored Pencil. (Part II)
7.4: Color Match Chalk Pastel (Part III)
AID TO DRAWING V: xii. Sketching.
xiii: Thumbnail Study
7.5: Thumbnail Studies
7.6: Overlapping & Merging
Interrelationships—B & W Still Life
7.7: Overlapping Still Life, Colored Pencil
8. HEAD, HANDS, & FEET 108
IN COMPOSITON:
Gerhard RIchter
Anatomy Studies
Bone Diagrams
8.1A: Head/Skull Anatomy.
8.1B: Hand Anatomy.
8.1C: Feet Anatomy.
TECHNIQUE IV: Oil Pastels.
8.2: Feet in Oil Pastel.
8.3: Feet in Chalk Pastel.
8.4: Feet, Timed Drawings.
8.5: Hand Studies, Masters.
8.6: Hand Studies, Observation.
8.7: Hand Studies: Timed.
AID TO DRAWING VI: xiv. Rules of Human
Proportions: Head. xv. Eyes. xvi. Nose
8.8: HEADS: ‘Make Three Humanoids’
in Proportion.
8.9: Self Portrait.
8.10: HEAD: Iconic Portrait.
AID TO DRAWING VII:
xvii. Standard Unit of Measure: Body
Course Final Exam: Head, Hands &
Feet in Composition
8.11: Head in Composition: Timed
8.12: Hands in Composition: Timed
8.13: Feet in Composition: Timed
Lucian Freud
III. Advanced Drawing 127
9. RELATIONSHIP PLAY 132
Ornamental Grammar:
9.1: Ornamental Grammar as Pattern.
9.2: Pattern, Ornament and Decoration
Symmetry vs. Random.
9.3: Freehand Ornamentation
9.4: Doodle as Ornament.
Interrelationships: 9.5: Interrelationships.
9.6: Cubist Drawing.
10.THE BODY 143
10.1: Conglomerate Portrait.
10.2: The Moody Face.
10.3: Portrait from the Inside Out.
10.4: The Figure in a Fantastical Background.
10.5: The Body as Parts.
11.SUMMONING THE SURREAL 153
11.1 Summoning the Surreal.
12.LANDSCAPE 156
12.1: Gestural Landscape.
12.2: Reductive Landscape
11.3: Reinventing the Landscape.
13. BOOK, NARRATIVE & CHARACTERS 161
The Alchemist.
13.1: Composition with Hidden Drawing
13.2: The Book.
13.3: Creating Characters.
Illustration and Narrative.
13.4: Fragmented Narrative.
Nostalgia and Memory.
13.5: Drawing an Era.
13.6: Memory.
13.7: Illustration by Cutting.
14. THE LANGUAGE OF MAPPING 177
14.1: Mapping, Emily Prince Installation
14.2: Map as Background.
Mapping the Abstract
15. ARCHITECTURE AS STRUCTURE 181
15.1: Abstract Architectural Drawing.
15.2: Architectural Plans as Drawing.
15.3: Interior Space as Source.
15.4: Architecture Construction as Model.
Creating the Conceptual, Sol LeWitt Installation
15.5: Supersize Me!
Kim Jones
16. DIGITAL DRAWING 194
Introduction to Digital Drawing—Jon Measures
Freehand Drawing On The Computer
16.1: Digital Sketchbook
16.2: One A Day
16.3: Published Sketchbook.
16.4. Google Grazing
Digital Collage
16. 4: Portrait With Overlays
Ryan McGinness
Glossary of Drawing Materials xii
Glossary of Terms xv
7. i.6: Leonardo da
Vinci (1452-1519,
Italian Renaissance),
Perspective Study
for Adoration of the
Magi, 1481.
DRAWING FROM THE INSIDE OUT—An Introduction
Time has moved the study of art into a brand new arena. DRAWING FROM THE INSIDE OUT is a
textbook that addresses drawing in the new world of international contemporary art. International art fairs, the
ease of world travel and access to the Internet make a global dialogue the norm. No longer are artists bound to
the community from whence they are educated. Artists are free to participate in views from a multiplicity of
cultures about what constitutes an aesthetic experience. DRAWING FROM THE INSIDE OUT provides a
structure of lessons beginning with a Western analytic approach to drawing that incorporates realism and its
approach to objects in composition, then travels into the distant lands of the imagination by integrating non-
Western ways of seeing. What does it mean to draw from the inside out? It is an invitation to draw from your
own experiences with the knowledge of skills and techniques drawn from the art canon.
Chapters 1-5 relate to basic or Beginning Drawing with projects in black and white media to develop
drawing skills in new and gifted students wishing for formal training in art. Chapter One begins with THE
LANGUAGE OF ART, “The Formal Elements and Principles of Design, Defined”. Each of the arts has a
language—music has notes and harmonic structures, so too, does visual art possess a language. THE
LANGUAGE OF ART explains what the elements and principles are, establishing the language used throughout
the text. The first chapter concludes with an informative presentation on “The Critique.” Critique formats are
illustrated using a single work of art to show the benefit of each different critique style and how advancing
culture recognizes different approaches to art. Critique styles vary and are valuable tools for growth that allow
insights into the expanding field of aesthetics and practice.
Beginning Drawing focuses on black and white drawing media to emphasize the development of line into
form and volume. Occasionally, an outside concept is necessary to help ease understanding within a lesson’s arc,
these outside helpers are called AIDS TO DRAWING. They are featured in the technique building Chapters (2-
8) to assist skill development. Intermediate Drawing focuses on the use of color in drawing. Color media and
deeper drawing challenges are explored. The 20th
Century ushered composition in as the subject of art (see
Chapter 7). DRAWING FROM THE INSIDE OUT is dedicated to the development of composition as the
central issue of drawing today. Compositional strategies occur throughout the book and are the first building
block upon which each drawing depends.
8. i.7: Julie Mehretu
(Ethiopian/American), Stadia l,
2004. Ink and acrylic on canvas.
107 x 140 inches.
Post-Modern space.
SFMMA.
Beginning and Intermediate Drawing (Chapters 2-8) rely on a Cartesian perspectival model for drawing,
extracted from the scientific method developed by Rene Descartes (1596-1650, French) to explore realistic ideas
of form and volume. The great Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci’s one-point, Perspective Study for
Adoration of the Magi (Fig. i.6) exemplifies realistic spatial constructs. In this text, we recognize that the
Western Cartesian model is but one method of seeing and it is helpful to use it to describe realistic form.
In “Scopic Regimes of Modernity” (VISION AND VISUALITY, Hal Foster, ed. Bay Press: 1988, pp. 3-
23), Martin Jay outlines how Western European man has been trained to view the world with the Cartesian
model of perspective. He goes on to state that other scopic regimes (or ways of seeing) are also valid and may
have more to do with feeling and perception than Cartesian perspective allows. In this textbook the non-western
models are adventurously explored in the Creative Portfolio (Advanced Drawing). Ethiopian/American artist,
Julie Mehretu’s, Stadia I (Fig. i.7, 2004) above, shows an explosive, joyful and chaotic space giving the
impression of a happy and well-fought victory associated with sports arenas. At the same time, she is looking at
the corporate-owned stadium and Stadia I can also be a view of power in our time (Goldman Sachs
commissioned an 80-foot mural in 2010 by Mehretu). Mehretu’s exploded field is but one of the new
compositional models in this book.
Advanced Drawing: The Creative Portfolio (Chapters 9-16) is a place to stretch out into 21st
century
drawing. Inventive projects abound, ready for selection into a concentration. There are thematic projects such as
interrelationships, books, conceptual drawings, digital drawings, drawings designed for spaces and more. In this
last course a series of drawings is created in a personal style that can later be exhibited, animated, incorporated
into books, or game design. Creative Portfolio parallels contemporary art and is highlighted throughout with
works by acclaimed international artists. It is exciting to contemplate the many ways of seeing that the world’s
cultures present, exemplifying the global interconnectedness of art today. Creative Portfolio can be revisited
with a new area of interest as time moves on.
DRAWING FROM THE INSIDE OUT covers composition, techniques and innovations in drawing in
one comprehensive book. The textbook begins with lessons on creating realistic form wrapped in solid
compositional awareness. The book advances to a global, intercultural approach that opens the artist to a world
of ideas both contemporary and historic. Technical approaches from many cultures across time are illuminated.
The human imagination is the source of content in DRAWING FROM THE INSIDE OUT. This textbook is a
tool to use on the journey of creativity.
9. Beginning Drawing—The Language of Art 1
1.i. Willem de Kooning (1904-1997, Dutch American) drawing Two Women, in his studio, circa 1952.
10. THE CRITIQUE
The critique is an avenue for growth, learning and later improvement. Individual responses to a given
project open new vistas for the participants. It is essential to look at each completed work in a critique
setting at the conclusion of the project. This chapter showcases a variety of critiques. The level of
discussion rises with the awareness of the history of art and its movements. There is no reason any of the
following critique forms cannot be applied in a given critique. A critique style is recommended at the
end of each project, but any critique form can be chosen. In this section, The Critique, the artwork in
Figure 1.19 will be analyzed in each of critique styles. Sample questions and analysis are offered to help
frame each of the critique formats. The art studio’s critique wall is a good place to view works and hold
the discussion.
ANALYZE THIS—Types Of Recommended Critiques:
1.19. POP BOOK, Patty Perez, oil pastel on paper
1. Technique. The critique may be only about the
technique learned. If it is a blind contour, did the student
look at the page? Did the pen lift from the page or stay
connected?
In the figure 1.19 example, oil pastel technique has
been applied with a graphic (flat) application and the oil
pastel is applied in thick, burnished layers with bold
accent colors.
2. Technical Correctness. After basic techniques are
incorporated via ever more complex projects, ask if the
technique has been applied accurately. Does the
application of the technique enhance or detract from the
drawing? A critique employing Technical Correctness
asks simply, “How accurately has the technique been
applied to meet the goals of the project?”
Since the POP BOOK oil pastel drawing (Fig. 1.19)
uses bold colors with the burnishing and blending
technique to describe a face and hands in this drawing,
the technique has been used with good effect.
3. Compositional Analysis focuses on composition, utilizing the Elements And Principles of Design. This is the
same as Formal Theory (see below). The analysis starts by discussing each element, then commenting on the type
of spatial order accomplished. Is it successfully balanced? In Figure 1.19, the artist has chosen yellow and blue
primary colors for Pop BOOK, with warm
orange accents against the complementary blue ground. The symmetrical composition is of a face and hands with
fingers spelling the same word on either side of the face. This drawing is organized with symmetrical balance,
but, the corners have been activated by opposing yellow and lighter blue squares that help the composition to rock
with asymmetry.
4. Content asks what the piece is about? How does it make you feel?
11. In Perez’s oil pastel, the drawing feels fun to look at, yet the finger spelling is discomfiting because it may be
saying something threatening. The artist is using her cultural awareness to make a current, brightly colored Pop
Art piece. Content may be the only method used for certain critiques in which personal information is disclosed or
composition is not at issue.
5. Content and Compositional Analysis weave the formal properties of the composition (its structure and rhythms,
use of line, space and balance) with a discussion on the feeling or mood evoked by the piece, with both taking
time to be analyzed. Does the composition balance (#3 Compositional Analysis)? What is the work about? What
does it make you think about and feel (#4 Content)?
6. Phenomenological critiques require waiting with an open mind for insight. Phenomenology is a branch of
Philosophy. “Phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person
point of view. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality, its being directed toward something, as it
is an experience of or about some object. An experience is directed toward an object by virtue of its content or
meaning (which represents the object) together with appropriate enabling conditions.” (The Stanford Encyclopedia
of Philosophy, 2011) In the Perez work, sit for one minute without judgment. Allow thoughts and feelings to enter
your mind. Follow where the eye goes. After one minute, share a word or phrase that came to mind. It is helpful
to write down the list of adjectives. In Patty’s piece figure 1.19, the words “happy” and “threatening” are some of
the words that come to mind. Sister Wendy Becket, a nun who has studied and written extensively about art uses a
phenomenological approach to critique great masterworks in the BBC production Sister Wendy - The Complete
Collection (Story of Painting / Grand Tour / Odyssey / Pains of Glass) (by Wendy Beckett, BBC, DVD - 2006).
AESTHETICS METHODOLOGY:
E. Louis Lankford offers valuable critique forms in AESTHETICS: Issues and Inquiry (National Art Education
Association, 1992). A basic premise holds that an individual’s concept of art can change over time as knowledge
and skills increase, along with shifts in attitudes and values. Selections are summarized below:
1. Mimetic Theory relates to art that mimics the real world. It judges art by how well it imitates the real world
around us. Many people never advance beyond this level of viewing artistic images. Mimetic theory develops in
our perceptions during the primary grades.
In this manner of judging the drawing in Figure 1.19, one could say it is simplified or childlike in its attempt to
describe a realistic human face. The colors used are not natural skin tones. It is unrealistic.
2. Expressionism draws a relationship between the evocative power of an artwork, the emotional senses of the
artist, and/or the audience’s responsive feelings. This form of viewing is very personal and is akin to
Phenomenology.
Figure 1.19’s portrait of a young person is fun and exciting to view. The colors radiate energy and cool. The
hands are saying something I do not know. When I don’t know something I may automatically feel threatened or
curious.
3. Formalist Theory judges an artwork by its arrangement of the elements and principles of design. Analyzing
composition gives way to sustaining aesthetic contemplation and appreciation of the work’s sensuous properties.
This is a very good way to approach a sensitive or highly volatile art in discussion. (See #3, Compositional
Analysis, above)
How are the elements used? How does the composition lead the eye? Is it balanced? If there are a multitude of
elements, is it unified? If not, what may strengthen the composition?
12. 4. Open Concept is used when making comparisons of one work of art to another. Select a work from the
indisputable canon of art, and compare it with the questioned work. Artistic taste and understanding can be
comprehended via this relationship.
Figure 1.19, POP BOOK, references the great 1960s art movement led by Andy Warhol. Patty Perez uses the
graphic style, in silk-screen-like flatness incorporated by Warhol, with electric lines added for excitement. This
work has a distinct feel of a ‘60s Warhol portrait updated into the 21st
century.
5. Institutional Theory sets no conditions for the visual properties or content in a work of art. It addresses art of
its time. “What is art?” is replaced by “When is art?” The ‘60s Happenings, and Marcel Duchamp’s Dadaist
urinal, Fountain (1921), fit this paradigm perfectly. Arthur Danto states that, “to see something as art requires
something the eye cannot decry--an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an ‘art
world.’ When a work is discussed by the artists, dealers, curators, critics, and patrons, (the tastemakers), and the
work is displayed, discussed, written about, and critiqued, it becomes accepted as Art.
Figure 1.19 has until now never been discussed as a work of art by any institution or theorist. Because the
work remains outside of the discourse, we cannot consider it a part of the paradigm. It does however reference
Pop Art, which says it is aware of its point in time 50 years after the movement began, and it is using a cultish
finger spelling to say it is happy to quote outside this paradigm.
6. Critical Theory and Postmodernist pedagogy call for a restructuring of art in society, so traditional distinctions
of high and low culture or popular culture can dissolve. This more democratic idea is that anything can “be” art if
contemplated so.
Figure 1.19 places itself in the low culture of graffiti art, tying itself to the influence from high culture by
quoting from Warholian Pop Art colors and composition. It shows the artist is aware of her time.
ANOTHER VIEW POINT: Developmental Theory
Finally, Michael Parsons in his, How We Understand Art: A Cognitive Developmental Account of Aesthetic
Experience (Cambridge University Press, 1989), researched and developed five stages people may pass through
and into as their understanding of art develops. His basic concepts for the stages are outlined below:
1. Stage One: Preschool is associated with sensual experiences. Children are non-judgmental, freewheeling and
employ highly personal perceptions of art. Judging Figure 1.19 at this stage: “I like the way it looks, it makes
me want to feel and touch it.”
2. Stage Two: Elementary students are concerned with skill, realism and beauty. This stage may hold an
individual’s viewpoint for the rest of his or her life if further artistic understanding is not developed, but many
automatically move on to new perceptions. Judging Figure 1.19 at this stage:
“The work is flat, and brightly colored. My eye moves everywhere. It does not appear real, more like a cartoon or
an apparition.”
3. Stage Three: In Adolescence, individuals become aware of the uniqueness of aesthetic experience. Beauty and
realism become less important than expressiveness. Many times the idea is, “I have the right to my own opinion,”
evasive though it may be. Judging Figure 1.19 at this stage: The artist appears to be saying: “I don’t care what
you say to me,” because she has chosen hand signals that tell me so. The work is exciting and daring. She makes a
face seem not so boring or realistic, it is in fact trying to shock me.
13. (Stages Four and Five appear, if at all, in adulthood.)
4. Stage Four: This stage shows knowledge of style and form, which comes from an ever more sophisticated
concept that artwork is the embodiment of the culture. Judging Figure 1.19 at this stage: Perez’s use of bright
blues and yellow primaries push a hot, cool theme, dominated by cool blues. The Pop Art reference to Andy
Warhol tells me she either respects Warhol or wants to tie the ‘60s to the 20-teens. This makes me ask the
question “why the two?” What the fingers say relates to our gang culture, and she is linking the two periods to
street art, or art for the masses. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles held an exhibition in 2011
devoted to street art, called: Art in the Streets. Perez seems to be participating in the art of our times.
5. Stage Five: Like self-actualization, this stage is an acute awareness of habits of thought and the interconnection
of art and culture. Both are to be examined and may change. Judgment and art are subject to change as one’s
habits are reevaluated.
Figure 1.19 is another example in Perez’s book and other projects of her emulation of Warhol’s use of an
electric line outlining the artificially and brightly colored subject. Perez has aligned herself to Pop Art, graffiti and
low culture in all of her drawings and paintings. This appears to be a statement that identifies her as belonging to
the street culture of Los Angeles. I want to see what she does outside of the college setting to see how it manifests
as her personal style.
1.20. College Critique Session:
The students put together a puzzle
brought in by classmate, Stella Cheung.
As they compare the puzzle’s shapes
and colors the world begins to take form.
Photo credit: Barbara Kerwin
14.
15.
16.
17. Project 5.4 Reflections–Glass, Water & Metal
Reflections, Refractions, Distortions, Highlights and Shadows
MATERIALS: Charcoal system or Graphite system. Clear round glass, spoon and water.
ARTIST: Janet Fish
CRITIQUE: Technical Correctness.
Reflections, highlights and shadows on water glass and metal are the details necessary to capture for the
reflective textures in Project 5.4. Ashton Phieffer has captured all and placed the subject of the drawing
in a nicely composed ground (Fig. 5.7). Janet Fish has focused on the reflections of glass in her works,
such as in Fig. 5.8. Wine and Cheese Glasses (facing page).
1. Select a clear, round glass. Place a spoon inside the glass and fill glass part way with water.
2. Additive/Subtractive Drawing: Tone the page with chamois and charcoal dust (or graphite dust) to
create a middle tone from which you can add shadows and erase lights and highlights.
3. Proportion your page to find figure/ground balance.
4. Draw the contour for the cylinder lightly with your vine charcoal.
5. Draw the ellipses for the glass rims
and base, and water level.
6. Draw the distortion of the spoon as it passes behind the rim of the glass.
7. Draw the distortion of the spoon passing behind the front rim.
Show the material weight of the glass.
8. Look for and draw the refraction,
distortion or magnification of the spoon inside the
glass after it enters the water.
9. Sketch in the highlights and shadow shapes of
the reflections on the front and back of the glass.
Shade in.
10. Repeat for the spoon.
11. Adjust all values to finish the drawing.
5.7.
Glass, Water, Metal:
Ashton Phieffer
Charcoal and
White conte on
toned
paper, 18x24”
18. INTERMEDIATE—COLOR: Heads, Hands, Feet & Perspective
This second course focuses on drawing in color. It follows the important basic skill development of beginning
drawing’s black and white value studies affording the artist an ability to create the illusion of depth. Intermediate
Drawing again follows the Cartesian (or scientific) model of realism to develop drawings, now in full color. With
color comes the historical change in Western art history that led to the use of subjective color and a compositional
confluence that no longer focuses on the subject alone, but includes composition as a subject of art. Drawing first
with low saturation cool and warm markers, followed by full spectrum colored pencil, chalk and oil pastels offer
full color combinations and media exploration. Color problems are first introduced with a discussion of receding
space or atmospheric perspective, and the exercises in warm and cool color theory are applied to perspective.
Imagination is invited for the unit final, creating a Fantastic Scale (Project 6.6). Specific color replication
techniques commence the color projects, along with new compositional solutions. These practiced ideas lead to a
concentration of drawing from observation that dominates the rest of the course. Proportional figure studies of the
head, hands, and feet strengthen the use of color by drawing complex forms. This course is not a Life Drawing
course, but is an intermediate course that uses the figure components for observation practice. This practice builds
confidence through speed while applying the skills and techniques to create realistic drawings within while strong
compositional balance. Student models cannot hold poses for long, so drawing speed naturally increases and
sketching with value and color synthesis becomes an important part of completing the course. The figure
component of this course may be expanded, and prepares students for a full life-drawing course later.
Los Angeles artist Jon Swihart’s Untitled (Fig: INT: i.1) is an example of an artist combining color theory,
figure, linear and atmospheric perspective and imagination. In this small work, he has first drawn it, and then
painted his vision with a fine-haired brush, receding the Los Angeles foothills across the broad valley. Swihart’s
ability to draw in color is pronounced. His vast knowledge of the techniques used for drawing and painting spans
the history of art. With this training, he easily quotes from this knowledge artistically to paint internal,
contemporary allegories that are akin to the Biblical visions created by Renaissance masters. Swihart uses classic
perspective, figure proportions and Renaissance atmospheric perspective to tell the story of a young man (self-
portrait) trapped in an archaic tomb. The rubble of past structures is strewn between him and the naked beauty
standing alone in the landscape (in classic, contrapposto pose). The ability to draw in color adds believability to
this dream-like story by placing it in a realistic setting.
19. COLOR PROPERTIES & COLOR SCHEMES
The introduction of color into drawing is exciting and demanding. The complex nature of color’s three
main properties, hue, value and intensity, are our focus, what these are and how they function. This analysis of
color will expand the impact of a drawing by reflecting the world with color.
Hue is the name of a color, such as red, yellow-orange or violet it is defined by the hue’s reflection of
light and its location on the color wheel spectrum. The first to diagram color was Sir Isaac Newton (1642-
1727, British), a physicist, mathematician, astronomer and theologian most celebrated for his study of gravity.
From 1666 to 1672, Newton conducted his crucial optics experiments about the refraction of light in color. He
sent light through triangular prisms and noted the order of colors in the spectrum, which are: red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. ROY-G-BIV is the mnemonic device for this order, the same that
appears in the rainbow. Hues then are the names of colors. They are seen as reflected wavelengths of “visible
light” measured in nanometers (between 400 and 700 nm). Red, for example, has a long wavelength and is any
of the “red” hues that are reflected between 625 and 740 nm. Blue is very short and measures approximately
450 nm. Violet (purple) wavelengths are 400 nm, the shortest and darkest of the 12 hues on the traditional
color wheel. Carbon black absorbs 97 per cent of all radiant light waves and thus is the combination of most
hues. White is the reflection of most hues or “absence” of color. A hue is measured by the amount of light that
it reflects.
Primary colors are red, yellow and blue and are necessary to mix all other hues There are a
variety of choices within each yellow, blue and red primary that will yield slightly differing mixes. For
example, a cobalt blue is slightly more violet than a cerulean blue, yet both are blues and may be used to mix
the other colors. Secondary colors are mixtures of any two primary colors and are green (yellow + blue),
orange (red + yellow), and violet (red + blue). Tertiary colors are a mix of a primary and a neighboring
secondary, with the primary listed first in the hyphenated colors: y-o, y-g, b-g, b-v, r-v, and r-o. In Figure 7.5
Zaria Forman’s mother encouraged her to travel to Greenland for inspiration to draw in soft pastel the
beautiful blues and neutral skies of Greenland #63, not only focusing our attention on the sophisticated use of
color and pastels, but on the larger concern of global warming.
7.5. Zaria
Forman
(American),
Greenland
#63, creates
photo- realistic
color in this
soft pastel on
paper (50 x
75”, 2013,
copyright the
artist).
20. Value refers to the darkness or lightness of a given color. It is adjusted by adding white to create a tint or
black to darken the color into a shade, or the hue can be modified by black plus white to create a tone.
Intensity (or Saturation) is the brightness (saturation) or dullness (desaturation) of a hue as it comes
from the tube or point of a colored pencil or other color medium. A color’s intensity cannot be made brighter
than its brightest saturation as it comes from the manufacturer, unless a different, brighter hue in the same
family is overlain. However, one can lower the color’s intensity (or desaturate the color) by adding the
opposite color on the color wheel, the color complement. By visually adding the complement to the main hue,
the saturation will be decreased and a neutral (sometimes called grayed) color variant is achieved. This
produces a different “gray” than mixing a tone of black plus white, then adding it to the main hue. The
neutralized color is a staple of color composition. The three main properties of color: hue, value and intensity
are the focus of all color theory and by applying this information one can make any color in the spectrum.
COLOR SCHEMES are combinations of colors used to create a desired visual effect. Color schemes
may be harmonious or dissonant depending upon desired results. Many projects can be repeated by varying the
choice of color scheme to gain greater mastery of color.
Harmonious Color Schemes include:
Monochromatic: Variants of a single hue create a monochromatic color scheme. Making adjustments of
values (tints, tones or shades) and intensity shifts within the main hue achieves numerous variations.
Analogous: Any three adjacent colors (Y-G, G, B-G) are called analogous colors. Because they are next to one
another’s family, they automatically harmonize due to close association.
Split-complement is a surprising color harmony of near complements that generate an exciting and
compelling color harmony. Find the split-complement by selecting a hue, locating but not using the
complement. Instead, use the hues on either side of the complement together with the main hue (V, Y-O, Y-G).
The 20th
century works of John Singer Sargent achieved striking harmonies utilizing the split-complement.
Dissonant Color Schemes do not readily soothe like the harmonious color schemes above, but are
employed to create exciting visual effects.
Complementary Color Schemes provide the most color contrast achievable because they are the greatest
distance apart (R/G or B/O or Y/V). In fact, they intensify each color when placed next to one another.
Complementary schemes can create bold or powerful statements. They employ contrast similar to using a
black against a white. The eye is led to the point of maximum contrast. A color placed next to its complement,
holds the greatest visual weight.
The Triad Scheme: Triad hues are equidistant apart (R, Y, B or V, G, O). The effect of the triad can be
vivifying. The colors may take on the quality of a boxing match or dance. See Figure 7.5, in which the exciting
primary Red-Yellow-Blue triad is balanced with black and white tints, tones and shades.
Double Split Complement: The Double Split Complement of Y-O, R-O & BV and B-G employed by John
Singer Sargent in Fig. 7.4, magnificently balances the double split complements. Here he has neutralized the
cools, soothing the composition, while allowing the warm colors to saturate and add a sensual heat to the
subject’s repose.
When working with color, all of the schemes can be employed with great success, depending upon
modifications of contrasts between hue, value or intensity. The dissonant color schemes require a greater color
handling. Working with color theories can be a joyful discovery for those not used to thinking in terms of
color. It is helpful to try each of these color schemes within a set of projects. Once understood, the intuitive
spark can be re-ignited for exciting color combinations.
21. TECHNIQUE II: Colored Pencil
Colored pencil is a favorite medium because it is easy to use and there is no clean up.
However, its use is not instinctive, unless you know how to think in terms of color
drawing, which means to save whites and light areas. To start, ‘shape-map’ the areas of
lights to be preserved (as you cannot lighten the colored pencil drawing by erasures).
Colored pencils are manufactured with a wax base that may be thinned and spread with
Turpenoid or a clear marker blender. Watercolor pencils do not have wax, but instead are
made with gouache (a tempera-like base) ground medium plus binder, which allows the
pigments to be spread with water. (Watercolor pencil can be employed while traveling
with use of a small watercolor block, brush and water vial to produce full-color drawings
within minimal space.)
In applying either watercolor pencil or colored pencil, a stroke-over-stroke method is
preferred. After analyzing and saving the whites and highlight areas in your composition,
shape-map the dark and light areas with a gray colored pencil. Next, burnish (press hard)
the highlights with white pencil. This will preserve the area of highlight white. Plot out
with your grey pencil the areas of darks and light. Remember the parts of color and use
hue, value and intensity shifts to match your colors. Value is the lightness or darkness of
a color. When adding white, a lighter tint of the main hue is created. When adding black,
a darker shade of the color is made. The addition of a black plus white or tone produces a
slightly mellower version of the main hue. When adding any two colors, physics shows
us that it slightly darkens the beginning color. By adding a light overlay of white, the
lighter value is restored. Remember, too, your brightest hue in a colored pencil has a
chromatic brilliance directly created by the manufacturer and cannot be made brighter.
This chroma is referred to as its intensity (brightness is high saturation, dullness is low
saturation). Although we cannot make a color brighter (unless a brighter hue is
overlapped), we can neutralize it with its opposite color or “complement.” A tiny amount
of the complement lightly drawn over the first will lower the intensity so that it fits into
its compositional placement without demanding all the attention a fully intense color
would command. Knowing how color behaves comes with practice (see Fig. 7.12).
7.12.
Collage/Color Match
Sloyi Guererro,
Colored Pencil
18 x 24”
22. CHAPTER 8: HEADS, HANDS & FEET UNIT
This chapter presents opportunities for observation drawing using heads, hands and feet
to apply color techniques and gain greater awareness of the proportions of the body. Each
drawing of figure elements will display strong figure-ground relationships and accurate
perspective. The composition will become part of the critique format for drawings made
from this chapter. Again, this is not a figure drawing course, but a chapter of studies
incorporating the figure in composition to practice proportions, color drawing techniques
and perspective in composition.
Contemporary master Gerhard Richter (b. 1932, German) has changed the way art is
presented. He is an exquisite draftsman, as exhibited in his drawings of family members
and friends, which he reproduces into series of paintings. He obliterates his realistic oils
by smearing them when still wet, allowing an abstraction to build on the surface of the
works. To his portrait of Brigid Polk (Fig. 8.1), an extroverted and highly idiosyncratic
member of Andy Warhol’s Factory, a gentle color has been added to the otherwise grey
painting. The subtle shifts of background almost reveal where she is. This blurring does
not detract from the portrait, but adds much visual interest to the drawing. The portrait is
pushed to the lower left of the composition. Richter began to use color again, in this work
after having used only black, white and grey tones in his previous figurative paintings.
Reducing the color employed strengthens the focus on the other elements in composition.
8.1.
Gerhard Richter
(b. 1932, German),
Brigid Polk, 1971.
Oil on canvas,
180.50 x 180.
30x6.cm. The Artist
Rooms, National
Galleries of
Scotland and Tate,
d’Offay Donation,
National Heritage
Memorial Fund and
Art Fund 2008
23. AID TO DRAWING VIII:
xvii. Standard Unit of Measure and the Human Figure
The Standard Unit of Measure is a comparative measure reference point. Each time you check the
scale in the drawing, you will check this area first to capture accurate proportions in a complex drawing.
Once identified, use the standard unit of measure as the reference from which to count comparative
measurements. In figure work, the head is used as a standard unit of measure for comparing parts of the
human form. Leonardo da Vinci’s, Vitruvian Man (1487, Fig. 8.31) below, demonstrates that the
shoulder to the tip of the finger equals the length of the leg from pubis to heel. Leonardo’s diagram also
shows the use of the head as a standard unit of measure. Leonardo shows the human form to be “eight
heads high”. Vitruvian Man illustrates this concept by showing the head as the standard unit and
comparing the head equal to the height of the following equal divisions: 1) head, 2) nipple, 3) navel, 4)
pubis, 5) mid-thigh, 6) knee, 7) mid-calf, 8) base of foot.
Anything can be used for a standard unit of
measure in a drawing. For example, the head may
be used as a standard unit of measure, or the
presenting corner of a box, or even the height of
your thumb when your arm is held at length. Once
you identify what you wish to use as the standard
unit, count how many standard units of that
measurement the object is high and how many it
is wide. Make note of these comparative measures
on your page. Keep using the same standard unit
of measure to compare the heights and widths of
the objects in your drawing to assure accurate
proportions. By using the standard unit of
measure as a comparative measure, scale and
proportion will be maintained in the most
complex of drawings.
8.31. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519,Italian
Renaissance), Vitruvian Man, 1487
8.32. Body in Perspective. Conte, 1999,
Kerwin student, Pasadena City College.
In Figure 8.32, by a student artist in life drawing,
the figure has been at first enclosed by a rectangular
cube and then receded by vanishing the cube to a
single vanishing point off the right side of the page, on
the horizon line. The body and head diminish in space
and are therefore smaller than the feet. This is called
foreshortening. Whenever the view is rotated at an
acute angle near to you, use foreshortening. This
creates the exact proportion of a receding object in
space.
24. 8.18. Lucian Freud (1922-2011, British)
Portrait of Francis Bacon
1956-57,
image from Man with Blue Scarf
Martin Gayford, 2010
German born, British contemporary artist,
Lucian Freud’s Portrait of Francis
Bacon (Fig 8.18) shows that the master
draws the face in detail before he
completes the background details.
8.19. Mary Heussenstamm (American)
Watercolor, ……
Multiethnic Watercolor Portraits
Flannigan Printers, 1994. Copyright George
Huessenstamm gandmheuss@earthlink.net
Mary Heussenstamm uses warm and cool
color theory to give her portraits depth.
Warm hues are used to bring lights and
highlight areas forward. She uses cool
purples and red-violets to create the shaded,
receding shadow areas. Where the cools
and the warm hues overlap, the
middle-tone neutrals create
transitional hues (see Fig. 8.19).
25.
26.
27. Advanced Drawing: The Creative Portfolio
The Creative Portfolio brings contemporary art practices into play. Many of the artist selections in
this course are by active contemporary artists from galleries and museums around the world. The works
are less about realism and more about composition bringing together ideas from cultures offering clues
to the informed viewer. The global interconnectedness of the web has forever changed the way art is
seen and drawing in particular is made. In the global world of contemporary drawing one can delight
in finding almost any approach. The work can be very spare, as in a Minimal practice employing a
single line such as Untitled #17, 2006 (Fig. ai.1) by Daniel Brice. Brice first creates the linear compositon
with masking tape. In abstract, ‘Minimal Art’ practice the work must primarily be perfected through a
process of mentally balancing the weights and measurements intuitively. When Brice is certain of his
composition, he then traces the taped outline and strengthens the line’s impact by filling the tracing
with charcoal, which contrasts powerfully against the light ground. Artists today can work from any
direction. They can go all the way from minimal to the more maximal extremes found in works by
artists such as Ethiopian artist, Julie Mehretu’s, Stadia II, 2004 (Fig. 15.19), or New York artist Louise
Despont who draws from a passion for the arts of southern Asia. Louise Despont’s, Winter’s Telephone,
2009 (Fig. ai.2 above, graphite, colored pencil and ink on antique ledger pages, 22 x 72”), appears
influenced by Tibetan culture and the art of miniatures. Despont integrates the Eastern sensibility to tell
a story of delicacy. First, she composes on antique ledger pages which gives the feeling of an ancient
manuscript, both historical and fragile. The ledger page images, from a distance, look like architecture in
landscape with an active population present. In closer observation (Fig. ai.3, Detail, Winter’s Telephone)
the artist has manipulated a myriad of simple, architectural symbols and graphic devices creating an
overlapped, tight network of minute, symmetrical design. Graphite and colored pencil (sometimes
watercolor) are used to finish the subtle values in her works. It is from a vast array of intercultural
dialogue that gives contemporary art such freedom of expression. Inspiration comes not only from
knowledge of various cultures and historical sources, but from training in technical skills set free into
the unlimited territories of one’s mind.
In this course, Advanced Drawing: The Creative Portfolio, a post-modern, global language is
presented. The expectation to utilize the concepts of creating compositions in color with line and form
will be important, but now improvising information into a personal language is necessary. Developing
an artistic dialogue can be assisted by the use of themes prevalent in contemporary art presented here,
but these themes can also come from ideas of particular interest to you. The projects in this course are
often multi-faceted, working from a range of sources, both directly and indirectly to create a personal
vision. Many of the projects encourage research, not only researching into other artist’s work, but also
finding source material outside of the sanctioned art world.
To help find a unique “voice”, the following projects are recommended for the Advanced Drawing
course. The first projects in chapter nine are ‘Relationship Play’. These are recommented as warm-ups
into innovation. Through the process of pattern play found in Project 9.1 ‘Ornamental Grammar’,
followed by more compositional innovation in the spatial ‘Interrelationships’ of Project 9.5, you can
learn to create new compositional orientations unpracticed in the realism strived for in Beginning and
Intermediate Drawing. Composition is still the focus of contemporary art. Critiques in the Advanced
Drawing oourse assume that a content driven, formal or institutional analysis may best suit the project
outcomes, especially when historical movements are refereneced (see Chapter One: The Critique). It
would be impossible to do all of the projects presented in Advanced Drawing: The Creative Portfolio. The
entire course should first be perused by the individual and through a selection process (which could be
what jumps out at you or as assigned), choose five projects or a theme in which five additional drawings
will be created, producing a series, as in ‘The Book’ (Project 13.2). These drawings will show a personal
style which may be suitable for exhibition, shifted into a book format, animated, or
28. ai.2.
even used in game design. This portion of DRAWING FROM THE INSIDE OUT can be revisited many
times in the studio to inspire new work.
Some of the themes presented tend toward the abstract as in ‘Pattern, Ornament and Decoration’
and ‘Architecture as Structure’. These projects track how certain features, including pattern and graphs
(often associated more with craft and architecture) can not only be incorporated into drawing, but can
also be the subject of a drawing. ‘The Language of Mapping’ is an exploration of how maps share a
similar language to drawing, as they include basic elements such as line, shape and space, yet also yield
conceptual information of territory and demarcations. More recognizable themes can be found in ‘The
Body’ and in ‘Landscape’. Almost all projects deal with the body in some way, but the projects in this
section will develop a contemporary approach to figure or portrait. ‘Landscape’, is where the
intersection of emperical observations developed during the Renaissance meets contemporary practices
for the lyrical, poetic and reductive landscape.
In order to utilize themes, work through Project 13.2: ‘The Book’ (found in Chapter 13. ‘Book,
Narrative and Characters’). ‘The Book’ portion takes you through a step process to complete five
drawings in the selected theme. The same steps can be applied again to ‘Character Development’ and
adapted to the narrative themes, that involve more complex projects. The section ‘Narrative and
Illustration’, which follows after ‘The Book’, uses more source material that has been considered outside
of visual art, such as instruction manuals, children’s book illustration, and other diagrams. Shifting from
source material to memories, ‘Nostalgia and Memory’ starts with an immediate focus on the personal
and includes past memories as well as current experience. As much as possible, we present drawings by
current artists juxtaposed with college students’ drawings who have taken this course.
The best subject matter for drawing comes from one’s own experience, likes and interests. The
things that were loved as a child and that attract as an adult are all fodder for inspiration. The following
projects are designed for use with the skills developed in Beginning and Intermediate Drawing, but
require a deepening understanding and appreciation of one’s own artistic sensibility. Some of the
themes in this course overlap. Some of the projects are very simple, others are multi-leveled with each
subsequent component building towards one finished drawing. The results are fascinatingly individual.
It is the pleasure of drawing as one’s self that is encouraged throughout this text, even when building
skills. The level is set higher within The Creative Portfolio. One’s ability to execute with the appropriate
techniques required to say what needs to be said is integral. This course is the juncture where the skills
take leaps into creative expressions, from the Cartesian model into new scopic regimes of seeing. The
result is drawing from all of your knowledge into a personal form, from the inside of your imagination
out onto the page where the new drawing will take shape.
29. CUBISM
9.24. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973,
Spanish), Afficionado, 1912,
oil on canvas, 53 1/8 x 32 ¼” Kunstmuseum
Basel Daix 500
One of the most intriguing spatial styles ever
devised was born around the beginning of the 20th
Century. Pablo Picasso saw invention in Paul
Cezanne’s multi-planar view landscapes and still
life compositions. Cezanne had been painting
exactly what he saw from his left eye and
overlapping the view from his right eye, creating
subtle multiple views within the same
composition. In 1907, Picasso confronted the
world anew, presenting Les Demoiselles
d’Avignon, incorporating front, side, and rear
views simultaneously; from this synthesis a style
was born—called Cubism.
During this period, Picasso developed the style
along with Georges Braque. The new Cubism
was to confound viewers who were not in the
know and the first real loss of audience occurred
due to advanced thinking in the arts. The cerebral
Cubism reached grand heights in works such as
Afficionado, 1912 (Fig. 9.24). The 20th
century
and beyond has pondered and copied the great
Cubist movement. Picasso was to go on to invent
many more styles in his lifetime. Cubism,
however, remains one of the most astonishing
accomplishments in human creative endeavors.
Project 9.7A: Preparatory Sketches
For Cubist Drawing
MATERIAL: Sketchbook, pencil.
1. Draw multiple views of a person’s head
(or views of an animal) fro: front, back, above, below,
and side-to-side—as separate drawings in a sketchbook.
30. Project 9.6B: Cubist Drawing
MATERIALS: 9.6A Preparatory Sketches—
five or more views of a person’s head
(or animal), Bristol board, tracing paper or
vellum (18” roll), pencil, colored pencil
ARTISTS: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque,
Marcel Duchamp, Paul Cezanne
2. On tracing paper over Bristol board,
trace each view. Carefully overlap each
new view.
3. Add realistic values to the views
showing volume to create form.
4. Where the different views overlap,
change values, to give the
appearance of “fracturing”, as if seen
reflecting light in the shards of a smashed
mirror (as in samples 9.23-9.25).
9.23. Cubist Drawing
Alejandro Macias, Heads
Colored pencil & graphite on vellum
over poster board
9.24. Cubist Drawing
Raymundo Arellano, Chicken
graphite on tracing paper over board
9.25. Cubist Drawing
Glorya Keligian Morales, Horses
graphite and vellum over paper
31. Project 15.3: Interior Space as Source
Interior space has been a subject of art for centuries, in particular in the work of Vermeer, Bonnard, Matisse and
Edward Hopper. More recently contemporary artists have begun to investigate new ways to look at interior space,
such as Julie Mehretu’s complex architecturally inspired drawings and paintings (Fig. 15.9). Julie Mehretu’s work
is often composed of overlaying different architectural features such as columns, façades and porticoes with
different geographical schema such as charts, building plans, city maps and architectural renderings seen from
different perspectives, at once aerial, cross-section and isometric. Mehretu creates these complex layers of marks
using pencils, pen, ink and acrylic paint. The end result appears as both recognizable and imaginary. In this
project you will take just one of the many source materials used by Mehretu (architectural plans) and create
several overlays by tracing over the plans from many different orientations. The resulting drawing will consist of
a cacophony of drawing marks and distorted points of view, creating a new, imagined kind of space.
MATERIALS: interior decorating/architectural magazines, roll of tracing paper, architectural plans
good drawing paper (22 x 30”), pencils (H, HB), watercolors, #12 watercolor brush
ARTISTS: Julie Mehretu, Franz Ackermann
1. With an HB pencil trace several shapes from interior decorating magazines on a 22 x 30”
piece of tracing paper. You can vary the orientation (reverse, sideways, etc.) (See Figures.15.10-11).
2. Tape tracing paper to the window. Tape a quality drawing paper on top. Trace elements from the tracing paper
onto a good quality drawing paper with an H pencil.
3. Take the drawing paper off the window. Erase lines. Add lines. Erase parts of lines. Your lines will show in the
final drawing and erasing parts of lines is a way to add character to the line.
4. Use watercolors to paint in some of the shapes. Be sure to leave some empty space.
15.9. Julie Mehretu
(Ethiopian-American),
Stadia II, 2004, Ink and
acrylic on canvas. 108 x
144”, Collection of the
Carnegie Museum of Art,
Pennsylvania. Copyright:
Julie Mehretu (courtesy
the artist and The Project,
NYC).
32.
33. CHAPTER 16. FREEHAND DRAWING & DIGITAL SKETCHBOOKS
Pressure sensitive digital tablets or drawing tablets are peripheral devices composed of a tablet or drawing
surface, a stylus and software. The industry leader for many years in this area has been Wacom. When we draw
on paper, it feels natural to move the pencil or pen around the paper. The Apple iPad and other tablet computers
and some of the newer devices, smart phones, tablets, and specialist monitors now let you draw with a stylus or
your finger directly on the screen. With the introduction of the Wacom Inkling digital sketch pen device, you can
draw onto paper and have it instantly digitized as you draw. You can even create layers as you sketch onto the
paper.
It is exciting that technology is functioning like a traditional
sketchbook. It is small enough and lightweight enough to carry.
Apps such as Sketchbook Pro make it possible to draw as you would
in a paper sketchbook, but with the digital advantages of being able
to create layers, import images and instantly share your sketches on
sites like Facebook or Flickr. Some established artists have adopted
the use of apps to create art on their phones or tablet computers.
Perhaps the most publicized example is British artist David
Hockney (b. 1937, British), who has long been a lover of new tools
for making images. He has exhibited a whole series of work done on
iPhones and iPads (Fig. 16.2). Although certain software companies
have a stranglehold on the market for computer graphics
applications, there are many options worth looking at, including
Web-based applications. One is an easy to use and intuitive drawing
application called Harmony by Mr. Doob, aka Ricardo Cabello, a
designer and Web developer (see Fig. 16.4). This app is available on
his website (see the list of links at the end of this section). It is a lot
like drawing by hand, but with a selection of very interesting
brushes to choose from that create web-like structures and respond
to the direction of the stroke of your mouse or stylus, regardless of
whether you are using a pressure sensitive tablet. All that and it’s free!
On some level, drawing with a mouse, a stylus or with your fingertip on a touch screen is really the same as
drawing on paper. However, there are still some important differences and these devices are changing our
understanding of what it is to draw. Digital Drawing aims to inspire students to rethink computer art with more of
an eye to traditional drawing techniques and approaches (Fig.16.3).
16.2. David Hockney, (b. 1937, British) “Untitled”, iPad drawing, 2010
16.3. Jon Measures (British), sketch for a piece of lettering drawn using
sketchbook Pro on the iPad.
34. Kerwin has created a concise and
comprehensive, three-course, college
textbook in one affordable volume.
DRAWING FROM THE INSIDE OUT
offers 140 projects with everything you
need to know about composition and
techniques for Beginning Drawing (Black
and White media); Intermediate Drawing
(Color media); and Advanced Drawing
(The Creative Portfolio—with over 40
projects that focus on creativity within a
contemporary drawing context,
including a chapter on digital drawing.)
This book was the vision of publisher,
Clark Baxter. DRAWING FROM THE
INSIDE OUT has 225 pages of concepts
and projects for drawing, with art
historical lessons illustrated by master
and contemporary artists.