Drawing is the most basic of the visual arts. It can be done with dry media like pencil, charcoal, chalk or pastel on paper or wet media like pen and ink or brush and ink. Historically, drawing was done with materials like silverpoint or quill pens. Modern drawing explores new approaches and surfaces beyond traditional paper. It serves purposes from sketches to fully developed works of art.

1. Chapter 5
Drawing

3. Two-Dimensional Art
• Drawing
• Painting
• Printmaking
• Imaging: Photography, Film,
Video, and Digital Arts

4. Drawing . . . is the necessary
beginning of everything in
art, and not having it, one
has nothing.
–Giorgio Vasari

5. Drawing
• The most basic of all the visual arts
• The most common support is monochromatic
paper or parchment. But, drawing can be
found on a large variety of different surfaces.
• Drawing - the result of implement running
over a surface and leaving some trace of this
gesture
• Support - the surface
• Monochromatic - one color
• Linear - made of lines

6. DRAWING CATAGORIES
1. Sketches
2. Plans
3. Fully developed works of art

7. DRAWING MATERIALS
Dry Media
Wet Media

8. Dry Media
Silverpoint
• Uses a ground of bone or chalk mixed with
gum, water and pigment
• Drag a silver tipped instrument over the
surface, and the particles stick to the ground.
• To make an area darker you have to use cross
hatching.
• Very delicate in appearance

10. Pencil
• Most traditional media
• Replaced silverpoint
• Capable of creating a wide range of effects
History:
• Came into use in the 1500s
• Mass produced pencils invented in late eighteenth century
• Uses a thin rod of graphite encased in wood or paper
• The graphite is ground to dust, mixed with clay, and
baked.
• The more clay that is added to the mixture, the harder the
pencil.

13. Pencil
Figure 5.6, p.109: ADRIAN PIPER. Self-Portrait Exaggerating My Negroid Features (1981). Pencil on paper.
10” x 8”.

14. Charcoal
• Has a long history
• Used by prehistoric man on cave walls!
• Charcoal is burnt pieces of wood or bone.
• Now charcoal is made from controlled charring of
special hardwoods.
• Charcoals range from hard to soft.
• Can be easily smudged or rubbed
• Shows the surface of the paper
• Needs to be fixed with varnish, or will rub off

15. Charcoal
Figure 5.8, p.110: KÄTHE KOLLWITZ. Self-Portrait (1924). Charcoal. 18-3/4” x 25”.

20. Charcoal
Figure 5.9, p.111: CLAUDIO BRAVO. Package (1969). Charcoal, pastel, and sanguine. 30-7⁄8” x 22-1⁄2”.

23. Chalk and Pastel
• Chalk and pastel are very similar to charcoal.
• The compositions of the media differ.
• Created by combining pigments and a binder –
such as gum arabic and then shaped into a
workable stick
• Relatively young, only introduced to France in
the 1400s.
• Available in many colors
– Ocher - dark yellow that comes from iron oxide in
some clays
– Umber - yellowish or reddish brown color that comes
from earth containing oxides or manganese and iron
– Sanguine - a “earthy” red color

24. Chalk and Pastel
Figure 5.10, p.111: MICHELANGELO. Studies for The Libyan Sybil (1510–1511). Red chalk. 11-3⁄8” x 8-3⁄8”.

26. Crayon
• Strictly defined, the term crayon includes any
drawing material in stick form (This can
include charcoal, chalk, and pastel, plus wax
implements.)
• Conte Crayon is one of the most popular
commercially manufactured crayons.
• Wax crayons combine ground pigment with
wax as their binder.
– They are less apt to smudge.

27. Fluid Media
• Pen and Ink
• Pen and Wash
• Brush and Ink
• Brush and Wash

28. Fluid Media
• The primary fluid medium used in drawing is ink.
• Instruments used with ink are primarily pen and
brush.
• Ink has been used for thousands of years.
• Egyptians used it on papyrus.
• Ancient people made ink from dyes of plants, squid,
and octopus.
• Oldest known ink is India or China ink
– Used in calligraphy
– Made of carbon black and water

31. Pen and Ink
• Used since ancient times
• Earliest were hollow reeds
• Quills, plucked from live birds, were
used in the Middle Ages.
• Replaced in the nineteenth century with
mass produced metal nib, which is
slipped into a stylus.
– Many artists still use a these today.

32. Pen and Wash
Figure 5.21, p.116: GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO. Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness (c. 1725–1735).
Pen, brush and brown ink, and wash, over sketch in black chalk. 16-1⁄2” x 11-1⁄8”.

33. Pen and Wash
Wash - diluted ink that is applied with
brush
• Often combined with fine clear lines of
pure ink to provide tonal emphasis
• The use of a wash allows for a tonal
emphasis, not visible in pen-and-ink
drawings.

34. Brush and Ink
• Extremely versatile
• Brushes come in a wide variety of
materials, textures, and shapes.
– These create different effects.

36. Cartoons
• Cartoon - derived from the Italian word cartone
meaning paper
• Originally referred to full-scale preliminary
drawings done on paper for projects such as fresco
paintings, stained glass, or tapestries.
• In 1843, the definition was expanded to what we
know now, when a parody of fresco cartoons which
were submitted for decoration of the House of
Parliaments, appeared in an English magazine.
• Modern cartoons rely on caricature.

37. Figure 5.24, p.118: HONORÉ DAUMIER. Counsel for the Defense (the Advocate) (1862-1865). Pen and ink,
charcoal, crayon, gouache, and watercolor. 20⅜" × 23¾".

41. New Approaches to
Drawing
Drawing displays endless versatility in:
• Purpose
• Media
• Technique