[image_with_animation image_url=”9488″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] This is the third part of a multi day series, sharing work by my beginning figure drawing classes. Many of these students have never taken a drawing class before, nearly all of them are new to figure drawing.
Rather than learning one style, we study a different approach every session. We’ve done straight line measures, site sizing, envelopes, kites, mass shapes, shadows, gestures, contours, volume, cross-hatching, and more. Today I’m posting a few of the silly ones. These are blind contour line drawings. The point with these is not to learn accurate proportions. Instead, blind contour line drawings teach us how to focus, and notice details. The line work gets more interesting because the artist is exercising intensely active curiosity in their subject for the duration of the drawing.
A drawing is a record of our focus.
Also, these drawings are silly, and silly is good.
[image_with_animation image_url=”7073″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Portraits of people looking the other way. Works by: Gerhard Richter Oscar-Claude Monet James Abbott McNeill Whistler Kathe Kollwitz Andrew Wyeth (2) [image_with_animation image_url=”7074″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][image_with_animation image_url=”7076″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][image_with_animation image_url=”7075″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]” load_in_animation=”none
[image_with_animation image_url=”11428″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] From previous V.Note: “Though I thought I should give it a try, I really thought I wouldn’t like drypoint because every time I heard the word “drypoint” I heard nails on a chalkboard, and most of the prints labeled as “drypoints” seemed less rich and subtle than the etchings …
Art 21 by Michael Neault | Jan 7, 2013 Ilya Repin, “Unexpected Visitors” (or “They Did Not Expect Him”), 1884-1888. Oil on canvas. 63.19 x 65.95 in. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. When you approach a painting in a gallery, it feels like you’re looking at the entire piece all at once, but what your …
Yesterday I talked about how Carlos San Millan paints the effect of light so beautifully, and posted work by a painter he recommended: Emil Joseph Robinson. Today I’d like to make some points about one of his paintings, and how he has applied ideas of contrast to paint the effects of light. Take a look …
Beginner’s Drawings That’ll Knock Your Socks Off (Part 3)
[image_with_animation image_url=”9488″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] This is the third part of a multi day series, sharing work by my beginning figure drawing classes. Many of these students have never taken a drawing class before, nearly all of them are new to figure drawing.
Rather than learning one style, we study a different approach every session. We’ve done straight line measures, site sizing, envelopes, kites, mass shapes, shadows, gestures, contours, volume, cross-hatching, and more. Today I’m posting a few of the silly ones. These are blind contour line drawings. The point with these is not to learn accurate proportions. Instead, blind contour line drawings teach us how to focus, and notice details. The line work gets more interesting because the artist is exercising intensely active curiosity in their subject for the duration of the drawing.
A drawing is a record of our focus.
Also, these drawings are silly, and silly is good.
Enjoy.
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Look Away, Look Away
[image_with_animation image_url=”7073″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Portraits of people looking the other way. Works by: Gerhard Richter Oscar-Claude Monet James Abbott McNeill Whistler Kathe Kollwitz Andrew Wyeth (2) [image_with_animation image_url=”7074″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][image_with_animation image_url=”7076″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][image_with_animation image_url=”7075″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]” load_in_animation=”none
This is not an etching: Frank Hobbs
[image_with_animation image_url=”11428″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] From previous V.Note: “Though I thought I should give it a try, I really thought I wouldn’t like drypoint because every time I heard the word “drypoint” I heard nails on a chalkboard, and most of the prints labeled as “drypoints” seemed less rich and subtle than the etchings …
Tracking the Gaze
Art 21 by Michael Neault | Jan 7, 2013 Ilya Repin, “Unexpected Visitors” (or “They Did Not Expect Him”), 1884-1888. Oil on canvas. 63.19 x 65.95 in. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. When you approach a painting in a gallery, it feels like you’re looking at the entire piece all at once, but what your …
Emil Joseph Robinson; the Science of Light
Yesterday I talked about how Carlos San Millan paints the effect of light so beautifully, and posted work by a painter he recommended: Emil Joseph Robinson. Today I’d like to make some points about one of his paintings, and how he has applied ideas of contrast to paint the effects of light. Take a look …