Portraits made with frottage rubbings Kumi Yamashita
“Almost everyone can remember in grade school art class placing a sheet of paper over the face of a coin or some other textured object and rubbing it with a crayon. I employed this same method – known as frottage – to create the following portraits. For Beckett’s likeness, I had embossed plates made of selected passages from his own handwritten notebooks. For the other subjects, I used their own personal (and expired!) credit cards.” – Kumi Yamashita
Portrait made with credit card rubbings by Kumi Yamashita
Saturday is the day for experimental drawing, so today my suggestion is frottage. Use the texture as Yamashita did for her portraits, by layering marks to form a tonal drawing. A tonal drawing means no outlines, only values to express the forms.
Kumi Yamashita
If you’re new at this, consider using a photograph or famous painting as a reference. You don’t have to do a portrait, you can use a picture of any subject, as long as it’s a good reference photo with clear dark areas that describe the forms. Once you have a good reference photo, hold it up to a window, and lightly trace the medium and dark shapes onto a fresh piece of paper. Try not to think of what the object is. For example, don’t draw out the eyes and nose and mouth. Instead, turn the photograph upside down, and look for areas of light, medium, and dark (three values). Sketch out where the darkest shapes are, then the medium. You can use the paper as the light. Avoid using outlines in your final drawing. You might be surprised at how little definition our minds need to recognize the image.
Now that you have your sketch, you can gently run a pencil or crayon (or anything else you have on hand) across anything textured to slowly build up the dark areas.
Kumi Yamashita
When you’ve finished your session, post your project and tag #30SAL so we can find it online. To help more people find your post and our challenge, you can copy and paste these tags:
I’ll post my favorites for week 1 later today. There are over 630 #30sal contributions now! It’s fantastic to see so many creative responses posted from all around the world.
As preparation for this Saturday’s workshop Paint like Degas, I’m digging in some art history to get perspective on the range of Degas’ art. Although he was eternally unsatisfied with his work, and he could a miserable jerk to people, early in his career it seems he was especially extra miserable with his artwork. He …
[image_with_animation image_url=”9791″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Connie Pierson “Art Before/After” Today starts week 2 for the drawing challenge. Prizes are awarded weekly. A single post makes you eligible to win a prize. Take or make a picture of yourself before making art, take or make another photo after, and then post them to Instagram or …
Here the artist uses less glow effect by adding medium tones, but notice how the windows at the top aren’t surrounded by hard straight lines. The texture of the paint makes the light blue spill into the dark a little, making them sparkle. Smooth perfect lines would have killed the sparkle. See it? Would you …
Exercise your creativity This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, sew, collage, sculpt your food, anything you want. See below for today’s creative challenge. Set the timer for 20 minutes and see what happens. ERINACEOUS adj. – of, pertaining to, or …
30SAL Challenge: Frottage
“Almost everyone can remember in grade school art class placing a sheet of paper over the face of a coin or some other textured object and rubbing it with a crayon. I employed this same method – known as frottage – to create the following portraits. For Beckett’s likeness, I had embossed plates made of selected passages from his own handwritten notebooks. For the other subjects, I used their own personal (and expired!) credit cards.” – Kumi Yamashita
Saturday is the day for experimental drawing, so today my suggestion is frottage. Use the texture as Yamashita did for her portraits, by layering marks to form a tonal drawing. A tonal drawing means no outlines, only values to express the forms.
If you’re new at this, consider using a photograph or famous painting as a reference. You don’t have to do a portrait, you can use a picture of any subject, as long as it’s a good reference photo with clear dark areas that describe the forms. Once you have a good reference photo, hold it up to a window, and lightly trace the medium and dark shapes onto a fresh piece of paper. Try not to think of what the object is. For example, don’t draw out the eyes and nose and mouth. Instead, turn the photograph upside down, and look for areas of light, medium, and dark (three values). Sketch out where the darkest shapes are, then the medium. You can use the paper as the light. Avoid using outlines in your final drawing. You might be surprised at how little definition our minds need to recognize the image.
Now that you have your sketch, you can gently run a pencil or crayon (or anything else you have on hand) across anything textured to slowly build up the dark areas.
When you’ve finished your session, post your project and tag #30SAL so we can find it online. To help more people find your post and our challenge, you can copy and paste these tags:
#30sal #seattleartistleague #frottage #rubbing #drawingchallenge #drawing #art #illustration #sketch #artchallenge #drawings #artist #draw #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #instaart #drawthisinyourstyle #artwork #drawingoftheday #dailydrawing #inkdrawing #drawingsketch #artoftheday #myart #pencildrawing #drawthisinyourstylechallenge #creativity #creativechallenge
I’ll post my favorites for week 1 later today. There are over 630 #30sal contributions now! It’s fantastic to see so many creative responses posted from all around the world.
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As preparation for this Saturday’s workshop Paint like Degas, I’m digging in some art history to get perspective on the range of Degas’ art. Although he was eternally unsatisfied with his work, and he could a miserable jerk to people, early in his career it seems he was especially extra miserable with his artwork. He …
SAL Challenge: Art Before/After
[image_with_animation image_url=”9791″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Connie Pierson “Art Before/After” Today starts week 2 for the drawing challenge. Prizes are awarded weekly. A single post makes you eligible to win a prize. Take or make a picture of yourself before making art, take or make another photo after, and then post them to Instagram or …
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Here the artist uses less glow effect by adding medium tones, but notice how the windows at the top aren’t surrounded by hard straight lines. The texture of the paint makes the light blue spill into the dark a little, making them sparkle. Smooth perfect lines would have killed the sparkle. See it? Would you …
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