Art 7a Drawing and Composition: So it begins!

The opening of the first class was basic introduction to the class and to drawing in general. Will Smith (no, not the actor. My teacher) states "Drawing is the basis for all art" And not just drawing, as in pictures or portraits, but mark making. This to me is...revolutionary! It opens up my world and view of art! The first lesson is in gesture drawing. Line gesture, Scribble gesture, Mass gesture. The following are my attempts at using these methods in drawing some gourdes...ah the old "draw a gourde" technique...enjoy.

line gesture Scribble gesture Mass Gesture And all 3 put together.

The next class lecture was about Contour line drawings. Mr Smith spoke of Line weight and how thinner and thicker line create the illusion of closer and further away, shadows and depth. Using cross contour line create shape and start to make drawings take 3 dimensional form. He also taught about use of negative space to help create the suggestion of form. the last drawing he had us do was using ONLY the negative space and shadows around the objects to suggest to the eye the form. Referring Gestalt theory the brain should create the image even though it is not fully "drawn" The minds eye will "create" or "finish" the image. The third charcoal drawing is of exactly that. Can you see the gourdes? Consequently he liked my interpretation and used it as an example on the class blog site. His comments were "Martin's drawing is much more open and relies on similarity in marks and tones to establish a rhythm. Note the gourd in center/ right; the curvature and mark-making employed around the curling neck. Using thicker lines in weighted areas and thinner lines and tonalities in lighter areas grounds the objects and gives them a sense of weight. Remember the key to emphasizing negative space is to be "suggestive" of forms; don't over draw the forms. Less is More." Needless to say, I was pretty stoked.