OK, so new assignment. FIVE Self-Portraits in pen, in your sketch book, or on computer paper, from a mirror. I want you to do more than one of them because I want you to feel as if you have to move quickly. Quickly doesn't mean haphazard or half assed. This should be an intense investigation, drawing only what you see and fighting the urge to draw the stuff you know. Work on the whole face at the same time. Worry about making a figure with volume and space rather than capturing a likeness. I'll be more impressed by a monster-ish portrait that feels like a person than a flat looking drawing that a sort of resembles you.



Remember to finish the self portraits we worked on in class, bring in your best Gorilla and one of your figure drawings. I will grade these and give you some feedback on how your doing. We've reached a point in the semester where we need to turn up the heat a bit. If your pushing yourself really hard, don't just maintain that intensity, accelerate. For those of you coasting, it's time to get serious about this. You're missing really great stuff! Onward we go!

So many of you were absent due to sickness on Tuesday that I thought it'd be easier to just write to all of you collectively rather than individually



SICK PEOPLE
You missed a great class. We worked on our self portraits and made large changes (some of the drawings were almost unrecognizable from the beginning of class to the end of class). To be fair, I have to warn you that there are group of incredible drawings awaiting you on Thursday. They worked very hard in class and concentrated, although frustrating at times, on drawing only what they saw. 90% of the drawings will be finished with an hour or two of work. Some are done already. You should work on your portraits hard... if you are feeling better of course.



ALL PEOPLE
Bring what you have to class tomorrow. If you are finished, I have something for you to work on, you can also take another picture and work on another drawing in class. I have an idea for a new assignment, but I feel like we should finish up this portrait segment, move to a short perspective thing, and then go back to drawing humans with new ideas. Bring your materials, including your Canson Pad, some pencils, an eraser, black chalk, white chalk and the other stuff we've been using. Feel better soon!

Somewhere, Over the Weekend

Kathe Kollwitz

This looks like many of your drawings from class on Thurs. Can you see the gestural marks underneath, that determine the rest of the drawing? Filling in the articulating marks came at the very end. Can you blur your eye and make this portrait into a simple shape?


Gerhard Richter "Betty" Oil on canvas

OK. So, for Tuesday I'd like you to bring in the photo you are working from (if your working from a mirror, bring in the mirror) and bring in what you've worked on. I would really love it if you worked large, (more than 18x24. 22 x 30 or 30 x 44 would be great). Remember to stay loose. As soon as you feel yourself getting tight and flat, STOP! I want to encourage you to trust yourself, and to listen to your intuition. Make marks based on observation, not on what you know.


John Currin

We are going to work on these drawings in class on Tuesday. BE PREPARED TO CHANGE YOUR DRAWING! We're going to find things that need to be moved, pushed, detailed and blurred. Drawing is an organic process. It is an ongoing struggle of mark making. Embrace it! I really like thinking of our drawings as a piece of clay that we can work and rework and destroy in an effort to create.


Anthony Goicolea

If you have digital camera's the best way to arrive at a high contrast photograph is by adjusting the white balance and turning the flash off. Set yourself up with some dramatic lighting (ie kinda dark with one or two primary light sources). The bigger you print them out, the better. I can't wait to see what you bring in!



Things to think about...
-COMPOSITION
-LINE QUALITY
-EXPRESSION
-WHERE OBJECTS ARE IN RELATION TO OTHERS
-COMPOSITION



Things to do...
-BE BOLD
-BE LOOSE
-COMPOSITION
-STEP AWAY FROM THE DRAWING
-ENJOY THIS PROCESS. THERE IS NOTHING BETTER!

The markers look like this...

TURSSDAY

Above is a drawing by Alberto Giacometti. You can see those searching lines that I was talking about in class in this drawing. The process is very evident and quite beautiful. It keeps the drawing from looking stiff and dead.


Here is another image I thought of in relation to self portraiture. We should begin to think of the self portrait as something more than an assignment. It is a portrayal of our true self, or perhaps a portrayal of our fake self. In any case, it is more than a front facing study. I want us to begin thinking about exactly what it is YOUR self portrait looks like and what it is your drawing says about you or about your world. In other words, what do composition, scale (full body, upper torso, lower torso, detail of teeth etc) line quality, contrast, all of that stuff you learned about last year, what do they have to do with you and how do you implement them in a meaninful way? You should begin thinking about this.

I'd like to do another round or two of the blurred to focused picture on Thursday so bring the same materials you brought Tuesday. I'll bring my white chalk again. Check out this link to the next visiting artist. She sounds awesome....

Anya Kivarkis

Chuck Close and Fashion and Art

If you look at the Chuck close portrait above, underneath all of the little squiggly marks he makes on top of the painting, you'll see that the foundation is made of big dark blobs (the kind you see when you blur your eyes). Once these shapes are in place, it almost doesn't matter what you put on top of them, it will look like the face. You can sort of think of this as a foundation to build a strong house on. No one tries to buy matching curtains before digging a big hole to put the house on, so why do we draw perfect eyelashes before laying a strong foundation of gestural marks?

If you like Chuck Close, you can watch an interview with him on the Charlie Rose show here...

Charlie Close, on the Chuck Rose Show!

Here are a couple of links I've been checking out that you might be interested in. If you are interested in fashion, prepare for addiction...

The Sartorialist

This blog is a great discussion of some of the problems and some of the solutions to making it as an artist...

Imasellout

See you Tuesday!!!

Face It

We're going to begin drawing faces on Thursday. We'll do a couple of exercises to get warmed up and then we'll begin drawing each other. Again, unlearning will directly effect our learning, especially when it comes to drawing the face.

Please bring your black charcoal, conte crayons (black or sepia), white (make sure you have some white!), your newsprint and canson pads, and a kneadable and rubber eraser.

Any guesses as to who did the self-portrait above???

Ok. Here We Go!

First, Kudos to you for Thursday. Those are difficult things to do and they can be draining but the energy you approached them with got me very excited about the rest of the year. Maybe I just have good luck but I feel like I have another incredible class. Some of the drawings from Thursday were really beautiful!



For Tuesday, please bring your newsprint pad, and your Canson Pad. Your black Conte crayon will be really great for what we're going to work on but so will your LYRA graphit stick. I suppose a pencil will be fine as long as it's pretty soft lead, like 6B or one of those Ebony pencils will work really great too. I forgot to tell you to buy two or three black China Markers (wax pencils). Bring those if you have them. If you haven't gotten your materials yet, make sure you get China Martkers too. If you already made the trek to pick stuff up, don't worry about it, but next time you go, pick some up. They're like 89 cents a piece and they make beautiful marks. Might want to bring an eraser too.

(Bring both of these)
Newsprint pad
Canson Pad
(bring some or all of these)...
Conte Crayon (preferably HB)
LYRA Stick
Ebony Pencil
China Markers
Eraser

Make sure you bring your materials. People leaving class to go get materials is very distracting. Let's not do it.
We're going to be working from observation, and from our imagination. See you Tuesday...if it doesn't snow!

Bonus points if you can tell me who made these drawing or who did the photograph of a mentally retarded white tiger below.