Gesture drawings with line and then with TONE ONLY. Note: TONE not SHADOW. Use tones/values to describe form; shadows are the TEMPORARY interruption of light. Light can reveal form but also can change any time---form is permanent. DO NOT MAKE “LIGHT AND SHADE” DRAWINGS; that process copies patterns of lights and darks on the figure and records them on a paper. This may or may not describe three-dimensional form. It can often distort form or obscure it or chop it up. (That often results when a 2-D photograph is copied, making it appear lifeless, distorted and flat.) SPOTLIGHTS: Don't. We all know from a life-time of touching how forms we see are shaped and feel. Drawings record a combination of tactile and visual information; therefore, form is better described without a spotlight, which only distracts attention. Describe shadowed surfaces ONLY when this helps to reveal form, and then only lightly; dark “shadows” can look like dirt smudges on the model. STRUCTURE/FORM FIRST, light second.
STUDENTS:
1. Warm-up with gesture drawings using lines as before. About 10-60 seconds, gradually increased.
2. Do the same with TONES ONLY, NO LINES. Use the sides of Conte crayon or chalk broken into 1/2 or 1/3rds. These tone gestures describe solid form NOT "edges" or contours. Try putting tones in the centers of forms to create a feeling of weight and volume.
3. Follow with more gestures, all starting with tones to build bulk only, and then adding lines sparingly where they help to describe the figure. Beware: do not painstakingly draw continuous contour lines all around the figure; that will make it flat. Lines can be very few, interrupted, only here and there, and help only when and where they amplify description or expression. (see Rembrandt)
4. Do the last drawing the same way, tone first, line second, but enlarged so much the figure goes off the page. 20 minutes, if time.
HOMEWORK: (# 8) FORESHORTEN. Follow instructions on the assignment sheet. Best to do as many drawings as time allows.
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