Monday, October 31, 2016

Assignment #10: Emotive Self Portraits

Due: next week

Emotive Self Portraits
You are to pick two of the eight self-portrait drawings options below; make a self-portrait for each of your choices, with each drawing affecting some human facial reactions:

Surprise
Fear
Skepticism
Shame
Excitement
Anger
Disdain
Disgust

Be as melodramatic as possible.  Subtlety is great, but for drawings like this to work they need a theatrical quality.  Each drawing must be meticulously finished from observation only.  This means you may not work from photos or any other 2 dimensional references, and you must be sure that you draw as anatomically accurate as you are able.  To do this you must spend hours in front of your mirror at home studying your face in different poses.  Leave any self-consciousness at the door.  Each drawing should fill a page in your sketchbook.  Good luck.




Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Assignment #9: Matisse Self Portrait Project

Due: next week

You are to choose a Henri Matisse portrait drawing.  In the same manner as the Van Gogh project and the Ingres project, make a copy of the Matisse drawing and make a self portrait drawing in the same scale, style, and position as the copy. Matisse was all about line quality.  His line has an unselfconscious whimsical quality that is also extremely confident.  In copying his line you cannot possibly be authentically unselfconscious, but you have to look that way.  Spray fix!

There are a number of websites that are great image resources: artcyclopedia.com, and artchive.com, but also try Google images.  Be creative in how you search for images.  They’re definitely out there . . .

Hint: Be sure to choose drawings, not prints that look like drawings. 


Wednesday, October 19, 2016

No class on Monday!

So I need to be away on Monday during class time.  As a result, I'm cancelling class.  We won't have class Monday the 24th.  We will see each other again on Wednesday the 26th.  Your homework will be due then.

Assignment #8: Ingres Self Portrait Project

Due: Next Week

You are to choose a Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres portrait drawing In the same manner as the Van Gogh project, make a copy of the Ingres drawing and make a self portrait drawing in the same scale, style, and position as the copy. Spray fix!

Again, you are making two drawings total: a forgery and a self portrait.

There are a number of websites that are great image resources: artcyclopedia.com is chief among them, but also see what google images gives you.


Hint: This project is about following directions as much as anything else.  Make sure to read the directions carefully.  Also be sure to choose drawings, not prints that look like drawings. 

Monday, October 10, 2016

Assignment #7: Van Gogh Self Portrait Project

Due next week

You are to research/choose a Vincent Van Gogh portrait drawing.   (A portrait is a drawing of a person where the identity of the sitter is clearly important)  In your sketchbook, copy that drawing exactly.  You are to reproduce it line for line (in other words, if there are 384 lines in his drawing, there should be 384 lines in your drawing!), taking into account line quality, and not just location and direction  .  After that, on the next page in your sketchbook, make a self-portrait drawing in the same scale, style, and position as the Van Gogh drawing that you chose.  You MUST spray fix your drawings (outside) or they will smear into the facing page!

There are a number of websites that are great image resources: vggallery.com and artcyclopedia.com, among others

Review: So, you are to “forge” a Van Gogh drawing, and then make a drawing in the same style and scale substituting yourself in the place of the Van Gogh subject.


Hint: This project is about following directions as much as anything else.  Make sure to follow the directions carefully.  Also be sure to choose drawings, not prints that look like drawings. 



Monday, October 3, 2016

Bring the Gray/Neutral Paper to next class!

Remember to bring the gray/neutral paper to class, plus black and white conte crayons.  We will be drawing on this paper on Wednesday and next Monday.

Assignment #6: Hand and Foot Bones

Hand and foot drawings with superimposed skeletons
Due next week

Choose your most interesting hand drawing and your most interesting foot drawing from the previous sketchbook assignment.  You are to re-draw them, superimposing the skeletal structure of each into the drawings (do not merely make a skeleton hand and foot without the flesh surrounding it).   Each drawing should fill a sketchbook page.

Research the skeletal anatomy of hands and feet enough to be able to accurately place each bone into its respective spot.  You are to be anatomically accurate, allowing the various processes and recesses of each individual bone to be expressed.  Do not merely make cartoony versions of bones.  The shape of each distal phalanx should be separate and distinct from the shape of each median phalanx, for example.  Also, be sure that your skeleton matches up with any visible landmarks caused by boney protrusions, so that the medial malleolus of the tibia actually causes the protrusion known as the inside ankle bone.

Both of these drawings should be as made to be as believable and as beautifully crafted as possible.  Take into consideration the perspectival shape of foreshortened bones, plus the necessary overlapping of bones that such drawings require.  Use any reference sources available to finish the project as long as you yourself are the one making the drawings.


Good luck!