What fun. A few intense weeks of drawing during the Maymester session at USC. (I really do think this is fun - no sarcasm this time around). Drawing was my first introduction to art, the most basic form of artistic expression. More than just a matter of hand/eye coordination, it is an exercise in seeing. How you break down the image that you see into parts. How you interpret value and texture and translate it to your drawing. Scale, proportion, perspective... the foundations of accurately depicting reality... the basic elements of a constructed rendering.
It was refreshing to be able to explore these basic principles again, and to think about them in a new way.
Gesture Drawing/Thumbnails
We focused on landscape drawing for the semester. Very appropriate! On the first day we went to the quad and produced 4 quick thumbnail drawings. Historically I have had problems with gesture drawings, for a couple of reasons. Mainly, the time limit. To produce a drawing that quickly you have to let go. You have to look at the object you are drawing more than your paper. You give up control, you have to let process and instinct guide you.
I took this image of the scene a couple of days after I began the drawing, and many of the fronds had unfurled... so it is not a direct representation.
This is my final composition. And I had to really manipulate the values to create depth in the drawing... otherwise the overlaps were the only way to judge distance. I used charcoal, vine charcoal, and graphite.
Everything Has It's Place
In this exercise we drew a layered still life, focusing on sighting, measuring, and proportion, and using a consistent view point with our view finders. Only a line drawing, we were aiming to be as accurate as possible, constantly measuring and adjusting our drawings. First we developed thumbnail sketches to choose a composition, then we rendered the final on bristol board.
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