windowtoart "Drawing": Changeovers   Part 2     Drawing     Choices

BACKGROUND

This Introductory Class began with several days learning gesture drawing techniques with pencil/ball point pen. Like most people, these inexperienced students doubted the goal of the practices at first, but soon personally saw its benefits.

A collection of many small and large objects-glass, metal, clothing, dried plants, etc., was arranged around the tables. Sketches began with one object and progressed to overlapped groups of two or three. Objects from 1 table were passed on to the next so all had a variety of resources. Practices would alternate from pencil drawing to ball point pen--a great one to use since it upholds the basic rule of gesture drawing: no erasing!

The next pencil drawing challenge would be that of blind contour drawing, again, a difficult technique for novices to believe in, at first, because one doesn't want to give up the idea of "looking down" at what you're drawing! It's perfectly understandable, but once the purpose of focus and accuracy is understood, the accomplishments can begin.

FROM PENCIL DRAWING TO INK CONTOUR TEXTURAL CHANGEOVERS

Now we are ready to select from the many sketches prepared, 10 objects for a composition. There would be 2 new rules:(1) Objects must be arranged in an interesting manner overlapping each other and extending to the sides of the format; (2) two "changeover" lines would be added later, which would alter the manner in which the objects were rendered.

After the contour composition was completed, it was set aside. The next part of the drawing involved developing a series of textures that would be used in the changeover areas. In preparation for this, 40 small 1½" squares were used to invent their own visual and actual textures in pencil as shown at the left. 10-12 best ones would be selected. These were practiced separately with pens and India Ink to learn how to use the pens and how to fill shape areas without blotches.

These 9"X12" samples show how textures and solid areas interact within the 2 changeover lines. The background areas must be decided first and each space in relation to that. Wherever the changover line occurs, whatever is before or after it cannot be alike. The middle one has a large textured background area with solid black and white to the sides. The right one keeps all textures within the shapes themselves. In such large solid black areas or shapes brushes would be used to paint in the ink.

This former example was used as a demonstration to point out these considerations:

1. Make a variety of shape sizes and arrange within the entire format.

2. Allow shapes to extend beyond the borders and be in different positions.

3. If using a texture in one of the background segments, choose a large one to help unify the entire area.

4. Repetition of textures in other shapes is fine.

5. All spaces do not have to contain textures. Plan black and white contrasts around them, especially with very small linear ones.

6. And yes, this example does have only 1 changeover line---and this time we'll use two!

flashing arrow     Come see the final results of this Ink Texture composition. They did quite well!

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