Back in the swing of things

Well I've been back at it, teaching and chores but before all of this I managed to squeak off a squeaky clean episode from my Japanese hotel bathtub. Watch below if this sort of thing seems interesting.

More to come from the far east in my you tube episodes.
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My summer courses at ACAD are underway and my students so far are doing great.  In my drawing 1 we have already begun our studies of line, followed by shape, tone and form. Here are some of the exercises form the previous weeks class.  We worked in graphite, with lit painted white shapes in order to help with understanding how to see and apply tone on paper to create a believable illusion.

The following weeks class we focused on how to construct objects in proper proportion with still life items brought in by each student in class.

We began with simple shapes as we did in the previous week, this time as f they were invisible crystal to help get their size, shape and form correctly placed in the visual space.

Even without the information of shading we can tell clearly where objects are because of their placement as well as proportion to other objects in the picture.

 They are progressing well through the steps and I'm sure if classes were more than 3 hrs long each they could bring these to proper completion. However, the lessons were learned and we can move onto the next step in progressing their drawing skills.

Drawing 1 - still life

This Saturday we are fortunate enough to draw things that don't move - still life. Each student brought in their own objects to set up and study. I demonstrated the technique of constructing transparent shapes along side the proper use of proportions at the start of the class and gave them step by step notes of the process as one moves toward the finishing details and shading.

The first key to getting it right is to get it right from the start. Its too difficult afterward to change placement or proportions, best spent the time observing, measuring and ensuring the overall placement of the composition is correct before moving onto the details.

If and when the overall forms are well constructed, you can remove the construction lines and move toward values of light and dark. It is far more interesting to have varied textures, shapes and sizes when planning a still life drawing.

Interesting objects juxtaposed make for visual narrative, then you can move into creating the convincing illusion of depth using shifts in the values of light and dark.

and then you just observe what you see and translate it onto your drawing surface. Sounds easy, but it could be a serious endeavor, one that can definitely take more time than the allotted class length. But once you learn the steps in the process you have the necessary tools to take it wherever you want to go.

The students were super quiet and focused the entire class, and the work really showed their focus and concentration. Great work guys and gals! Next week all sorts of graphical perspective drawing techniques!

Drawing 1 class at ACAD - Value studies

My drawing class this semester is fantastic!  We have been studying the FUNdamentals such as values, tone and proportion as well as how to set up the drawing space and see a little bit differently.

I love this picture, its Philips back and the classroom set up, it has a certain melancholic quiet, at the top of his paper is his value chart and he studies the subject matter, my plaster shapes. This would make a great image for the back of a business card in my opinion.

Here they are all on their own. Of course, once the lights go out the artists need to adjust their eyes in a way that this camera has not to really see the variation of lights and darks and translate those with their pencils onto paper.

Here a student is getting shaded tones including reflected light one of the platonic solids. Nice work.

I start with values to help my sutdents visualize how light and dark, even in the absence of colour, plays a huge role in describing three dimensional objects on a two dimensional surface(the paper). To me this is one of the hurdles and challenges of good representational drawing skills.

The following session we work on toned paper and focus on getting proper relative proportions before we begin shading from light to dark. I think their works were very successful and will miss not having class next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

For the love of teaching & art….

Things are really starting to get rolling and I'm feeling vibrant, excited and enthusiastic about my upcoming students this term. Helping others by teaching them these skills makes me feel a deep sense of achievement. I taught my Drawing 1 class the importance of value in creating depth with their tools of choice. I began with a demonstration of how to use graphite/pencils (I used just a regular old HB pencil) to create a value chart that we will cut out and use as a shading reference. Below are the students at work on their first assignment this class.

After they completed their value charts I did a demonstration by shading a sphere to show how the fall of light creates the core and cast shadows. Then I outline what to observe and how to use the value chart.  Time to turn out the lights. I set up the single source lighting and allow them to move around my collection of shapes so that they have something they find visually appealing to draw for the remainder of the class.

The class circled their stations. They set up their drawing tables, larger white sheets of paper and drawing materials. First and most important is to look. It is said that most masters of the craft look more than they actually draw. They take the time to understand and plan their drawing before making their first mark.

Here are an assortment of white shapes. Notice the different values of shadows that help describe the depth of the shapes. A circle is a shape with no shading, that same circle with graduated shadows becomes a 3 dimensional sphere. Light and dark is what depth is all about.

Notice the reflected light and how in drawing, no lines are really used, it is the contrast between light and dark that make the shapes. I discussed the three main types of lighting styles used in art and pointed out what areas of the values scale are used in each.  Most of the art students I trained with dreaded the shapes, personally love them, otherwise I would not have my own collection of teaching aids. After my class I went over to the Southwood library to teach a room full of kids how to make flip books, can't take pictures though so I'll continue writing about my Sunday class.

On Sundays I often instruct sampler's at Swintons art supply. I got in the student grade goop and showed basic colour wheel mixing as well as changing the value by tinting with contrasting colours, darks and whites. I love colour so much. It is kind of like candy. Here I use the bright chromes but there are also both warm and cool versions of each of the primary tones and a few choices for browns to work with but we do keep a very basic palette at first so they get an experience and a try at using the material.

I try and cover as much as I can about the process in a very short period of time.  Sometimes I am jealous how true and honest their application is at first. It will take me a lifetime to get back to this level. I really like how it looks at this stage. Artists learn when to stop, but you have to go too far to actually know when that is. This is still bit early in the process but her painting turned out wonderfully by the end of the allotted class time.

 The tones and values she used are wonderful. I love that she work a matching shirt. I take the class on a tour of the important and relevant areas and products int he storefront. What one does not need and how to save money as I am still as thrifty a creator as it gets. It is important when first starting out because it can be expensive to get the initial stockpile of equipment to begin, and then you just add on and replace whatever runs out.

Believe it or not, these are for the most part first time painters making it look easy. this mother and daughter made two very different styles of trees. I love their palettes too.  If you want to try out oil or acrylic paint one Sunday, its only $40 and all the supplies and me are included.  Sign up for a sampler online at Swinton's Art Supply. Here is where to find it on the website: http://www.swintonsart.com/instruction/samplers

There are tons of other great demonstrations and courses to check out where everything is art http://www.swintonsart.com

Drawing 1 class - still life - perspective

We continue to have an awesome Drawing 1 class. Previously we were working with proportions and using our drawing tools to describe textures and shading on still life objects brought in and arranged by the students.

Each student drew a minimum of 3 items arranged into a pleasant composition. Who know a shoe could be so beautiful :D

If you get the drawing done right, with proper proportions, adding shading and texture, and in future painting, should fall right into place. If not, even globs of paint won't help you repair it.

This past week, we began our technical exploration of all things dimensional. We start with basic shapes, square, circle triangle and learn how the use of line and shading can transform them into dimensional objects like a cube, pyramid, cone and cylinder. We expand to the 5 platonic solids, which are all congruent, regular polygons, I add the 4th dimensional Tesseract and try to draw it graphically, for fun.

I demonstrate how orthographic drawings are used by engineers etc. to turn information into isometric projections. We see isometric images everyday from ikea instructions, to video games and lego instructions.  Even though this type of drawing is not entirely realistic it begins us on the pursuit of drawing 3 dimensional looking forms on a 2 dimensional surface. Next we move into perspective.

I get the students to draw a landscape and an interior using one point perspective.  A great use of one point perspective in film is Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey. Example below.

Shady dealings - Shape drawings

We create the world we see in terms of light and dark.

Today in my Drawing class, we are working on light and shadow using the shapes as reference.  As always, proper proportions are necessary as is the perspective from which you are viewing the objects you are drawing. So we begin by moving our desks closer to the lit objects in the centre of the room and prepping our drawing area for the task at hand.

Above is an example of the way light falls on objects and how we respond as artist with tone and shadow. The numbers represent the value range. We must keep in mind our value scale/ tone if the drawings are to describe the shape in space realistically.

For our purposes the optimal source of light is a single source of light where everything is illuminated by the same incident light. In our case we brought in a light source and turned out the rest of the lights in order to emulate the sun. This helps to eliminate the confusion that multiple light sources creates.

Begin by first drawing the shapes in their proper place and proportion. Determine the light and the dark tones then begin shading. The CORE shadow, which is the one on the object where the light is no longer hitting it, will be your darkest part ono the object. If the object has flat planes on the shape like a cube or pyramid, the shadows will be mainly toned equally throughout. Whereas when the shape is curved like a cone or cylinder or sphere the core shadow will be feathered as the light drops off as the surface curves.

Here is a drawn sphere with the terminology outlined in this class. It is important to keep in mind the difference between smooth and curvilinear and shapes as opposed to hard angles and surfaces which are much easier to shade.

You will notice that the cast shadows are not as crisp as they move away from the object. This is a lensing effect that must be properly drawn to make your artwork look realistic.  You can really see this emphasized in the above photo at the tip of the cone shadow at the bottom of the photo. Notice the shadow blurs out. The next thing to be mindful of is the reflected light that bounces back onto the surface. You can see here on this sphere how the left side is lighter in tone as it blends toward the core shadow. You want to have the transition be smooth when describing a smooth surface.


For reflected light to bounce back up onto a surface must be at an acute angle to that surface. IN this case the cone like pyramid shape (to the left) does not have reflected light hitting the flat area where the core shadow resides. The icosahedron object (to the right) has reflected light bouncing back up on its surface creating a lighter tone even though it is further away from the source of light and below the core shadow. If the shape like a cone or pyramid is sloping back away from the surface it is sitting on, there is no way fro the light to bounce up on it in order to create a reflected light in the shadow.
The surface must be more than perpendicular or overhanging the surface in which the reflected light is bouncing onto the object from.

Cash shadows cannot follow thru a core shadow. Instead they combine but do not increase in density.
When one objects cast shadow drapes across the core shadow of another object there should not be any criss cross lines and confusion. The pyramid to the far right cases a shadow over the cone object and where fit meets the core shadow they seamlessly blend together.

One good trick for seeing the values of the tons that I like to pass onto students is squinting. If you squint you will have a much easier time judging the many values int eh scene in which you are drawing. This also helps turn colours into values and to simplify the shapes that make up what you see.