COURSE OUTLINE
COURSE DESCRIPTION: More detailed investigation of concepts explored in VA33 Drawing I. Investigation of various wet and dry drawing media (1hr. lecture, 4 studio hrs. each week.) Prerequisite: VA33 Drawing I
This course continues to focus on the fundamentals of drawing taught in Drawing I while expanding the stylistic approaches to include both non-objective/abstract drawing as well as representational drawing. Emphasis is placed on the formal concerns of using the elements of drawing to define form and space and create effective composition, while exploring conceptual issues generated from the student’s own ideas and experiences. Students will be introduced to a greater variety of media and will learn to apply aesthetic judgement in their selection and use. Conceptual thinking and creative problem solving will become increasingly important in each project as the semester progresses.
Outcome Behaviors: At the end of the course students will be able to:
· Demonstrate mastery in the use of several drawing media: graphite, colored pencil, pastel, and ink.
· Graphically represent form through the combined use of line (as boundary or contour) and value (light and dark areas between edges).
· Demonstrate knowledge of perspective and proportion to produce accurately drawn representations of the visual world.
· Demonstrate knowledge of basic drawing techniques such as "blind and "modified" contour drawings, gesture drawing, and negative space drawing.
· Utilize design concepts of order, unity, balance, repetition and variation, positive/negative space, and hierarchy to form creative judgments, to produce compelling compositions, and to objectively analyze a drawing.
· Use drawing to produce artistic, esthetically sophisticated, and personally expressive art.
PROCEDURES: Lectures will be given to explain the objectives of each assignment, usually at the start of class. Students will work both in-class and outside class to complete the work. While in class, the students will work individually with the instructor’s guidance. When the assignment is completed the work will be evaluated either in a group critique or individually by the instructor. In group critiques each student is expected to participate and articulate relevant ideas concerning the concepts involved in each assignment.
REQUIREMENTS:
1) Regular attendance is absolutely mandatory.
2) Completion of all drawing projects (a portfolio of all your work will be due at midterm and the end of the semester).
3) Participation in critiques and class discussions.
ATTENDANCE: The college policy is followed (see handbook or college catalog). Excessive absence or lateness will lead to failure of this course. The college defines excessive absence as more than one week of classes. Two tardies equal one absence. In the exceptional circumstance in which the student is allowed to continue in the class beyond one absence, which is solely up to the discretion of the instructor, the student’s grade will be reduced ½ a letter grade (5 points) for each absence beyond two. Five absences will lead to automatic failure of the course due to insufficient attendance for college credit. This is a studio course. The knowledge that is gained in this course comes almost exclusively from working in class with others and with the instructor’s personal attention. This cannot be made up outside of class. Therefore it is absolutely essential that you be in class. However, you are responsible for all the information that transpired in class should you happen to be absent. This includes such things as materials you need to have for the next class. Arrangements should be made to contact the instructors or fellow student before returning to class.
EVALUATION: Your grade will be determined from the following:
PORTFOLIO – 90% of your grade will come from the average of all your project grades. Each project will be given a grade at the time it is completed. If it is turned in late it will receive a reduced grade (5 points for each class day late). All projects turned in on time at a satisfactory level can be reworked for reevaluation at a later time. Projects will often require preparatory sketches, multiple starts or multiple final drawings. All work is to be submitted for evaluation with each project. A portfolio of all your drawings will be due at the midterm and end of the semester for critique by the instructor.
SKETCHBOOK – equal to one project grade. You are required to keep a sketchbook for all your thumbnail sketches and working drawings for your assignments. This will act as documentation of your working process which is a factor in evaluating your finished projects. In addition you are expected to draw in the sketchbook things of your choosing throughout the semester, not directly related to an assignments. You should also keep notes from class, names of artists your interested in or have researched and written ideas that come to mind for possible future drawings in this sketchbook.
EFFORT, PARTICIPATION and PROGRESS – 10% of your grade will be based on your overall work ethic, your seriousness of purpose, how prepared you are in class, how much you contribute to discussions and critiques and how much your work progresses from the beginning to the end of class.
WEEKLY OUTLINE
PROJECTS 1- 12 PERCEPTUAL DRAWING
Week 1-2 Project 1 (In-class) Still-life: Review form, space and composition.
Project 2 (Homework) Line quality and Positive/Negative Shape: Create a series of 5 line drawings of organic objects. Focus on line quality, materials, scale and positive/negative shape.
Week 2-3 Project 3 (In-class) Line, Value, Form and Texture: Focus on drawing simulated texture of an isolated object or objects. Materials: pencil on vellum surface paper. Subject: muffin, roll, fish.
Project 4: (Homework) Draw functional object with different, invented texture to subvert function.
Week 4-5 Project 5: (In-class) Light and Shade/ Chiaroscuro, Space: Use value on rag paper to describe light and shade in set up in classroom.
Project 6: (Homework) create a drawing about light and shadow to create formal and symbolic interests.
Week 6-7 Project #7: (In-class) Value, Space: Interior space, dark to light, back to front
Project #8 (in-class): Space, Texture, Design: Draw room by drawing the relationships between things through repetition, intersections of contours. Include extreme foreground and background. Toned paper, erase shapes, charcoal line, (no shading).
Project #9: (Homework) Value, shape, ambiguous figure/ground relationship. 50/50 light/dark. Individual arrangement by each student (tools) creating dynamic surface pattern, active pictorial space. Charcoal on rag paper.
Week 8 Project #10: (In-class) Draw a classmate in profile using continuous contour line with ink wash, charcoal on vellum paper
Project #11: (Homework) Draw an enclosed space, find your own subject, box, corner of room, closet, open materials, express psychological condition
Week 9-10 Project #11: (In-class/Homework) Drawing of food items in color pencil.
Project # 12: (In-class/Homework) Portrait of someone you know drawing still-life of articles of clothing. Explore contrasts of hue saturation with near value contrasts of objects containing strong patterns. Color pastel on colored charcoal paper
PROJECTS 13-15 INVENTED AND CONSTRUCTED DRAWING
Week 11-12 Project #13: (In-class/Homework) Juxtaposition - two objects, explore context, spatial relationship and scale.
Project #14: (In-class/Homework)Draw an imaginary object, color pencil
Week 13 Project # 15: Narrative drawing, create a drawing based on a time of day, may use photos, and include the figure. Materials: your choice.
PROJECTS 16-17 NON-OBJECTIVE DRAWING
Week 14 Project #16: (In-class) Non-objective composition based on random chance marks. Use the same abstract drawing elements that here-to-fore have been used for representation now for their own sake in creating an entirely free spontaneous design starting from the subconscious. Consider the use of chance and accident in surrealist art. Artists: Jean Arp, Andre Masson, Joan Miro, Matta, Kandinski, Pollock. Materials: at least three different media (wet and dry).
Project #17: (Homework) Conceptual drawing based on an external system. Design a system for assigning visual information to the drawing that comes from an external influence or series of events. The drawing will act as a documentation of the event but should also succeed on an aesthetic level. Artists: Sol Lewitt, William Anastasi Materials: your choice.
Week 15 Final critiques.
MATERIALS LIST
Graphite drawing pencils (4H, 2H, HB, 2B, 4B)
Vine or Willow charcoal (soft)
Compressed charcoal (stick) or Char-kole pastel
Charcoal pencil
Black pen (metal tip)
India Ink
Brush for ink
Colored pencil set
Color pastel set
All purpose drawing pad of paper 18”x24”
Pad of Bristol Board (15-20 sheets), smooth or vellum surface, 14”x17” or larger (Strathmore 400 series recommended)
4-5 sheets (minimum) 100% cotton printmaking paper (Rives BFK, Arches Cover, Stonehenge or Magnani Pescia) 22”x30”
1 sheet colored charcoal paper 18”x24”
Sketchbook
Kneaded and art gum or vinyl eraser
Pencil sharpener
Fixative (to be kept at home)
Chamois (optional)
Evaluation Criteria for Effort, Participation and Progress (10% of grade)
Score: 2 -- (Good) Yes, always meets requirement
1 – (Adequate) Almost always meets requirement
0 – (Needs improvement) More than a few times the student has not met requirement
Are you prepared with materials and ready to work at the start of class, and return on time from breaks?
Are you working consistently during the entire class period, focused on your work, not talking to others?
Have you developed your drawings under the guidance of the instructor from start to finish?
Have you taken input from the instructor and applied it to your drawings during its development in effort to improve the drawing and try new ideas?
Do you have your homework ready for critique on time at the start of class and offer a thoughtful analysis of your work during critique when called upon?
Have you put considerable time into your homework assignments and reworked and resubmitted any homework assignments for which you have received a low grade?
Do you participate in the critique of other classmate’s work?
Have you completed all the outside assignments including readings, library visits, purchase of materials, researching artists, and other miscellaneous activities that may not be specifically graded?
Have you attended all classes, or if you have missed the two class allowed, have you made an effort to make up what you have missed?
Is there evidence at the end of the class of an improved understanding of the artistic process seen through – creating multiple concepts at the beginning of a project; building on earlier stages of the drawing; revising the drawing as it develops; bringing the drawing to completion in the allotted time period, and giving thought to presentation at critique.
Has each drawing improved from where you started at the beginning of the course and are you reaching your fullest potential?
