SUMMER Term week 5
Date: 14th & 15th May
Tutor: Sian
Tutor Led
what to bring
A sketchpad, or paper to draw on. There will be a number of quick exercises, so please bring plenty of paper.
Pencils, a range of grades.
Eraser
Sharpener
An apple, or another piece of fruit.
If you have the book “Read This If You Want To Be Great At Drawing’ by Selwyn Leamy please bring your copy along.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR TUESDAY GROUPS
Please read the notice on the Class Notice Board! We have also emailed you with the informaiton.
weekly sketching challenge
Set up a ‘quick sketching kit’. This might be as simple as a pencil and computer paper on the kitchen table or next to the phone (if you still have a landline!). Challenge yourself to do a 5-10 minute sketch every day this week, using your favourite of the drawing methods introduced in class.
Tip: Try not to let yourself get carried away to ‘finish’ a masterpiece. The objective is to initiate a habit of looking at objects with more clarity and in more detail while practising pencil skills. The act of committing the ‘looking’ to paper will make you look harder. (If you want to make a completed drawing as a piece of art make this a different event.)
THIS Week:
This week is a tutor led session during which we will be looking at different ways of mark-making as we draw, and how the different types of marks we make help us to see and record different information about our subjects. Siân will set exercises after briefly demonstrating techniques. The objective will not be to produce fabulous drawings, but to experiment with ways of looking , and to discover which methods of observation and recording suit your personal way of working.
Click. on the image to enlarge it.
DRAWING of the week
Reason for making the drawing.
This drawing was clearly made as I investigated what it was about the subject that was important to me. Look at the notes … clear evidence of my thinking process! It is obvious that I am considering texture and tone, and beyond that how I might choose to express the various features in the final image.
Materials
A range of soft pencils, and water to wet the graphite.
Mark-making.
This drawing uses a huge range of marks to express texture and tone. The pencil has been uses at various angles as I have drawn the trees, using crisp hard lines, lifting as the line progressed to vary the width. Soft pencil has been smudged to block in tone (thumb prints are obvious), and used in layers to increase the darks. Short marks with the side of the pencil, using more pressure and quick movements have been used to add texture in the foreground. On the far right are marks indicating grasses that were made using very light, ‘uncontrolled’ marks made by holding the pencil loosely at the end.
Time
A couple of hours, most of it thinking time with no contact with the paper!
Quote of the week
“Do not fail to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is it will be well worth while and do you a work of good.”
No, this is not one of us, turning one of our constant nags into an official sounding quote. Cennino Cennini was a Renaissance painter, influenced by Giotto, who is remembered mainly for having authored Il Libra dell’arte, a ‘How to’ book on late Medieval and early renaissance painting he is thought to have written around the turn of the 15th Century.
ArTIST of the week
Andrew Marr
“One way or another he draws most day, even if it is just a doodle the edge of a newspaper’.
This is to be found on the fly leaf of his book, A Short book about drawing. this is a fabulous book, with countless examples of Marr’s drawings. We are shown a selection of works, from quick doodles to more finished works, in a variety of media. The way he writes about the act of drawing, what it means to him, and how it could enrich everyone’s lives, is truly inspiring.
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Last updated: 13.5.24