Technique Project #9: Self-Portrait
in Graphite
in Graphite
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Supplies Needed
A photograph of yourself (in the video tutorial I used a 4x6) Your drawing pencils Drawing Paper Your ruler Fine Point Permanent Black Pens/Markers Your Gum Eraser |
Goal of this project
To create an accurate portrayal self-portrait using a photograph, the squaring up method, and our graphite pencils.
We will use the full range of value (light & dark) to express the light and shadow and our chiaroscuro techniques to bring out our portrait. This is a great culmination of practicing the Pencil Line Game project from Module 1, the Value Gradient Project from Module 2, the Chiaroscuro Egg Drawing from Module 3, and the knowledge gained from translating a color photo into gray scale from the Design Challenge in Module 4!
Notice the importance of mastering values! When we can play with the full range of values in our art work, we can balance subtle light shifts to create art that is close to representational of life or we can push our abstraction further by playing with subtle shifts in light.
To create an accurate portrayal self-portrait using a photograph, the squaring up method, and our graphite pencils.
We will use the full range of value (light & dark) to express the light and shadow and our chiaroscuro techniques to bring out our portrait. This is a great culmination of practicing the Pencil Line Game project from Module 1, the Value Gradient Project from Module 2, the Chiaroscuro Egg Drawing from Module 3, and the knowledge gained from translating a color photo into gray scale from the Design Challenge in Module 4!
Notice the importance of mastering values! When we can play with the full range of values in our art work, we can balance subtle light shifts to create art that is close to representational of life or we can push our abstraction further by playing with subtle shifts in light.
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. I prefer that a brand new photograph is taken and printed for this project. Make certain to create high contrast in the photograph (both light and dark). This will give you more visual information to draw. Most photographs edit out visual information, but we want to leave it in so that we can see all that is there and observe the subtleties of the value shifts. I like for the photograph to be cropped close in to show mostly the face and neck. The more information you include, the more you have to draw! It's best to keep it simple at first because the face has so much visual information.
2. Once you have your photograph printed, mark off the edges inch by inch and create a grid with your ruler and fine point sharpie or micron pen. You will see that my photograph in the video is a 4x6 inch photograph.
3. Create a centered drawing box in a 1:1 ratio on your drawing paper. You could always use the Squaring Up process to make your drawing larger, but I feel like there is enough to go on to simply do a 1:1 ratio.
4. After you create your centered drawing box, using your ruler, replicate the grid so that you can begin drawing.
5. Use the grids as a guide in drawing the main shapes of the face. Draw very lightly at first, using your 2H pencil.
6. Create a very lightly drawn visual map of AREAS OF VALUE. The face is not made up of lines, but it is made up of areas of value; light and dark shapes that are next to each other to give the appearance of a three-dimensional surface. We have to move out of thinking in lines and symbols. It is very tempting to begin drawing the symbol of the eye or the symbol of the nose that we have become familiar with over time. This will involve some unlearning. Observe what organic shapes are truly there.
7. Using the chiaroscuro method we have been practicing, create a light layer of value first before slowly building up to the darker areas of value with softer pencils. It can be very tempting to rush this process because we can see the darker value right away in the photograph, but the drawing will be built up slowly.
8. As you continue, make certain to use a cover sheet to keep your hand off of your drawing surface, you don't want to smear your gentle layers of graphite with the side of your drawing hand as you move your pencil around the surface of your portrait.
9. Keep checking in with the visual reference, in this case, the photograph. Your eyes should be going back and forth from the drawing to the photograph, constantly checking the accuracy of shapes you are creating with areas of value. If you find yourself staring at only your drawing, know that it will begin to slip away in it's accuracy. The visual reference is key. What shapes are truly there? Is this an accurate value translation in graphite from the color photograph?
10. Continue drawing! Share your in-progress works in our facebook group or via email! Ask for help if needed!
1. I prefer that a brand new photograph is taken and printed for this project. Make certain to create high contrast in the photograph (both light and dark). This will give you more visual information to draw. Most photographs edit out visual information, but we want to leave it in so that we can see all that is there and observe the subtleties of the value shifts. I like for the photograph to be cropped close in to show mostly the face and neck. The more information you include, the more you have to draw! It's best to keep it simple at first because the face has so much visual information.
2. Once you have your photograph printed, mark off the edges inch by inch and create a grid with your ruler and fine point sharpie or micron pen. You will see that my photograph in the video is a 4x6 inch photograph.
3. Create a centered drawing box in a 1:1 ratio on your drawing paper. You could always use the Squaring Up process to make your drawing larger, but I feel like there is enough to go on to simply do a 1:1 ratio.
4. After you create your centered drawing box, using your ruler, replicate the grid so that you can begin drawing.
5. Use the grids as a guide in drawing the main shapes of the face. Draw very lightly at first, using your 2H pencil.
6. Create a very lightly drawn visual map of AREAS OF VALUE. The face is not made up of lines, but it is made up of areas of value; light and dark shapes that are next to each other to give the appearance of a three-dimensional surface. We have to move out of thinking in lines and symbols. It is very tempting to begin drawing the symbol of the eye or the symbol of the nose that we have become familiar with over time. This will involve some unlearning. Observe what organic shapes are truly there.
7. Using the chiaroscuro method we have been practicing, create a light layer of value first before slowly building up to the darker areas of value with softer pencils. It can be very tempting to rush this process because we can see the darker value right away in the photograph, but the drawing will be built up slowly.
8. As you continue, make certain to use a cover sheet to keep your hand off of your drawing surface, you don't want to smear your gentle layers of graphite with the side of your drawing hand as you move your pencil around the surface of your portrait.
9. Keep checking in with the visual reference, in this case, the photograph. Your eyes should be going back and forth from the drawing to the photograph, constantly checking the accuracy of shapes you are creating with areas of value. If you find yourself staring at only your drawing, know that it will begin to slip away in it's accuracy. The visual reference is key. What shapes are truly there? Is this an accurate value translation in graphite from the color photograph?
10. Continue drawing! Share your in-progress works in our facebook group or via email! Ask for help if needed!
Technique Project #10: From Collage to Paint: How to use visual information to create a new and abstract composition!
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Supplies Needed
Drawing Paper Ruler X-Acto Knife Scissors Rubber Cement Magazines or Photographs for Visual Fodder Drawing Pencils Rives BFK Paper Gesso Your paint brushes Your Acrylic Paints Painters Palette Spray Bottle Cups for Water Paint Rags/Cloth Painters Tape |
Goal of this project
To begin to synthesize visual fodder, inspiration, imagery into abstract compositions that can be translated into paintings from observation. This project hones design sensibilities, sensitivity to color and shape, as well as aids in developing your personal style.
By combining recognizable and unrecognizable images into a remixed design, you create a unique and one of a kind piece of art.
To begin to synthesize visual fodder, inspiration, imagery into abstract compositions that can be translated into paintings from observation. This project hones design sensibilities, sensitivity to color and shape, as well as aids in developing your personal style.
By combining recognizable and unrecognizable images into a remixed design, you create a unique and one of a kind piece of art.
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Prep your Rives BFK Paper for painting on your painters board. You will want to use the same method of measuring off, tearing, taping down, gesso the surface, and sanding. Set this aside while prepping your composition.
2. The next step is to obtain a lot of what I call "visual fodder". For the piece I completed in the tutorial video, I chose "visual fodder" based on color and shape. You can also choose to do something that is more realistic, like in your graphite self portrait project just before this one. The best advice I can give is don't start off editing, grab as much visual content as possible, give yourself a time limit on collecting (sometimes we collect and collect without ever getting to painting because we think we need to keep looking for the perfect images). I recommend setting a timer during the "visual fodder" collection time.
3. After you have gathered your raw images create a template for your composition. You can do a half size of your actual painting or even a quarter size if you know that you want to do a very large painting. Some students choose to do a full sheet of Rives BFK for this project and really enjoy the larger scope of the painting. Later you can choose to use the 'Squaring Up' method for translating your collaged composition onto the painting surface.
4. I like to move around my visual fodder A LOT before choosing to glue it down with the rubber cement. A lot of times students will leave images in big blocks, I find this makes it harder to integrate and unify the composition as a whole. Try cutting things up into multiple shapes and peppering them throughout the composition so that you are engaging the Principles of Design (repetition, rhythm, unity).
5. Once you have played with your composition quite a bit and decided on your final composition to translate into a painting, then go ahead and use the rubber cement adhesive method of dry to dry, or whatever method is appropriate for the archival glue you have chosen to use. That way your composition collage is not warped, bumpy, or unclear. You want it to be as easy to see as possible for you to translate.
6. Next, through drawing lightly and using the Squaring Up method, you will translate your collage to your painting surface.
7. Begin by grounding the surface of the painting in a light wash. I like to do this in complimentary colors to the top layers of what I am painting. This is where you can begin to add some of your creativity in, as you may not want to translate some shapes as full on 'black' but may want to soften that contrast some how, by simply painting a darker value of another color or by changing the color altogether.
8. Allow your wash to dry, luckily this happens very quickly in acrylic paint.
9. Begin painting up in multiple thin layers of paint. You don't have to get the color correct the very first time! If you get it closer and closer to what it actually is in the photo collage, you are doing well! Remember, layers make paintings interesting!
10. When needed for soft blends from color to color, utilize your knowledge of the three brush blending technique, painting wet into wet, with multiple colors mixed on your palette at one time.
11. Please give yourself lots of love in this process. It is highly likely this painting will take multiple sittings, especially dependent on the size of painting you decided to do. The larger the painting surface, the longer it will take to complete. Move around the painting, don't become so fixated on one area that you neglect the rest. You want to bring up the whole painting together.
12. Most important part: Keep painting & repeat! When this one is finished, allow adequate time for your painting and paper to dry before removing the tape. Make another collage painting! More art is always better. It's true.
1. Prep your Rives BFK Paper for painting on your painters board. You will want to use the same method of measuring off, tearing, taping down, gesso the surface, and sanding. Set this aside while prepping your composition.
2. The next step is to obtain a lot of what I call "visual fodder". For the piece I completed in the tutorial video, I chose "visual fodder" based on color and shape. You can also choose to do something that is more realistic, like in your graphite self portrait project just before this one. The best advice I can give is don't start off editing, grab as much visual content as possible, give yourself a time limit on collecting (sometimes we collect and collect without ever getting to painting because we think we need to keep looking for the perfect images). I recommend setting a timer during the "visual fodder" collection time.
3. After you have gathered your raw images create a template for your composition. You can do a half size of your actual painting or even a quarter size if you know that you want to do a very large painting. Some students choose to do a full sheet of Rives BFK for this project and really enjoy the larger scope of the painting. Later you can choose to use the 'Squaring Up' method for translating your collaged composition onto the painting surface.
4. I like to move around my visual fodder A LOT before choosing to glue it down with the rubber cement. A lot of times students will leave images in big blocks, I find this makes it harder to integrate and unify the composition as a whole. Try cutting things up into multiple shapes and peppering them throughout the composition so that you are engaging the Principles of Design (repetition, rhythm, unity).
5. Once you have played with your composition quite a bit and decided on your final composition to translate into a painting, then go ahead and use the rubber cement adhesive method of dry to dry, or whatever method is appropriate for the archival glue you have chosen to use. That way your composition collage is not warped, bumpy, or unclear. You want it to be as easy to see as possible for you to translate.
6. Next, through drawing lightly and using the Squaring Up method, you will translate your collage to your painting surface.
7. Begin by grounding the surface of the painting in a light wash. I like to do this in complimentary colors to the top layers of what I am painting. This is where you can begin to add some of your creativity in, as you may not want to translate some shapes as full on 'black' but may want to soften that contrast some how, by simply painting a darker value of another color or by changing the color altogether.
8. Allow your wash to dry, luckily this happens very quickly in acrylic paint.
9. Begin painting up in multiple thin layers of paint. You don't have to get the color correct the very first time! If you get it closer and closer to what it actually is in the photo collage, you are doing well! Remember, layers make paintings interesting!
10. When needed for soft blends from color to color, utilize your knowledge of the three brush blending technique, painting wet into wet, with multiple colors mixed on your palette at one time.
11. Please give yourself lots of love in this process. It is highly likely this painting will take multiple sittings, especially dependent on the size of painting you decided to do. The larger the painting surface, the longer it will take to complete. Move around the painting, don't become so fixated on one area that you neglect the rest. You want to bring up the whole painting together.
12. Most important part: Keep painting & repeat! When this one is finished, allow adequate time for your painting and paper to dry before removing the tape. Make another collage painting! More art is always better. It's true.
Design Challenge #5: Repeating an Element to Create a Unified Composition
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Supplies Needed
Your Visual Journal & the rest is your choice! |
Goal of this Project
Artists create "bodies of work". These bodies of work often involve the span of many years and 20, 50, or even a 100 or more pieces of individual art! Many of these pieces share the same materials or themes.
Many times the one-off pieces that become famous in an artists' portfolio are the result of many experiments in that particular vein. Think of your work as an ever evolving movement.
Artists create "bodies of work". These bodies of work often involve the span of many years and 20, 50, or even a 100 or more pieces of individual art! Many of these pieces share the same materials or themes.
Many times the one-off pieces that become famous in an artists' portfolio are the result of many experiments in that particular vein. Think of your work as an ever evolving movement.
You don't need to skip around a lot, you can ask the same "question" over and over again, while answering it differently. Subtle, small, and tiny shifts and changes are where you begin creating your own unique style.
Attempt to create some cohesion in your visual journal through this Design Challenge. Flip through the pages. Add another layer. Do it again tomorrow. You do not have to call any page in your journal finished. There is always room for a little bit more of the art conversation to evolve.
Attempt to create some cohesion in your visual journal through this Design Challenge. Flip through the pages. Add another layer. Do it again tomorrow. You do not have to call any page in your journal finished. There is always room for a little bit more of the art conversation to evolve.
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Get out your visual journal.
2. I recommend you get out your visual journal for this design challenge and choose several pages you'd like to add to; skipping around is good. This adds to the idea that your visual journal is a cohesive piece of art with it's own system of repetition and rhythm!
3. Select one medium you would like to add.
***NOTE: Of course you can choose more than one, but I think it's easiest to select only one because this exercise can get really crunchy and challenging for people because I'm asking you to "go-over" previous work.
Yes, adding layers can really challenge you, but it is where you start to see how things interact.
Doing this exercise has led me to some new methods of image making in my own personal body of work, things I would never have come up with had I not challenged that intense feeling of not wanting to ruin something in my art journal.
Remember: Art is about the exploration, not just of traditional techniques, but of expanding up and layering and growing them into your own unique voice and style. I encourage you to face that feeling head on.
Ask yourself; what's the worst that could happen if I add an extra layer here? The answer is usually that you would then hate what it looked like...but if that's the worst thing that could happen and you truly learned something from it, then I believe you are on your way to creating your own artistic voice. ***
4. After you have chosen your medium, select several pages to add it to.
5. You can then select one technique or method we have practiced already throughout the course!
Examples: You could choose a single pencil and a single type of drawing (contour line) like I did in the demo video.
You could choose a specific paint color and add a layer or background in that color to multiple pages, using the grounding method or even the three brush blending technique!
You could add some collaged design elements to some of your pages that have contour line drawings!
6. The possibilities are endless, but keep it simple for yourself. One medium, one technique, continued on multiple pages. You will see how using this same idea in repetition can create a beautiful rhythm, unity and over all cohesion to your visual journal.
***This same idea applies to creating a body of work. Imagine. What if you had 10 paintings laying out and you committed to doing one thing to each of them a day! You could try different methods with the same color or different angles of the same drawing! After less than two weeks you'd have enough work to sift through for a small solo art exhibition that made sense together and you would even have created some of your own methods of combining images, mark making, and color pallet....I think you get the idea, now go make some art! ***
1. Get out your visual journal.
2. I recommend you get out your visual journal for this design challenge and choose several pages you'd like to add to; skipping around is good. This adds to the idea that your visual journal is a cohesive piece of art with it's own system of repetition and rhythm!
3. Select one medium you would like to add.
***NOTE: Of course you can choose more than one, but I think it's easiest to select only one because this exercise can get really crunchy and challenging for people because I'm asking you to "go-over" previous work.
Yes, adding layers can really challenge you, but it is where you start to see how things interact.
Doing this exercise has led me to some new methods of image making in my own personal body of work, things I would never have come up with had I not challenged that intense feeling of not wanting to ruin something in my art journal.
Remember: Art is about the exploration, not just of traditional techniques, but of expanding up and layering and growing them into your own unique voice and style. I encourage you to face that feeling head on.
Ask yourself; what's the worst that could happen if I add an extra layer here? The answer is usually that you would then hate what it looked like...but if that's the worst thing that could happen and you truly learned something from it, then I believe you are on your way to creating your own artistic voice. ***
4. After you have chosen your medium, select several pages to add it to.
5. You can then select one technique or method we have practiced already throughout the course!
Examples: You could choose a single pencil and a single type of drawing (contour line) like I did in the demo video.
You could choose a specific paint color and add a layer or background in that color to multiple pages, using the grounding method or even the three brush blending technique!
You could add some collaged design elements to some of your pages that have contour line drawings!
6. The possibilities are endless, but keep it simple for yourself. One medium, one technique, continued on multiple pages. You will see how using this same idea in repetition can create a beautiful rhythm, unity and over all cohesion to your visual journal.
***This same idea applies to creating a body of work. Imagine. What if you had 10 paintings laying out and you committed to doing one thing to each of them a day! You could try different methods with the same color or different angles of the same drawing! After less than two weeks you'd have enough work to sift through for a small solo art exhibition that made sense together and you would even have created some of your own methods of combining images, mark making, and color pallet....I think you get the idea, now go make some art! ***
Art Talk #5: Experiencing Art
Watch this video for the Art Talk Lesson!
You can review the slides from the video here at your own pace!
