SKETCHBOOK #5

Feet and hands are hard to draw, right? The hardest is the face. I won't overwhelm you by making you do realistic portraits in your sketchbook (...yet). But I do want you to start familiarizing yourself with the portrait.

For this homework exercise, you are to:

1) use a pencil

2) draw 5 blind contour faces

3) look in a mirror and/or directly at the people you choose to draw - do not draw from photos!

4) try to get as many details as possible - spend at least 5 minutes per sketch.

A blind contour drawing is when you draw without looking at your paper AT ALL. Yes, yes, I know... It will look ridiculous. But the objective is not to make a great drawing - the objective is to sloooowwwww down and really look at the object you're drawing. Many times when we draw, we spend 95% of the time looking at the drawing, when really you should spend 95% of your time looking at your object. When you do a blind contour drawing, it's best if you do not lift the pencil off the page - if you do, it's hard to know where to put it back down. Your drawings will look something like this:

SKETCHBOOK #4

Feet!

In your sketchbook, draw these two images of feet as accurately as possible, with light to dark value. The x-ray with bones should show the outline of the foot as well as the bones. You can use any material you want to work with.

This will be due next Thursday, Nov. 11.

NO HOMEWORK

There will be NO sketchbook assignment due next Thursday, Nov. 4.

Spend the next week preparing for the Midterm Portfolio. If you choose to submit the Michelangelo copy as one of your four portfolio pieces, budget your time wisely - the earlier you get started on it the better the result will be.

SKETCHBOOK #3

Look at the three photos of male dancers. Do a 5 minute gesture drawing in pencil of each photo - for a total of 15 minutes of drawing time. Draw large - one figure per page. Focus on rapid, fluid, energetic markmaking while paying close attention to proportions. This will be due next Thursday, Oct. 28.

SKETCHBOOK #2

In your sketchbook, with a regular graphite pencil, copy the drawing that you see above. Focus on creating crisp, precise lines. You do not need to add shading - it can simply be a line drawing. Make sure the angles and proportions are correct; the goal is to be as accurate as possible.

Due: Thursday, Oct. 21

SKETCHBOOK # 1

Your homework - due Thursday, Oct. 14:

Look at the marble sculpture of the female body (made by sculptor Barranti).

Using the straight line angular technique that we have done in class, do a faithful drawing of the sculpture in your sketchbook with a graphite pencil. Let your angle lines and measure lines show - I want to see the process where you start from a general shape and slowly chisel away to get more and more detail. When you have reached the final shape of the body, you can make curved edges. Outline the edges with a thick, bold line. I will be looking for correct proportion and the angular general-to-specific technique. You do not have to draw the facial features or fingers - but you should draw (outline) everything else.

Welcome!

Hello Students,

This is where you will find your weekly homework assignments - please bookmark this site so you can find it easily. Sketchbooks will be due every Thursday, unless otherwise noted. Stay tuned for your first assignment... (there will be no homework this week.)