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Don’t forget that we will start class at 3:30 p.m. at the Fleming Museum. Bring all your materials there, including your grids, 8×10 photos, charcoal, graphite, Tombo pens, and if you wish, felt tip markers. Also… don’t forget to bring your latest paper draft and be prepared to discuss it with me. See you then.

Yesterday afternoon and evening we were lucky enough to have Bert Dodson, author of “Keys to Drawing” (our class textbook), “Keys to Drawing with Imagination” and author and coauthor of over 70 books on drawing and illustrations for children’s books, visit us. Bert did a very quick portrait of Stephanie, and provided us with clues about drawing and creativity from a lifetime of his creative and imaginative work. He conducted a few exercises from his new book, and directed students as they attempted a quick sketch of the Prof., who did his best to sit still and hope his cell phone wouldn’t ring (he forgot to turn it off as he was embarrased to find out earlier in the evening ).

Below are a few images from the class (Bert Drawing, Hanna and Bert discussing a creativity exercise, students drawing, and finally a series of iconographic headings from Bert’s book on Drawing and the Imagination. If you want to take a look inside the book you can go online and find it here.

Thanks to everyone who participated last night. And for those of you who were ill with the gastroenteritis bug traveling about campus, we wish you a speedy recovery and hope to see you next Wednesday. A reminder to you all: We meet at the Fleming Museum for a lecture/discussion by Christina Fearon at 3:30 p.m. After that we will return to our classroom for exercises similar to the work of Chuck Close, which you should visit on ArtStor (Library website) soon. Also, remember next time to bring your latest paper drafts with THREE emulating drawings completed, and revised text. I will go over these individually with you during class next time. Have a great weekend.

Below are drawings by Bert from his book for the Chapter heading icons. These are: Doodling and Noodling, Drawing a New Reality, Stretching the Truth, Visualizing Ideas, Storytelling, Exploring Pattern, Mining Culture and Exploring Themes. (Bert – I tried to get these in sequence, but the WordPress software I use to post these images is fighting with me this morning. If they are out of order, I apologize).

A Post Script: Bert, Rebecca and I had a nice dinner out at the Windjammer after class last night prior to Bert’s long drive back to Bradford. In that dinner hour or two we solved a few of the world’s problems, had much to say about Sarah Palin, the economic crisis, and had many creative insights extending from rational emotive psychotherapy to categorizing logical types in mathematics, art and politics. At least they felt like creative insights at the time. We shall soon see!

P.S.S. If you haven’t yet viewed the YouTube video “Women in Art”, scroll down to the previous post and click on it. Enjoy. MJS

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Below are a few bits and fragments from student journals (Drawing as a Way of Knowing). Some may be edited a little, but most express interesting personal feelings about art and art making.

“I need to branch out of my bubble, stop using HB and get messy.”

“I am very interested in capturing movement within my drawings. I would much rather draw a moving figure than a landscape…..”

“…. in my mind I visualize the art I would like to create – the art that I see myself creating, but it never materializes the way I imagine it.”

“Personally, I second guess myself all the time, and I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I’m too unsure of what I’m doing and I begin to feel self conscious.”

“I just want to draw simple lines to express complex feelings and emotions such as love, anger, etc.. I want to draw my friends and peers as outlines while still expressing their essence.”

“… a question that I have thought about before: Are you born an artist or is it an acquired skill? I agree with the statement that as long as you enjoy the process of making the art then that is all that matters!”

“Seeing my piece on the board next to the others, forces me to be critical. With this piece I tried to put away my fears and just go with it. I can’t be too critical of the final project because it was the process that mattered.”

“the part I found particularly challenging was finding the right measurements and proportions for everything. I spent so long measuring and remeasuring…..”

“Personally, looking at my artwork is a way of confronting a flawed side of me that I do care about and wish that I could excel in, but do not wish to share with others.”

“I think nature is depicted beautifully through his (Van Gogh’s) spirals and circles.”

“….. practicing how to let loose is a big step and definitely something I need to work on.”

“I want to draw with charcoal and use a similar technique to show his (Seurat’s) style of pointillism and interesting shading”

“Drawing is hard when your hand is creating what your mind tells it to and you have to try and overcome that by drawing what is actually there.”

Yesterday afternoon and early evening students in “Drawing as a Way of Knowing” listened to Marjorie Scarff from the Writing Center. Marjorie talked about the value of peer tutoring in the center, and students will bring their papers there soon for additional feedback. After Marjoie left everyone handed in the third draft of their paper, as well as exemplars of their portfolio and journal entries. I’m grading these this afternoon and on into the weekend.

We then spent time studying composition, pattern and design. In the beginning of class we looked at a variety of images (paintings, drawings, cartoons, advertisements, etc. and analyzed each for compositional elements which made them work (or not). After this we had a short quiz where students looked at various images (paintings, drawings and value studies) to determine compositional elements that made them work well). Using basic principles of composition, each student then made a series of small studies of various subjects using a viewfinder to place them on the page in different arrangements. After some consultation and discussion they chose the “best ” one to scale up to a more complete and finished drawing. A variety of mediums were used (graphite, ink, and charcoal) and many interesting pieces were developed.

Next week the author of our text (“Keys to Drawing”) will be visiting to conduct a class and do a demonstration portrait. He will also be teaching from his new book “Drawing and the Imagination”. In preparation for this, students will bring a drawing emulating the subject/composition of one artist, but using the style of a different artist. As an example, one might attempt to draw a Cezanne piece in the style of Picasso (or the reverse). We’ll be doing a number of exercises with Bert on artistic styles as well as on the topic of his latest book “Drawing and the Imagination”.

Approximate Outline of Class on Wednesday, October 15

COMPOSITION, DESIGN AND YOUR ARTIST’S “HANDWRITING”

Bring:

A. TOMBO pens, watercolor paper.

B. Also, please bring an image or two by the artists you are writing about. You will work with these today.

C. Subjects you may wish to draw.

D. Collection of exemplar drawings and journal entries to hand in (see below) and your third paper draft.

E. A view finder (index card with rectangle cut out of the middle – about 1.5 x 3 inches).

Sequence of activities:

1. Presentation by Marjorie Scarff from the Writing Center will start at 3:30 p.m. sharp. Do not be late and walk in after the presentation begins.   This will be followed by a question and answer period, and you will learn about the forms which will be submitted to document your visit with the Writing Center.  When I receive this documentation of your visit to the center, I’ll add 10 points to your grade total.

2. I will hand back your quizzes on Perspective.

3. You will then hand in:

a. Your stapled collection (Xerox) of 5 best drawings, or parts of drawings, with a title, date and signature on each.  This collection should have a cover page with a list of the five titles, and your name at the top. These pages should be 8.5 x 11 (standard letter sized paper).

c. Your paper draft.   I’ll grade this, as well as your drawing and journal submissions and hand them back to you on October 22, the day Bert Dodson visits.  (total points possible: 50 (drawings) + 50 (journal writing) + 60 (draft of paper) = 160 possible.

Odd sized scraps of paper stapled together are not acceptable.  Unstapled collections of folded sheets are not acceptable.

4. We will then review homework for the following class on October 22:  (Read Chapter 7 in Dodson and do exercises 7A and 7B, work on your paper, writing and  drawings.   Bring exercises 7A and 7B to class next time, October 22.)

5. Lecture/Discussion on Composition, Pattern and Design.  This will involve some writing exercises.

6. You will then have a short quiz on Composition.

7. The most extensive part of our class will be drawing exercises with specific attention focused on composition and style using your artist’s “handwriting”   You will be doing drawings of subjects of your choice (I’ll have the usual, as well as some new ones,  and you should bring some of your own – i.e., how would Degas, Matisse or Warhol draw Kermit the Frog, a Teddy Bear, a pumpkin or a cup and soucer?) . The drawings you do in this session can be used in your papers, so this time will be very useful for making significant progress in that regard. 

We will also do some transposition of styles exercises.  I will elaborate this in class.

Yesterday afternoon and evening, students in “Drawing as a Way of Knowing” (A&S 095) spent time in the library with Prof. Daisy Benson, learning about the many resources available for researching their papers on artistic styles and artist’s “handwriting”. Of particular value was ArtStor, something new at UVM. If you haven’t used it yet, it’s worth a look. It provides an incredible database of images and texts.

After the presentation, we returned to our “studio/classroom” and talked about the upcoming paper draft that is due, ways of composing and transforming texts, and the difference between composing and editing. We took a look at previous semester’s drafts and how they evolved over time.

We then learned about ink wash techniques, and students brought subjects of interest to paint/draw using this method. The images from the afternoon and evening are below.

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard and participated with energy and enthusiasm. Next week we will have a visit from staff at the Writing Center. The following week the author of your text “Keys to Drawing,” Bert Dodson will visit and talk about his new book “Drawing and the Imagination”. The week after that we will have a guest lecture from Christina Fearon at the Fleming museum who will talk about interpreting composition, style, and meaning in selected paintings and sculpture at the Fleming.

A reminder to everyone: Midterm Portfolio and Journal entries are due next week. I will elaborate again on these in an email to the listerv shortly.

Yesterday afternoon and evening A&S 095 students practiced a variety of techniques for creating the illusion of depth. Here we are drawing gourds and also checking out various points of perspective in the Fleming Museum. For those of you who had trouble with the latter, you are not alone. It was a difficult exercise, and often those vanishing points were not on your drawing but quite distant from it. Thanks for all your efforts. As you keep drawing, the lessons learned last night will inform your future work. As always, I keep trying to get as many folks in the pictures as I can. The light in the Fleming made picture taking a little difficult, so no images of your perspective drawings are shown. I’ll try and get some in later. Good luck on your midterm exams in other classes, and have a good rest of the week. I’ll be grading your quizzes and the first draft of your papers. Keep an eye out for an email next week summarizing next week’s class. And don’t forget to meet at Rm. 123 in the Library at 3:30 for the beginning of that class. Note that the bottom two drawings are done, respectively, in graphite and charcoal.  They both have extended value ranges which helps create the illusion of volume.  While most of you are doing very well at this, attention to ALL the value ranges you see in the subject (this takes some very careful observation and time to reproduce) will enhance the illusion of the forms you are drawing.