Greetings Artists,

If you are receiving this as an email then you are confirmed as an attendee for the January 29th Drawing workshop
at UVM. It will take place in my office/classroom/lair – 531 Cook Physical Science, on the UVM Campus starting
promptly at 1:30 p.m. I imagine we will end at about 4:30 to 5 p.m. The workshop is “sold out.” (with seven) but we could squeeze in an eighth if someone else wishes to attend. If you know of anyone, you should have them contact me as soon as possible.

Attendees include former students from my UVM drawing classes (several previous semesters), from workshops
in northern Vermont, as well as friends, interested family members, and those who spotted this workshop in
the Vermont Art Zine: Marsha, Mary, Nancy, Rebecca, Sandra, Ashley and Jackie. It is possible that further workshops
will be at my studio at home rather than UVM, but this one will be on campus.

We are on the 5th floor of Cook Building in the Physics department. Not to worry. We will be drawing, not doing
physics….though all the light rays we use WILL obey the laws of physics! If there is a storm on that day, I’ll be sure to alert you to any possible time/date changes. If you want a phone alert, send me your phone number.

Though I will have materials (charcoal – soft stick and vine, newsprint or other charcoal paper, drawing boards,
masking tape, charcoal fixative, tissues, malleable erasers, etc.) if you have any of those items in the parentheses, please bring them along. I will also provide snacks and drinks (fruit, cheese, drinks, crackers, cookies, etc.) but feel free to add to the snack table if you wish to do so, though this is not necessary. I will have coffee and tea available as well.

Subject matter will be still life, in glass or white porcelain. I have still life items, but feel free to bring your own
as well. For those of you who want to try drawing from the figure or portrait, please bring photographic reference
material, preferably in black and white. I do have such material, but I would prefer you brought your own. We will not be drawing from the model. Maybe in a later workshop.

The main exercise (though you can diverge from it- vide infra) will be one which many of you have already done at least once. We will cover a large sheet of paper with a medium tone of charcoal using a tissue. A drawing of the subject matter will be made on this toned sheet, and the light and dark shapes will then be created by taking off charcoal with a malleable eraser (lights), and adding charcoal with a soft stick (darks).

For those of you who wish to work simply with charcoal on paper, you may feel free to do that instead. For those wishing to use ink wash to create value (darks and lights) you may also feel free to do that, but you should bring a watercolor block or heavy watercolor paper, as well as materials (I will have some, but not enough for everyone to do ink wash). There are no necessary rules to follow in this workshop, except that you should direct your efforts to create the illusion of form using light and dark shapes.

The room overhead lights will be off and we will be working with spotlights on the subject matter in order to more heavily define the light and dark regions of the subject matter. There will, however, be sufficient light to work with ink wash or other mediums if you wish to do so. There are no rigid rules to follow. This is an INFORMAL workshop intended to allow you to pursue your own interests and work comfortably at your own pace and level. There are a variety of skill levels for those attending, and I anticipate that you will all learn something about the drawing process and artistic result by observing and comparing your work with those of others. We will try and have a critique at the end. I will provide feedback in whatever way you wish.

Working with Dodson’s Drawing with Imagination, class last night produced some startling images and creative abstract drawings. These are in the thumbnails below. To see a larger image, click on the thumbnail.

Next week we will be working on Transposition, Variation and Recreation – Drawing with the Masters. Congratulations to all of you for your hard work and original and creative results!

Last evening we finished up with a few more examples of perspective drawing and then did a few exercises in negative space drawing, a technique focused again on shape consciousness – an attempt to remove the drawing process from conscious alterations of the subject by what we expect to see.  This is similar the the purpose of grid drawing.  A summary of the work is below in the thumbnails.  Click on a thumbnail for a larger image.  The images posted twice. There are really only eight pictures.

We missed Kristen and Mary, but know they will return again next week.  John-Andrew, Devon and Marsha worked hard and accomplished a lot.   We also had a four legged guest artist, Nate, who did a good job of eating cheese, crackers and cookies, followed by a stint of laying under the table.  He was also a model for Marsha’s grid drawing as you can see.  The images below include Devon’s negative space chair and his hall perspective, John Andrew’s rooftop view perspective and Marsha’s effort at negative space drawing of a pile of masking tape ovals.  The latter was quite challenging. We also framed drawings with good frames, mats and glass.  I have two more frames waiting for Kristen and Mary when the arrive next week.

We talked about the final paper which will be a summary of all your commentary on drawings and the drawing process throughout the semester (you are all, of course, making these short journal entries either on the drawings themselves, or in your journal book, right?).  This paper should be a typed and double spaced, and a minimum of 5 pages of text.  If you wish to include some reduced images, that would be fine as well.  The paper is not an absolute requirement if you do not require the highest possible grade. You can still get a good grade without it, but I think you will find it a useful exercise.  If you have questions about it, please be in touch.  You will hand in the paper on December 2, along with your entire portfolio for the semester.  I will return them with my comments on our last class, December 9th, when we will have a party to celebrate the ending of the class.

We have only four classes left and the topics for these (tentatively) are:

Nov 4, Drawing and the Imagination – see Chapter 8 in Dodson and the handout I gave you last night.  Kristen and Mary:  Chapter 8 will suffice, but I can get you the handout if you want it.  It is a section of Dodson’s new Book:  Ketys to Drawing with Imagination.

Nov 11, Learning from the Masters – Copying, Sketching and the Power of Influences.

Nov 18, Landscape Images – Principles of Landscape Composition. Hand in Paper and Portfolio.

December 2, Media Retrospective – A Mad Dash to the End with Graphite, Charcoal and Ink

December 9 (last class) we will have a party, food, drink, etc. and I will hand back your papers, if you choose to do one, as well as your portfolios.  We may share our thoughts on the drawing process and what we have learned during the semester.

Thursday evening we studied the subject of value and created images by negative drawing (removing charcoal pigment from paper with an eraser.)  We also did drawings with charcoal on a white surface. At the end of the 4 hour session everyone did very competent and sometimes lovely drawings that created the illusion of light.  Everyone also now has experience in chiaroscuro, will be aware of the value scale in their work, and how it impacts the nature of the resulting drawing and the experience of the viewer.  Thanks again to all of you for your hard work and enthusiasm.  For a larger image, click on the thumbnail.

After a long day at work, it might seem that another half day in the studio would be arduous, but that was not evident.  Everyone seemed most engaged with their artistic endeavors.  Below is a collage of images which represent some of what we did. Next week we will spend the time on the subject of composition, including the framing and edges of the frame and how they impact the drawing.  We also will draw from the model, who is scheduled to arrive in the second part of the class.

We met late yesterday afternoon and early evening (Thursday, Sept., 2) for the first class.  The room was 85 degrees and I marvel at the air conditioned Davis Center, with its restaurants, pool tables, lounges and 50 foot ceilings, while the lecture halls and rooms in Cook/Angell (even the 300 student rooms) were insufferably hot and humid.  My chemist colleagues and their hundreds of students came out dripping – not a good environment for learning.  But I  shouldn’t complain.  Our class went outside under the trees  (next to the bulldozers and backhoes) to begin learning the basics of drawing what you see, not what you know.  To mark, look, compare the drawing to subject, and repeat that sequence throughout the drawing process…. not look for a long time and then draw for a long time looking only at the emerging drawing. We practiced shape consciousness drawing hands and feet, drawing up close to the subject, and then farther away, and also how to measure relative sizes and translate them from the world to the page.  After each drawing we did a short reflective piece of writing on the process.  The collected reflections (at the end of the course) will be assembled, along with selected drawings, into a paper exploring the personal experience of each student learning about the drawing process in this class.  The images shown here are representations of some of the activities we did last night.  I tried to get the work of all in, but often do not.  My apologies to you if you or your work is not represented here.  It will be in future blogs as we go forward.  I’m going to try to do a summary like this each week. Click on a thumbnail for a larger image.

Thanks to you all for your hard work and enthusiasm.  I’m looking forward to a great class with you this semester.

Gesture drawing, still life, working in graphite and in charcoal were themes of the day, as well as some philosophical discussions of what makes drawing hard, how to draw what you see and not what you know, and the mechanics of hand-eye coordination.  Everyone worked hard and seemed to have a good time.  Thanks for all your energy and effort.  I’ll look forward to seeing you all next Sunday when we will be working at drawing by making white marks in a dark field and creating volume with value (chiaroscuro )..

 Gesture drawing, still life, working in graphite and in charcoal were themes of the day, as well as some philosophical discussions of what makes drawing hard, how to draw what you see and not what you know, and the mechanics of hand-eye coordination.  Everyone worked hard and seemed to have a good time.  Thanks for all your energy and effort.  I’ll look forward to seeing you all next Sunday when we will be working at drawing by making white marks in a dark field and creating volume with value (chiaroscuro )..

Sarah modeled for us for portrait drawing (thanks Sarah).  Portraits by Ashley and Faith, and a finished graphite/chalk portrait by Ashley. Faith and Ashley also gave their presentations this evening on Klimt, Fini, Degas and Lichtenstein.  We missed all of you who were unable to make class this evening.  For those who came, thanks for your work.

Some very interesting and surprising images resulted from last night’s work.  Thanks to all who participated and for the sustained creative effort.  Next week we will be working from Tufte’s book on Visual Explanations, the chapter on disinformation design and visual explanations of Magic. I think  you’ll enjoy that.