17 September 2009




Course work: Started on the Assignment One final exercises today, having already devoted a good bit of time in selecting subjects. For the natural forms drawing I chose a selection of sea shells that I have picked up on the beach over the years, placing them in a shallow tray of sand. I found that I could not do even the roughest of tonal studies in the 15-20 minutes suggested: one each done in graphite, Conte’ crayon, and charcoal required almost three hours.



Reading:



Betty Edwards, The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Penguin-Putnam, New York, 1999

Chapter 6 (pp 88-113)



E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art,

Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford 1978

Chapter 8 (pp 113-124)





Personal Sketchbook Work: Two exercises from The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, (done in the companion workbook). A drawing of a hand, inspired by the previous exercises.



Total time: A bit over four hours



18 September 2009



Course work: After a careful re-examination of my first three studies, I decided that they were all weak. I tightened up the arrangement of my objects, removed two that I thought contributed less than they should, and changed the angle and intensity of the lighting. The resulting fourth study was, I thought, better than the first three, and it will serve as the basis for my drawing of natural objects. I also did several sketches of one of the more difficult-to-draw shells, in order to fix its appearance more firmly in my mind.



Personal sketchbook work: A sketch of a bark-beater, a tool used by the Maya to make paper. A drapery study.



Total time: about 2 ½ hours