Wednesday 30 June 2010




Course work: Sketched in the rough outlines for the final Assignment Four drawing. Added the fence and some tree trunks with marker, along with a very pale blue wash to suggest our pallid and humid summer sky.





Reading:



Matthew Collings This is Modern Art

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1999

Pp. 239-262

(I found this book difficult to read. It struck me as poorly-organized, self-important, and virtually content-free…much the same as a great deal of modern “art.” Perhaps I am too old to appreciate what the author has to say and how he says it, or perhaps I’m just too suspicious to be deceived by it.)



Kenneth Clark The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form

Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 1956

Pp. 3-29



Personal sketchbook work: Three ears of corn (which tasted wonderful.)

Total time: 2 hours 5 minutes (104h7m)

Monday 29 June 2010




Course work: A review of all my preliminary sketchbook (and larger) work done in preparation for the final Assignment Four drawing, with some additional thought on what media to use.



Reading:



Leonard Shlain Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time and Light

William Morrow, New York 1991

Pp. 69-83



Personal sketchbook work: I have spent several frustrating days installing a replacement computer, which inspired me to do a little sketch of a “computerpus,” a computer with its cables partially turned into tentacles.

Total time: 1 hour 2 minutes

Monday 28 June 2010




Course work: A rough tonal plan of my planned Assignment Four drawing, in gouache.

Reading:



Matthew Collings This is Modern Art

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1999

Pp. 214-238



Personal sketchbook work: A small sketch of a sprig of basil, and a portion of a reproduction of a Maya effigy statue.

Total time: 1 hour 27 minutes

Sunday 27 June 2010




Course work: A marker sketch of the view out the back door as it would look if seen from a window that actually faces 90° away from the door.

Reading:



Leonard Shlain Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time and Light

William Morrow, New York 1991

Pp. 47-68



Personal sketchbook work: A partial drawing of a volcanic stone. The small pits and holes produced by bubbles of gas make the stone look a lot like a crater-pitted asteroid.

Weekly reflections on learning experience: This week has been one of working toward a design for the final Assignment Four drawing, testing different media, simplifying designs, and experimenting with different ideas. I have also looked ahead in the course: after a good bit of reflection on what I find most interesting and challenging, and after trying out some of the exercises in the various Assignment 5 options (and reading them all in detail several times) I have decided that at present I would rank them as Option 2, Option 1, and Option 3, with Option 4 out of the running.



Total time: 1 hour 24 minutes

Saturday 26 June 2010




Course work: Worked on a larger color sketch of the view out my back door, using some water-soluble crayons I was given several years ago, but have never used. Having ruthlessly moved and eliminated trees and fences, I have arrived at something that is recognizably the actual view, despite being quite different. I think that I am now approaching a final design for the Assignment Four drawing, but I need to make some changes in order to have more landscape and less interior. Did a sketchbook attempt, with just enough colored pencil to suggest colors.

Reading:



Matthew Collings This is Modern Art

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1999

Pp 184-213



Personal sketchbook work: A little imagined sketch in charcoal of some paintbrushes drooping over from the heat.

Total time: 2 hours 17 minutes

Friday 25 June 2010




Course work: Did several small sketches working on potential details for inclusion in the final Assignment 4 drawing: a colored pencil sketch of a cedar tree, some small drawings of rocks in several media, and a couple of watercolor attempts at a sky, one including some white gouache. I have a long way to go.

Reading:



Leonard Shlain Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time and Light

William Morrow, New York 1991

Pp. 32-46



Personal sketchbook work: One of the cats silhouetted on a chair-back against the rising sun. This would have been more effective in black, but sanguine was all that was within reach.

Total time: 1 hour 13 minutes

Wednesday 23 June 2010




Course work: Another broad-brush color view, this time using gouache. (This is another medium with which I’ve done little more than some superficial experimentation: as thinly as I used it, it was for all practical purposes ordinary watercolor.) This view includes part of our gravel driveway, a pile of builder’s sand I’ve converted to a rock, and near and distant trees and grass (the tree-line is about 130 meters distant). Then I did a second color sketch with a few pen lines added.

Reading:



Matthew Collings This is Modern Art

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1999

Pp 148-182



Total time: 2 hours 18 minutes

Tuesday 22 June 2010




Course work: A watercolor brush sketch of one of the window/door views under consideration. It is entirely unsatisfactory, as watercolor and I have never agreed. (I assume that watercolor is one of the media permitted for “…do some broad brush sketches to decide on the colours you want to use…” as about the only other possibilities are gouache or colored ink; it seems unlikely that the author intended use of oil or acrylics.)

Reading:



Leonard Shlain Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time and Light

William Morrow, New York 1991
Pp15-31


Personal sketchbook work: Three partial manikin drawings, done in part to explore foreshortening, and in part to test three different pencils.

Total time: 2 hours 18 minutes (92h21m)

Monday 21 June 2010




Course work: Developed one of yesterday’s sketches further, using Design Ebony and water-soluble black pencils. Working in my sketchbook didn’t really allow enough room for much development, and I may need to go to larger paper to do much in the way of detail work. This view through a glass door does allow use of linear perspective and even atmospheric perspective to an extent that the other views do not.

Reading:



Matthew Collings This is Modern Art

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1999

Pp 120-148



Personal sketchbook work: Tried a sketch of some threatening afternoon clouds with water-soluble pencil, but the result was poor. Went over it with an ink wash, but that didn’t help.

Total time: 1 hour 14 minutes

Sunday 20 June 2010




Course work: Added a few brush marks using ink, a few strokes with a reed pen, and some final marks with colored pencil, and decided that I had fulfilled the objective of this exercise, and had succeeded to some extent in conveying the heat of the open grassland, the sun-dazzled brightness of the opposite tree-line, and the relative coolness of the woodland.

I made a series of three very quick sketches of views through windows or doors that are potentially usable for the final Assignment 4 drawing. Regardless of which I select, substantial editing will be required, and these sketches omit significant numbers of trees (and in one case additional fences) that proved more confusing than helpful.

Reading:



Matthew Collings This is Modern Art

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1999

Pp 84-119



Personal sketchbook work: Unable to arrive at a more interesting subject, I sketched my hanging towel for the first time in some time.

Weekly reflections on learning experience: This week’s course work became by almost insensible steps a multimedia exercise. I began to find it interesting to see how I could get different media to work together, and I am reasonably satisfied with the result. I think that what I have learned in this exercise will prove useful in the future.



Total time: 1 hour 34 minutes

Saturday 19 June 2010




Course work: Added some more foliage to the woodland drawing, using gouache and some water-soluble colored pencil. I think one or two more work sessions may finish this drawing.



Reading:



Marijn Schapelhouman Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing

Waanders Publishers, Amsterdam. 2006

Pp 85-109

(Worth reading, with numerous illustrations. How could anyone use a pen so fluidly?)



Personal sketchbook work: A sketch of a small hand manikin (which has to be positioned carefully, owing to my having dropped it and damaged the little finger beyond repair).

Total time: 1 hour 2 minutes

Friday 18 June 2010




Course work: A little additional work on the woodland drawing, this time using some water-soluble pencil.



Reading:



Anna Held Audet The Blank Canvas: Inviting the Muse

Shambhala, Boston& London, 1993

Pp 50-104

(I re-read this little book about once a year, and always get something new and useful from it.)



Personal sketchbook work: A drawing of a hand, using terracotta colored pencil.

Total time: 1 hour 8 minutes

Thursday 17 June 2010




Course work: Continuing work on the woodland drawing. Today I used some gouache, pastel pencil, and colored pencil.



Reading:



Matthew Collings This is Modern Art

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1999

Pp 48-83



Personal sketchbook work: An incomplete sketch of one of the cats, who chose to depart before I got very far.

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Wednesday 16 June 2010




Course work: A little more work on the woodland drawing, today using wash and a little colored pencil.



Reading:



Marijn Schapelhouman Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing

Waanders Publishers, Amsterdam. 2006

Pp 44-84





Personal sketchbook work: A study after a statue by Daniel Haesli (seen on Artdaily.org). I thought the shadows were interesting, although the subject is baffling.

Total time: 1 hour 19 minutes

Tuesday 15 June 2010




Course work: A little further work on the woodland drawing, using ink wash, colored pencil, marker, and pastel pencil.



Reading:



Matthew Collings This is Modern Art

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1999

Pp 7-47



Personal sketchbook work: A colored pencil drawing of the first tomato of the season, in my pocket sketchbook.

Total time: 1 hour 33 minutes

Monday 14 June 2010




Course work: Started work on the woodland drawing, initially using markers, some watercolor wash, and a little ink wash on a 12” x 18” sheet of watercolor paper.



Reading:



Marijn Schapelhouman Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing

Waanders Publishers, Amsterdam. 2006

Pp 5-44



Dan Gheno Learning the Essential Facts of Foreshortening in Drawing, Vol 6, No. 20 (Spring 2009). Pp 38-51

(A useful article…I wish it had resurfaced from my magazine pile when I was working on Assignment 2.)



Personal sketchbook work: Part of a complex tangle of roots exposed in a cut bank.

Total time: 1 hour 55 minutes

Sunday 13 June 2010




Course work: (Did some thinking about the current and next exercises, but no actual work.)

Reading:



Rose-Marie & Ranier Hagen What Great Paintings Say (Vol. 3)

Taschen, Köln, 2005

Pp 162-167, 174-179, 192-197

(I enjoyed this series, which skillfully correlates history with art history. I do regret the duplication of significant content from volumes I and II in volume III.)



Personal sketchbook work: A terracotta pencil sketch of a cap, casually thrown onto a table.

Weekly reflections on learning experience: Much of the week’s effort has been devoted to trees. Some of my more-recent efforts are appreciably improved over those done two months ago, early in the work on this assignment. Some of my recent sketchbook work has been aimed at deciding which option of Assignment 5 I wish to pursue: each option has its attractive and unattractive features. (I have almost certainly ruled out the Landscape option…with daytime high temperatures expected in the 34-40° C range for the next several months, it is just too uncomfortable to draw outside for more than brief periods.)



Total time: 54 minutes

Saturday 12 June 2010




Course work: Another somewhat simplified sketch of the woodland drawing, this one using markers. This is somewhat closer to what I want to do with this exercise. I then did a quick one with pen and light watercolor wash (discovering that my pen was, in fact, not waterproof). None of the preparatory work I have done completely pleases me, but I am running out of ideas.

Reading:



Rose-Marie & Ranier Hagen What Great Paintings Say (Vol. 3)

Taschen, Köln, 2005

Pp 132-143, 156-161



Michael Hampton Figure Drawing: Design and Invention

M. Hampton, (no publisher’s address listed), 2010

Pp 1-22



Personal sketchbook work: A tonal drawing of a cow vertebra.

Total time: 2 hours 13 minutes

Friday 11 June 2010




Course work: A simplified sketch of the woodland drawing, using colored pencils, primarily to test some color ideas. I think, after doing this, that I need to make the grassy area wider than it appears to the eye (it is on a down-slope) in order to produce a better visual effect. The contrast where the leaf-litter meets the grassland, and where the grassland meets the distant trees, also needs to be stronger.

Reading:



Leonhard Emmerling Jackson Pollock

Taschen, Köln, 2006

Pp 65-96

(Not a painter I greatly admire, although I do find some of the more monochromatic drip paintings interesting. Overall, an unhappy, alcoholic individual who died too young.)



Personal sketchbook work: A drawing of our sofa, looking almost directly into the light.

Other activity: Watched the “Basic Tonal Drawing” demonstration on the OCA website. I’ve often found it very helpful to watch demonstrations of this sort, as there are many “tricks” one simply cannot learn from reading.



Total time: 1 hour 6 minutes

Thursday 10 June 2010




Course work: Drew an additional view of a pecan tree as correction for a previous misinterpretation of instructions.

Did two preliminary sketches in preparation for the next part of the exercise. The first is done in an open stand of mixed oaks and hickories, looking across an open grassland toward a treeline in the middle distance. The second is done on a woodland trail with mostly small mixed hardwoods on the left and a rather dense stand of small loblolly pines on the right, again looking toward a distant treeline seen across open grassland. At present I’m more inclined to further develop the first one.

Reading:



Rose-Marie & Ranier Hagen What Great Paintings Say (Vol. 3)

Taschen, Köln, 2005

Pp 108-113, 120-131



Personal sketchbook work: Three single-line manikin sketches. The pen ran out of ink on the first. The second, with a Derwent Terracotta pencil, just failed completely…I have no idea where the missing parts are. The third, with a different pen, is only a little better.

Total time:

1 hour 47 minutes

Wednesday 9 June 2010




Course work: Completed the larger drawing of an individual tree.

Upon review, I think I misunderstood the instructions for the final part of the four-part drawings of individual trees and have done two additional drawings (red cedar and persimmon) as corrections. Will do a third tomorrow.

Reading:



Leonhard Emmerling Jackson Pollock

Taschen, Köln, 2006

Pp 35-64





Personal sketchbook work: Two “blind contour” manikin sketches, looking at the paper only when needed to relocate the pencil. I have never done these well, and doubt I ever will. Tomorrow I will try some with continuous line, just to see how much worse I can get.

Total time: 1 hour 23 minutes

Tuesday 8 June 2010




Course work: A little more work on the larger study of an individual tree.



Reading:



Rose-Marie & Ranier Hagen What Great Paintings Say (Vol. 3)

Taschen, Köln, 2005

Pp 72-77, 84-89



Personal sketchbook work: A graphite drawing of a watermelon.

Other activity: My painting group met today, after a brief hiatus and finding new quarters.



Total time: 48 minutes

Sunday 6 June 2010




Course work: Continued work on the larger study of an individual tree.



Reading:



Leonhard Emmerling Jackson Pollock

Taschen, Köln, 2006

Pp 7-34



Weekly reflections on learning experience: A useful week of effort, mostly devoted to landscape, with some digressions in my sketchbook work. Even after ten months of course-work, I still frequently have difficulty in finding a subject I want to put in my sketchbook.



Total time: 1 hour 46 min (69h55m)

Saturday 5 June 2010




Course work: Started work on the larger drawing of a single tree, having selected a willow oak as the subject, drawing on a 30.5 x 45.7 cm sheet with a black Koh-i-noor pencil.



Reading:



Rose-Marie & Ranier Hagen What Great Paintings Say (Vol. 3)

Taschen, Köln, 2005

Pp 60-71



Personal sketchbook work: A sketch of my work hat.

Total time:1 hour 24 minutes