Week 1: Course presentation
Course presentation, materials and mark making exercises.
Activity:
Presentation of the course structure:
The course is articulated around twelve mainly indoor classes that progressively address the basic issues of representational drawing, and two portfolio reviews that offer to the students an occasion for a guided conversation around their achievements in an open and constructive environment.
Students will be guided to familiarize with drawing materials, introduced to different ways of holding a pencil, shown mark making and control exercises. Students are then encouraged to explore the page in its extension in order to overcome the initial diffidence for the materials. Students will be presented with basic solids and guided through a step by step (from general to particular) rendering method.
Homework:
Exercise on Moodle about different mark making, line pressure, cross etching, simple solids.
Week 2: The basics
The basics of drawing: line control, correspondence between gesture and mark making, order of operations, relative position to the subject, basic solids structure, proportions, basic shading.
Activity:
The students will be guided through exercises about mark making variety through different ways of holding the pencil and pressure control. Students will start to have an apprehension of the relation between gesture, position and marks produced.
Students will be invited to apply the just experimented principles to the rendering of basic solids through the order of operation method (from general to particular).
Students will be shown how to measure and respect proportions.
Students will be shown how and instructed through demonstrations to consider how the point of view influences the appearance of a tridimensional shape. Students will be also shown how to realize the basic shading of simple volumes (highlight, mid tone, dark side).
Homework:
Guided exercises on Moodle about line control and different pressures, rendering of basic solids and their shading.
Week 3: The basics
Basic solids, structure, shading, proportions, measurement.
Activity:
Building on the previous class, students will be instructed through a demonstration on the method of order of operations (from general to particular) to realize autonomously, however under supervision of the professor, a drawing in the time of one hour and fifteen minutes. Students are instructed to start with a thumbnail to find the view, consider the general proportions and composition of the scene, then take in account how volumes appear from the specific point of observation, and render volume with basic shading. There will be a focus on different kind of shadows (proper and projected). Students will receive Feedback and guidance during the work.
After a short break students will be asked to repeat the exercise from a different point of view.
Homework:
Realize five drawings of everyday objects with very simple and regular shape (shoebox, water bottle, two or three piled books, a cup, a mug, a plate) be aware of the position, the proportions and the angle you are looking the object from.
Week 4: Still life
Construction lines, basic solids, shading, proportions, measurement, transparency of shadows, complex compositions.
Activity:
The class introduces to the basics of composition (diagonal, symmetric, triangular), considering the drawing as a space to be kept in dynamic balance. Students will be invited to consider different characteristics such as size, value and position and their role for the balance of the composition. Students will work autonomously on more complex compositions. A demonstration on the new topics (composition, balance and imbalance) introduces the class, a guided exercise will demonstrate such concepts.
After we continue from the previous class the basics of representational drawing with an emphasis on construction lines and scaffolding. A demonstration on the new topics (construction lines, proportions and transparency of shadows) will be given, feedback and guidance are given to each student.
Homework:
Realize a balanced and an unbalanced simple composition for each of the three main composition structures (diagonal, symmetric, triangular). Make a quick (5mins) sketch of a still life at home for each of three kind of compositions.
Week 5: Still life
Contrast, figure and background (Reading of the Cézanne passages on drawing as essentially a matter of contrasts).
Activity:
We continue from the previous class with a focus on contrast, figure and background. Students are invited to consider objects and backgrounds as tone values. Students will be show how to obtain accurate tone relations and describe space through variation of tone intensity. A demonstration on the new topic introduces the class, feedback and guidance are given to each student.
Homework:
Realize four drawings of everyday objects (shoes, a chair, a standing coat hanger, ceiling ventilator, a stove, two or three piled books, a pair of sunglasses, your undone bed) be aware of the position, the proportions and the angle you are looking the object from, focus on how the contrast has control over our perception of space.
Week 6: Outdoor
Caracalla’s Baths
Positive and negative volumes, transparency of shadows, texture.
Activity:
The class focuses on the rendering of large complex structures with a positive and negative volumes (e.g. the pillars, the domes). Students are invited to take in consideration the distance from the subject, to decide, through the already seen technique of the thumbnail, what will be included in the scene. The class revolves around the challenges offered by the semi-regular character for the Caracalla’s Bath ruins, made up of perfectly geometrical shapes abruptly interrupted or intersected by more chaotic structures. These mixed qualities test the ability of the student to describe both regular volumes and organic shape, flat surfaces and various textures. The outdoor light offers an occasion also for a study of the transparency of shadows.
Homework:
Make two drawings for each of the following subjects: a spoon, a soup plate, a baseball hat.
Draw each subject twice, once showing the convex side, once the concave one.
Week 7: Midterm
Portfolio review counting 20% of the final grade
Week 8: Still life
Complex shapes, drapery, bigger composition, larger scale.
Activity:
The class wants to demonstrate how small or large objects (such as still life or architecture) can be approached focusing solely on their formal qualities, and how this approach helps understanding shapes beyond function. The class, hence, shows how the principles and approaches explored in the previous class can be applied to still life compositions. Students are guided to consider drapery and still life in terms of structures, primary volumes and contrasts. Students are guided to consider the activity of drawing as a “construction site”, a process of erasure and accumulation, making and dismantling, figuring out things, making them messy, with a stress on the process over the result. A demonstration introduces the class, feedback and guidance are given to each student.
Students will start a 100x70 cm drawing with charcoal, that they will be able to finish the following week.
Homework:
Continue autonomously the work on the charcoal drawing started in class.
Week 9: Still life
Continue the drawing from Week 8
Activity:
The class revolves around still life compositions and drapery done with charcoal on larger paper. Students are guided to consider the activity of drawing as a “construction site”, a process of erasure and accumulation, making and dismantling, figuring out things, making them messy, with a stress on the process over the result. Feedback and guidance are given to each student.
Homework:
Make a charcoal or pencil drawings 100x70 cm minimum during the week. Use the eraser extensively for the lights and the midtones, pay attention to proportions, volumes, the direction of light, and perspective. Focus on what we have seen in class: imagine the drawing as a construction site, let the process involved in making the drawing, in figuring out the shape, the attempts and the errors be visible in the work.
Week 10: The Museum
The underling structure of the sculpture of the “Lion chasing a horse”.
Activity:
The students will be guided in the formal analysis of the famous sculpture, focusing on the horse head. We will break down the horse head in its geometric components. After, students will be invited to approach with the same method to the whole sculpture. As usual a step-by-step demonstration introduces the class and one to one feedback are given to the students through the class.
Homework: Draw two statues of the Sant’Angelo bridge. Break down the sculptures in simpler shapes, try to express with fluid mark making the movement of the drapery.
Week 11: Still life
Perfecting skills
Activity:
We continue our work on still life, bringing together all the different aspects encountered through the course. The class revolves around precision and refining skills. The work will be mentored and students will have the time to develop a finished drawing. A group discussion will be held at the end of the class and students will be encouraged to contribute constructively to each other’s work. Vocabulary and verbalization of concepts will be encouraged in this phase.
Homework:
Make two version of the same quick sketch of three different subjects. Minimize the contrast in the first version, make extremely contrasted the second one.
Week 12: Still life
Continue from Week 11 – Perfecting Skills
Activity:
We continue our work started the previous week, bringing together all the different aspects encountered through the course. Feedbacks are given to the students through the class.
Homework:
Choose a reflective and shiny object and make a drawing that incorporate that quality.
Week 13: Still life
Scaling techniques (the grid) shiny and transparent objects.
The class examines problems presented by transparent and shiny materials. Transparent and shiny materials can be very confusing as they trick our eye to perceive light sources where there is none or space where there is a volume. Students will examine the interplay of these materials with light and the techniques to render their effects. There will also be a demonstration on scaling techniques for the final project. One to one feedback are given to the students through the class.
Homework:
Scale one of your sketches of a factor of 1,5.
Week 14: Final
Portfolio review counting 20% of the final grade.