Basics of Drawing

Waverly-Shell Rock Senior High

Mr. Adelmund

WHAT IS DRAWING?Drawing is Art, and what is Art?

Art is human expression of human thought. There are many forms of Art, and Drawing is one of those forms.

Drawing stems from the inadequacy of other forms of art - the written or spoken word. When words can't convey what you want to express, then you draw what you want express.

Drawing, and Art, was and is, used as a universal language. You don't need to speak Italian or French for your drawing to be understood in France or Italy.

And even though drawing is a language, it has a limitation. The drawing surface (paper, cloth, concrete, a computer monitor...) will display only height and width.

Drawing is translating the three dimensional world around you into two dimensions and creating the illusion of depth.

WHAT IS DRAWING?

I think some people say that they can't draw because:

• They think that when they draw they must create something that everybody will think is "Art."

• If they create something that they themselves don't define as "Art" they think they have failed and they say that they "can't draw".

• "This does NOT look like what I want! I can't draw, so I will never draw again!" And so that was the end of your learning.

Every drawing is Art because it's a human expression of a human thought.

A drawing is not "bad" - it just didn't turn out as you had originally intended.

MODES OF THINKING

ALLOW YOUR VISUAL MIND TO TAKE OVER ANDSUPPRESS YOUR LOGICAL MIND!

MODES OF THINKINGWe all use both the visual/creative mode (left brain) of thinking as well as the logical/symbol mode (right brain) of thinking all the time.

We use each mode to interpret the other mode.

EXAMPLE: Sketching a portrait.Your logical mind cannot put to paper a self portrait because it keeps telling you "This is the ear, draw the ear.”

What your visual mind will do is ”… here is a sweeping curve that intersects with this shadow," and “These two shapes combine to create a certain shape in the negative space.” The fact that it's a left eye doesn't matter to your artistic mind.

MODES OF THINKING

When you were a child, how did you draw?

Symbols that represented something to you?

Drawing was fun and something you did naturally.

As we matured, those symbols that you used as a child and your perception of the world expanded.

Your drawings became more complex, you tried to be more realistic in your drawing.

MODES OF THINKING

Around sixth grade, you decided that symbols just aren't gonna cut it anymore. You'd try and draw what you actually see, but your conditioned, logical mind, kicks in and overrides your creative impulse and spits out yet another symbol, or even better, a modified symbol that does somewhat resemble the object you want to draw.

Your creative mind sees your symbol drawing and says "This does NOT look like what I want! I can't draw, so I will never draw again!"

5 Main Elements of Drawing

There are Five Main Elements that can be learned that will greatly impact

your ability to draw!

In order to "draw what you see" you will have to learn to draw lines, shapes, and lights and darks that combine to make a whole drawing.

Your logical mind, that labels everything it sees, will not be a part of the drawing process.

5 Main Elements of Drawing

This semester we are going to work to use your visual mind and suppress your logical mind.

We will break your habit of drawing symbols and allow your artistic, visual mind to draw what it

actually sees.

These skills build upon each other:

Understanding what lines are and what they do will lead to the understanding of shapes and negative spaces, which will lead to the perception of depth and proportion, which naturally leads to the understanding and use of light and shadow, which will help you to see the drawing as a whole composition in the confines of the drawing surface.

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING

The ability to recognize LINES and IDENTIFY EDGES.

• Line is the most basic element of the drawing.

• Line separates one area of the drawing plane from the other. A single line establish a piece of paper into "that area" and "this area”- light from dark, foreground from background, positive space from negative space.

• Line does not truly exist in the real world. Because line (in the art world) is only two dimensional - height and width, it doesn't exist in our 3D world. •• 2D to Cube, Cone, Pyramid, Sphere, Cylinder, etc.

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWINGThe ability to recognize LINES and IDENTIFY EDGES.

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING

The ability to recognize SHAPES and/or SPACES.

• Shape is the white area on the paper enclosed by a line.

• Shape is the information that is presented between two or more lines.

• Shape is also defined by the other art elements on the page like colors, lines, shadows, etc.

• Shape helps define the object that is depicted as much as the collection of lines that make up the object in the drawing.

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWINGThe ability to recognize SHAPES and/or SPACES.

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING

The ability to calculate PROPORTIONS, PERSPECTIVE and ANGLES.

• Checking out the facts, how one part relates in size to others and at which angle - the ability to “sight” If proportion is incorrect in a drawing it "doesn't look right".

• Do objects recede back in space to one or more vanishing points?• Perspective is the illusion that further away things appear smaller,

and closer objects appear larger.

• Proportion and perspective both use each other to work. If one is incorrect, chances are the other will appear to be incorrect.

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWINGThe ability to calculate PROPORTIONS, PERSPECTIVE and ANGLES.

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWINGJudging shadows, highlights and tone.

• Light plays a HUGE part in what we see and how we draw.

• Is there a dominant light source?

• Chiaroscuro (Italian-Light and Dark) helps objects jump off the paper and look 3-Dimensional.

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWINGJudging shadows, highlights and tone.

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWINGThe “Whole Picture” or the “Eureka” - the unconscious skill of "pulling it

all together"”

• Before you even start the drawing you will begin to mentally place your picture elements on the paper, taking into account the drawing surface and relate your picture to the shape of your drawing surface- not run off the paper.

• The shape of your drawing plane will help determine the composition of your drawing.

• Seeing the whole drawing means when you start, you know where to place the eyes so the face will be in the center. Also, knowing that the tie will run off the page is being aware of the whole drawing.

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWINGThe “Whole Picture” or the “Eureka!”

Drawing activities that will bridge the visual/creative mode (left brain) & logical/symbol mode (right brain).

• Drawing objects upside down.

• Blind drawings.

• Negative space drawing.

• Ying and Yang idea drawing.

• Contour drawings.

• Detailed still-life drawings.