Chiaroscuro Drawings

An Italian term literally meaning “light-dark”

Chiaroscuro is accomplished by dramatic light sources within the composition creating extreme lights and darks.

Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicoleas Tulp by Rembrandt

Rembrandt’s Self Portrait

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt

Subtractive Drawing• Instead of adding to the surface of your paper, you will subtract from the

surface• Using Charcoal you will accomplish a chiaroscuro image with a dramatic

light source• The subject matter is up to you, however, I want you to draw from an

image that you took!!!• For homework – take several images at home to use for this project

– Two self portraits – dark room with a small bright light source– Landscape - Showing Chiaroscuro with either natural or man made

light sources– Still Life – set up a still life or use objects already arranged together

with one light source• Contast is KEY! You may want to edit your photos to bring out more

contrast and make your images black and white.

Homework Examples

THIS IS A GRADED HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT!!!!

• You will need to either print out your images– I would put them into a word document and print out

one sheet for all 4 images (size them down)OR• You can email a word document with your

images to my teacher account– MUST be ONE PAGE ONLY! – Keep a copy in your own email incase it doesn’t show

up in mine (you cannot rely on technology)• Saved word document on a flashdrive

Example of what it should look like:

Emily Saltysiak

Two Self Portraits (pretending these are Emily)

One Still Life

One Landscape

Name

Expectations• Printing it out is best because you will need this for your

assignment. You will be using one of your own images!• This is your thumbnail sketches for this project – will be

worth 20 points – cannot start this project without the images

• Every day it is late it goes down one letter grade• If you email your images and they do not show up in my

email you are still responsible for them! Make sure you have a backup (saved to a flashdrive or backed up in your own email – some emails are not accessible here)

• You may want to print it out during homeroom because eventually you will need a print out of your images.