2009 Fall Drawing Syllabus

Drawing I-II (Dr 120-2), Fall 2009
4:15-7:00 pm, Tuesday/Thursday, Studio 14

Course Description:
This is a lower division drawing course designed for students with a year or less of previous college level drawing instruction. The course will introduce methods and materials of drawing—charcoal, pen, pencil and tempera, and will introduce the fundamentals of the control of visual space in drawing. Information will be presented in a semi-historical context: this is what the artists before us invented, this is how we can use their inventions now to develop our own work for the future.

General Goals:
To develop your perceptions—eye and mind, hand and body.
To develop your use of tools and materials—markers, supports, hand and body.
To develop your visual intelligence—the figure/ground relationship, control of space and the understanding of the “good gestalt.”
To develop your historical sense: where they were, where we are, what you might become.
To intensify your passion.
To make your own work.

Grades Are Based:
On attendance, the completion of all assignments and the contents of midterm and final portfolios.

Learning Outcomes:
Ability to use the main drawing media to make effective images in both small and large—life size—drawings in the main historic styles as developed to date.

Effective use of the visual means—points, lines, planes, light and dark, mass and void, figure and ground, positive and negative space—to make images that will affect the viewer.

A general understanding of the history of drawing in the West.

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Weekly Calendar with topics

Week 1, September 1-3.
September 1. Introduction. What this class is about—what I expect from you—what you should expect from me—why we are here together.
September 3. Gesture Drawing. It is called “Gesture” drawing because it comes from the gesture of your fingers/hand/arm/shoulders/torso/whole body. Perceive the flow of forces in the subject (the model), in the responsive forces (the “kinesthetic”) in yourself, and in the picture plane and format.

Week 2, September 8-10. .We have two kinds of space: first, two dimensional space.
We have two kinds of space and we will use them to say our loves and hates from personal and mass cultural sources. Formal elements to learn are the picture plane and format, the figure and ground, and points, lines and planes and positive and negative space. (Examples from Cubist and Dada collage.)
Bring newsprint pad, 8 oz. Golden or other brand soft gel matte, the gel pen and a couple of dozen photos of various sizes from various sources of some of the things you like, others that you hate.

Week 3, September 15-17. We have two kinds of space: second, three dimensional space. Model on Sept 17.
We have two kinds of space and we make what can with them to say our lives as journey and to explore the volume structure and character of the human head. Formal elements to learn are the picture box and horizon line, figure and ground, volume and void, volume axis and volume tension and light source. (Examples from Van Gogh, Rembrandt.)
On Sept. 16. Bring an old shoe and a favorite souvenir.
On both days bring newsprint pad, charcoal, chamois and kneaded rubber eraser.

Week 4, September 22-24. The models are class members.
Use three dimensional space to make what you can to explore the character of your friends. (Examples from Rembrandt and Van Gogh.)
Bring newsprint pad, charcoal, chamois and kneaded rubber eraser.

Week 5, September 29-October 1. The model is yourself
Use three dimensional space to make what you can to explore your own character.
(Examples from Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Kathe Kollwitz.)
Bring newsprint pad, charcoal, chamois and kneaded rubber eraser—and a cosmetic or shaving mirror with a stand so you can see yourself up close.

Week 6, October 6-8 Models from cafes and the streets
(Examples from Goya and Daumier.)
Oct. 6. Bring notebook and pencil and pen to first half hour of class, be ready to hit the streets afterward.
Oct. 8. Bring the notebook with at least 20 pages of heads, bodies, environments, and the newsprint pad, charcoal, chamois and kneaded rubber eraser in order to begin to develop “compositions.”

Week 7, October 13-15. Midterm week.
Oct. 13. Show us two artists whose work you like and have learned from, plus one you don’t like and tell us why.
Oct. 15. Present a portfolio of your seven best drawings so far this semester. Tell us why you think they are the best. Then pick a “best of best” and explain why.

Week 8, October 20-22. Three male models.
From Gericault and The Raft of the Medusa.

Week 9, October 27-39 One male, two female models.
From Delacroix and The Death of Sardanapalus

Week 10, November 3-5 One male, one female model.
From Max Beckmann in 1920’s Berlin.

Week 11, November 10-12. Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.
Nov. 10. The Wall of the Dark I, the crap in mass culture.
Nov. 12. The Wall of the Dark II, the crap in the streets.
Bring tempera and brushes.
(Weekend homework, The Wall of the Dark III, the crap in your soul.)

Week 12, November 17-19.
Nov. 17. The Wall of the Dark IV. Make the wall.
Nov. 19. The “Archetypal Self,” Tarot I.
Bring tempera and brushes.

Week 13, November 24-26.
November 24. A movie about artists
November 26 is Thanksgiving Day, no class.

Week 14, December 1-3..
Tarot II and III
Bring tempera and brushes.

Week 15, December 8-10.
Dec. 8. Final portfolio
Dec. 10. Class Party.

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Materials:

All prices from Artist & Craftsman Supply

                                                                                                                                  Student

                                                                                                                                Discount

                                                                                                      List Price                 Price

Need for first week

Sargent Charcoal 12 pack                                                                   6.13                    4.60

Sargent Gray 12 pack                                                                         6.13                    4.69

Chamois                                                                                              4.00                    3.60

Kneaded rubber eraser                                                                        1.41                    1.08

Newsprint pad, 100 sheets 18 x 24 inches                                           11.39                  8.20

Need for 2^nd to 10^th weeks and later all of the above and these

8 oz. jar of Golden or other brand soft gel matte.    	                           13.95                  8.79

Fine black Gel Roll pen, fine black,                                                        2.78                  2.12

               two @ List $1.39, Discount @$1.06

Strathmore Recycled Sketch book, 5.5 x 8.5 inches or similar                7.15                  5.15

#10 Flat Princeton Bristle Brush                                                             7.50                  4.05

1 Chinese Hake brush approx 1 ¾ inch                                                  3.05                  2.20

1 Chinese Hake brush approx 1 inch                                                      2.20                  1.58

Need for 12^th-14^th weeks all of the above plus

Sargent Gothic Tempera,

Two 8 oz. jars each of black, white, yellow, red and blue                     22.50                  17.20

               Each @ List $2.25, Discount $1.72

Chip Brushes (cheap house painting brushes)                                         1.19                    1.08

1” brush @ $0.55 and a 1 ½” brush @ $0.58

 						Materials Total around $70.55
			        Total Savings by shopping Artist & Craftsman: $24.95

Also, some kind of box to keep this stuff in

And get two or three 6 to 8 oz. jars with screw top lids.