"In Brazilian rivers, there exists a fish which sees with a two lensed eye, a kind of bifocal adjustment that permits the creature to examine the upper world of sunlight and air, which with the lower half of the lens, he can survey the watery depths in which he lives"....Loren Eisley
I like the idea of this creature as a metaphor for an artist, a creator who looks intently at the world and sees both the surface and the depths.
I have decided to include both the present......the searchers in my class, their drawings and their presence, and entries of my drawings and quotes I have placed in my journals. I also include a summation of each drawing lesson.
I have 35 journals I have kept over about that many years...my mother, an inveterate writer, gave me my first journal and told me to fill it. Thirty-five years later, the first journal is a mess....the bindings are gone and all the pages are loose. But I am so glad I have it, since I have forgotten so much. It is a record of my past. Time unbound.
I lived in the Philippines for 16 years. the journal starts there when I was 36 years old.
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain....4/28/10
You will learn five basic skills...edges, spaces, relationships, light, whole....components to whole. And format.......(show demonstration with rocks and frame.)
My hopes and expectations for the class....that you can learn to switch over to “see”mode. I hope you can make it to every class...it will have a great deal to do with your success. Life happens, so I will put the lesson and the assignments on the blog....do access my blog after every class and do the assignments in a timely manner . These assignments can’t be done at the last minute. Like piano practice, put aside at least 20 minutes for each assignment in a quiet place...not to be disturbed, not in front of the TV. One a day. Consider it meditation.
All drawing is the same...some is just more complex. Anyone can learn to draw. This class will not make you an artist: it will teach you a skill, quickly. For example, you can be taught to ride a bike, but not to be a cyclist.
In this class I will teach you accuracy and segue, hopefully into more expressive drawing.
Discuss Milton Glaser video. Conscious looking..to understand the world.
Draw and date in your sketchbook: ALWAYS SIGN AND DATE.
a. Your hand.......Draw quickly..
b. Your face (use mirror)
c. A person from memory.. Draw quickly....
Training the eye......Discuss and demo stereotypes, natural urge to hurry, to be “efficient), YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO DO BUT FOCUS AND DRAW. Don’t be anxious We all start somewhere..
1. Read page 89 -92 Blind Contour drawing of hand......turn away from paper(taped), use soft pencil, DON’T LIFT POINT, Go Super Slow! Don’t look at paper. Find an edge and follow it SLOWLY with your eye and pencil at the same time.
2. Memory drawing...hold a live flower in your hand (not a daisey, please!) Choose a fairly complex flower.. LOOK INTENTLY. TWO MINUTES, close eyes and see it in your head.. Hide it and do a line drawing...don’t lift pencil. Stop, fish out the flower, look intently for another two minutes. Hide and finish drawing.
3. Do a “semi-Blind”contour drawing of your hand, looking down at your paper only to change direction of your pencil line. SLOWLY. Don’t lift the point. 15 minutes
Assignment. Chapter 2 and 3
Do a “semi” blind contour drawing of: 1. a crumpled piece of typing paper. 2. a set of keys 3. a twig with a leaf or flower attached 4. a dandelion or an alley weed. Spend at least 15 minutes drawing the object....Don’t try to draw all of these projects at the last minute. (Defeats the purpose! )
Remember, take the time, make the time, to do these drawings when you can close out the demands of the world. Fall into your drawing and your subject. Become the dancer and the dance.
".....great footed blossomer, are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?"
W.B. Yeats
©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/17/09 All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission.
Bravo! Great lesson. So well put into writing. Makes me also wish I had kept journals of my life. Ah well, no crying over lost intentions. I can always start now and go forth. Thank you for the insight, the memories, the focus, and the re-lesson (seems like my first drawing class in college).
Posted by: Judy Grossman | May 01, 2010 at 12:57 PM