Carrasco Studio

Shall I Compare Thee to an Elephant....Drawing Lesson 9

Elephant  by Rembrandt Van Rijn

.....or anything else, for that matter...old men, angel's playing violin................................

Old Man    Venetian School

 

Angel by Paul Baudry

  My point is that you can use the skills you learned in this very basic drawing class for any subject you want.  Or with abstract drawings of delicious lines and exquisite hatching. 

Little Attic by Wilhelm DeKooning

Again, remember that you need to consider for drawings: edges, spaces(negative and positive), relationships, lights and shadows, =gestalt and expressiveness.

Drawing Lesson 9
1.Look at animal and human profiles assignment, discuss reading.  Look at “upside down Courbet” in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,  and trace lightly with pencil the light shapes. Go to page 206 ...squint....and do the same to young Hopper’s face.  What is a set of hatching?  continuous tone....show how to use a slip sheet for continuous tone.

 



1.  Hand out example of sphere. Read out loud.  Have class look at sphere directions...Draw lightly around different sections ...discuss Core Shadow ....then look at detailed sphere diagrram. On a black sphere, color in the medium values with grey conte crayon, leaving the core shadows alone. Then add the highlights with white.  Blend with a rolled up corner of t-shirt. Finish shadow at home.

Goyko by Anthony Ryder from his book, Understanding Light and Shadow.

2.Look at drawing of Goyko ...stare and then outline the negative shape in front of the profile.with colored pencil. Hold a vertical on tip of nose...a mini negative shape...then a horizontal under the nose...estimate the angle...at the chin,going down...estimate the angle....compare with my diagram....measure and draw in triangle. Hold up a vertical pencil to inner eye.  Where does mouth end. Hold vertical at chin...mark with X where the vertical crosses other points on profile.  Now, with colored pencil, draw around the light shapes on Goyko’s profile.  Now draw the core shadows (Betty Edwards calls them the “crest” shadows)  Again, these are the areas where the crest breaks on a form.  Can you isolate and draw around some medium dark values in other parts of the face.?


3.  Look again at my diagram of frontal  features....check on “askew” factor on Mme Matisse and Madam Cezanne.

  Note: Most portraits of wives of painters are spectacularly dour.  Note that Cezanne didn't even include a mouth on his wife.  No doubt he wanted her to shut up.

I am more sympathetic....it must have been hard to be married to a guy who was always broke and coming home with paint on his shirts.  Not to mention the sniffles one would get from posing nude for him in drafty studios.

4.  Draw format a little bit larger than Gericault’s painting of a  blond boy.  Draw around all edges of negative space to “see it” Put only dots at midline....vertical and horizontal.  Draw “egg” and try to get placement of head and shoulders by comparison..(remember your negative space)..where is it on each “quarter” of the format...draw central axis down middle of head...watch tilt!  Lightly place eyes (watch askew), end of nose, middle of mouth and bottom of ear.  Don’t make the neck too thin!
5.  On Gericault face now draw with colored pencils around outer edge of all medium dark shadow inclusive of core shadow. Now draw around core shadow.  Squint!

6.On your paper format. Try to draw LIGHTLY  the shadow shapes....big to small,  all medium and dark inclusive, then draw the dark core shadow shapes within the medium shapes.  Hatch in all the medium dark and darkest core shadow space with medium hatching...follow the curves if you can.   Look at Tony Ryder example, pg. 25.  Then cross hatch....building up darker areas as you go...finally the darkest on the core shadow.

Remember, Anthony Ryder's wonderful book on drawing the figure...The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing, year 2000, Watson Guptil publishers! And also, check out his sites, : www.tonyryder.com and www.theryderstudio.com.

Assignment: Finish sphere and copy of the Tony Ryder drawing at home. If you feel ambitious, do a drawing of Anya's dog Grommet, Ben's Annie or Judy's crow Nevermore.  Read from 209 to 224.  Be sure to do this....next time is our last class!

Drawing Lesson 8, Scandalous Profiles and Classical drawing

 
These two profiles of women painted by Sargent are very telling.  The first is of Rosina Ferrara, a young girl of Capri, and the second, of course is of the notorious Madame X whose full length portrait resides now in the Metropolitan Museum. (see the full length portrait at the bottom of this blog.)

Ms. Ferarra modeled several times for Sargent when he was just starting out as a painter in his early twenties.  Rosina was a girl of Capri, and several painters besides Sargent searched her out as a model, and one, George Barse, eventually married her and brought her to the USA.  In all reports, she had a sweet disposition (read "compliant") and loved to dance. Her 43 year marriage was very happy, her husband adored her, and she raised 2 lovely children.  Madam Gautreau, or Madame X as she was later labeled,  had a very different life, and not an especially happy one.  When as a "professional beauty", her loveliness begain to fade and her notoriety grew, Madam X retired from society. 

I am entertained by the contrasts in the two profile/portraits.  Sargent was from a  conservative  social background, but because of his talent and youth, he was thrown in with a more raffish crew of artists and models in Capri.  His portraits of Rosina celebrate her earthiness and love of life. I doubt if his mother would have approved.  

Often Rosina is shown dancing or leaning insouciantly against a wall or branch of an olive tree.  Not at all the proper corseted young American woman. There is a  bit of class snobbery  and fascination with "exotic types" evidenced in Sargent's portraits of Ms Ferrera.

In contrast, his portrait of Madam X is as coldly seductive as much as it is formal.  Much, I imagine, like the model herself , and Sargent's professional ambitions are as much reflected in her portrait  as  is Mme Gautreau's social climbing.

Mme X  John Singer Sargent               Sargent painting in Paris

Lesson 8  Drawing the Profile from life.....and Drapery and Hatching

1.  Look at Drawing assignments for the profiles of Mme Gautreau in Drawing on the Right side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. Discuss Sargent and Madam X.

2. PROFILE.

Set up for doing a profile of me. Use the plexi view finder and bring out my profile diagram .

a.  MARK YOUR FORMAT!!!!
b.  Mark cross hairs on format....lightly
c.  CHOOSE YOUR BASIC  UNIT! (page 183...#6...Read it)  Show me.
d.  Transfor the basic unit to your paper....let me see.
e.  Using the basic unit as a measuring guide, mark the top of the head and the back of the ears and head.
f.   Go through pg. 184 to 186 step by step.  Compare angles of lines to horizontal and vertical sides. No shading
g.  Go thru 188 tips.

2  Hatching and Crosshatching

Here I include several examples from Anthony Ryder's wonderful book on drawing the figure...The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing, year 2000, Watson Guptil publishers.  Mr. Ryder has kindly given permission to scan portions of his book for some of these lessons, but I would recommend that interested students and artists purchase their own copies.  Also, check out his sites, : www.tonyryder.com and www.theryderstudio.com.  His drawings are exquisite and his writing is cogent and often funny.  A must for your library!

a. Softly, regular lines (show examples) for hatching...relatively short.  Cross hatching is hatching on top of one  another....softly!  Sharp point.

b.  Show examples in Ryder’s book, ...Look at pg. 208 in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Practice this your own hatching and crosshatching.

3. Drapery

a. Hold up your paper viewfinder....MARK YOUR FORMAT!

b. Lightly mark the cross hairs on your format.
c. Look closely at the drapery.  Choose your basic unit!  Show me! LIGHTLY draw the entire outer shape of the drapery. Draw the NEGATIVE SPACE on the example first.
 LOOK AT THE NEGATIVE SPACE of the actual drapery
 d. . Squint and draw the outer line of the entire medium and darkest values of the drapery.

e.  Hatch in the entire medium and dark shapes with a light, regular sewing machine like one directional  hatching. Now, LIGHTLY draw in the darkest value shape within each medium value shape.  Cross hatch the darkest shapes....regular, lightly.....until you have the right dark value.

4.  Dog or bird profile.....choose either.

a.  Hold up your paper viewfinder....MARK YOUR FORMAT! (ask the steps...cross hairs, Basic unit)  It soon becomes automatic.
b. Draw the NEGATIVE SPACE on the example first. Then draw the negative space on your paper.
c. Hatch and cross hatch. Both have directions and length in their hair or feathers.  Therefore, the crow’s hatching would be a little shorter than the dogs.  LEAVE THE LIGHTEST VALUE UNHATCHED EXCEPT FOR LINES BETWEEN HAIRS OR FEATHERS.

Assignment: Draw an animal of your choosing (a live one is best, but you can use a photo if none are available.)  Hatch and cross hatch.  Draw someone in profile.  Try hatching and cross hatching on the profile.  There are subtle changes in value all over the face.  Read 194 to 213

....and the shocking Madam X, who, after the display of this painting in 1884, was ridiculed and condemned for her "immoral" pose, and the artist, John Singer Sargent, was dashed of his hopes to become a sought after portrait painter in France. Sargent  had to withdraw this painting and fled to England.  Madam X, it is rumored,  eventually retired to her estate and draped cloth over all her mirrors to avoid seeing her aging image.

 Sargent said when he sold it to the Metropolitan Museum in l9l6, "I suppose it is the best thing I have done."