1/21/09: Drawing Basics

Today is a day of infinite possibility. What will you do today?

Drawing Rules to Live By or Life Rules to Draw By
1. There is no one right way to draw.
2. Don’t compare your artwork to other people’s.
3. There’s really no messing up.
4. Practice.
5. Don’t stress out about showing your drawings to people.

- Kathryn Temple from “The Best Drawing Book You’ll Ever Need to Be the Artist You’ve Always Wanted to Be”

The subjects we will draw from come from photographs, life, and our imagination.

The drawing tools we will use in this class have been donated and are provided at no charge:
Graphite pencil charcoal pencil, eraser, tortillon (stump), pencil sharpener, sandpaper paddle, colored pencil, newsprint paper for practice, white drawing paper for finished drawings, ruler, compass,
T-square, triangle and protractor.





If you want your personal drawing tools to take home, please contact the instructor. A pack with items pictured to the left plus 10 sheets of white drawing paper (9”x12”) are available for purchase for $5 from the Instructor only.



What the class will cover:
1/21/09: Drawing Basics - Shapes, patterns, and textures. Shadow and Light. Learning to draw using your eyes, not your brain. Practice drawing a still life.
2/4/09: Color and Composition - Look at different pictures, what draws your eye? Incorporating a focal point. Eliminate distracting elements. Perspective. Proportionality. Measuring distances. Basic color theory. Practice drawing a landscape.
2/18/09: Geometric Shapes: Drawing Buildings, Cars, and Robots - Using drafting tools (ruler, protractor and compass). Components, shapes, and parts of man-made things. How their function defines their form. Use of legos to model robots. Textures of wood, metal, stone, brick, glass. Practice drawing buildings, cars, or robots.
3/4/09: Drawing Animals - Practice drawing living animals; for example, wild-life, pets, etc.
3/18/09: Drawing Faces – Proportionality. Basic components of the face. Facial expressions. Use of shadow and light to achieve 3-D affect. Practice drawing the human face.
4/1/09: Drawing the Human Figure - Basic shapes which make up the body. Proportionality. Textures of clothes and hair. Practice drawing the human body.
4/15/09: Cartooning and Manga - How-to make a cartoon figure. Basic instruction in Manga (Japanese-style cartoon figures). Create a cartoon figure from real life or make-believe.
Author
Temple, Kathryn.
Title
Drawing : the only drawing book you'll ever need to be the artist you've always wanted to be
Publisher
New York : Lark Books, c2005.
Library Call No. 741.2 Temple
ISBN:
1579905870 (hardcover)
Contents:
Everyone can draw -- The drawing toolbox -- Open your artist’s eyes -- Line drawing -- Light and shadow -- Proportion and scale -- Perspective -- Drawing faces -- Drawing bodies -- Anything can happen!