Class Notes - July 14, 2010

• 2 general approaches to drawing:
• 2D - drawing the shapes that things create.  Comparisons are made in two dimensions: plumb lines, angles, distances in picture plane, shapes (not volumes).  Requires you to be fairly meticulous and precise.
• 3D - drawing the volumes that things are made up of.  Requires a lot of knowledge of perspective.
• Best to understand and use both approaches
• Fixing a drawing
• There are always at least two solutions to a perceived problem:
• If a vase, for example, looks too tall, it could either be too tall or too skinny
• Instead of immediately looking at the area of the problem itself, a good first step is to look for information elsewhere in the picture to determine which solution is best 
• For example, if we immediately decide our vase is too tall and make it shorter, we might miss the fact that if we view it in comparison to the other objects, we might realize that the height is right, and in fact the vase is too skinny.
• Negative space
• Shapes around an object also dictate its shape.

• In this classic illusion, the white vase is the negative space for the two black faces, and vice versa.
• From the 2D/optical approach, drawing can be looked at as solving a puzzle of negative shapes and positive shapes

Article on Color Mixing

This past weekend I stumbled on a good article on color mixing that David Rourke wrote over at his blog:

http://rourkevisualart.com/wordpress/articles/color-and-color-mixing/

Class Notes - July 7, 2010

• Edges
• First get edge contrast
• Then get edge quality
• Frustration
• When you don't know, there's a tendency to rush
• Better to see what you're doing wrong than to get it right
• Requires slowing down
• Ways to adjust edge quality
• Brush it in correctly the first time (most difficult)
• Mix intermediary tone and lay it in with a small brush
• Lay down a sharp edge with wet paint on both sides of the edge, then soften with a clean, dry brush
• For very soft edges, zig-zag across edge, then smooth
• Scrape off with palette knife
• Scumble over dry paint
• Don't go too far along an edge without some change in edge quality