Volumetric Drawing: Cultivating a Sculptural Understanding
4 Week Workshop, Wednesday Evenings, September 1-22, 4-6:30 PM EST
Often in representational art instruction, we emphasis drawing what you see-- but how can you draw what you see if you don't know how to look? Drawing is much more than just copying light and shadow shapes like a Xerox machine; it is an investigative experience, a process of coming in contact with, analyzing, and understanding the form, structure, composition, and flow.
Artists of the past combined observation and knowledge in their drawings: Think Michelangelo's Lybian Sybil, Pontormo's rapid figure sketches, or Dürer's carefully crafted hatching lines. Their knowledge of form transcended the two dimensional picture plane, and their drawn figures, though created with lines, appear sculpted on the page. They thought and drew in geometric analogies (see the Pontormo sketch in slide 4), imagining a rib cage like an egg, or the seated legs combined like a rectangle in perspective, or often times drawing through the form to show the volume of the unseen sides (see slide 2). They didn't try to create a photographic image of what they saw-- they captured the energy of the scene, and with this emphasis on gesture and form imbued their drawings with life.
IN THIS four week workshop, you too can learn how to draw with a sculptural understanding. You'll discover how to command your drawing skills, learning how to effectively communicate volume and structure through the language of drawing. Instead of rote copying, you'll grow to understand and capture form and gesture, creating an image that is visually true rather than clinically "accurate." Working from life as well as using high quality reference materials and copying from masterworks, we will progress from simple still lives to skull, self-portrait, and figure studies, as well as making brief forays into anatomy and perspective. The class will involve a series of live demos and talks, as well as in-class drawing exercises and out-of-class homework.
Registration is limited to 10 participants, so early sign up is recommended.
Use code "septemberdrawing" to receive a $70 discount when you sign up for this class AND the monotype course