The color project is the first assignment and specifically uses skills gained from Drawing I. During the first week of class students are directed to make swatches of color to make new color and then asked to apply the method to a single object drawing such as a simple drawing of a piece of fruit on a colored surface using only the new medium, pastel. After this, for homework, students are asked to trace master drawings into their sketchbook to study composition.
Using the strategies of composition from the master drawings the student is asked to find a smaller composition among the larger set up of the still life. This means using a viewfinder (a handheld rectilinear paper with a similar scaled whole in the center that acts as a “window”) and look for foreground, middle ground and background transitions that are also dynamic (on a diagonal axis) and not symmetrical. This is a new concept for many and composition tends to be a rather difficult element to master. Students are required to make at least three small thumbnail drawings (small drawings 1” x 1” of proposed drawing) to scale and get feedback from the professor before choosing one and beginning a larger drawing.
We then spend roughly three weeks on the still life drawing with a formal process critique in the middle of the project in which students receive feedback from peers and the faculty about what the expectations are for a successful drawing. Early in the semester I intentionally lead a discussion about drawing in which students list the expectations for a successful drawing. This list becomes the basis for every critique. At the end of the three-week span of time the students present their drawings and it is easy to see who did the work to transform and finish their drawing. This year students immediately digitally documented their work because I then asked them to cut up their drawings. They were shocked, to say the least, but the drawing parts were then reassembled into a new drawing assemblage. Ultimately, students were able to see how a “good” drawing and a “bad” drawing can be transformed into something equally successful and new.
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- Still life
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- Completed final drawing
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- Unfinished final drawing
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- Final drawings from the class
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- Cut up parts of drawings
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- Parts being reassembled
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- Students taking picture of final reassembled drawing and posting to their social media accounts
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- social media posts #SEU_VISU
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- Final reassembled drawing from the final color still life drawings.
Final reassembled drawing from the final color still life drawings.