Tuesday, 23 July 2024
6:30 – 8:30pm ET/US | 5:30 – 7:30pm CT | 3.30 – 5.30pm PT
LESSON 02 / FACING THE BLANK PAGE
GOALS /
__ make at least 5 drawings using lines, marks, and shapes
__ share works in progress in ONLINE STUDIO as well as comment
__ share drawings with class during zoom meetup
__ learn more ways other artists have used sketchbooks
__ draw together and learn about lesson for SESSION 03
ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION /
now that we’ve shared our creative practices and drawn together, we’re going to make at least five drawings to help us ‘face the blank page’ by utilizing fundamentals of art: line, marks, shapes, composition
this is about play, loosening up, developing muscle memory, exploring materials with low stakes, permission to make messy ugly pages, tap into a stream of consciousness, draw fast, draw slow and non-thinking. leave judgement at the door.
PAGE 1 – line drawing – one slowly drawn line without lifting you’re hand
PAGE 2 – marks – fill the page with a wide variety of marks, layering and building, smearing and erasing – look around the house, what textures do you see?
PAGE 3 – fill page with a wide variety of shapes. what if you add marks in and around these shapes?
PAGE 4 – consider composition: still using basic shapes, lines, and marks, make a drawing using only 1/3 of the page, leaving lots of negative space
PAGE 5 – anything goes but needs to be inspired by pages 1 – 4
BRING TO OUR ZOOM MEETUP
__five drawings
__for our drawing time: an object that holds meaning or interest to you, sketchbook and drawing materials
INSPO FOR SESSION 02
Joan Jonas Drawings
How to make ugly art
ZOOM VIDEO
Thank you everyone for a great first class!
Each of you have so much to play with based on what you shared last night. Have fun connecting the dots between your imagination, your eye and your hand.
The more art we make the more we’re able to tap into our inner art teacher, which so often can be defined as encouragement to take a risk. I regularly go back to this quote from the choreographer Twyla Tharpe: “leap and the net will appear”.
And remember what Suzuki says from Zen Mind Beginner Bind: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
Make as much art as you want this week, it’s not limited to the parameters of the lesson. The lessons are monkey bars for you to climb around on.
Notice if you’re leaning heavily in one direction and try to make something in the opposite direction. For example, my comfort zone is drawing lines and shapes, so you can be sure I’ll be making some pages of messy wild marks this week.
If you get stuck, use this marks sheet to find an opening. Also, google ‘mark making worksheet’ if you like to see more.
Be sure to watch the Joan Jonas video for inspiration, and if you’d like to make some pages along with a guide, I found the ‘how to make ugly art’ video to be a great way to loosen up.
Thanks for a great first session. I’m excited for the week ahead!
Two photos of line drawings, one photo of mark making, and one photo of composition using 1/3 of the page. Page 5 on the way!
I discovered how much I like charcoal sticks and by dragging the stick across the page you can get a nice symmetric smear. Very satisfying. The smear reminded me of the bird song spectrogram recordings that Jody and I have been recording through the Merlin app. I faked some birdsong marks for fun on top of the smear. Every aspect of the bird is pure art to me. Just saw the American Goldfinch as I’m writing this!
These are great! I can feel the wind other their wings. Thank you for sharing these. Lori!
exciting marks and color. beautiful blend of the familiar and unknown — great surprises.
thanks!! I appreciate the feedback.
here are my attempts with the five prompts. also added videos of each here.
John – I see a lot of variety in the pages but a connection between them all too. The videos are amazing!
Hi friends, here’s the remainder of the work I did this week. I’m not sure which one fits in the page 5 category. I think the last one of the crazy bird is most representative of my lines, marks and shapes of previous pages. I had to let myself feel awkward about posting a silly image like this, but I think sometimes I need to quit taking myself so damn seriously. Like a line from one of my songs called Don’t Crowd Your Mind, “don’t take it so seriously, who cares what it means!”
Play! Play! Play! Play!
Thank you all for sharing.
Here are my one line, shapes, and 1/3 page
ghost images on the second one feel like they belong and the third one is kinetic!!
I ended up testing positive for Covid this past Thursday so am just now sitting down to class work today. I’ve been thinking a lot about line and negative space this week as I look around the world and this image showed up in my fb feed. A lot said with a little.