Comics!

Your assignment for this week is to create a one page comic. Mike Kelley, an artist who works primarily with sculpture and installation, has done many drawings mimicking the comic form. Above is an image.

I want you to think of your comic first and foremost as a drawing. So, when working through ideas, spend some time considering composition and design. You can, of course, incorporate text and other drawing styles. You may also use any media you want.

On Tuesday I will bring in some comics for us to take a look at. If any of guys are into comics and would like to bring some in to show the class, that would be great.

Revised Schedule

According to your syllabus, midterm reviews are on Thursday. Instead, we're going to do it next Tuesday, March 9. For the critique, you should bring ten drawings that show your progress. After the critique, I will collect your drawings and write you a personal review containing your midsemester grade.

William Kentridge

Hey guys,

sorry this is going up a little later than expected. if you don't get to everything tonight, that's ok. we'll go over it in class.

our artist for this week is william kentridge. he is a south african artist who works primarily by taking photos of his charcoal drawings and turning them into videos. here are a few:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmvK7A84dlk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1sPLXMg1BQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk5tPkqQoL0&feature=related

there's a large scale retrospective of his work that is about to open at moma. here's the website for that show:

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/964

this week we will be talking about narrative and the ability of drawing to tell a story. I'd like you to pay attention to how kentridge subtly implies narrative as well as creates full narrative structures through animation.

Some Other People

In the New York Times article you read about Marlene Dumas, many other influential artists were mentioned. Here's a list:

Louise Bourgeois
Lucian Freud
David Hockney
Elizabeth Peyton
Francis Bacon
Alex Katz
Francesco Clemente
Peter Doig

I would like all of you to look up these artists. They represent some of the most influential artists of the 20th century. In general, when reading for this class (or any other), when you come across someone you are not familiar with, look them up. This is the best way to develop a broad knowledge of art history.

The best of the best

As you embark on the wonderful voyage known as figure drawing, I provide you these images to guide your way.




Hands drawn by Leonardo. Notice how loosely he uses line and how he uses tone and a level of finish to draw the viewer to what is important.



Michelangelo's sketch for the Libyan Sibyl for the Sistine Chapel. This is a great example of what I mentioned yesterday about having multiple sketches on a drawing, to show the process of coming to understand a form.



Michelangelo's sketches for Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.




One of my favorite draftsmen of all time is John Singer Sargent. He's about 400 years after the old guys above, but he's still alright. Also, note the fabric folds.

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Proportion!

Starting on Thursday you guys will begin your figure drawing adventure. To help you out a bit, please check out this chart. It shows the human body broken down into units of heads. According to this chart, a human is 8 heads high and two heads wide. This varies of course, but the concept of breaking down a figure into units is very handy. Please take note of how nicely all body parts break down into heads.

Self Portraits

Since you will be doing self-portraits out of class this week, I think it's an appropriate time to show you some of my own work. For the most part, I do portraits, of both historical figures and also myself. I work from photographs and video. Above are some of my self-portraits, all are watercolor on paper of various sizes (ranging from about 2' x 3' to 9" x 12").

Marlene Dumas and gesture!

For the next two weeks, you will be studying gesture and the blurring of line and tone. In this unit, you will be challenged to draw quickly. You will also be introduced to the human figure as subject.

The artist we will be looking at to inform this work is Marlene Dumas. She is a Dutch/South African artist known for her gestural drawings and paintings. Please review the following websites, and when doing so, keep in mind a sense of time and energy. How quickly do you think she paints? And how does this contribute to the sense of energy and movement within her figures?

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/marlene_dumas.htm

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/34
(there are two videos you can watch)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15dumas-t.html
(this article is a bit long, but it's NYT, so it's an easy read and contains a lot of biographical information as well as some insights into the intent of the artist. When reading this article, consider how the way in which her paintings are painted reinforces the themes of violence and death)

Marlene Dumas is also well known for her self-portraits. For homework this week, you will draw yourself three times. Please look at the above images of Dumas's self-portraits as a reference.