The Expressive Figure 1_5_2022

 

The Expressive Figure Assignment

Concept: Value as Light and Form

Materials:

Materials

•  Vine or Willow Jumbo Charcoal ( Generals), Graphite lead and holder, ballpoint pen, Crayon, etc
•  90 lb drawing paper 12" x 19" or similar sketchbook
•  Faber-Castell Kneaded Eraser
•  I pad

Starting with charcoal or graphite, quickly sketch draw a gestural mannikin of the pose with the emphasis on proportions and action. This should take fifteen seconds or less and be in the spirit of what Michelangelo called "the Flame". Think of it as three helixes wrapping around a central core, like ribbons or strands of flame rising and converging above.

With the template of the mannikin pose as a guide, consider how the volumes of the "peanut", "cylinders, and "ovoid" describe the volumes "in space" and can taper as they move away from us and loom larger the closer they are to us. Be cognizant of this "in and out" spatial occupancy.

Visualize the medial line as a sagittal section through the human figure. On either side of this section is another complete "half-section" - a mirror of itself, and as such recedes back into space away from us. The entire right arm behind the neck moves off into the distance as demonstrated here.

Choose at least three poses and apply the THREE GRADIENT methodology.

The Expressive Figure Wet Media Workshop

 The Expressive Figure Wet Media Workshop

Woodstock School of Art 8_14_2021

The workshop begins with an intro and cursory review of materials.

Water container
Roller Tray and Roller
Cup of diluted black acrylic paint milk consistency
Cup of diluted black acrylic paint ink consistency
cup of dilute vermillion ink
Sumi Brush/Hake Brush

Demonstrate the roller drawing technique. This exercise is geared toward changing a paradigm through the physicality of large-scale abstract figurative drawing.
Define positive and negative silhouettes using black acrylic paint.. Explore the edge of the roller.
Integrate the use of the sumi /hake brush.
Sumi brush to define interior with wrapping strokes of thin paint
Roller to define exterior with thick paint roller strokes, emphasizing the contrast in the brushstroke scale as well as value contrast.
Then reverse this sequence by painting the exterior background with more diluted grey paint with the smaller sumi brush and then stroke in the interior with the roller.
Duplicate the previous sequence of roller/sumi brush alternating visual fields, only now substitute vermillion sumi brush interior with cutting in black paint roller texture exterior.
Finish with vermillion reverse silhouette and then model interior with roller.
Survey of various wet media figurative artists and introduction to Charles Reid methodology.

Introduction to modeling the figure in two and three values.

Videos on Two Value

Videos on Three Value

Video on triadic color method

Now at a smaller scale 12" x 19" on the Canson Watercolor paper or Blick drawing pads

Materials

Ink full strength/Cup

Ink Dilute/Cup

Watercolor Red Light

Watercolor Sepia

Watercolor Pink Gouache

Opaque White/Cup: for black paper

Quick Neutral Grey Gouache

Ink Brush/Reed Pen

Astrid Croquis 1

Astrid Croquis 2

Pencil/ or not

Red Light Watercolor

Sepia Watercolor

Ink/Reed Pen

Pencil/ or not

Grey Gouache

Ink/ Reed Pen

Pencil/ or not

Pink Gouache

Ink/ Reed Pen

White Gouache on Black Paper

An assortment of techniques exemplifying the contrast of brushstroke, the contrast of value, and the contrast of color. Also explored are the variations in specific gravities of transparent and opaque paint, as well as inks and their subsequent reactions and how these textures enhance the visual/emotional effect.