Draw many small quick thumbnails to design something....

1. TWO/ 2 pages of Measured STRAIGHT lines horizontally across the page. Use different drawing media...graphite (don’t smear), colored pencil (preferably black), ballpoint and felt pens (keep it at about .05 at the widest nib/tip width) 2. Diagonals across page at different angles. Remember to repeat the same overlapping line at least 8 to 10 times. the objective is to be able to aim at and repeat the muscle-memory and exactness. 3. Rhythmic jagged angles (scan example page 5) where you create one straight line and automatically attach at least one other to start building angular shapes. When you get the hang of it try inclosing a shape to create a ground plane. 4. Arcs & Curves. Draw two vertical borders and then draw left and right curves off of them (example page 6). In different media and remember the objective is to get you to repeat the action of pen/pencil over the same line about 8 times. 5. Compound Curves/ S curves. Its not just "squiggles" (example Page 7),its training your eye and hand and pencil to work together. Again different lengths and curves (challenge yourself. Don’t make it boring but keep it simple). 6. Circles and Ellipses (Example Page 8 & 9) These are easy & hard to get the REALLY correct symmetrically and balance to work fluidly. And that’s the key to become practiced and correct. Chances are your fist pass will be out of whack (mine sure were!) but make some very light passes around the shape (you might even make some ghost passes slightly above the papers surface to get the rhythms of it before committing). This is important so do a couple of pages if you have the guts and work ethic. 7. Last make a page where you show all these various shapes and processes interacting and overlapping. Don’t be sloppy and make sure all of these shapes and lines keep their integrity and line character. Use different media and design the page well. Note I sort of clustered some of the angular shapes into groups then merges them.

Sliced and Diced Form Drawing-Students will draw the 6 Basic 3D forms: Sphere, Cylinder, Donuts, Cone, Pyramid, & Cube/Rectangular Prism. They will learn how to accurately “slice” through the forms to see inside them and render with full shading. They will then create a composition using cuts and slices of the 6 basic shapes.

1. TWO/ 2 pages of Measured STRAIGHT lines horizontally across the page. Use different drawing media...graphite (don’t smear), colored pencil (preferably black), ballpoint and felt pens (keep it at about .05 at the widest nib/tip width) 2. Diagonals across page at different angles. Remember to repeat the same overlapping line at least 8 to 10 times. the objective is to be able to aim at and repeat the muscle-memory and exactness. 3. Rhythmic jagged angles (scan example page 5) where you create one straight line and automatically attach at least one other to start building angular shapes. When you get the hang of it try inclosing a shape to create a ground plane. 4. Arcs & Curves. Draw two vertical borders and then draw left and right curves off of them (example page 6). In different media and remember the objective is to get you to repeat the action of pen/pencil over the same line about 8 times. 5. Compound Curves/ S curves. Its not just "squiggles" (example Page 7),its training your eye and hand and pencil to work together. Again different lengths and curves (challenge yourself. Don’t make it boring but keep it simple). 6. Circles and Ellipses (Example Page 8 & 9) These are easy & hard to get the REALLY correct symmetrically and balance to work fluidly. And that’s the key to become practiced and correct. Chances are your fist pass will be out of whack (mine sure were!) but make some very light passes around the shape (you might even make some ghost passes slightly above the papers surface to get the rhythms of it before committing). This is important so do a couple of pages if you have the guts and work ethic. 7. Last make a page where you show all these various shapes and processes interacting and overlapping. Don’t be sloppy and make sure all of these shapes and lines keep their integrity and line character. Use different media and design the page well. Note I sort of clustered some of the angular shapes into groups then merges them.

Draw organic volumes. Draw cross-contour lines to to make sure you understand their volumes....

Create Art with ME Art Lesson ideas

Here are a few sheets outlining the process and results for the homework this week. I put these together so you could keep track of how...

Confused about what direction you should make your brush strokes or drawing marks? Let's clear out the confusion with this cross-contour drawing exercise.

Drawing isn't a talent, but a skill that anyone can learn by following the right approach. Here's how to learn to draw in 30 days.

So much homework....! We were to draw organic forms, textures, combined basic shapes, and plants... and lots of them!

Here are a few sheets outlining the process and results for the homework this week. I put these together so you could keep track of how to put together compound curved forms and how to construct and evolve the angular/positional/flat plane forms with the rounded/organic/compound/"bubbly" volumes. I also included 3 pages of diagrams on with the ellipses and "jagged angle" section of the homework. If you follow the diagrams that further explains the compound form process we started in class. It takes you through the steps that lead to the finished products/objects/goofy forms and final designed pages. Now remember the idea is to really understand the idea of using a combination of angular and undulating, curving, cross contour line to explore and define the illusion of form in space. So make sure you don’t make it overly complicated as you sketch out your designs but also challenge your self to up and improve your own learning curve in drawing them. Frankly a big part of this is increasing your own person critical thinking and designing curves. I know that as I was sketching and imagining these various steps I spent a long time just lightly sketching, blocking out contours and perimeters of the shapes and forms. Once satisfied that I had gotten the idea of what I was designing I then forged on and added extra components/pieces/bubbles/tangential/stretched and blown up forms to completion. Its important to keep the simplicity of interlocking all these forms so you have control of the designing. Especially exploring and understanding the reason for getting a handle on the cross-contour as part of the process is that each one of these pieces of homework are interconnected. Its something you just cant scribble around on and say it looks dynamic. We will be moving from simple line quality, singular forms, complex rounded/angular volumes then into progress into cross-sections, texture, light and shadow...a of course applying all of those skills to field sketching and homework research. Its an end game strategy....tactical, small exercises & process in the short run - strategic, learning the answers of the drawing/design universe in the long run. These are the last two pages of the assignment. It’s the process on how to combine angular forms with rounded, organic forms and the "final" look of the combinations on a designed page. You could also bend the assignment more to simple architectural forms with organic/bubbly forms attached. I think that is a great idea if that is closer to getting the job done and making it understandable. I worked a little over an hour on both of these, went through a couple of colored pencil and erased a lot to get everything to work in space and coherently.

Sliced and Diced Form Drawing-Students will draw the 6 Basic 3D forms: Sphere, Cylinder, Donuts, Cone, Pyramid, & Cube/Rectangular Prism. They will learn how to accurately “slice” through the forms to see inside them and render with full shading. They will then create a composition using cuts and slices of the 6 basic shapes.

*Also available in the Everything Art Bundle* This is a hand drawn illustration and step-by-step instruction on how to draw 3-D forms, like spheres, cones, cubes, etc. I use this in my K-5 classroom every year and I would recommend it to be most useful from grades 3-8. It would be a fantastic resour...

Here are a few sheets outlining the process and results for the homework this week. I put these together so you could keep track of how...