Sighting – Implementation in Still life and Landscape

You will finish 3 (three) drawings using gestural drawing technique and implementing sighting to accurately measure all proportions. If you feel that you need to practice more, repeat drawing #1 and #2 a few times.

Drawing #1: Simple still life gestural drawing – (Day 1) – 20 points.

1. 1. Go to the kitchen and pick three random items that visually have different shapes and scale from each other. (Stay away from books, boxes and anything else that require basic knowledge of perspective.) It could be a whole or cut in a half apple, en egg, banana, grapefruit, lemon… SIMPLE objects, you will be working with complex ones later.
   2. Arrange them on the table or a counter top, don’t worry about light. We are only going to work with proportions. The objects can overlap each other or be arranged on one line.
   3. Take a photograph of the set up. (you will submit it as a reference image)
   4. Work in a sketch book and use 80% of the page. If your objects are small, they will appear larger than life size, if they are big, they will be drawn smaller than they are in real life.
   5. Choose a measuring unit, usually the smallest one. Put a first mark on the page. Use this unit to measure all the other proportions.
   6. Work with soft pencil using gestural drawing technique. NO OUTLINES! Do not erase your marks! Do not press hard on paper!
      You will end up with multiple lines overlapping each other.
      The process should remind you of being in a dark room and trying to find an object by using your hands to find what objects are around.
   7. Finish the whole drawing.

This task will take 30-50 minutes based on the complexity of your objects.

Drawing #2 – Simple Landscape – (Day 1 or 2. These two drawings could be done in one day.) – 20 points

I want you to go outside and draw what your see in front of your house, in your backyard, or on the street. (If you go hiking, take a sketchbook with you and do this drawing, it would be the best way to approach this assignment.) DO NOT do anything that requires knowledge of perspective. DO NOT use photographs! (We are going to work with photographs later.) You need to see real objects. The purpose of this exercise is to learn how to measure relative proportions of the objects. Drawing a landscape is difficult and requires a lot of practice. We are just starting and we are learning how to see. Don’t draw every detail. You want to depict the essence of the scenery. KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Keep this in mind. How big or how small are the objects in a relation to each other?

Start with a focal point– the area of the artwork that is the most important and demand the viewer’s attention. It is the area (object) that you want the viewer to see first. (In the photo on the right – two cars in front of the house. They can also be your measuring units.)

Follow the same steps as you did for the first drawing.

1. 1. Take a photo of what you see, you will submit it as a reference.
   2. Find one element that will be a measuring unit.
   3. Work in a sketch book and use the whole page from one end to the other.
   4. Work with charcoal or graphite pencil. Use very light application of the chosen medium. You can always go back and add more lines if necessary. No eraser.
   5. No shading, no hard outlines.
   6. Study each object very carefully.

Give yourself at least 60-90 minutes to finish this drawing.
(Some students will spend more time and draw all the details, don’t do it unless it’s necessary.)

Drawing #3 – (the longest drawing for this module) – 30 points

For three weeks now, you have been practicing how to draw what you see and I hope you have started to pay attention to details and what the familiar objects look like, their dimensions in space (not the size, that can be measured with a ruler). It is a very valuable skill and it can be developed with time. For this long drawing I want you to pile up as many objects as you want. You can place them on the floor or on the table. Literally, pick up what you have around and arrange a composition – how the elements are arranged or organized relative to each other. (We will learn more about composition in the next module.) In some cases you can draw a corner of your room if you have enough stuff accumulated there.

1. Make a viewfinder – a simple device that allows you to isolate or “crop” a scene within a rectangular area. Think about a viewfinder as anything that you use to limit and define what you’re looking at. It allows you to “frame” your subjects the same way you “frame” objects and people when you look into a camera on your phone. (That’s how cropping and zooming was done before the digital revolution.) It imposes a shape, a boundary around whatever you’re viewing. (For extra credit, I bet you don’t know what a “slide-mount” is. Find it and if you have one lying around the house, use it. Ask your parents or grandparents.)

2. In your sketch book make a few (3-5) thumbnail sketches of what you see. Consider it as warmup for the long drawing. You will become familiarized with your subjects, you will establish what you are going to draw and make basic assessment regarding relative sizes of our objects in relationship to each other.

3. Take a photo of what your will draw, don’t forget to make all the necessary adjustments, like cropping so it looks exactly how you see it in a viewfinder.

4. Use drawing paper and graphite pencils to make your gestural drawing. Measure everything using sighting method.

5. Your drawing must fill the whole page.

This will take at least 4-5 h. Don’t attempt to finish it in one sitting, take a break. DO NOT move or rearrange your setup until you are done drawing!!! Always keep the same viewing angle to your subject. When you come back you will see all the mistakes and you won’t be too overwhelmed with the task. Your goal is to make it look as realistic as possible and as close to what your see.

NOTE: you can start with 2H or HB pencil and when you are done use 2B or softer to emphasize some of the areas. Stay away from continuous contour lines.
Have fun with this project!

Now you are done with all 3 of your drawings. You need to submit 3 reference photos of what you draw as well as all your drawings. Take good photos of each drawing, the quality of each photo will be taken into consideration. (Don’t lose points on sloppy photos!)

Combine all images in one (1) pdf file: reference photographs should correspond to each drawing, add a short 150-200 words self-reflection paragraph and submit the assignment.

(Also, in addition to images of all the drawings, don’t forget to add an image of 1 (one) page from your Doodle Journal.)

What to write in the paragraph (10 points):

• • • • • How gestural line drawing improved your ability to draw freely and more accurate.
        • Does working with a viewfinder aid you with the project?
        • Was it difficult to come up with what to draw for the #3 drawing?
        • What would you do differently if you needed to do the same exercise again?