sketchbook • assig 1 • watercolor workshop • assig 2 • assig 3 • assig 4 • assig 5 • assig 6
Sketchbook
For your first project you will be wandering through your neighborhoods observing buildings, streets, piazze, important monuments, markets, churches, parks, and a variety of urban spaces that you will record in your sketchbook. These drawings will be both analytical (plans, sections, elevations, topography, etc.) and perspectival (street scenes, buildings in context, spatial sequences, prospects, details, etc.). They can be done in any medium, but you will use some for your project presentations, so they should be visible when you scan or print them.
You will also use these sketchbooks for drawings you make on your history walks, concept sketches and design drawings, studies for your assigned drawing projects, visual notes you make throughout the quarter, and experiments with media. You will need a sketchbook for your first assignment observing your neighborhoods on Wednesday. If you don't have a sketchbook already, you can pick one up at a number of stores close by. Poggi art supply store near the Pantheon has a good selection, Feltrinelli book store on Largo Argentina, or almost any cartoleria (stationery store).
I recommend that your sketchbooks are no smaller than 5x8 or larger than 9x12 inches. You will find both spiral and hard bindings. Either is fine, but you should be able to use it in a scanner. The paper should be able to accommodate both wet and dry media, so the heavier paper is recommended (70# or heavier).
These will be turned in at the end of the quarter.
Drawing Assignment No. 1
Your first drawing assignment will be on your 'history walk' on Friday, October 3. This will be a drawing at the Coliseum, and will follow these guidelines:
1. All drawings will be on a sheet no smaller than 9" x 12" that is loose or can be removed from a sketchpad to be presented as a pin-up.
2. You may use any medium, but for those of you who have not had watercolor, I would recommend a dry medium such as charcoal, conte, soft graphite, pastel, etc., or ink. You may want to spray fix these at some point.
3. Fill the entire sheet with your drawing. If you want to leave a white border, that is fine as long as the drawing itself is at least 9" x 12".
4. Spend at least 45 minutes to one hour on this drawing.
The objective for this exercise is to learn to read shade, shadow, highlights, and half-tones (grays), in a real-life setting. You will want to pick a view where there is a range of darks and lights from dark-dark to very light. These may be vistas through openings, interior dark spaces with high lights, details in shadow with a range of darks and lights, or exterior elevations with dark openings. It is important that your medium record the darkest darks.
This exercise becomes easier if you squint your eyes at the scene and register the darks and lights. Also limit your range to no more than 5 steps between light and dark (black = 5, white = 1).
These are the types of drawings, which you will use, in your final presentations for the neighborhood projects. Think of these drawings of the Coliseum as a means for not only conveying physical space, but also conveying the feeling, atmosphere, textures, and scale of the elements that make it a 'place', as well.
Plan to finish your drawing on site. Don't use photographs for finishing in the studio.Optional Drawing Assignment No. 1
We will be spending time at the Pantheon, Monday, on our history walk. If any of you would like to try another drawing for this assignment you may use the Pantheon and/or its vicinity. Do a drawing focusing on lights and darks similar to the Coliseum. You may substitute this for the Coliseum or present both drawings.
Pin- up (Tuesday, October 7, 10:30 a.m.)
Pin up your 9"x12" assigned drawings from the Coliseum and/or the Pantheon on the north wall of your main studio by 10:30 a.m. We will discuss media, drawing techniques, difficulties and successes in these drawings. All of these drawing assignments will build upon the previous assignment, so all issues we discuss today will be part of the rest of your drawing work here in Rome.
Watercolor Workshop (Tuesday, October 7)
After the pin-up review, I will give a workshop covering the basic tools and techniques to get you started using watercolor. If you have had previous watercolor instruction or do not plan to use watercolor in these assignments, you need not attend this session.
For those of you who do attend, bring the following:
1. Watercolor paint (tubes or pans). If you want to use only one color at first, make sure it is a dark color, i.e. black, gray, burnt umber, indigo, etc.
2. Watercolor paper, preferably at least 140 #, 9"x12" or larger. This can be in a pad, a block, or individual sheets. If you are using individual sheets you should have a board you can tape the paper to. Watercolor paper is cold press, cold press rough, or hot press. Any will do. I prefer cold press to start.
3. Water. A half liter or liter bottle is good. You can also use a container. More water is better, so use at least a half liter.
4. Palette. This is for mixing your paints with water. If you are using one color, a saucer will do. I will talk about palettes and you may want to pick something up after the workshop.
5.Brush/brushes. You can start with a No. 12 round brush (about ½" in diameter). I will talk about brushes.
6. Paper towel.
7. Pencil and masking tape.
For those of you starting cold and do not want to invest a lot in these supplies before starting, you might check out the cartoleria on Via Arenula, just around the corner from the place we met for the first walk last Friday. Upstairs on the left, are some cheap Pelikan watercolor sets and very cheap brushes. I haven't used these so it will be an experiment.
For those of you who are going to Ostia on Friday, bring your drawing material. You will do a 9"x12" drawing on this field trip. Students traveling will also do a 9"x12" drawing sometime on the long weekend.
I encourage you to try watercolor for these drawings. For those of you who are beginners might try doing a pencil, ink, or charcoal drawing and simply rendering with watercolor over the drawing. You might also start with a monotone painting, but use a color that gives you dark tones. (black, dark blue, brown, etc.)
As with all of the assigned drawings, fill the sheet completely, and remove the sheet from your drawing pads for pin-ups.
Subject
1. Find spaces (architectural or landscape) where at least two spaces (or places) connect to one another. Draw these so the spaces are clearly foreground, midground and distant. You will need to use shading to achieve this. Each space will have its own light quality and be lighter or darker than the adjacent space. In most cases, things get lighter in the distance, but not always, particularly in interior spaces. Trust you eyes to make the judgement. These drawings can be inside looking outside, interior adjoining spaces that have differing lightness and darkness, or distant views that have foreground, midground, and background. I'm sure there are others as well.
2. Continue your focus on darks and lights, shade and shadow.
3. For those of you who want to experiment, try mixing media (watercolor with something else, etc.) and experiment with types and colors of paper.
4. If you have had watercolor with Ron, or previous experience, try using color as well as darks and lights in these drawings. These will be contrasts of cool and warm colors to achieve the differentiation of spaces. In general, warm colors advance and appear closer, and cool colors tend to receed. Saturated or bright colors tend to appear closer, and dull colors appear further away.
TARQUENIA AND CEVETERI
Friday, October 17 we will be on a day trip to an Etruscan museum in Tarquenia and a burial site at Ceveteri. Both sites are great drawing opportunities and you will do an assigned drawing on this field trip.
There are three primary subjects that you will experience at these sites. You may do your drawing/painting at one of these. These are:
1. Etruscan figural sculpture on sarcophagi and tomb interiors, as well as other interesting objects and spaces in Tarquenia.
2. Open expansive landscape with layers of hills and big sky. Perfect for watercolor and atmospheric perspective.
3. Urban spaces in the city of tombs at Cerveteri.
Do one 9" x 12" or larger drawing from one of the above. These drawings will be loose for pin-up. Fill the entire sheet with your drawings. Any medium may be used but watercolor and/or mixed media is encouraged. For those of you who are using color, pay special attention to color of shadows. These are often the complement of the area in light. Shadows can also be the color of reflected light from material in light. Color in distant forms and objects are also good to recognize. In landscape, the distant forms take on the color of sky, and usually get lighter. Colors at a distance are more muted, and colors are more saturated closer to your eye.
These drawings and drawings from Assignment No.2 last weekend will be presented after one of the walking tours next week.
Presentation
3:30 - 5:30 p.m., Friday, October 24 in the conference room on the 1st floor.
This will be done in two groups. People in Teams Centro, Trastevere, and Borgo will present from 3:30 - 4:30, and Teams Ripa, Monti, and Flaminio will present from 4:30 to 5:30.
PAESTUM, AMALFI, POMPEII
Thursday, October 30, we will travel to Paestum in the morning, on to Amalfi in the afternoon, where we will stay for 3 nights, and finally to Pompeii on the return trip to Rome. These sites offer some of the best drawing and painting opportunities on our program, and you will find architecture in amazing settings, gardens with views of steep hillsides and the sea beyond, terraced lemon orchards, dense urban spaces, an ancient city, and objects and details of interest in all of the above.
You will do at least two paintings or drawings from these sites, 9" x 12" or larger to be presented in a pin-up when we return to Rome. As always, fill the entire sheet with your drawing, and remove it from your sketchbooks.
In addition to the issues we have focused on (i.e. shade, shadow, atmospheric perspective, defining spaces, observation of sky and ground planes), I would like to offer some new challenges, which we touched on in our last review. These are:
1. The use of color to achieve some of the above issues. (Warm colors advance, cool colors recede; colors are more intense or saturated in the foreground, and duller in the background; shadows defined by complementary pairs - red/green, yellow/violet, blue/orange; color harmony, which we haven't talked much about, where colors are balanced in the composition as a whole; color as shade and shadow and using the darkness or lightness of color to achieve these; expressive color that may carry symbolic or emotional content, etc.)
2. Drawing/painting as more than just seeing, but as expressive and conceptual as well. You may want to communicate something about the subject you are painting, and this may go beyond its use as just a compositional element.
3. Exploration in the use of a medium or media to achieve Nos. 1 and 2 above. You are encouraged to not only find the best media for representing the subject, but also to explore and experiment with media. Sometimes this experimentation will lead you toward an expressive idea, as we saw in some paintings in our last review.
These drawings will be presented in a pin-up when we return to Rome. Date and time to be announced later.
HADRIAN'S VILLA, VILLA D' ESTE
Friday, November 7, we will have a day trip to Hadrian's Villa, and Villa d' Este. Both places are great drawing/painting sites. At Hadrian's Villa you will find ancient ruins in good condition, with some very intricate spaces and details. At Villa d' Este you will have the opportunity to draw water in many forms on display.
You will do at least one painting or drawing from these sites, 9" x 12" or larger to be presented in a pin-up when we return to Rome. As always, fill the entire sheet with your drawing, and remove it from your sketchbooks.
As on the southern field trip, and in addition to the issues we have focused on (i.e. shade, shadow, atmospheric perspective, defining spaces, observation of sky and ground planes), I would like you to continue with the following:
1. The use of color to achieve some of the above issues. (Warm colors advance, cool colors recede; colors are more intense or saturated in the foreground, and duller in the background; shadows defined by complementary pairs - red/green, yellow/violet, blue/orange; color harmony, which we haven't talked much about, where colors are balanced in the composition as a whole; color as shade and shadow and using the darkness or lightness of color to achieve these; expressive color that may carry symbolic or emotional content, etc.)
2.Drawing/painting as more than just seeing, but as expressive and conceptual as well. You may want to communicate something about the subject you are painting, and this may go beyond its use as just a compositional element.
3. Exploration in the use of a medium or media to achieve Nos. 1 and 2 above. You are encouraged to not only find the best media for representing the subject, but also to explore and experiment with media. Sometimes this experimentation will lead you toward an expressive idea, as we saw in some paintings in our last review.
These drawings will be presented in a pin-up when we return to Rome. Date and time to be announced later.
PIENZA, SIENA, BAGNAIA
Friday, November 14 we will meet the bus (same place) at 7:00 a.m. We will stop at Montepulciano to see S. Biagio, and Pienza on the way to Siena, and Bagnaia on the way back.
These places will have examples of anything you missed for drawing opportunities with the exception of ancient ruins. S. Bagnia is a beautiful central plan church in an open landscape. Pienza has an architecturally planned central piazza, and a walkway at the edge of city with views of the Tuscan countryside. Siena is a dense, medieval city, with a dramatic campo, city hall, and cathedral. From the top of a high-unfinished wall of this cathedral is an amazing view of the city and countryside. Bagnaia is one of the most beautiful mannerist gardens in Italy.
You will do at least one painting or drawing from these sites, 9" x 12" or larger to be presented in a pin-up when we return to Rome. As always, fill the entire sheet with your drawing, and remove it from your sketchbooks.
This drawing will be the last of your required assignments. You may do additional drawings for extra credit between now and the time I collect your drawings (week of Thanksgiving), and remember that I want to see your sketchbooks as well.
We've talked about shade, shadow, sequential spaces, mixed media or media appropriate for the subject, color, concept, and expression in the reviews. These drawings can use any of these subjects, but I would like you to take them further than what you have done previously. Try something new, push the envelope, and see if it is possible to do all of the above in one drawing/painting.
There will be one more pin-up (to be announced). If anyone wants feedback before the review, we can do it during studio, or set up another time.
