978-0205677207 Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: Drawing

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

• From Preparatory Sketch to Work of Art Dry Media

• Liquid Media

• Innovative Drawing Media

Works in Progress

Raphael’s Alba Madonna

Beverly Buchanan’s Shackworks

The Critical Process

Thinking about Drawing:

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

This Chapter Will:

• discuss the significance of drawing as an art form

• identify dry and liquid drawing media

KEY TERMS

medium silverpoint sinopie pencil

charcoal quattrocento cartoon pastel

metalpoint pigment oil stick anime

MyArtsLab RESOURCES

Interactive Flashcards

LECTURE AND DISCUSSION TOPICS

1. Introducing Art Media

Introduce this portion of the text, Part III: The Fine Arts Media, with Henri Matisse’s

painting The Red Studio. The imagery of this painting depicts the interior of Matisse’s

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2. Why Do Artists Draw?

Drawing is one of the most effective and direct forms of communicating an idea and of

recording that idea. Some artists draw in sketchbooks as a way to visualize their ideas for

later works of art while others use drawing as their primary mode of expressing their

ideas. As you will see in this chapter, artists draw for several reasons.

One reason artists draw is to record. The immediacy of drawing materials allows one to

3. How Do You Learn to Draw Well?

Traditional art training was done as an apprenticeship under the work of master artists.

Often the apprentice would copy masterpieces in order to learn the skills and

compositional strategies considered commendable. Today, although drawing is a still a

learned skill, there are other methods. Artist and teacher Betty Edwards, in her book,

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4. The Genius of Drawing: Observation and Preparation

Until the end of the 15th century, a drawing was usually not dated, signed, or preserved.

However, when art historian Georgio Vasari began to collect these sketches and

document artist’s lives during the Renaissance, drawing came into its own. Drawings

came to be seen as the embodiment of the artist’s personality and creative genius. Now

5. Dry versus Wet: Different Media, Different Qualities

Discuss how the various drawing media perform differently, and produce varying results.

Provide the actual media, the tools involved in the varied processes, as well as different

varieties of paper for them to experiment with. Demonstrate how each medium is used,

allowing hands-on practice by the students.

Use these examples from the text to illustrate each medium and its characteristics:

Metal Point: Raphael, Saint Paul Rending His Garments (fig. 269)

Chalk: Kathe Kollwitz, Self-Portrait, Drawing (fig. 226)

Oil Pastels: Beverly Buchanan, Monroe County House with Yellow Datura (fig. 282)

Graphite: Georges Seurat, Café Concert (fig. 227)

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Oilstick:

Sandy Brooke, Paestum (fig.231), oilsticks are similar to pastels and

creates varied linear qualities, encouraging expressionist works; modeling

is created with hatching and cross-hatching

Ink Wash: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Adoration of the Magi (fig. 237)

washes provide a wider value range and as in this image, the softness of

6. Immediate and Expressionistic

As discussed, drawing is immediate and lends itself to expressionistic works of art.

In her Self-Portrait, Drawing (fig. 226), Käthe Kollwitz was able to reveal the

tremendous expressive potential of the medium. Much of the drawing was done by

7. Pastels Preferred

Edgar Degas stands out as the most prolific and inventive artist to use pastel. He was

attracted to the medium because of its immediacy and the fact that its unfinished quality

seemed to capture the reality of the contemporary scene. In After the Bath, Woman

8. Drawing with Scissors

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After stroke limited his use of traditional drawing materials, Matisse was inspired to

“sketch” by cutting out shapes of paper using scissors. Through this method of sketching,

9. Site Specific: Environmental Drawings

Drawing seems to naturally invite experimentation. To kick-off this discussion of

“alternative drawing media,” identify alternative media for drawing that quite possibly

have not been used by artists yet, such as ketchup, mustard, or baby powder.

CRITICAL THINKING: More Opportunities to Think about Art

1. Works in Progress: Raphael’s Alba Madonna

In The Critical Process, the question asked is, “Can a sketch have more expression or

“life” than the final painting for which it was a study?” The prominence of quick,

expressive lines that often form the basis of sketches would seem to make the answer

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2. Works in Progress: Beverly Buchanan’s Shackworks

Beverly Buchanan is an artist whose chief imagery derives from the dwellings of the rural

poor in the American South. She photographs shacks, draws them with pastel oil sticks,

and constructs small models of them from scraps of wood and metal. Through her work,

3. Thinking about Drawing: Michelangelo’s Sketches for the Sistine Chapel

As it has been demonstrated in this chapter, drawing is one of the most basic and direct of

all media. Initially, drawing was not considered an art in its own right, but only a tool for

teaching and preliminary study. In fact, many of the drawings featured in this chapter

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4. Thinking about Drawing: David Hammons.

David Hammon uses processes and materials that are not conventional, but his finished

products fit within long traditions. His Out of Bounds (fig. 244) appears to be a Pop Art-

type image, calling to mind Jasper John’s targets. His process is anything but traditional,

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

1. Drawing Is Thinking

Drawing, it could be argued, is a way of thinking—the visual equivalent of thinking

2. Are Artists Born to Draw?

Assign an essay in which students answer whether or not they believe drawing is a

3. Leonardo’s Inventions

Have students investigate the sketchbook pages of Leonardo da Vinci and identify the

varied subjects and themes he wrote and sketched about. Access much of this

information at the official Leonardo Home Page link and traditional research in

HANDS-ON PROJECTS

For additional project ideas, remember to investigate the Hands-On Projects found on

MyArtsLab.

1. Communicate with Drawings

Using a pencil, have students draw symbols and pictures that communicate basic daily

functions to someone who does not speak your language. For example: draw a picture

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2. Drawing on the Right Side (Using Betty Edwards’s Techniques)

Have students create contour drawings of an image from a magazine or newspaper by

turning their chosen image upside down and drawing. They should be looking at the

3. Daily Drawing or Draw Daily

Have students create sketchbooks by folding five sheets of 8 1/2” x 11” copy paper in

half and then bind with a rubber band wrapped around the stack, parallel with the fold.

Other Suggested Websites:

Edgar Degas, acknowledged as the master of drawing the human figure in motion, is

exhibited online at www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/degas/

For more information about Walter de Maria Lightning Field, see

www.diacenter.org/ltproj/lf/index.html

The Great Serpent Mound of Ohio, its mysteries, history, and images are online at

numerous sites including the following: www.greatserpentmound.org/ or

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