Proportion

Some of the effects we can use to affect perceived depth are: Overlap, Placement on the page, Relative size or scale, Perspective, Atmospheric perspective, Brightness and contrast, Detail or lack thereof, mark making and variations in perception.

Seeing

One of the hardest things to do in drawing is to wait. We start a drawing because we like a value relationship, or a contour, and start by doing that first. It is better for the drawing and better for us, if we can leave it until last. To bring an entire drawing up together, creates balance and produces a unified whole. But that means seeing the benefit of the process, seeing the whole as we work, and keeping the finished project in our mind's eye before we begin. Sometimes this isn't possible, but allowing a slow progression over the entire surface of the drawing, benefits everything.

We have spent time learning the tools of drawing. Eventually we will be able to put these tools to good use. There are many reasons for doing a drawing , and many purposes to which these drawings may be put. Each of us will take something of our own out of this class and put it to use.

We will look at three possibilities: Drawing as an end in itself, Drawing as a preliminary for Painting, Drawing as a preliminary for Sculpture.

If Drawing is the end, simply to make good drawings, there are no limitations. We may begin by looking at expressive drawing in the way it is presented and created. Line weight and mass building can present the feel of the object outside the limitations of literal visual representation. They emphasize the nature of the objects while presenting an adequate realistic representation of them at the same time. These are simple and exciting expressive drawings that show more about the object by that expressive vocabulary.

Spatial Drawing

One of my favorite projects, and one I fall back on often, is called a "Still-life/landscape". (I like to think I invented the term, but I probably saw it somewhere, and have conveniently forgotten where that was.) The idea is to do a still life of an object in front of a landscape: an orange on a window sill, vanity objects in front of a mirror, a bowl on a deck rail, a large super ball on a beach bulkhead (all my ideas and earlier paintings). It offers a chance to combine many of these illusory depth tools in one place, and to advantage. (They tend to be tour-de-force images and very popular.) To use this in figure drawing, we may artificially apply a landscape through a window,or expand the depth of an interior. The California master painters are good examples.(Richard Diebenkorn Elmer Bischoff, and David Park)

5 small drawings in charcoal to establish a composition. Once the composition is chosen develop a drawing using that thumbnail sketch. Remember the rule of thirds - one third black, one third white and one third gray.

Footnotes:

Atmospheric Perspective: http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/CausesofAerialPerspective.html

Q - What does 'gesture' really mean? I understand the gesture of a figure, but how can an inanimate object have a gesture?
A - Gesture has at least three meanings. I. The movement of a line within the form that describes the form. 2. The Movement of the figure - a gesture of movement. 3. The movement of the person doing the gesture drawing. Draw that gesture line 60 times and you have rough but proportional drawing of the figure, animate or inanimate.

Q - How do we create atmosphere for atmospheric perspective, when the depth of the object and background is very short?.
A - There will be a perceptible difference between the contrast of the near object and the most distant. If that difference is too small, we can imagine or exaggerate - 'lie to tell the truth'.