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Arts and Media Basics:
Drawing Basics
Chiaroscuro:
Understanding Value Change On Form
This exercise examines how to render the effect of light falling on forms, thus creating the illusion of volume, space, and depth in drawing.
I encourage students to think of drawing as an illusion—not a reality—because their drawings are their interpretations of what they are seeing. To improve their drawings they must improve their levels of perception and begin to pay greater attention to details. Authorities speculate that the human eye can easily separate approximately nine differences in value. Students must also improve their hand-eye coordination skills by practicing.
It is important for the students to accept whatever they produce. Most artists dislike their work from time to time, and almost all artists feel their work is not good enough, or not as good as they might have done! These feelings are part of being an artist. They are what prompt the next piece, in the hope that it will be better and more successful.
The students need to understand that learning to draw depends on their personal interpretation of space and that each drawing is an important step toward making better representations. When they can apply the formulas and rules of drawing to interpret what they see three dimensionally onto a two-dimensional surface, drawing will become easier. We don't interpret space naturally; we must learn to represent space on paper.
To illustrate the problem of translating space from three to two dimensions, I have started lessons by holding up a vase and asking the students if it is two-dimensional or three-dimensional. Then I hold up a piece of paper and ask them the same question—two-dimensional or three-dimensional? They really haven't thought much about this difference, so I point out to them that we are creating an illusion. Our paper has no volume or depth like the vase, so we will invent it.
Each student needs one piece of paper and a piece or two of vine charcoal. (Vine is soft and two may be needed to complete the lesson.) This exercise provides practice using charcoal and making value changes on a circle.
The student decides which side of the ball the light will fall on—an arbitrary decision, for he is making up the value changes. He should indicate where the light strikes the ball's top first, circling the "hot spot" with small dots.
Now the student wraps the tissue around the index finger to rub the charcoal, distributing it up and then around the top of the circle. The student may use a finger, the chamois, or the stump to move charcoal across the middle of the ball.
The chamois can be used to erase marks made by vine charcoal, and to lighten values or to blend tones on charcoal and conte.
The desired result is black at the bottom, gray in the middle, and light gray on top, with a white hot spot.
The shadow falls away from the ball at the angle of the light, so if the hot spot or the light circle at the top is on the right side of the ball, the shadow will be on the left. The shadow will start on the bottom edge of the circle. The end of the circle and the beginning of the shadow are the same line, with no distance between the two.
If there is space between the two the ball will float—an effect the students might enjoy. Students might like to draw a smaller ball and place the shadow under the ball, at a distance from its bottom edge, just to see what happens.
Compressed charcoal can be used with water. Using tag board, make different marks with the charcoal stick. Dip a quill or watercolor brush in water and brush over the marks. Then draw more marks on the paper with the dirty brush. The washed marks with be more gray than black, and the brush marks will be lighter yet.
Draw another circle on tag board and using compressed charcoal, cover the bottom half of the circle. Then take a brush and dip it in the water. Wipe the wet brush over a small area of compressed charcoal and then use the dirty brush to create the lighter values on top of the circle. The brush may be dipped back in the water to maintain the flow of the wash. Keep the bristles damp. Once the paper and the charcoal dry, the students can mark on top of the area again with either vine or compressed charcoal.
Using the Kneaded Eraser: Using the Plastic Eraser: Another option is to add a horizontal line half an inch above the first horizontal line, creating the impression of a baseboard in the background which makes the ball appear to be sitting on a floor. A small door drawn at the baseboard line changes the scale dramatically and makes the ball seem monumental.
In the foreground, the space under the ball could be a table, a floor, or the earth. Students may pattern a tablecloth, invent a floor covering, or add grass, rocks, and other natural elements.
Let the students chose from these options for creating space—or they can invent their own solutions. They may use the various techniques of charcoal drawing: wet, dry, rubbing, erasing, and layering. The more the students practice and experiment with applying the charcoal, rubbing, layering, and making a wash with compressed charcoal, the more skills they will acquire. The drawing may be fixed with Blair no-odor spray fixative or inexpensive hair spray.
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Chiaroscuro I ChiaroscuroII
Goals:
To develop a better understanding of the material properties of charcoal. To practice producing a range of grays and moving from light to dark. To see how light falling on form is translated into charcoal, representing color values with a gray scale going from white to black.
Brief Overview:
Chiaroscuro, an Italian word coined during the Renaissance, means light and dark. The word itself can be divided into chiaro, meaning light, and oscuro, meaning dark. The term "shading" may be more familiar for referring to light and dark on form, or one might describe it as value change. The light effects of chiaroscuro refer only to cylinders and round forms. Light operates differently on geometric or square forms.
Supplies:
Value Exercise:
Charcoal drawing is an additive and subtractive process, producing value from very light to medium gray to dark gray and black. By adding more charcoal the values darken. Rubbing out charcoal results in lighter values. To rub or lift the charcoal, students may use their bare or tissue-wrapped fingers, or chamois cloths. There are no mistakes in charcoal drawing. Any area that needs to be changed is simply wiped out and redrawn.
The student draws a large circle on the white paper. If she wants to change the shape she uses the tissue, the chamois, or her hand to rub the charcoal off the paper. A small light silhouette of the line will be left but will not be a problem, so tell students to ignore this. Artists leave light lines in the background of their drawings all the time. It is hard to erase charcoal lines, but easy to cover them.
Holding the charcoal between the thumb and the first two fingers, he starts at the bottom of the circle and wipes or rubs the charcoal back and forth on its side and edge, covering the lower half of the circle. This cross-hatching stroke, twisting and turning the piece of charcoal on one-half of the circle, creates the dark value. Layering the strokes on top of each other will make a rich dark value.
The student will leave a white spot for the hot spot at the top of the circle, which is now surrounded by light gray. The kneaded eraser can be used here to lift out excess charcoal rubbed in the hot spot area. The rubbing and wiping, while removing the charcoal to create the light values on top, will also lighten the value of the black to a gray on the bottom. Adding another layer of charcoal over the bottom third will improve the contrast between top and bottom.
Using Compressed Charcoal:
Compressed charcoal comes in block or stick form. The square shape allows the students to draw with the end, flat side, or edge between two sides. Much darker than vine, less dusty, and harder to erase, it can be mixed with vine by adding a layer of compressed to a layer of vine. When compressed charcoal is rubbed it becomes a rich black, in contrast to vine, which grays with rubbing. Compressed charcoal, a good deal blacker than vine, may be used for the blackest areas of the drawing. I usually introduce compressed charcoal only after students have used the vine.
Exercise II
Have the students experiment, making different layers of compressed charcoal. While both vine and compressed charcoal may be used together in a drawing, it is best to experiment with them one at a time at first.
The kneaded eraser is used to absorb charcoal by pressing it into the area and rubbing gently. Once the eraser is dirty, clean it by stretching it or pulling it like a piece of taffy and then folding it back into a ball. It is better not to pull the eraser completely apart. It should be stretched just enough to pull the charcoal area out and then reshaped into a ball.
This eraser will lift charcoal out by rubbing over it. When the plastic eraser gets dirty it stops erasing and begins smearing the charcoal. Simply rub the dirty area of the eraser on a clean piece of scratch paper until it's clean.
Summary Steps:
Brief Overview:
I have separated this lesson into two parts to allow time flexibility for teachers. If possible, continue from Part I to Part II, using the same setup, same supplies, and the same drawing.
Goals:
To experiment with charcoal and increase the student's technical knowledge of the material and its properties. To increase the student's awareness of how to construct space on a two-dimensional sheet of paper. To improve critical and creative-thinking skills. To direct the students in a process that demands decision making.
Supplies:
The Setup:
After the students have drawn and shaded the ball, they begin to consider the background and the foreground spaces of their drawings. First the student adds a horizontal line behind the ball at the mid point and on both sides. It now looks like the ball sits on a table or perhaps on the floor. In the background she could add a window, perhaps with a landscape outside of mountains, lakes, roads, cars or clouds, or whatever she chooses.
Summary of Steps:
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Drawing Basics Index