Drawing from Observation

by Fulton Cunha

It's been a long time since my last blog entry, but I am committed this year to keeping you all informed about what is happening in Artroom 3111. We have exciting new students this year and our experienced, honors students, have started the year off with great enthusiasm!

September is all about drawing from observation. Yes, actually looking at what you are drawing- not looking at a picture of what you are drawing. My biggest challenge is always asking students to look up as they draw. Many students think it's "easier" to take a picture of their still life with their phone and draw from the picture, but any artist will tell you that the quality of that drawing will never measure up to a true life drawing from observation. My Drawing 1 students started off with learning about line, qualities of line, space, and composition. They created thumbnail sketches of a still life I arranged with different chairs. They then filled in the negative space in each thumbnail sketch black. After they had completed a page of thumbnail sketches each student picked their most successful compositions to enlarge. The enlarged, final works included zentangle line designs in the negative space or positive space depending on the composition. Check it out!

Thumbnail sketches

by Katey Latassa

on display outside Artroom 3111

By Jessica Oliver



*** all bold highlighted words are vocabulary words that each student is responsible for knowing**