Introduction to Sketchbook Techniques – Six Sessions

Description

Introduction to Sketchbook Techniques – Six Sessions

Introduction

In this introductory video, LFAS Founder Ann Witheridge sets the stage for this exciting course, which will teach you a wide range of art fundamentals–from proportion to composition, colour harmony to materials, and even collage–all in your sketchbook! This course will blend practical work, art history, and community feedback to create a well-rounded introduction to these integral skills, and the practical and historical theory behind them. 

Unit 1: Proportion & Scale

In this first session, you will look at mark-making, proportion, and how to approach and fill a sketchbook. Focusing on process not product, you will begin by exploring materials: what sketchbook to use, what pencil to work with, how to hold your pencil, and how to develop comfort with your materials. Working from easy-to-find objects around the house, you will be guided through mark-making techniques, and then dive into how to create accurate lines to define your objects’ proportion and scale. Attention will also be given to working with errors, adjusting for accuracy, and how to use repetition to create comfort within the process.

Unit 2: Composition, Perspective, & Gesture

In this second session, you will carry on with your proportion and mark-making, but this time you will use two objects for your still life. Working with these two objects across a range of set-ups, you will explore composition, and how to work with the relationship between objects: overlap, space between them, and the different possible scales of a drawing. Finally, you will explore the range of compositional options not only using your own objects, but also through the study of artists through history who have played with these ideas, including Morandi, Chardin, and Mondrian.

Unit 3: Mass & Value

In this third session, you will be exploring values and mass–not just finding the shape of the object, but finding the shape of the light and the dark. You will continue on your still life drawings, but this time you will be intentionally working with a light source to create distinct shadow shapes. Using toned paper, you’ll build on your drawing practice, learning to work with a value scale, add in your shadow shapes, highlights, and accents, and how to accurately reflect the effects of light on your object. Finally, you will be introduced to artists whose work is dominated by value ranges and strong shadow patterns, including Rembrandt and Carriere.

Unit 4: Colour Harmony

In this fourth session, you will turn to colour! To initiate the introduction of colour into your work, you will explore ideas of colour harmony, attuning and harmonizing your colour choices, starting from the toning of the paper and working all the way into which objects and pencil colours you choose. Simplifying your approach to colour will allow you to focus on the patterns of light and dark in your drawing, and allow the addition of colour to be intentional, subtle, and even playful. You will end the session with a discussion of artists through history who have centered colour harmony, including Picasso, Whistler, and Monet. 

Unit 5: Montage & Collage

In this fifth session, you will turn your attention away from drawing and towards collage and the use of multimedia. Applying all your learning to this point–incuding proportion, relationship of objects and values, and colour harmony–to this new medium, you will deepen your understanding of representation by pushing yourself to use found materials to represent your object’s shapes and values. You will finish by exploring two artists–Man Ray and Cornell–who beautifully utilize the medium of collage and multimedia to create complex, representational works.

Unit 6: Extended Colour

In this final session, you will work to create a colourful drawing rooted in all the skills you have gained over this course. Systematically revisiting the lessons of prior units, you will work from abstraction to detail, lines to mass to values, and eventually into colour and colour harmony. As you bring together your learning, you will push yourself to emphasize value over colour, while utilizing the two in tandem–along with accurate shape–to reveal form. As an ode to the use of extended colour, you will end the session exploring Claesz, Fantin-Latour, and Cezanne, three masters of colour in unique, inspiring ways.

Conclusion

In this concluding video, Ann will leave you with the encouragement to continue your creative journey. Taking what you’ve learned from this course, both practically and historically, and working with simple materials like a sketchpad and found objects, you have all you need to continue your artistic practice, and to develop your skills within the long tradition of representational art.