4/20/16 ink, colored pencil |
More than a year ago, I took a half-day class at Gage called
The Quick Sketch. It was an introduction to Bill Evans’ longer course of the
same title, but I thought 10 weeks was a bit too long, so I didn’t take it. This quarter it was
offered as a five-week class, and that seemed just right, so I signed up.
4/13/16 ballpoint pen |
As I mentioned in my review last year, the instructor has made it his decades-long habit to make
a dozen or so “quick sketches” every day
(his favorite location for this practice is a neighborhood bar or park).
Although he is a practicing studio artist, and some of his sketches might end
up as studies for eventual paintings or sculptures, he believes strongly in the
value of the sketch in its own right. Evans stresses that the goal of sketching
is not to make good drawings; it’s to become good at drawing. The more you
sketch, the better you will become at drawing.
4/13/16 charcoal |
How long is a “quick” sketch? Usually taking no more than a
few minutes each, Evans’ sketches are finished when they “start to go
downhill,” he quipped. Because, of course, that’s the tricky part: knowing when
to stop before the sketch becomes overworked and loses its spontaneity.
With an emphasis on life drawing (Evans’ favored on-location
sketching subject), the course includes perspective, composition and other
basic aspects of drawing. Last week after a lecture on head and face anatomy, the
students sketched each other in pen or pencil. Yesterday Evans instructed us to
use vine charcoal, again to draw each other. I detest using charcoal (I came
prepared with nitrile gloves!), but I have to admit I love the result of using charcoal. It’s hard to
beat that beautiful subtle shading – especially on the human face or form –
that’s possible with charcoal.
Yesterday we also tried something I’d never done before: We
drew two faces (once drawing the oval face contour first, then filling in
features; the second time starting with features and working outward to the
contour) completely from imagination. With as much life drawing I’ve done, it
still felt strange to conjure up a generic face from my mind. I think the selfies I worked on over the winter
helped more than anything.
4/20/16 charcoal (from imagination) |
The best part of yesterday’s class came during the last
half-hour: We got to sketch outdoors using the medium of our choice. It was our fourth consecutive record-breaking day of “summer,” and I was getting antsy sitting in a classroom with all
that sunshine being wasted! The exercise was to practice a composition
indicating depth by overlapping elements, varying the degrees of detail and using
other perspective techniques (sketch at top of page). The lesson was all well
and good, but the only thing I really cared about was being able to sketch
outdoors.
4/13/16 graphite |
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