Materials and Surfaces for Drawing Exercises
Lesson 2 from: Abstract Drawing: Getting Started with 7 Abstract Art IdeasAmy Wynne
Materials and Surfaces for Drawing Exercises
Lesson 2 from: Abstract Drawing: Getting Started with 7 Abstract Art IdeasAmy Wynne
Lesson Info
2. Materials and Surfaces for Drawing Exercises
Lessons
Introduction to Abstract Drawing
08:42 2Materials and Surfaces for Drawing Exercises
09:09 3Drawing Blind to Sound
12:54 4The Big Squeeze: Clay as Muse
11:54 5Drawing from Memory
13:01 6Making a Drawing Machine
12:33 7Visceral Charcoal Drawing/Object Lessons
15:41 8Micro/Macro Worlds
10:49Lesson Info
Materials and Surfaces for Drawing Exercises
So before we dive into these exciting drawing exercises to explore abstraction, I wanna talk a little bit about some of the surfaces and some of the materials that we'll be experimenting with. So what I'm suggesting here, and what I'm gonna be showing you in each lesson is just a suggestion, so you don't have to say, "Oh, well, I don't have that, so I'm not gonna try it." Like, you can totally adapt to use whatever you happen to have, but what I show you right now might give you a little spark of inspiration to say, "Oh, you know what? I think I'd like to go get some tracing paper," or "I think I'd like to go..." "Oh, that's transfer paper. Interesting. I'd like to go try that out." So all of these supplies are available at art stores, or you could buy them online, and some you can sort of jerry-rig, probably, from things that you have at home already. So first, I wanna talk a little bit about surfaces that we're gonna use. One of the surfaces, and these are a little bit experimental, ...
because that's what we're doing, one of the surfaces is actually a piece of transparent plastic, like acetate, and this surface is what we'll be working with, making tracings with, throughout the window, and on this surface, we'll be using an indelible pen, like a Sharpie, to put down on here. So we'll be demonstrating that in a later lesson. So having some transparent plastic, even like a sheet holder from a folder, could be something you might use. That would be exciting to try. We're also gonna be using, rather than transparent, a translucent material, a tracing paper or a tracing velum that we'll be drawing on in layers. So this is also a really beautiful surface to work with, and again, a way to make sort of an atmospheric progression of drawings that we'll be working with too. We'll also be working with a variety of papers, a newsprint paper, which is a very inexpensive paper that you can just make many, many drawings on, and it's really helpful that it's not precious, because it helps you not be precious, so we'll be working with newsprint of various sizes, regular drawing paper, just sort of a medium weight, also various sizes and shapes, and then some little bit of a heavier-duty or a drawing paper, and in this case, in a square shape. So not only will we be trying a variety of papers, but also a variety of shapes of papers, because depending on the shape and depending on the size of it, that is going to dictate your approach, whether you're working on something small that's being repeated, or whether you're working on something larger, where you can really kind of like stretch out and try things, those are going to influence your process. So those are a majority of the surfaces we're gonna use. And again, if you just have some basic drawing paper, or even Xerox paper, you could probably do a good number of these exercises on that, so no worries if you don't have a lot of it. One thing that would be fun to have is some transfer paper. So transfer paper is basically a paper like carbon paper, which is readily available at, like, copy shops and things like that, but a paper like this is treated on one side with pigment and the other side is typically a lighter color, and we're gonna be using this to create tracings and transfers of drawings that we've done. And so the basic idea is that with the pigment side down, you can draw on the non-pigment side with a hardy pen with a metal tip, and when you do that, that gets transferred down below so that you don't have to redraw, you can just trace. And tracing's okay. It's not against the rules, you can actually do that. So there are no rules to this class, this abstraction and experimentation. So this is a wonderful tool that we'll be working with. So in addition to making marks with our transfer paper, we'll be experimenting with some materials, for instance, a variety of pencils, like a charcoal pencil, which gives a mark which is soft and dark. And this sort of mark can be smudged. It's an atmospheric sort of mark that you can make with a charcoal pencil. Other sorts of charcoal that we'll use are larger sticks of charcoal, like a compressed charcoal. This, too, has a very beautiful, velvety effect as you use it. Using something this bold, let's say as opposed to, like, a regular pencil mark, this is a real liberator because you're literally making your mark, you're putting things down that show up, you're not hiding behind something delicate, and that is really about building the bravery to do things in a way that have some confidence and some robustness to them. So this sort of charcoal is great. And we'll also be working with what we call a shammy cloth, which is a way to create erasure, like taking away pigment, but it's also a way to create smudgier effects. So we'll be doing some smudging, we'll be doing some sort of drawing with the cloth. And then once we do that, we'll be working in to these sort of more physical drawings with erasure, so coming in and taking away pigment, that's a really fun thing to try. And then also maybe even just painting in a little bit of white paint in certain areas, too. So where drawing might meet a little bit of liquid media is a fun thing to try, so we'll be experimenting with that, as well. All of these materials are really meant to be a way for you to experiment with different media, because in doing that, you can find your preferences, you can find your voice, you can find what feels most authentic to you in terms of making marks. And experimenting with different media is also a way for you to get outside of what you might normally do. So this is a huge chunk of graphite that is really fun to use to draw larger drawings. And again, there's a physicality to this which is different than you might get if you're working with just a pencil. So we'll be working with things like this. We'll also be working, maybe, with a little black ink, like an India ink for painting in to certain images. We'll also be using as a muse, as a subject, some clay. This is like a air-dry clay, and we'll be taking it and shaping it, and using that as something to draw from over and over again. A simple brush, as well, will be something that will be useful to use to apply ink, and to apply white paint, and things like that, down the line, and mix things up a little bit. And then we will be working with some objects. So they could be really simple objects that you might have around the house. Here in the studio, I have a lot of very unique objects, but they're all significant or symbolic in some way to me. So we'll be talking a little bit about the objects you choose to draw from and observe, and you don't have to really know how to draw these objects because we're gonna approach it in a way that's very loose and free-form, but these objects can be really anything. I'll talk a little bit about the history of these objects. I feel like when you choose a subject matter to work with, whether it's from a memory, or whether it's from an object or a place, the more significant that object is to you, the more connected, in a way, I feel I am to the drawing process, and it feels a little bit more personal, a little bit more meaningful. So we'll speak to that, as well. So all of these materials and surfaces will show up in this course, and I'll be showing you how to use them each step of the way and really how to capitalize on their properties so that you can enhance your drawing process and really have some fun with experimenting with abstraction. So let's get started with that.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
user-0e865d
I recently became interested in abstract drawing and painting. This is a great course for beginners. I filled my art journal with several new creative and thought provoking techniques. The “drawing to music” with eyes closed was just the first of several cool ideas. The course will jumpstart your own creativity! Thank you for your experience and knowledge, Amy.
Rachel Franklin
Yes- relaxes your creative efforts! Love her