Welcome
Welcome to the first of the 11 drawing tutorials for MMST 11010, Illustration and Visualisation. These tutes comprise the practical, hands-on, ‘draughting’ tuition component of the unit. From week 1 through to week 7 the tutorial exrecises are aimed at enhancing artistic confidence. The instructions for these weeks come from the Betty Edwards text. The tutorials for weeks 8, 9, and 10 are about drawing from the imagination. They are typically cartooning exercises and the instructions are from the unit resources.
If you are an on-campus student, you will have a tutor to guide you through the exercises. You will be discussing your work and that of your classmates in the tutorials.
If you are a distance student, you should complete the exercises and submit scanned or photographed examples of your responses to the tutorial exercises to the unit discussion board. You should engage in discussion of each other’s work via that forum too. The discussion board will be moderated by the unit coordinator or nominee. Questions regarding the tutorial exercises will be addressed by the on-line moderator according to a weekly schedule.
Materials
Following is a list of materials, implements, media and accessories that will be required for your tutorials. Please ensure that you have them with you from Week 2 onwards. They should be available from good stationers and art supply shops.
There is a Standard Materials List and an Optional Extras List. Some exercises may require other items, so please check the materials list for each exercise in advance of each weekly tutorial.
A/ Standard Materials List:
1/ Pencils:
Graphite pencils come in a range of grades. The most common is called an ‘HB’ (‘H’ stands for ‘hard’ and ‘B’ stands for ‘black’, so an ‘HB’ is a ‘hard, black’ which is the ‘medium’ grade. The more black a pencil grade is the softer its ‘lead’ is.
You should have with you at each tutorial a selection of graphite pencils ranging in grade as follows: 2H, HB, 2B, (4B, 6B optional).
Please be aware that the graphite or ‘lead’ in pencils is fragile. If the graphite inside the wooden sheath breaks, your pencil will be impossible to sharpen properly and in all likelihood the pencil will need to be discarded. These are to become your primary ‘tools’. Treat them with loving care and respect, especially in transit. Use a wooden or tin pencil case and pad the pencils in with tissues or a piece of cloth.
2/ Graphite stick:
A graphite stick is just a fat pencil, usually not sheathed in wood but wrapped in paper or plastic to keep your fingers clean when using it. They are usually round, but may also be formed into a square shape. If there is a choice where you purchase, you may like to have one of each. If your store offers grades of graphite stick, choose a medium-soft one.
3/ Knife:
A retractable knife with snap-off blades has many uses, from sharpening pencils to cutting paper and board, to making scratching marks. Primarily it will be your pencil sharpener. Rather than the standard plastic sharpener, we use a knife blade for two main reasons:
- we can sharpen at a more oblique angle to achieve a point that is longer (and stays sharper for a longer time),
- we can control the shape and smoothness or angularity of the point to suit the kind of mark we wish to make.
4/ An old container with a lid:
To contain your pencil sharpenings until you can get to a litter bin!
5/ Erasers:
A draughtsperson uses two types:
- a malleable, soft kneaded eraser for softer marks,
- a plastic type for darker and stronger marks.
6/ Coloured pencils:
A set of 24 (min) good quality coloured pencils will be required for the colour exercises.
7/ Drawing Pens:
Good quality black, felt-tipped drawing pens, in fine and medium thickness.
8/ A supply of (blank) newsprint quality paper:
This inexpensive paper is usually available in quite large sheets which you would cut down to fit your drawing board. You should start out with approx. 30 of these sheets and may need more. You will need these for many of your exercises.
9/ An A3 or A4 size sketch pad:
This should have white, medium texture paper and may be spiral-bound.
Please note, as a general rule you will be encouraged to work on larger-size rather than smaller-sized drawings. However, we are aware that distance students who will need to post work to the message board for discussion and feedback, may only be able to scan up to A4 size work for electronic submission. Camera captures of drawings are also acceptable.
10/ A roll of masking tape
11/ A small mirror approx 12cm x 18cm
12/ A time keeping device with an alarm (for off-campus students only):
Some exercises are conducted for a set time. The drawing instruction technique encourages students not to actually watch the clock as this interferes with the observation process. If you are attending on-campus tutorials you will not need an alarm as your tutor will keep time for you. The last thing we want in drawing class is alarms going off willy-nilly!
13/ A ‘picture plane aid’:
This is a firm piece of clear acrylic or plastic (glass is OK too – but the edges should be taped, and obviously this is fragile to carry around). It is about 3mm thick, of regular shape with right-angle (square) corners, and approximately 20cm x 25cm in dimension. It has two cross hairs drawn with a medium-point permanent ink marker on its surface parallel to the edges which divide the area evenly into quarters and cross at the centre of the plane. It is possible to use overhead projection acetate but this will need to be taped to a firm frame.
14/ 2 x ‘viewfinders’:
These are made from black cardboard approximately 20cm x 25cm in dimension. Each has a different size of window cut out of it. One has an opening of 10.5cm x 13.25cm cut from the middle, and the other a larger opening of 15.4cm x 18.8cm cut from the middle. Whatever the outer dimensions of your viewfinder, the cut holes are the same proportion as the outside edge of the cardboard. This is achieved by drawing diagonal lines from corner to corner of the cardboard and constructing each cutout keeping the edges of the hole parallel to the edges of the board and ensuring its corners intersect with the diagonals (see Edwards, 2008, p14).
b/ Optional Extras List
15/ Charcoal sticks:
Charcoal is a very handy (if also very messy) material for sketching with. Charcoal sticks may be purchased. You should have a couple of these on hand. You can also purchase compressed charcoal. It is denser and closer to conté chalk in consistency. Some art stores may also have charcoal in pencil form. Obviously this is less messy. Some artists pick up charcoal pieces from remnants of bonfires to add to their kit.
16/ Artist’s fixative:
This is a product something like hair spray for preventing smudging.
17/ Drawing board and clips:
The drawing board is used for clipping sheets of loose paper to, whilst drawing. It should be approximately A2 (420 x 584 mm) in size. It is possible to use the smooth side of a sheet of hardboard for this purpose. However, hardboard tends to be a little too flexible. 5mm thick particle board can be better in this regard provided the surface is smooth enough.
There are also professional sketching boards available in art supply shops for those who don’t mind spending money to have the ‘real thing’. Whatever board you use, you will also need some removable clips to hold drawing paper firmly to it. Bulldog clips are fine but, again, you can find fancier ones available should you so desire.
18/ Easel:
In a sketching tutorial, one ideally has one’s drawing board positioned as close to vertical as possible. This enables the plane of your drawing surface to be at right angles to the axis of sight and close to parallel to an imaginary picture plane with orientation to the object you are drawing. This can be achieved by balancing the board on your knee and holding the top edge while you draw. However, you may also chose to use an easel. There are two main kinds:
- a desk easel. This is a tripod or frame arrangement that sits on a desk and holds the drawing board up,
- a portable easel. This is a tripod arrangement that stands on the floor. Its height is adjustable and there is a clamping arrangement to hold the drawing board in place.
Tutorial exercises info
On-campus students will attend a regular weekly 2 hour tutorial where exercises will be undertaken as a group. Off-campus students should set aside 2 continuous hours each week at a time when they will be most able to concentrate uninterruptedly. Remember that this instructional method is founded in getting students to see differently. Part of the method is to shut out verbal, textual, numerical and symbolic referencing and to concentrate on the visual. Obviously having the TV, the radio and the phone turned off will help. Background music is optional, though if possible choose something instrumental (no verbal language). In the early stages, and especially if you are not accustomed to drawing, it may be helpful to approach the exercises as one might approach meditation.
Both on and off campus students should try to have pre-read the exercises prior to the tutorial time. Certainly pre-read each exercise instruction all the way through before starting the exercise so that you have an overview of what you are to do and are less likely to have to stop and read or ask for instruction part way through.
You will find that where exercises from the Edwards text are used, these online tutorial instructions will refer to the specific pages in the text where the exercise instructions may be found. In most cases Edwards has situated the exercise instructions in a textual preamble and further commentary. You will get the most benefit from the exercises if you also read this contextual material, even if not specifically instructed to as part of the tutorial or the weekly online lecture material.
Exercise 1.1: Pre-instruction drawings
Please refer to the prescribed text (Edwards, 2012) pages 15-18.
Objectives
In this, the first drawing tutorial you will be making 3 drawings that will become a record of your progress when we compare your efforts at the pre-instructional stage (now) to what you produce during a similar exercise at the end week 7 of the unit.
You are asked to draw:
1.1 a self portrait
1.2 a person from memory, drawn from memory (or if using the Workbook, your own hand),
1.3 your hand (or, if using the Workbook, the corner of the room).
The time allowed for all three of these is about an hour but you can take longer. If you find yourself with time on your hands this week, it is recommended that you use it to read Chapters 1-4 of the Edwards text.
Keep your drawings from this session on file. You will need to submit good quality photographic copies or scans of these as part of your Assessment 1 portfolio at the beginning of week 8.
Next week
Certainly try to have read Chapter 4 of the Edwards text prior to the Week 2 tutorial. The exercises we will be doing in Week 2 are from that chapter, specifically:
• ‘Vases and faces’ pp: 46-51
• ‘Upside-down drawing’ pp: 51-61