YOUR CONCEPTUAL SKETCHBOOK

For your conceptual sketchbook we have been exploring some of the functions of drawing, Drawing as DEFINITION, drawing as EXPLORATION, drawing as EXPOSITION and drawing as RITUAL.

Your next asssignment is to explore the visual representation of quantitative information. Taking charts, maps, lists and other statistical information about you and your life, find a way to make a visual representation of this information.

Look for ways to organize the information into a visual metaphor for the "content" you want to convey.

Possible options;

• copy and multilply

• overlay

• plotting on existing charts or maps

• measure and represent change

• locate yourself in relation to something

• map an aspect of your life

The challenge in this assignment is to find a visual form which carries the information and while you address the subjective aspect of that information.

Functions of Drawing

Artists approach drawing in a variety of ways. On Tuesday we will examine some of the functions of drawing. 

We will examine Definition, Discovery, Ritual, Expression, Delineation and some of the others functions of drawing. Bring drawing materials and your current sketchbooks. Be prepared to show your two pages a day drawings as well as the results of your work with photographs.

Commonplace Books

John McVey Talks about Commonplace Books
Today in class John McVey discusses the commonplace book as a way of organizing and understanding things. John will bring his unique relationship with books to bear on this topic. This talk may make you reconsider your own relationship with books.
See this link http://www.jmcvey.net/rerum/index.htm

Gather materials for class

Gather photographs from various printed sources for use in collage projects in your sketchbooks. We will be working with these pictures for several sessions in class. Also bring x-acto type knives and glue sticks for applying the photographs to pages.

TWO PAGES A DAY

Two Pages a Day Assignment for Tuesday 2/23.
Begin a discipline of doing two pages per day in your sketchbook. The pages can be any combination of drawing or other media or notes for ideas. By ideas I mean the visualization of something either observed or imagined for the purpose of clarification or understanding.
So we should be looking at 10 pages for Tuesday 2/23.

Strategies for variety

Artists Notebook
Strategies for Creating Variety. Or Things to do to/with a Drawing.

Photograph
Stretch
Rotate
Reverse
Layer
Thicken
darker
lighter
bigger
smaller
Connect it to other drawings
Fill it in
Empty it out
Draw it’s negative
Change the proportions
Mix up the elements
Write
Erase
Cut
Paste
Blend
Fade
Shift
Repeat
Wrong tool
Wrong hand
Wrong size
Wrong color
Use math
Kill
Nurture
Negate
Infer
Clarify
Simplify
Expand
Contract
Inflate
Wander
Declare
Photocopy
Scan
Trace
Rub
Splice
Group
Randomize

From the ONE to the MANY,
Use the editing process that we went through in class to make progressively narrower choices from among the 30 drawings. Arrive at one drawing. Next, make thirty drawings from that one drawing. Your intention should be to create variations within the visual characteristics that you identify in the drawing you chose from the first set. You should work spontaneously an try to make the drawings in one session. Be aware that each drawing should be different in some way but share the same visual characteristics but perhaps with different emphasis or nuance. Bring both sets of drawings to class we will continue to work with them in class.
See you Tuesday.