9 WEEK MINI COURSE
Learn Art Skills: Lesson 1
Introduction & E-Z draw method
Art Knowledge:
Lesson 1
There are 3 things that can make you a good artist:
1. Learn art skills, one particular skill at a time
(skills improve with practice) Listed,
many art skills
2. Learn art knowledge. Develop an understanding of ideas and principles
and knowledge that applies to art (example, knowledge of 3D or depth)
3. Look at the work of many artists who can inspire and instruct us
with their ideas.
Terms in art lesson 1:
E-Z Drawing Method. Sketching, Studies, Composition
E-Z Drawing. Drawing freely without inhibition
Sketching, A version of an image done sometimes quite quickly, small
version of final image. Thumbnail. Compositions use the entire picture
frame and not just a single detail within the page.
A "Study" is a practice drawing or an experimental
version of the idea you are trying to develop. In the Picasso studies
below, the artist searches for a powerful expression of sorrow.
  
Supplies for the art mini course:
9x12 or 11x14 sketchbook.
Heavier weight (75 lb) index or vellum paper is a good inexpensive alternative
to a sketch book. 81/2 by 11 inch. A ream (500 sheet) is about $7.
water color box with 8 or more cakes of color
a soft brush, you may buy the ones with plastic handles for less than
$1
soft school pencil, HB or 1
art gum eraser
water base liquid markers (broad tip)
Q-tips or small cotton balls
dry color chalk, pastels, Box of 12

Invent imaginative
shapes. Try to be uninhibited. The shapes don't have to represent real
things.
Your paradigms
can inhibit creative progress.
Be ready to think in a new way.
Paradigms are
how you think things are and how things have to be. How you interpret
reality or the world around you. Example sky is not always blue.
Places to see the work of great artists.
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Art Skills: Lesson
1
Skills using pencil and drawing paper.
You may use an ordinary school pencil. Softer lead pencils may be
denoted HB or #1. The Dixon No.1
Is a quality pencil at an economic price.
Drawing the
E-Z way - free and uninhibited.
1. Use free arm movements - Lock your hand and wrist so that the
line is formed by the whole arm movement. (technique is
demonstrated on the drawing warm up
page.)
2. Draw with very light pressure, until you have the features that you
want; then you may darken using heavier lines. Retrace the same outline
for practice to build coordination skills.
3. Be tentative ignore mistakes allow the forms to evolve. No erasing
is necessary if you start lightly.


ACTIVITIES:
Practice drawing with a free arm motion
and light pressure. Your instincts are probably to do
the opposite, but practice repeating various free motions of your pencil
or pen. Repetition of the same movement will give you practice in control
and accuracy. On your first page: Only ovals, overlapped of different
sizes. You will get some nice designs. Work on some shapes that are
large. Fill the page.
On your second page think straight line motions with your fingers and
hand in a fixed position. Think point to point and keep practicing to
make your line straight. It may help to make dots around the picture
and aim for a dot on each stroke of your pencil.
Do pages of combinations of straight and curved. Alternate for variety;
go from strait segments to curved segments and repeat as before for
coordination.
Creative variations: Use solid color or tone within areas that are overlapped
to produce a visually pleasing abstract design. Remember compositions
recognize the whole picture space.
Skills require
practice. The more you practice the more your skills will grow.
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