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To Create Form, Find an Equivalent for Life

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Drawing the Figure in Space
Painting by Hans Hoffman "The Golden Wall" Oil on Canvas 59½ x 71½" 1961
Painting by Hans Hoffman “The Golden Wall” Oil on Canvas 59½ x 71½” 1961

 

Class notes from Drawing the Figure in Space with Elizabeth Rupprecht, SAIC, 1991

Purpose: to create form; to find an equivalent for life.

Check out Frank Stella‘s “Working Spaces.” Exploring another area of cubism.

Cut up something and rearrange it within a grid. Implied floorplane.

Look at Hoffman‘s “Golden Wall” in the museum.

Look at Holbein for eyes, mouth. Look at Giacometti.

Nose and ear are often parallel, curved or straight, whatever.

View a gallery of drawings made in this way from this class. 

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Project Yourself into the Picture Plane

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Drawing the Figure in Space
Painting by Paul Cezanne Madame Cezanne in a Red Armchair aka "Hortense Fiquet in a Striped Skirt" oil on canvas 1877-78
Madame Cezanne in a Red Armchair aka “Hortense Fiquet in a Striped Skirt” Paul Cezanne oil on canvas 1877-78

 

Class notes from Drawing the Figure in Space class taught by Elizabeth Rupprecht, SAIC, 1991

Look at Paul Klee’s “The Thinking Eye.”

Look at “Point and Line to Plane” – Kandinsky.

When drawing the figure in space, use empathy – project yourself into the picture plane. Move yourself to the center of the picture plane.

Every action demands a reaction: in and concave – out and convex; in and up – out and down.

Implies counter-movement.

Make things bend for the demands of the flat surface.

Like movement in Cezanne’s Madame Cezanne.

In Cezanne’s landscapes, things get bigger as they go back in space – he’s projected himself into the landscape.

Think of Dufy’s scene through a fence.

Check out the view down Michigan Avenue towards the bridge.

Look up Munch again. Look for the catalog with seltzer bottle/bowler hat.

Development of the idea is the most important part – spend most time here. Perceptual or conceptual space?

Look at Odilon Redon in print and drawing room. “The Painter’s Eye.” or Mind.  Romare Bearden, Carl Holty.

Wolf Kahn landscapes.

Cimabue – those weird hands!

View a gallery of drawings made in this way from this class. 

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Cloud People in James and the Giant Peach

This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series Class Notes

Cloud People in James and the Giant Peach

Class notes, from Advanced Drawing Studio with Barbara Rossi, SAIC, 1991

Check out the book, “James and the Giant Peach,” by Dahl – children’s book with lots of cloud-people.  This is related to a series of paintings and drawings I was doing at the time that involved cloud people.

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Tips for Improving Your Paintings

This entry is part 2 of 10 in the series SAIC Class Notes
Drawing by Rembrandt van Rijn "Reclining Lion" pen and paint brush ca. 1650
Drawing by Rembrandt van Rijn “Reclining Lion” pen and paint brush ca. 1650
Class notes from art camp classes with George Liebert and Dan Gustin, Oxbow, MI, summer 1991.

Make a list of verbs and adjectives about your own work.

When struggling with a work, isolate parts of it and do lots of sketches to come up with a better composition.

Continue reading “Tips for Improving Your Paintings”

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Class Notes: Some Artists to Look At

This entry is part 1 of 10 in the series SAIC Class Notes
Painting by George Tooker Waiting Room Egg Tempura on Gesso Panel 24"x30"
Painting by George Tooker Waiting Room Egg Tempura on Gesso Panel 24″x30″

See more of George Tooker’s work.

Class notes, SAIC, 1991.
Nicholas Africano
Nicholas Africano

See more work by Nicholas Africano

Notes from Oxbow, 1991:

Dufy - The Beach at St. Adresse
Dufy The Beach at St. Adresse
Picasso - Still Life with Chair Caning
Picasso Still Life with Chair-Caning Paris, [May] 1912 Oil and oilcloth on canvas, with rope frame 10 5/8 x 13 3/4 in. (27 x 35 cm.)
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Notes from Art School – Phillip Garner’s Better Living Catalog

Cover of Phillip Garner's "Better Living Catalog"
Cover of Phillip Garner’s “Better Living Catalog”

I found some of my notebooks of notes from art school (mostly from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1990-92; perhaps a few from prior part-time classes at Austin Community College, 1985-89); I thought I’d type ’em up for posterity.

Continue reading “Notes from Art School – Phillip Garner’s Better Living Catalog”