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Here are pictures of a couple of things I’ve been working on this past week.

The first is one of some block people for the anatomy class. Eventually we are going to be constructing these buggers out of plasteline.

These are a couple of interesting homework assignments that are due for Tuesday’s Composition and Design class. The first is a ’sacred geometry’ piece. During the Gothic and early Renaissance periods there were certain geometric configurations that were considered mystical or sacred, and often were used as the underpinning of the composition in order to imbue the work with added mojo. We were allowed to choose any subject, but it was reminded to us that the subject of a sacred geometry work was usually religious.

The drawing is on tracing vellum, and perhaps you can just see the geometric construct underneath. There are three golden rectangles about a central square all circumscribed by a sphere. It was alright to be a bit stylized in the execution, particularly if that helped the work to fit the underlying geometry better. This was a composition I constructed out of my head. If anyone is really interested, let me know and I’ll post instructions on how to create a golden rectangle—they actually are still useful, in that if you can put your major subject on the line dividing the rectangle into a perfect square it generally gives a very pleasant composition.

The second work was supposed to be a bio-morphic form. We were instructed to do a highly scientific and detached drawing where we look at the subject analytically. Since I don’t have access the ferrets (not that I’d be able to get them to pose for several seconds, let alone several hours, anyway) I had resigned myself to drawing some sort of mundane vegetable. However, fortunately—or unfortuantely, as the case may be—I happened upon a unique store in Soho called Evolution. They had the most incredible collection of bugs for sale that I had ever seen. Most seemed to be either butterflies and moths or beetles, though there were a good number of spiders as well. Anyhow, I couldn’t get the thought of the beetles out of my head. So, after a day or so of dejectedly ruminating on the vegetables, I decided to splurge and purchase a beetle (it cost way too much, so don’t ask—though I’m sure Julie will tell you if you must know).

I did the work in silverpoint, which is a very traditional medium. The drawing is literally done with silver. One acquires a silver wire and draws with a stylus on a toothy surface. I already had a silverpoint stylus and used acrylic gesso on medium weight paper as the surface. The lines are very light and one simply hatches more and more lines over an area to get it to darken.

Here are a couple of figure studies from the Figure Drawing class. These were both 40-minute studies.

For Figure Drawing homework, we were to draw three of the casts from the school’s cast collection. Here are two of the three (I still have to do one more before Wednesday).

We also had the pleasure of listening to Julien LaVerdiere talk on Thursday. Perhaps you don’t recognize the name, but I’m sure you are familiar with at least one of his works. He is a concept artist whose oeuvre tends to focus on symbols of power and their inevitable removal over time. He is best known, however, for the ‘Tribute in Light’ that went up six months after 9/11 here in New York City to give presence to the noticably altered Manhattan skyline. They turn them on again every year (I’ve got pictures of the most recent event, if you look back a couple weeks ago).

Cheers!
– Jeremy

For those of you who are counting, I’m 1/5th of the way through the first semester. Each semester being 15 weeks. Or, if you prefer, I’m 1/20th of the way though the two years of study, though perhaps that’s not quite accurate, as this is the busiest semester. Really, I suppose, it’s more like (54/180) * (1/5) or 6% of the way through the curriculum.

Enough silly math. It is quickly becoming apparent that structural drawing is the key to study here. By structural drawing, I am refering to the ability to render any geometric solid conceptually accurately from any point of view, in perspective, with correct shading. In class on Friday, Frank Porcu had us drawing bagels. However, we weren’t drawing esoteric bagels—we were like engineers drawing the diagram of the perfect bagel as if we needed to communicate the concept of “bagel” to some alien civilization without words. For homework the previous week we had drawn 10 perfect cubes in perspective, then 10 cylinders. Cylinders are constructed by first drawing a box to contain the cylinder, then truncating the corners of the box to round the ends. To draw the bagels, we likewise first constructed a bounding box, then four smaller boxes within the larger box at the medial points. Those smaller boxes were truncated to make cylinders, and then the large box was truncated to create a torus shape. Great fun.

I know it sounds sort of odd to think about creating geometric shapes when biomorphic forms are anything but geometric. However, once you can conceptualize the underlying form, it is easy to block in a realistic volume for your subject. If you are good at truncating, you can then refine that mass-conception into a more rounded mass-form. From there it is a simple matter of adding what Frank calls the “lumps and bumps” of the esoteric form to create an accurate representation. As an added bonus, if you know how to render the shadow forms on the underlying mass-conception, it’s that much easier to accurately render the finished form.

In many ways this is the antithesis of the sight-size method. You are not copying what you see so much as understanding what you are drawing and rendering it both conceptually and perceptually. Frank is fond of saying, “It’s half of what you know, and half of what you see.” I love that we are learning this… If you think about it, once the mass-conception is understood, you don’t need a light source or even a model, for that matter. The work can be realistically rendered from imagination. It is exciting to think that in two years’ time, if not before, I’ll be at that level.

I also managed to steal away and visit a couple of the galleries that are within walking distance of the school. One was the Arcadia Gallery, which focuses on figurative art. I have for some time now been operating under the apparent misconception that they also represented Jacob Collins. Oh well—I will still get a chance to see his work in the real while I’m in New York. I understand that he is represented here by a gallery called Adler and Hirsch, though it’s quite a ways away from Tribeca. I was interested in seeing some contemporary works. Paintings in Soho seemed to range from $6,000 to $93,000, with the mean somewhere around $10,000. It still blows my mind to think that people pay that much for original artwork. As I understand it, the cost is usually divided equally between the artist and the gallery.

I’ve got some homework to finish up this weekend. I’m hoping to take some more pictures as well. I did a couple of cast drawings that I’d like to show everyone. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to post some pictures later tomorrow. Cheers.

- Jeremy

Martha Erlebacher gave us an extensive lecture on Thursday concerning the basics of painting. I’m retyping my notes here, half for the benefit of anyone else who has the desire to paint, and half to help the concepts gel in my own mind.

…

For an artwork to be great, it must have an idea that speaks to people. Therefore, when starting a painting, you must start with an idea or concept. In Western art, this is generally a statement about the human condition. Once the idea has been selected, the subject matter or narative should be selected. Then one may move on to the execution of the painting.

There are three main considerations in terms of execution.

1. Organization (Apparently she had read a book recently—”The Discovery of Pictoral Composition”—that convinced her that the Old Masters prior to Caravaggio were not concerned with what we term composition, i.e. the arrangement of shapes on the canvas, hence the use of the term.)
– Symmetry vs. Asymmetry : Symmetry tends to focus on a central dominant subject who is increased in prominence by the offsetting of equal objects about a vertical axis. In the previous generation, symmetry was taught as something to avoid in painting. However, one should not arbitrarily reject modes of operation. That is, if you want to promote a central figure, then symmetry of composition will improve the painting. Just be aware of the techniques you are using.
– Static vs. Dynamic : Static generally refers to strong horizontal or vertical elements in the organization, i.e. right angles to the picture plane. Dynamicism is created by the use of strong diagonal elements (e.g. Baroque art). This reminded me of the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy as well: static (Apollonian) representing intellect and a timelessness, dynamic (Dionysian) representing the natural and chaotic world. Note also that absolute verticality often represents the immortal, whereas absolute horizontal represents death; this is why Christ is more frequently shown vertical on the cross. And perhaps why the cross itself is such a strong symbol.
– Grouping Principles : Closure and Similarity. Closure refers to the clustering of items who share an outline. That is to say, items that are partially obscured by another object tend to group with that obscuring object. Thus, the number of groups in an organization is frequently less than the number of items. However, other factors such as similarity of shape or color can cause items to tend to group together, despite sharing an outline with a disparate group. The artist needs to be aware of the number of groups that are being created in the organization and ensure that groups are created based on intention.

2. Space. Space essentially refers to perspective. There are four types of perspective that we considered.
– One-Point Perspective : Everyone knows the rule of perspective that orthogonals converge towards the vanishing point. However, what defines one-point perspective is the orientation of the viewer to the picture plane and the major forms of the subject. In one-point perspective, the viewer is at a right angle to the picture plane and the major subject forms.

– Two-Point Perspective: Two vanishing points, used when the major subject forms are not at right angles to the viewer relative to the picture plane.

– Affine Perspective: Not really discussed, but basically the picture plane is not at a right angle to the line of sight of the viewer. Interesting—I hadn’t considered that possibility before, not sure what that effect will be useful for.
– Isometric Perspective: Not really a form of perspective, in that the rule is orthogonal lines remain parallel. A cube would be made up of sets of parallel lines that don’t diminish as they recede into space. Used extensively in Japanese woodcuts.

3. Light : Light was discussed extensively in the last half of the lecture. Briefly, what must be considered is the following.
– High Contrast vs. Low Contrast light. High contrast light will tend to have shadow areas group with the (dark) background. This causes the subject to be broken up into smaller shapes of color (see Caravaggio). Low contrast will emphasis the silhouette or contor line of the subject. Neither is right or wrong; just be aware of the effect you are creating and ensure that it promotes the idea the painting is putting forth.
– Artificial vs. Natural Light. We talked at length about the difference. Basically natural light refers to sunlight (or reflected sunlight via the moon), and is therefore considered to be sufficiently far away that the rays of light are thought of as parallel. Artificial light has a definite source and therefore a cone of light is created from the souce. Structural Drawing difference must be conceptualized to portray one or the other “correctly”. Note the zone of tangency (i.e. delineation between the light and shadow sides) on a sphere: in natural light, it is basically a straight line perpendicular to the path of the light rays; in artifical light, it will be a geodesic arc relative to the cone of light.

We also discussed shading at length. Note that the darkest areas of the shadow side occur nearest to the light side. This is counter-intuitive, but is caused by the ever-present reflected light. Artists (such as Durer) have used the ‘dark to the edge’ method of shading, but it is considered too simplistic now and shapes should be gradated in a conceptually accurate way.

Other Gems:
– Remember that all organic forms (esp. human flesh) are continuously curved and the shadows must reflect this fact.
– Forms govern the shadows and NOT vice-versa.
– The artist must control the center line of the subject and the cross-contour shadows. Note that sharp shadow transitions denote a more acute curve, just as more gradual shadow transitions denote a more obtuse curve.
– The key to figurative painting is the Z-axis. (i.e. placing figures accurately in perspective)
– Any configuration will tend to be seen in its simplest manifestation. e.g. three groups of objects arranged in a triangle will be seen as a triangle (think of Leonardo’s dynamic pyramids).
– Fuzziness adds atmosphere which is the key to verisimilitude. Edges further from the picture plane should be fuzzier and soft, edges closer to the picture plane should be sharper. No edge should ever have a ridge of paint on it.
– At one point she admonished us to not visit museums and to close our art history books lest we become overwhelmed by the weight of art through the ages, though I think this was in jest (I think). Though still something to consider.

Bibliography: Martha’s Allegory – “There once was a student who read every book I mentioned; she turned into a great artist.”
– “Art and Visual Perception” by Rudolf Arnheim
– “The Discovery of Pictoral Composition” by Thomas Puttfarken
– “Varieties of Realism” by Margaret Hagen (out of print; difficult book)
– “Rembrandt: The Painter at Work” by Ernst Van De Wetering
– “The Practice of Tempera Painting” by Daniel Thompson (good discussion on pigments and mixing paint)
– “Oil Painting Techniques and Materials” by Harold Speed (I personally found his drawing book “The Practice and Science of Drawing” to be very useful as well)
– “The Materials of the Artist and their Use in Painting” by Max Doerner
– “Bright Earth, Art and the Invention of Color” by Philip Ball

Great lecture. Stuff we should have learned by now, no doubt, but still, I don’t think I’ve heard it laid out out in such a straightforward manner before. If you get a chance, google for Martha Mayer Erlebacher—her work is really quite exceptional. She isn’t just spouting theory: she has earned this knowledge through decades of painting.

- Jeremy

New (Old) Projects

With the cooler, rainy weather we had recently, my hands decided they needed to work on something warmer and softer, on needles greater than a size 2. So I gave Juliet the weekend off, and dusted off my Braid-Edge Cardigan, started back in the spring. This cardi is a long one, knit mostly in stockinette, but with neat borders that look almost woven. The pattern is from the Winter 2002 issue of Vogue Knitting, as I recall. I am making it with Katia Beetle from elann.com, a cushy nylon jersey ribbon filled with wool/acrylic boucle, in a lovely dusky lavender color. I also decided to make it a bit shorter than the pattern calls for; it looks like it will fall to about my knees when complete.

When I stopped working on it, I had finished both sleeves, the front about as far as the armholes, and had started both fronts. This past weekend, I finished all the pieces, and seamed the sweater. It looks like it will fit nicely, though it looks very strange right now without that wide braided border around the front and neck, kinda flopping off my shoulders. Next I will need to reseam one of the sides (sigh… it got a little asymmetrical by the bottom), and try to rustle up needles to work that loooong front border, which is made by picking up stitches around the edge and knitting out. I’m half tempted to try knitting the border as a separate vertical strip, and sew it on afterwards, since I will need a really long circ to hold that many stitches. I also have to figure out how to deal with weaving in ends, without having the nylon jersey ribbon part of the yarn unravel. I might try searing a scrap with a quick press of the iron, and see what I get. Otherwise, I think Fray-Check might be in order.

Juliet Update

After seaming the Braid-Edge, the weather here has warmed up a bit, so I went back to work on Juliet. I’ve now reached the front neck/armhole shaping. I’m on my last full ball of yarn, plus leftovers, but I think I should have just enough to finish off the front and do the neckband, assuming I can figure out a way to knit it. If I can possibly avoid it, I would like to keep this sweater from needle-less limbo, which has been the fate of the Victoria Tank and possibly the Braid-Edge Cardi as well. For Juliet, though, I have been using a long Addi circ, which might work with the magic loop technique on the neckband. I’ve never actually tried this technique, though, so cross your fingers.

Today I finished typing the second volume of Sir Charles Grandison. It hasn’t been published to Project Gutenberg yet, but should be soon… I’ll keep you notified. In the meantime, a short review of Vol. 2:

This volume continues the saga of Sir Charles Grandison’s life, as narrated almost exclusively by the eternally grateful and admiring Harriet Byron. A large portion of the beginning is something of a treatise on the evils of duelling, its historical origin, and instances of brave men who did not consider duelling an option. Next follows a very long history of the Grandison family, which turns out to be mostly the history of Sir Charles’s parents and his sisters, with very little of his own life except tangentially (his sisters tell the history to Harriet, and were not aware of his doings abroad on the Continent, having been forbidden by their father to correspond with him). This took up at least a third of the book, perhaps more. The remainder of the volume encompasses Charlotte Grandison’s dating difficulties, and Harriet’s woes about being unutterably below Sir Charles in every single aspect of existence, with a few more instances of his perfection thrown in. There have been very vague hints about some sort of intrigue in Italy while he was abroad, but everyone has been too discreet to come out and ask Sir Charles what’s up.

Sir Charles Grandison, so far, has been largely all from the perspective of Harriet Byron, with very few letters written by anyone else. I miss the banter back and forth between penpals, as in Clarissa; the conversations have been very one-sided, despite Harriet’s imagined responses from her relatives, and comments about having received letters from them (which the reader never gets to see). Plus, I am getting tired of Harriet for being so darn good, and yet so seemingly unworthy of Sir Charles’s love. Charlotte would probably write more interesting letters, but she is constantly with Harriet, so has no occasion to write her.

I’ve started in on the contents and first letter of Volume 3, and it looks like the same tone will predominate, with mostly letters from Harriet, and a few one-sided letters from Sir Charles to Dr. Bartlett. There will also be packets of letters sent from Harriet to her family, containing letters from Dr. Bartlett to Harriet, and letters from Sir Charles to him at previous dates; all this seems a bit convoluted, but perhaps it will flow nicely when it actually comes up.

Up Next…

As I mentioned, I have already begun work on the next volume of Sir Charles Grandison, and continue to work on The White Peacock, slowly, mostly from home.

Well, two weeks are down… I was expecting to be able to relax this weekend, but there was too much to do. I went in to the studio on Saturday for about 4 hours and was in today for about 10. I’m keeping ahead of the homework curve though, so that’s good. Julie made me promise to take some pictures this weekend.

These are the 5 Platonic solids (plus a cylinder) that I needed to construct for my Structural Drawing class. I imagine that I’ll have to draw all of these many, many times before the end of the semester. We have to draw the cube 10 times, the cylinder 10 times and 5 spheres for homework due Friday. But the best part is that we have to attach vine charcoal to the end of an 18″ dowel and draw the shapes holding the end of the dowel. The exercise is supposed to get us used to standing back from the surface and to draw from the shoulder and not from the wrist.

For the painting class I needed to draw four still lifes involving simple geometric shapes. Since I had already constructed the Platonic solids, it seemed to make sense just to arrange those. Here are two of the four drawings that I did.

We’re going to put four on one canvas (24″ x 36″) and paint each one using a different approach. Should be interesting.

Figure drawing is the class that seems the easist to me, probably because it’s what I’ve done the most. At present we are working on contour lines. These were 40 minute poses.

Well, I’d write more, but I have some reading to do. Please forgive me for not writing more. I am literally spending more time in the studio than at home, and 12-hour days at the school seem to be the norm.

- Jeremy

Today is Wednesday, isn’t it? All of the days are starting to blur together. I stopped at the market quickly before coming home. Just got in a little after 11… I’m pretty beat tonight…

We’ve got a guest lecturer coming tomorrow evening. I think that most of my homework is done for the week, though. I’ve got to go in early tomorrow to mix up my paint and do a few “draw-downs” (paint smears designed to give you a sense of the quality of the paint) before class. After class I’ll have a couple of hours before the lecture. Hopefully that will be enough time to do the last 2 (of 6) vine charcoal drawing of the “cube”— it’s not really a cube, but two pieces of wood representing the sides of it (a cube would be easier). I did the other four tonight. Oh, and I still need to finish putting my icosahedron (20-sided polygon) together. We had to construct the 5 Platonic Solids for my Structural Drawing class. I’ve got it all cut out and scored, so it shouldn’t take to long to glue, tape and gesso it (I hope).

Then the weekend… I can’t recall ever having looked forward to the weekend with so much anticipation before.

Time to make a quick bite to eat and then off to bed.

- Jeremy

R.I.P. Progressive Gloves (December 20, 2003-September 12, 2004)

This weekend I dug in and finished some gloves for Jeremy that I started way back last winter. They are based on the Progressive Glove recipe in the winter 2004 IK, with asymmetrical gussets, in black superwash wool. They got stalled out because he wanted some fancy pinkie shaping that accounts for the natural shape of the hand (the pinkies are set slightly below the other fingers).

Well, this weekend I pulled them out and tackled the problem, which, though it required some concentration and a lot of time, ended up not being as complicated as I feared. I just put the pinkie stitches on holders a few rows before beginning the other fingers. Hopefully they will fit a little better now, and maybe Jeremy will post a photo for me when he gets them in the mail. But if they don’t fit, honey, you have my permission to toss them and buy yourself a pair instead.

Now I am back to working on Juliet, for which I am about 6 inches into the front piece. This would be the rather boring expanse of knitting between the waist and armholes, livened up only by periodic increases and the diamond purl pattern. It should regain some interest once I reach the arm and neck holes, but then might end up languishing like the Victoria tank, complete except for finishing due to a lack of circular needles. Maybe I can order some for my birthday next month.

Project Gutenberg Update

Progress continues slowly on my Gutenberg texts. I have made it a habit to keep something to work on at home for when I am websurfing or checking email, now that we are back to dial-up and everything is slo-o-ow.

Sir Charles Grandison, Volume 2: 62% complete
The White Peacock: 53% complete

(Click to enlarge.)

I know that I’ve been promising pictures to everyone—well, the time has finally come…

Here is the front door to the New York Academy of Art. I love that there are sculptures in the front windows. These are plaster casts made from the original sculptures.

Here is the one of Donatello’s St. George that I had mentioned previously. I like to think of him standing watch over the school as the original did over Florence.

Here is a picture of one of the classrooms. (Click to enlarge)

It is almost like having the great masters of old looking on as you work; watching, encouraging and also challenging you. Definitely the best classroom in the school.

Even though today was Saturday, there was a workshop scheduled. We were drawing from the Charles Bargue ‘Course of Design’ book, which was the very work that artists such as Picasso and Van Gogh used a century ago, when they were students. I didn’t get a chance to finish my drawing, but you can see that it is getting close.

The school is impressive, the faculty are incredible and the students are hungry. What a great place to learn.

- Jeremy