BASIC ELEMENTS OF DRAWING-Vocabulary

DOT: it is the smallest and simpliest sign. Since it has no direction, it is used for showing a position. It can have different shapes, sizes, colours and textures, but it has to be SMALL.

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LINE: it´s the result of moving a dot. It has position and direction and can also have many different shapes: 

• straight: line that has the same direction in space: the edge of a paper sheet.
• curved: line that has different directions in space: the outline of a basketball.
• zigzag: they have different fragments of straight lines: this is a zigzag road.
• wavy: they have several fragments of curved lines: wavy lines depict the storm.
• spiral: curly lines getting away from a center: a snail has a spiral line on it.
• simple: they are formed by one only line: light makes a simple line.
• composite: they are formed by different lines: artists use composite lines.

They are very important in drawing, because they OUTLINE shapes (=contour).

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PLANE: it´s an (two-dimensioned) area with determinate extension.
It has WIDTH and LENGTH, but not DEPTH:

• width: the distance from side to side of something: "A door is 70 cm. wide".
• length: how far is the distance from one end to other of something: "It´s 3 km long".
• depth: how deep something is: "The sea is 10.000 meters deep at that point". 

All those three words ARE THE NAMES OF THE THREE DIMENSIONS.

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TEXTURE: it´s the sensitive quality of materials, according to its nature. We can feel texture with our five senses: 

• visual texture (sense of sight, we use our eyes): tree leaves, crocodile skin, graphic designs...
• tactile texture (sense of touch, we use our fingers or skin): velvet, sand, ice, cork...
• sound texture (sense of hearing, we use our ears): a flute, a scratch, a song, blowing wind, an explosion, a symphony...
• taste texture (sense of taste, we use our tongue): vinegar, honey, chips, chilli, salt, soda...
• olfactory texture (sense of olfact, we use our nose): flower scent, parfum, rotten eggs, candies...

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DRAWING WITH LINES-Theory

              

                     

        

STRAIGHT LINES can be:

     V                  HORIZONTAL              

     E                                                   

     R                                                  

     T             or     S                          

     I                        K                       

     C                         E                    

     A                           W                

     L                                             

Look at these photographs: straight lines in them give us some great sensations, according to their position in space:






-HOW are those lines in each picture?
-horizontal? 
-skew? 
-vertical?

-Which SENSATION do they give us?
-balance?
-depth?
-height?
-stillness?
-movement?

Are these straight lines vertical?
And horizontal?

They´re SKEW lines, for not being
horizontal nor vertical.

Which sensations do they provide you?

Would you feel comfortable in that place?






Which are the most important sensations
you feel when watching those pictures?

-Height: something high.
-Depth: something deep.
-Balance: visual withstand.

-Simetry: one side equals the other.

CURVED LINES: also named ORGANIC LINES, 

because they are very common in Nature:

Onion leaves.

Cabbage sliced.

 

Saturn in different positions.

Antelope Canyon.

Spiral galaxy. 

Horns in a Mammal.

Dead Sea shore patterns.

Spiral design on succulent plants.

Beautiful jellyfish.

What can this be? (A furry caterpillar!)

 

Huge, very old cactus in Mexico.

Rolled myriapod.

A Nautilus.

IT´S FAIRLY DIFFICULT TO FIND 

STRAIGHT LINES IN NATURE...isn´t it?

DRAWING WITH DOTS - Huichol Art.

The dot is THE SMALLEST element that we can use to draw and paint. 
There are different types of dots according to their shape, size and colour. 
If the dot is very big we consider it as a plane. For example, at night, we can look at the sky and see different types of dots: the stars- which are small dots- and the moon. In this case the moon is a plane because it’s the biggest dot in the sky.

Let´s look at some examples of use of dots in Art:
HUICHOL PEOPLE is one of most ancient mexican cultures. They adore painting with dots. Sometimes they use crystal beads to make drawings and sculptures:

And some more Huichol examples where LINES are used:

In this work we are going to paint with dots:

Choose an animal or plant first: a frog, a flower, a fish or whatever. 

Draw it with pencil, and rule some lines to divide it into different colours.

Then, start colouring it, DOT BY DOT, COLOUR BY COLOUR.

It takes some patiente to get this result...

Once finished, blacken the background, to make it even more interesting. (You might also cut i t down and stick on a dark cardboard).

BASIC ELEMENTS OF DRAWING: DOTs, LINEs and PLANEs

http://www.slideshare.net/noeliacalle/dots-lines-and-planes-29317558

WORKING THE CUBIST WAY

TO TRANSFORM a composition into a CUBIST WORK

you´ll need to pay attention to these three hints:

1) There isn´t a single viewpoint , 

but many: 

you may draw a portrait FRONTALLY and LATERALLY at once.

2) Background and shape are usually confusing: 

there is not much logical space in this style. Perspective is also illogical.

3) The CONTOUR is never complete: 

as the shapes are "mixed" with the background, the CONTOUR will disappear sometimes.

Here you are going to watch an example made (digitally) for you:

-Can you follow on the CONTOUR?  Why?

-Can you easily distinguish the SHAPE  from the BACKGROUND? Why?

-Is there a lot of different colours? Why?

DIVIDING A CIRCLE INTO 8 EQUAL PARTS

How Do You Divide a Circle into Eight Equal Parts?

To divide a circle into eight equal parts,  divide the circle into HALF, with any diameter. Continue and fold the resulting half-circle shape in half again to give QUARTERS. 

Fold again the quarters into a wedge shape (bisector).

 This will  give 8 equal parts, but you need to fold the paper...

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DIVIDING A CIRCLE INTO 8 PARTS USING 

BISECTORS:


USE BISECTORS to have 8 equal parts (2 squares). The process and result are the same, but you will NOT fold the paper sheet.

DRAW the circle with the given radius: r=8cm. Do not miss its center!

DIVIDE the circle into 2 equal parts, using one diameter: this will give you 2 HALVES.

DIVIDE again those two parts into 4 (quarters), USING BISECTORS.

And DIVIDE again those quarters into 8 equal parts (eights), drawing 2 new bisectors.

The result may look like this:

CREATING WITH TRIANGLES

This will be the first CREATIVE work you do with Geometry this year:

How can you express yourself when drawing triangles?

You now know the difference between ABSTRACT and FIGURATIVE.
You also know the difference between MEANING and SENSATION.

So, get ready to express yourself with a drawing with triangles.


There are many ideas you can choose:

-A landscape (FIGURATIVE):

 

-A sensation (ABSTRACT)

-A pattern (used to cover surfaces: it is usually abstract, but can also be figurative)

-A word (you will have to transform shapes into triangles)



You can do this work in several ways: painting with colours, or just pencil.
Col-lage is also a thecnic you may use.
Crayons, markers,,,every materials for colouring are welcome.


FEEL FREE to do whatever you want...USING TRIANGLES.