Response to The Secret of Drawing 2: Storylines 

I found this documentary interesting because it first portrayed comics and story-telling drawings as dark and sometimes depressing. When I think of comics I usually think of humor or jokes, but when I look at them deeper (as this video showed) I do see the darker side. One theme of this film that stood out to me was the idea that comics provide a way to say something that cannot be expressed in words. I think this was especially true for some of the more serious work of Francisco Goya with his depictions of war. He was able to capture deep painful emotion in a more profound way than words can. Images are also often more capable of telling stories than words. I enjoyed viewing the work of story-board artist J. Todd Anderson because he showed what goes on behind the scenes of film. I think this touched on an important concept that drawing is a universal language. Everyone, no matter how they think or speak, could understand the plan for the film from Anderson’s drawings. Drawing for planning a film is one thing, but turning comic-like sketches into animation is a daunting task. I appreciated seeing the effort and time it took Sylvian Chomet to create an animated film from his drawings. Every movement of every character had to be drawn before it could be put in the film. His work truly does show dedication to storytelling through art. Many of the artists from this film found unique ways to capture feelings or thoughts that are often shared but unsaid.

6-Bullet Points to Caitlin McGurk’s talk

• Billy Ireland Cartoon museum is the largest collection of comics and comic related items in the world.
• Milton Caniff was an OSU student from 1920s and successful cartoonist. He made adventure comic strips including “Terry and The Pirates.”  He wrote the comics for every day of the week and used cinematic elements such as camera angle changes. He even received a letter from John Steinbeck
• Will Eisner collection- touched every aspect of comics from the comic strip to teaching with comics and advertising; He is the father of the graphic novel format and published a graphic novel in the late 1970s.
• P. Craig Russel collaborates with Neil Gaiman; Russel is an Ohio based artist who helped create Coraline and he is also one of the only artists to adapt a piece of music into a comic.
• Jeff Smith is the author of Bone. He began his drawings as an OSU lantern comic strip and has created a popular young adult graphic novelist; He used the idea of masking for his main character to make it more relatable.
• Edwina Dumm was the very first woman in the United States to be hired as a full time cartoon artists. She was hired to create political cartoons for a Republican magazine at a time when she didn’t even have the right to vote.

The Secret of Drawing – All in the Mind touched on an interesting view of drawing that I hadn’t given much thought. The documentary looked at the aspects of drawing connected to both the conscious and unconscious mind. I was especially interested in the part about unlocking your unconscious through drawing and how children are able to draw freely creating art that even trained artists struggle to create.

The studies done by John Tchelenko stood out to me. With his experiment of tracking eye movement, he was able to spot the difference between armature and professional artists. It was interesting how a trained artist moved their eye much less because they are able to absorb their subject matter and convert that to drawing more fluidly. This brought to light the uniqueness every individual’s perspective and approach to art. I think this key theme is part of why exploring “automatic drawing” is so fascinating. Without having been taught anything about art, art can act as a form of communication and peek into someone’s head. I loved this about the “outsider art” at Creative Growth in Oakland California. Every individual had some type of mental disability, but they were all able to express themselves and communicate their mind through artwork. I found this beautiful. It was also incredible to see the work in the Las Monedas and Altamira caves in Cantabria because these show that art has been used as a way of communicating for centuries. These captured something free and beautiful before there were rules or strategies behind drawing and painting.

The topic for module 4 was gesture and module 5 was collage.

I enjoyed module 4 and 5 because they helped me discover some themes and media which I enjoy using to make art. I found the gesture exercises, especially those with ink, to be very freeing and beautiful. Overall, I think my work from both modules fulfills the criteria and I was able to unlock some creativity in my mind. The abstract nature of the gesture project was difficult at first because there was no specific image I was trying to create. However, I think the end product was successful and captured some feelings I wasn’t really aware of until I drew them. The collage project was also enjoyable because I was able to recreate an image from my eyes as a child instead of looking at a photograph or something more factual. I think I used colors and textures well in both projects. For the collage, one way I could have explored this memory differently would have been making objects larger than real life to imitate how they felt when I was a child.

Submitted to Carmen!

I think all three of my perspective drawings (interior and exterior) fulfilled the criteria. In all three I was able to capture depth as well as the layout of the room or area. I also tried to incorporate details to make each image more interesting.

For the unshaded interior perspective I could have improved on the lines of my dresser which appear slightly slanted in the wrong direction. In the shaded interior perspective I was happy with the depth and shading of the staircase, however I would like to make the floor a little more realistic by capturing the shine & texture of the hardwood. My outdoor perspective drawing conveys the size of the building well and fills the page.

Interesting Points: 

• Different perspectives can help make objects appear more realistic- more points does not necessarily make the drawing look more realistic.
• A potentially common misconception and something I was unaware of is that you can have multiple vanishing points in a one-point perspective drawing if different objects vanish at different points.
• Three-point perspective can be useful for depicting tall buildings, such as a skyscraper, from ground level.
• You can create an aerial perspective using three vanishing points in a three-point perspective drawing.
• A common mistake which I was unaware of is that a cube in an angular perspective cannot have an angle of less than 90 degrees between it’s visible faces.
• A measuring line, drawn at the front of the plane and divided into equal parts, can be useful for understanding and drawing parts of an object in an equal and realistic way.
• Furniture in a perspective drawing can be drawn by using boxes or other simple forms which can be drawn in perspective easily and then including the furniture within those parameters.

Long List:

1. Unica Zurn

2. Jay DeFeo

3. Russell Crotty

4. Lee Krasner

5. Arthur Rackham

6. Albrect Durer

7. Van Gogh

Short List:

Unica Zern: I love the creature-like appearance of her images combined with the small intricate details. Her work reminds me of weirdly shaped microbes and I study microbiology, so I find it fascinating.

Arthur Rackham: I enjoy the fairy-tale quality of Rackham’s drawings. The use of very light subtle colors over detailed and active subjects draws me in. I could look at his drawings for hours.

Albrect Durer: Durer’s detailed paintings and drawings of animals are inspiring. I especially like his “Little owl” image. I love drawing animals and the amount of texture and detail Durer has brought to his animals makes me want to draw my own.

Prompt: Read the article starting on page 2 on value and write 5 bullet points that reflect points of interest in the article and make a drawing that is in the style Paule Vezélay (9.14) that explores your understanding value/shading and depicts shaded objects in the foreground and background.  

Paule Vezélay, Forms, 1936

Interesting Points:

• You can use different value scales (a 9 part scale or 5 part scale) to create different effects with your drawing. Using less values can simplify a drawing.
• Value is what creates contrast and allows objects to be seen.
• A common mistake (and one I think I often make) is not using the darkest end of the value scale.
• Value schemes can help evoke a mood in a drawing. An example would be a lighter more airy and happy feeling scene.
• Using the white of the page as the lightest value can help emphasize darker areas.

My Drawing:

Objects with value done on newsprint

Reflection

The “The Secret of Drawing 1 – the Line of Enquiry,” brought to my attention the dynamic relationship between art and science. I think there is often a preconceived notion that people who are analytical or science-oriented are not creative or artistic. However, this documentary proves that notion wrong. The impact behind the art work of Leonardo Da Vinci on modern medicine (particularly on the surgeries performed by Francis Wells) surprised me. Da Vinci’s drawings almost appear more alive and more informative than photographs because you can see the strokes, the detail, and the thought which was needed to create the images. I found a similar liveliness in the art of John Adams Audubon and George Stubbs. It was ironic to me that these artists were able to capture the life of their subjects even though they often used dead specimens.

The biggest takeaway I gathered from this documentary was how to use drawing as a way to learn more about the world and yourself. Da Vinci’s artwork, along with that of Cassiano dal Pozzo and Audubon, gave me a deeper appreciation for history in relation to art. These artists have managed to capture moments in time through their drawings and have provided important insight into the natural world. While art is often used as a form of expression, it can also be used to explore the world around you. Exploration was a key component to Russell’s moon drawings. In an age when traveling to space was likely unfathomable, Russell was fascinated with the moon and was able to expand his view of the world by drawing it.

“The Secret of Drawing 1 – the Line of Enquiry,” Produced by the BBC, Hosted by Andrew Graham-Dixon, 2005