The artwork above used digital painting, acrylic painting, and oil pastel. Your drawing will be done with black ink, using drawing pens.
Context:
From Walter Isaacson's biography on Leonardo DaVinci, Simon and Schuster, 2017:
(When Leonardo DaVinci was a boy, his father, Piero, was commissioned to create a shield with a representational design.)
[Verrocchio] Piero gave the task to Leonardo, who decided to create a terrifying image of a dragon-like monster breathing fire and belching poison. To make it naturalistic, he assembled parts from real lizards, crickets, snakes, butterflies, grasshoppers, and bats. “He labored over it so long that the stench of the dead animals was past bearing, but Leonardo did not notice it, so great was the love that he bore towards art,” Vasari wrote. When Piero finally came to get it, he recoiled in shock from what in the dim light appeared at first to be a real monster. Piero decided to keep his son’s creation and buy another shield for the peasant. “Later, Ser Piero sold the buckler of Leonardo secretly to some merchants in Florence, for a hundred ducats; and in a short time it came into the hands of the Duke of Milan, having been sold to him by the merchants for three hundred ducats.”
The shield, perhaps Leonardo’s first recorded piece of art, displayed his lifelong talent for combining fantasy with observation. In the notes for his proposed treatise on painting, he would later write:
“If you wish to make an imaginary animal invented by you appear natural, let us say a dragon, take for the head that of a mastiff or hound, for the eyes a cat, and for the ears a porcupine, and for the nose a greyhound, and the brows of a lion, the temple of an old rooster, the neck of a terrapin”
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Project:
Using close, careful observation of parts of real animals and photos of animals, "build" a dragon or other imaginary creature that has detail and many different textures.
Due:
One week (In class and homework)
After doing three value scales using hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling; and experimenting with pen & ink techniques such as multi-directional marks, weaving, and "swirls", make a tonal value drawing of a dragon, from direct observation.
Objective:
Create a variety of finely crafted implied textures using pen & ink techniques.
Musts:
Media:
HB (#2) pencil
Set of drawing pens
Sketch paper (for thumbnails)
Heavyweight white drawing paper (6 x 9")
Steps:
1. Collect photographic references from a variety of animals
2. Work out composition in a series of thumbnail sketches.
3. Draw a full-sized (6 x 9") rough draft
4. Transfer the rough draft in light pencil line to 6 x 9" heavyweight (watercolor) paper.
5. With watercolor, paint with light, transparent colors, approximating the natural colors of the real animals.
THEN...
6. Gain skill with various pen and ink techniques by making three value scales using hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling (Download or drag the blank template below, and print it out.).
7. Experiment with other pen & ink techniques such as multi-directional marks, weaving, and "swirls"
From Walter Isaacson's biography on Leonardo DaVinci, Simon and Schuster, 2017:
(When Leonardo DaVinci was a boy, his father, Piero, was commissioned to create a shield with a representational design.)
[Verrocchio] Piero gave the task to Leonardo, who decided to create a terrifying image of a dragon-like monster breathing fire and belching poison. To make it naturalistic, he assembled parts from real lizards, crickets, snakes, butterflies, grasshoppers, and bats. “He labored over it so long that the stench of the dead animals was past bearing, but Leonardo did not notice it, so great was the love that he bore towards art,” Vasari wrote. When Piero finally came to get it, he recoiled in shock from what in the dim light appeared at first to be a real monster. Piero decided to keep his son’s creation and buy another shield for the peasant. “Later, Ser Piero sold the buckler of Leonardo secretly to some merchants in Florence, for a hundred ducats; and in a short time it came into the hands of the Duke of Milan, having been sold to him by the merchants for three hundred ducats.”
The shield, perhaps Leonardo’s first recorded piece of art, displayed his lifelong talent for combining fantasy with observation. In the notes for his proposed treatise on painting, he would later write:
“If you wish to make an imaginary animal invented by you appear natural, let us say a dragon, take for the head that of a mastiff or hound, for the eyes a cat, and for the ears a porcupine, and for the nose a greyhound, and the brows of a lion, the temple of an old rooster, the neck of a terrapin”
------------------------------------------------
Project:
Using close, careful observation of parts of real animals and photos of animals, "build" a dragon or other imaginary creature that has detail and many different textures.
Due:
One week (In class and homework)
After doing three value scales using hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling; and experimenting with pen & ink techniques such as multi-directional marks, weaving, and "swirls", make a tonal value drawing of a dragon, from direct observation.
Objective:
Create a variety of finely crafted implied textures using pen & ink techniques.
Musts:
- Fill the entire picture plane
- Include at least six different types of animals
- Have a range of tonal value (darks, middles, lights)
- Variety of textures.
- NO drawn edges / lines / contours
- Use THIN drawing pens, not felt tips or markers.
Media:
HB (#2) pencil
Set of drawing pens
Sketch paper (for thumbnails)
Heavyweight white drawing paper (6 x 9")
Steps:
1. Collect photographic references from a variety of animals
2. Work out composition in a series of thumbnail sketches.
3. Draw a full-sized (6 x 9") rough draft
4. Transfer the rough draft in light pencil line to 6 x 9" heavyweight (watercolor) paper.
5. With watercolor, paint with light, transparent colors, approximating the natural colors of the real animals.
THEN...
6. Gain skill with various pen and ink techniques by making three value scales using hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling (Download or drag the blank template below, and print it out.).
7. Experiment with other pen & ink techniques such as multi-directional marks, weaving, and "swirls"
THEN:
8. Begin inking your drawing using hatching, crosshatching, and/or stippling.
Try not to draw any contour lines (outside edges) in ink, but define edges by your use of carefully made tonal values, as in the example below.
8. Begin inking your drawing using hatching, crosshatching, and/or stippling.
Try not to draw any contour lines (outside edges) in ink, but define edges by your use of carefully made tonal values, as in the example below.
Your final work will look like the drawings below, but in color:
Grading:
You will be graded on the design/composition and technical quality with the pen.
General Art Rubric
You will be graded on the design/composition and technical quality with the pen.
- Having a variety of well-observed parts and features
- Filling the picture plane
- Skillful use of hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, and/or other pen techniques.
- Use of directional marks to create sense of form / 3-dimensionality
- Range of tonal value
- Strong contrast
- Variety of textures
- Edges that are created by value changes (and not by drawn contours)
General Art Rubric
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