There are new drawings from the Drawing 107 class on display at the annex! These drawings are inspired by the silhouette. The results are all fantastic and I encourage you to stop by and check them out.
I’d like to tell you a little bit about the project but first I want to give you some background on the course. The course is going through a rotation that includes abstract drawing, narrative drawing, and observational drawing. The idea is to build skills in each area that feed into the next. Abstract drawing allows us to focus on technical skills and draftsmanship, like varied line, without being constrained by results that are absolutely predetermined. Narrative drawing gets people thinking about the stories behind each picture, and how that tale is conveyed through imagery. Observational drawing focuses on creating believable and detailed representations from life. I say “believable” because even the master drawings from hundreds of years ago relied on exaggeration of light and dark to define depth and spatial relationships – but that’s a topic for another time! Our Silhouettes project is all about narrative drawing.
One of the fascinating aspects of silhouettes is that they encourage us to project ourselves into the space. The more detailed and realistic we draw the figure, the more that person becomes an “other”; perhaps even objectified. That can be a very useful tool, of course. Silhouettes are just nuanced enough that we start to fill in the blanks, and even imagine ourselves as the characters in a scene.
Of course, there’s another element to these drawings which can be very formal: negative space. The background space, particularly the space between subjects, is referred to as the “negative space.” As you look at the drawings on display, you might notice that it’s often the space between figures that defines them; the nuances of their contours. It also makes a huge difference whether that background is stark black or vividly detailed.
Mara’s silhouette drawing has great atmosphere, accentuated with tactile details like the rain drops within the spotlight, while still retaining just enough ambiguity in the character so that we can empathize.
Ashleigh’s drawing keeps the characters iconic, making it easy for us to project ourselves into the intense, almost surreal, background.
Nick’s drawing uses an almost completely different approach. Here, the background is composed of figures, abstract patterns; structures that evoke the feeling of buildings and roads. There’s a more subtle silhouette that reveals a dog wearing headphones.
Anne’s approach is almost inverted from Nick’s; the silhouette is more readily apparent, layered with patterns.
I’ve only highlighted a few of the drawings for this introduction – all of the drawings are fantastic! Stop by and check them out!