Your assignment for the weekend is to adapt your 9 x 12" symbolist drawing from Monday's class into an 18 x 24" charcoal drawing in a way that reflects your aesthetic values. I will collect all of the work-- your sketches, your 9 x 12" drawing, and the 18 x 24" drawing on Monday.
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In class, we discussed the aesthetic flavor of paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Giorgio de Chirico, Gustav Klimt, and others, with an emphasis on their use of value contrasts, directional lines, open and closed shapes, compositional balance and imbalance, and positive/negative shape relationships. I would like you to work on your charcoal drawing by making conscious choices in your approach to at least three of these five concepts. .
In other words: will your image be dominated by low value constrasts like this painting by Friedrich, or high value contrasts like this painting by de Chirico? Will you use directional lines to lead the eye of the viewer around your image? Will your objects be defined through hard closed shaped, or cloudy open shapes? Will you energize your composition by opposing your positive objects with strong negative shapes? I don't expect you to have a fully-formed sense of style like Friedrich or de Chirico, but it's time for you to start thinking consciously about the aesthetic flavor that you want your work to have: Calm, or dramatic? Specific, or vague? Graceful, or rough? A good place to start would be to ask yourself how these choices might support the theme of your image.
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Imagine your drawing on the wall of the classroom on Monday, and ask yourself: does it have a strong aesthetic flavor? Or does it feel like you worked on the drawing until you didn't know what else to do with it? If you can't imagine at least two options for each decision you make in a drawing, then you're not making decisions at all. This drawing should demonstrate that you recognized a number of aesthetic choices, beginning with those listed above, and in each case made a clear choice.
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If you can, try to enjoy this process! I recognize that it can be frustrating to have to make a drawing according to someone else's specifications, but this project raises a lot of interesting stylistic questions whose answers will say a lot about your sense of purpose as an artist.
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Spray your drawing with fixative when you're done, so it won't rub off on everyone else's drawings when you turn it in. If you can, spray outside, or at least in a well-ventilated space. It's bad stuff for your lungs.
