BYU-I: Drawing I

You can read this article to give you a better idea of what you would learn and practice if you take Drawing 1 as of Winter 2023. If you are not able to take the class you may be able to gain some of the learning from here if you practice the exercises which closely match what you would be doing each week in class.

Week 1: Collective Comparative Ratios

We can more accurately proportion out drawings by comparing size, angle, and position between shapes.

Exercise: Find and note size, angle, and position ratios on simple shapes or coins.

1. Find a geometric still life such as the one below. Grab a paper and fold it into thirds for use as a standard of measurement.
2. Mark PR for position ratio. Note what vertices or shapes align with each other.
3. Mark SR for size ratio. Find something that is around the average size of the objects such as the left side of the cylinder. Compare that size to the other objects. For example, you could write the height of the cylinder is slightly less than height of the shape on the right. You may notice other places where you could say this size is twice the size of this other thing or is the same size.
4. Mark AR for angle ratio. Note what angles are nearly the same.

Week 2: MAPP

Here is another article I wrote on using MAPP to create accurate proportions.

Exercise: Find a design or simple 3D shape and attempt to replicate it as closely as possible using MAPP.

Week 3: Perspective

3D Objects can be interpreted as being contained in a rectangular prism. The horizon/eye level is where your eyes would be as the observer of the image. One point perspective is usually used in outdoor scenes where two point would often be for indoor. You can also note if parts of the shape are parallel with the eye level. If so use two point. Three point can be used to create a slight distortion such as you would see through a camera due to barrel distortion. The top/bottom of the object becomes flatter the closer it is to the eye level. The circle would appear perpendicular to the line coming from the vanishing point. Circles in perspective should remain oval rather than hotdog or football shaped.

Exercise: Draw 3 boxes in 1-point perspective. Draw 3 boxes in 2-point perspective. Draw ellipsis at different distances from the eye level.

Week 4: Intermediate Complexity

Using the MAPP principles and using collective comparative ratios we can create artwork of higher complexity. Start with Measurements and work your way through each MAPP principle. Measure the height and width of the reference canvas compared to the canvas being used. Measure the ratios between the major objects in the composition. Use the negative shapes as well in your ratios. Work from the outside in to avoid making the form too large or small for the canvas. If you get the size and position accurate generally the angles will match up.

Check what aligns with what in the reference using plumb lines again starting from the outside.

Define perspective using a horizon line and abstracting the shapes to prisms, spheres, pyramids and cylinders aligning them to the vanishing points. The vanishing points may be off the page in which case you can use separate paper to ensure accuracy.

Lastly use positive and negative shapes to make sure the angles and distances match the reference. Study the reference again to check for discrepancies before you start diving into the shading and smaller details.

Exercise: Draw Fabric, eye socket, luggage

Week 5: People and Animals

As you start taking on animals and people it will help you to understand their muscular and skeletal structure. I like to use line of action to help me. If you are interested there are many free courses on people and animals, you can find online such as this one on figure drawing or Mark Crilleys videos on drawing animals. A few things to keep in mind:

• Center line of the head is a vertical at the back of the nose that tends to align with the back of the eye and mouth. You can also use the face to align the ears such as with the eye and nose. Use a vertical and horizontal plumb line on the chin.
• While paying attention to anatomy is important, you also should make sure you are matching the MAPPing of the reference. Sometimes anatomy must be ignored to make the composition appealing. Match knowledge in your head with knowledge in the world.

Exercise: Find and replicate a human head and horse head reference using MAPP.

Week 6: Multiple objects

Identify the eye level by how much of the top and bottom of objects you can see. Block in width and height of the objects starting at a prominent object near the center rather than working left to right. Your main goal to start is just to make sure everything fits on the page. As before use MAPP for accuracy. For a video on how this would work see this example.

Exercise: Using a still life such as the one given in week 1, recreate the objects as accurately as you can.

Week 7: Interior and Exterior Perspective

To find the eye level draw lines where you can identify perspective lines. Where these lines meet will tell you where to place the horizonal line for the eye level. This will also help you determine if you should use 1-point or 2-point perspective. You will usually use strictly one or the other but there are times when you will need to use both such as with blocks at different angles such as below since they will have different vanishing points.

1 and 2 point perspective

This can break our illusion of perspective if not done well. The vanishing points should never be close together. If you need to use different sets of vanishing points each set of 2-point should remain about the same distance apart.

Exercise: Find an interior and exterior reference, identify vanishing points, and create a perspective drawing.

Week 8: Local Color Value

Compare the darks grays and whites to see what should be darker than what. 9-value scales can give us a number to identify how light or dark something is. If you chose to print an image you may need to refer back to the digital version to correctly identify edges and values.

I wrote another article on value, local color, and edges where I explain their significance and how to use them to create effective designs. Your art will significantly improve if you can correctly identify these three things.

You may use this fabric drawing for the exercise

Exercise: Create a value matrix and shade in a fabric drawing.

Week 9: Adding a light source

Your ability to copy light and shadow patterns you see on objects will determine whether your drawings are effective and correct.

Light tends to follow a pattern on objects. Highlight is a glossy point of highly reflective light. Halftone is the area around the highlight. Core shadow is the darkest portion of the object. Reflected light is where light from another object strikes the object. Cast shadow is the light that is blocked from the surface opposite to the light. The cast shadows edge becomes softer the further the cast shadow gets from the original object. The cast shadow extends based on how close the light source is to directly above the object. This pattern appears differently depending on the shape of the object.

Cubes

Spheres

Cylinders

Exercise: Use charcoal pencils to shade a white sphere on toned paper.

Week 10: Shading

To shade more complex objects you would need to continue to identify the light and shadow patterns in the various shapes and materials. They will follow the same pattern as above except the shape of the object may elongate or shrink and the environment surrounding it may alter how you would shade it such as having many light sources causing it to have many highlights. To simplify all of this start by identifying the shape that is most similar to the part of the object you are observing such as a cylinder. Notice how the shading matches and is different from the basic shape. A material such as metal will exaggerate the light pattern. A texture or indent will also follow a pattern from one of the basic shapes.

Video reference

Exercise: Shade the line drawings you created for the eye socket and profile face.

Week 11: Final Project 1

Exercise:

1. Create a still life or find an image online.
2. Create thumbnails of the still life cropped in several different ways and choose one that seems appealing.
3. Select a medium and surface.
4. Draw the thumbnail at a larger scale using MAPP for accuracy.

Week 12: Final Project 1 (continued)

Exercise:

1. Create a value matrix for the selected thumbnail
2. Shade the still life.

Example final project 1

Week 13: Final Project 2

Exercise:

1. Pose and take several photographs of a model in different positions ensuring clear light and shadow patterns.
2. Create thumbnails of the model cropped in several different ways and choose one that seems appealing.
3. Select a medium and surface

Week 14: Final Project 2 (continued)

Exercise:

1. Create a value matrix for the selected thumbnail
2. Shade the head drawing.

Example final project 2

Conclusion

Using MAPP and collective comparative ratios we can create accurate line drawings. To shade the drawing we must pay attention to the basic 3D shapes giving special attention to the values and edges.

Did you catch all the information on how to improve your drawing? Take this quiz for some terms to know.