Reduction Drawing

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I took a guest artist to my Thursday art group and we learned about Reduction Drawing. This is only the second time that I have ever tried a reduction drawing.

Reduction Drawing is a technique where you cover the paper with charcoal and create your drawing by smudging and removing the charcoal with an eraser to create the darks and lights or shadows and highlights. This time I was able to focus more on the lights and darks than on the 'lines' of the still life. The more I worked on the drawing, the more lights and darks I could see. While this drawing has many posibilities for improvement, I was surprised at how well I can distinguish my shapes, especially the glass vase in front of the plate.

Everyone in the group was willing to jump in and try it, even though they were all beginners. They loved it. We've decided our next lesson will be painting landscapes. I'll report back. 

As always, your comments are welcomed. Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Fused Glass Class One–Frit Painting

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taken at Phoenix Center for the Arts.
I am loving this class because the instructor is very down to earth, funny, and after teaching us how to use the tools for a particular project and how to work with the glass for whatever project – then he lets us design our own. I love this type of teaching. It is the kind I like to do for my students because the possibilities are their’s, no templates, no forced design. Just knowledge and freedom to play with guidance.

The photo at the top is a 6x12 piece of 96 coe fused glass as the base. I used glue to outline the white shapes you see which are my version of cowrie shells. The shells were filled in with a medium coarse frit.

The top and bottom corners of the painting are clear glass scraps as a second layer, with short lengths of black stringer laid out in a pattern on each corner.

Finally, all of the leftover space was filled in with a dark purple frit powder which I had never used before. You can see that my bottom right corner of glass slid over onto my shell design – this is a live and learn opportunity.
      
I made note of all the things I learned for future projects. There is always a lesson. I am having a lot of fun in this class and will continue to share as we go through the projects.
Thanks for stopping by to read my blog and you are always welcome to leave comments.