ted jacobs principles

1. universality of structure - everybody has same structure
2. unity and complexity
3. continuity
4. perspective effects
5. tapering - wide to narrow at ends
6. non-parallelism - wide places are never opposite each other on the form. They are asymmetric
7. twisting movements - musles twist around bones
8. namelessness - hand is not separated from wrist
9. leverage
10. growth outward - convexity
11. layering - large underlying mass
12. rounding and ending

More posters and blockins

Week 3 is almost over. This week we did 3 poster studies (2 6hour and 1 3hours) and 3 drawings

In class we usually rotate our positions for each new pose. This week I was in complete front light position for my 2nd poster. I really really struggled with this one and Michelle reworked many parts of it.

Here are the lessons learned
Define the averages for each part of the body ( the head, neck, ribcage, pelvis or hips, upper legs, lower legs, feet, upper arms, lower arms, hands). In this poster I initially included the pelvis as part of the ribcage and it did not look like she was sitting at all. I had an AHA moment when she added that.

Think globally. Always look at the big picture. Don't just look for local color/value relationships. They have make sense globally and have to convey the light in the scene. If something doesn't look right i.e if the poster looks flat meaning there is no sense of space, try to see what relationships are wrong. The question to ask is not is this value same/higher/lower as the value over there but rather, does this scene look the scene in front of me. Does it convey the position/action I see in the model in front of me. If not I need to reevaluate my relationships. For each part/form try to think which way the light is falling from light to dark.

Understanding light

On Day 2, we had a demo by Tim. He talked about light.

light, variety, unity

How to determine direction of light? Identify the two points which form the

non-parallel forms - curvature around them

beautiful
gradeur

the light that shine forth from that which is well made
corelation between visual and physical

light the subject, object and means of drawing and painting

sphere is perfect and pure object

ideal form

the light is perpendicular to the plane that cuts through the sphere to form the shadow side i.e. the plane thru A and B in diagram










1.Direct light
Value - how light or dark is it
determined by orientation - planar position relative to light direction

2. Gradation - Planar progression expressed visually as values

In the sphere, top planes is plan most facing the light. It is the brightest and gets darker as it moves down to shadow shape.

Proximity - Amount of light that  can reach the surface
Orientation

Contrast - diff between lightest and darkest value on form
Reflected light

In poster study we are looking for 4 averages
1. shadows edge(tangent to light direction
2. reflected light
3. lighter light
4. dark light

gradation of light side and gradation of shadow side

An abstract representation of posterizing

posterizing at the level of the envelope

An arc hsa a single highpoint diving into two parts x. this is not natural form.

Natural form twist irregularly as we turn irregularly. asymmetrical curves

The demo continued on last day.

visual realization of volume of body.

Light and form are synonymous to the painter.

Block-in is ability to see constellation of points on the planes that define form.

to determine Angle(vector that can move in all directions 3 dimensionally) and Action

Planes cannot form right angles or cylindrical or square. No ideal geometry

This has been stressed again and again. Natural forms are highly irregular - Non-parallel and non-repetative

vectors turn and twist and progress in varying ways

variety and unity

a planar representation of shape of contour

sense of contour/sense of form

shadow's edge is also irregular and composed of planes which all have different angles and lengths, they live on an average vector thru space

core shadow -wherever reflected light is weakest. It is not like a belt. It can vary based on the reflector. Poster study is identifying 4 averages and see how they relate to each other. Highlight plane is separate from those 4 averages. 

Highlight plane is determined by light direction, viewer sight line and planar surface of form. It lies at one half angle produced by sight line and angle of light. 

If angle of sight line and direction of light is less than 90, highlight moves into light plane. it is ~ 90, highlight is on edge of dark light and light light

Highlight is dim mirror image of light source (windows in our case). If surface is pure matte, may not see highlight. Depends on texture and reflectivity of the object. Hair and fingernails are highly reflective in the body.

Simultaneous contrast/Field effect/foreshortened effects

Field effect - produces value changes. It is about the way we percieve depth/ foreground and background. Progression of gradations. It is more to do with perception than actual physicality. It is like a halo effect, slightly darker background along the edge of the figure. Field effect is changing at a steady rate. It is darkest where the ball is brightest. On shadow side opposite happens. Background is lightest where ball is darkest.

Foreshortened effect

As a plane is turning away from us, it is getting darker. It is not a value changes but an illusion of value change. There is change in color temp and chroma... not value.

light is subject, object and means of what we can express using color. Drawing comprises 87.5% of painting - Ingres.

Posterizing the figure

Second week of classes are done. This week we started painting. We started with a poster study demo by Michelle on Sunday. The idea of the poster study is to study the light in the visual field. It is a planar color study. We compare the major planes existing in the entire visual field. Each note we paint we organize according to value scale that exist in the visual field.

The visual field is made up of various planes. Based on angle to source of light, each plane receives different amounts of light + surrounding tones affect a certain plane. For each plane we average the color by answering the questions below and put it down.

We work dark to light.
For each color note we put down, we answer the following questions in the order of importance.
value, chroma, hue - These three make up tone/color
Here is a picture of Michelle's demo. I must mention this is not a very good repro of the actual demo

We did 3 poster studies last week and will do 3 more this week. What I am learning is that it is very important to constantly compare, look at the whole picture and compare different areas with one another. We first identify darkest darks and lightest light. That establishes our value  scale. It is important to judge the contrast in one area to see if it reads right with the contrast in other areas. We are doing studies with different background colors and it is so interesting to see how different backgrounds affect skin tones. I am finding it a bit hard to judge shadow tones and dark lights. I can get their value right but hue and chroma is harder to judge.

In a way, poster study is one step towards likeness - how light unifies the visual field. capture light
We squint only to determine darker or lighter. It is more helpful to move eyes all around and constantly compare
The poster study teaches us the 2 important things
1. A way of looking
2. Color mixing

It teaches us about movement, structure and light.

the object that is reflecting light into shadow is more chromatic than shadow plane

The palette we are using
Raw umber - cool opaque
burnt umber - warmish
red oxide - warmest transparent

raw sienna - transparent
yellow ochre - opaque chromatic

reds - Alizarin - transparent
cad red purple - opaque chromatic
brilliant pink - opaque

2 oranges - cad orange
cad red scarlet

cad lemon

kings blue - opaque
cobalt blue - opaque
cerulean
ultramarine
violet grey
perm violet - transparent
viridian - transparent
cad green light - opaque

white is the lightest blue - adding white reduces chroma
Ivory black is the coolest darkest blue (cools and darkens)

Block-in

Block-in is the last concept we learned in  class in the first week. Getting the block in right is the key for likeness. It helps discover the key individuality of shapes of a person(presence and character). Presence is the depth of understanding expressions of what we see.
It teaches us about these three concepts and the unity across them
1 Design in nature
2 spatial arrangement
3 variety of form

When I started with block-ins I was initially making random judgements and finishing them quite quickly. Then I watched Toby do a block-in for me and it amazed me how deliberate he was with every point he identified on the block-in. He was constantly comparing each point he identified with every other point previously noted. He mentioned that doing block-ins are like meditation for him and I can totally see that happening. I don't wish to mis-quote him. So this is my understanding of what he said and did.

Here are a bunch of block-ins

Some excerpts from my class notes.
irregularity of length and angle and planar progression and pitch

under the local format larger shapes exist

smaller planes of the body

first horizon edge of each part - contour

divergence of planes
difference of lengths in those planes
asymmetrical organic planar format
non parallel tapering format of planes
not more than 3 planes on any part of the body (such as femur for eg)

movement and planarity have a conversation The shapes support the movement

Blockin - outer physical limits of the body
we are interested in whatever truths there is to be had in the appearance of things
Alterity - otherness in other forms
histericity
phenomenal presence

Envelope

This is the first concept where we talked about likeness. The concept of envelope is to identify largest volume inside which the model is resting. Outer limits of her physical being. This gives us an understanding of her natural form/natural geometry (not square, not parallel, not the same length, irregular lengths and angles)

Envelope can be used as a Compositional Tool. Envelope has compositional relationship to rectangle of the paper. The envelope also introduces the concept of variety. Each line in the envelope has a different length and angle. We also checked for variety by connecting different points within the envelope and checking their lengths and angles. This variety ultimately helps with likeness and the natural form is highly irregular and non-repetitive. I believe doing envelopes will also help train the eye to compare lengths and angles to judge proportion and teaches us nature of natural shapes.

Here is a pageful of envelopes from class

Some names from my class notes - need to lookup - Ellsworth kelly, Alexander caldon

Boxes

The second concept we learnt was boxes. The idea here is to better understand the movement, shape and form by representing different parts of the body with 3 dimensional cubic boxes. We kind of ignore the joints in this exercise. There is a box for the head, the ribcage, the pelvis, 2 upper legs, 2 lower legs, 2 upper arms and 2 lower arms, 2 feet and 2 hands. For each box, we have to determine the height x width x depth and tilt. This exercise was a real brain teaser and made me think really hard. For each box, we had to determine the tilt i.e. do we see the top plane or the bottom one, the left or right plane. I found this really hard to determine the tilt of the rib cage and pelvis. But I really felt like this gives a great understanding of the proportion and position of form. I believe the goal of these exercises is to train the eye really well to get position and proportion correct. Here are some boxes from class. Some of these I had some help from Tim or Toby.

Some words from my class notes to ponder on or for future reference
design
nature
unity
variety of size, mass and proportion
proportion and position

Movement Curve

First week of classes are done and I want to collect my thoughts and summarize all the concepts we learnt. We started with the movement curve.

The idea is to capture the flowing\twisting nature within the space of the model. The continuous curving at an organic rate. Capture the  grace\inner movement. capture the continuity through imaginary space. We did a bunch of movement curves and drawing them made me imagine/visualise the three dimensional form of the body and the skeleton within it. As I drew the curve, it made my eyes move within the three dimensional space of the body and it opens up an awareness which I previously have not felt. Here is a page full of movement curves. I was initially not doing the twist explained below. So some of them are not really right.

We worked with 3 continuous movements. One curve from the top of the head following the the front of the face, twisting to the backside of the rib cage on the other end and twisting again to the front of the pelvis on the first side and then continuing along that leg to the toe. The other curve starts from the top of the head and follows the back of the head, twisting to the front of the rib cage on the other end and twisting again to the back of the pelvis on the first side and continuing along that leg to the toe. The third movement was from fingertip to fingertip following the hands and the shoulder and clavicle.
The first two movement can also be called as 
theme - front of head to foot carrying most weight
counter-theme - back of head to other foot

Some of the words and thoughts that I noted during the lecture. Maybe something to ponder when I look back
Movement,
Unity
Efficiency
Economy
Liberty
Autonomy
Drawing is an arrangement of imaginary forms in imaginary space.
Look at works by JAD Ingres, Raphael, Poussin

A new adventure begins

Hi all. I have embarked on a new adventure. I am currently in France doing a 11 week summer intensive program in Studio Escalier. The course is about drawing and painting the figure. The studio is located in a small town called Argenton-Chateau about 3 hours southwest of Paris. Being here is a dream come true for me. Classes started yesterday and the instructors are wonderful. I want to document my journey through this course and I am going to use this space to do that. All of the information here will be my understanding of the course and my point of view only. I donot wish to misquote my instructors because so much is lost in translation. Anyhoo Hope you will come along for the ride and enjoy my journey!