CROW BUTTES ARTISTS
DRAWING WITH GRAPHITE
                                     SHADES AND HIGHLIGHTS
Bob Franz
ART SUPPLIES FOR THIS VIDEO

• Pencil: one minimum, preferably soft (dark)
• Paper:  Drawing from the previous lesson
• Soft eraser, kneaded eraser
• Pencil sharpener, tortillion or blending stump/cloth
• Photo of After Dinner by Lindsay Bernard Hall from last lesson

 

1. SHADOWS

a. Five elements:  cast shadow, core shadow, half tones (values), reflected light, full light
b. Media:  Charcoal, carbon, graphite
     2. HIGHLIGHTS
- Direct light
- Reflections
- Opaque and off-white objects
 
http://sketchesbybob.weebly.com
https://www.facebook.com/Sketches-by-Bob-Pencil-Art-by-Robert-Franz-180215042032410/
https://www.facebook.com/crowbuttesartists
​

Next Video will be a continuation of textures and values from last week.  Come and draw glass and reflective metals.  Will be live 10 am, Thursday, November 19 at https://www.facebook.com/crowbuttesartists  All past videos have been taped. Over 500 views each.

​CROW BUTTES ARTISTS – ART LESSON WITH
 
BOB FRANZ – GRAPHITE ARTIST
 
Thursday, November 5, 2020 at 10AM
 
https://www.facebook.com/crowbuttesartists/videos/?ref=page_internal
 
OBSERVATION SKILLS, GRIDDING AND OUTLINE DRAWING
 
ART SUPPLIES FOR THIS VIDEO

• Pencil: 4H (any light [hard] that can be easily erased can be used)
• Paper: 

1. Sketch pad or unlined loose-leaf for practice
2. Strathmore Bristol vellum100 # (prefer vellum as it has a nap which will pick up the graphite and show texture, and 100 # takes abuse) but any art paper and weight can be used

• Soft eraser
• Pencil sharpener, ruler, plastic overlay grid

 

1. OBSERVATION SKILL EXERCISES – lines and shapes; exercises
2. GRIDDING TECHNIQUE
3. OUTLINE DRAWING

NEXT LESSON: FORM, VALUES AND TEXTURES (OVERVIEW)
LAST LESSON: SHADES AND HIGHLIGHTS
http://sketchesbybob.weebly.com
https://www.facebook.com/Sketches-by-Bob-Pencil-Art-by-Robert-Franz-180215042032410/
 
Bob Franz, Graphite Artist will take you through 3 lessons for you to complete part or all of this wonderful still life piece of art, an oil on canvas completed by the Australian Lindsay Bernard Hall c1901 and now in the public domain.  This lesson will cover Observation skills, Gridding and Outline Drawing.  Each lesson will be an hour long and each lesson will bring you closer to completing the same piece of art.  Continuing on, lesson number Two of this same Graphite Art piece will cover Form, Values and Texture. The final lesson will be to complete this piece with Shading and Highlights.  It is a challenging picture but has great examples of each of the topics to be covered. 
 
These three lessons will be spaced approximately a week apart so that you can do some practice time, and you will be notified when the next lesson will be scheduled. 
 
The first lesson will be on Thursday, November 5, 2020 at 10AM for approximately 1 hour. 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Dropped in to see a friend yesterday, local sculptor Harry Burk, to photograph his heritage barn for a future pencil sketch and he showed me the latest piece he is working on which speaks to the mortality of mankind.  He began working on it before Covid19 but it fits in perfectly with the times and I hope he will let me photograph the finished piece and post it on one of my art sites.  As I walked around his old swayback barn and photographed it, I thought about his sculpture and about Harry and I and his barn.  Harry is limping now and I need a cane to get about and his barn is splintered and caving in and ready to fall.  We are all getting old.  Went for my daily constitutional the day before and as I was resting on the park bench a father and two preschoolers on bikes with training wheels passed by.  The girl peered from behind her father’s legs fearfully and the boy stared at me unabashedly as only preschoolers can.  Thought it was because I was white or because of my white hair and moustache, the family being black.  The father commented in explanation that his children seldom saw “old people.”  Gave me an idea what a museum piece must feel like.  Last Saturday I did a live instructional video in which I commented about the old masters.  Da Vinci is long gone and for many today his name unknown, but his art lives on in museums and even television commercials.  His subject passed on 450 years ago and few know her last name, but Mona Lisa is a familiar face still today.  Made me think about today’s trend to decapitate statues and topple them, these great pieces of art, and to eradicate names of people whose opinions are now out of favour.  I thought about art and artists and the legacy they leave behind them and how important that legacy is, and I thought about the work of historians and genealogists, my other hat, and the value of the research they leave behind.  We are living in different times today where artists and genealogists matter more than ever and mankind’s mortality is even more in danger and I am thankful to be part of it.

​During these unsettling times should one turn to reading Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Nostradamus, or the Book of Revelation?
For the past six months I have had difficulty focusing or finding motivation for my art, or much else actually.  In my travels across Canada and America from the west coast to the east and the Arctic to the Gulf, I’ve visited dozens of artist colonies, retreats, studios, galleries and museums from Dean Francis’s Empress galleries to Washington’s Smithsonian museums, and have found artists range from the gregarious who thrive in clubs and painting shoulder to shoulder to the hermetic recluse.  I am of the latter—I sketch in my basement, alone.  I was practicing self-quarantine before it became fashionable so social isolation has had little effect on me as an artist.  The closure of venues for exhibits has also been of minimal effect as declining health had already curtailed my involvement, and having turned to art for the personal challenge and satisfaction, exhibits and sales were never a motivation for my art anyway.
As for themes, for several months I tried sketches related to the current conditions but found little satisfaction in them.  I returned to my usual subjects, but as unmotivated.  So why the change?  Two other events have occurred in the past six months.  First, I caught a virus that has aggravated my COPD and left me easily tired, on oxygen, unable to do many things I once could, depressed and even more impatient than usual.  Second, in December I dropped my membership in the local art society and in April my term on a provincial executive expired, leaving me plenty of time to pursue other endeavors.  As a result I’ve turned my efforts to my first interest, writing fiction.   Perhaps it was just time for a change.

Well, I have finally found time to update my sites:

Face book  Robert Franz where I post the events I have exhibited my work at
Face book Sketchesbybob page which highlights a sample of my art
This weebly page which as a more extensive sampling of my work.

In the new year will have to become more proactive and link with other Weebly art sites.

Entered three pieces of art in the South Alberta Zone Show (ACACA) hosted by the local club, Sage Brush Arts, May 10-12.  It took a lot of work and time hosting the show but it was a lot of fun (I can say now it is over), and definitely a learning experience.  Received a lot of positive comments about the three pieces I entered (does anyone ever say to an artist to his face "your work stinks"?) and about the show itself, and about the three pieces exhibited in addition to the show.  One of the pieces (Armour of Vogt of Matsch) was flagged by the judges to go on to the All Alberta Show in Red Deer!  It can be seen in the High Fantasy Folder.  Also had the other two pieces critiqued by one of the judges and his comments were spot on.  Wonder if he had been looking in the window while I was working on them!  Listening to the critiques of other pieces submitted by other artists was valuable also.  All in all, a great experience and I'll be entering again next year whereever it is held. 

So far the site has had 38 hits since it was posted.  Not bad I guess in that I have not had time to advertise it with other art sites!