Week 3 - The Mimetic Theory & Drawing

The Mimetic Theory

• All about realism - Is the work a correct representation of reality?
• A reflection of nature
• Memory helper: "mimic" artists try to mimic real life in their art work OR try to make their art work realistic

Drawing

• Tools/media:
• pencil/graphite
• pen/pen & ink
• charcoal
• pastels (oil/chalk)
• colored pencils, crayons, markers, etc
• Some Techniques: cross-hatching, stipple, shading, erasing, smudging, sketching

• Perspective - helps your drawings become more realistic! There are 5 different ways to add perspective to your drawings:

1. Linear Perspective: This can be achieved using one, two, or three points.
2. Overlapping or Layering
3. Size - larger objects are usually closer
4. Placement - objects towards the bottom of the page are usually closer
   
5. Atmospheric - more detailed objects usually closer
   

This is a one point perspective, notice how everything is focused on the one vanishing point - at the center of the page on the street?






This is a two point perspective. There are two vanishing points in this drawing.







This is a drawing with three point perspective. There are three vanishing points. One at the top, and two on the sides.

• Contour Drawings:
• Uses the right side of the brain
• Rules: NO lifting your pencil off paper, NO talking, NO naming, NO looking, GO slow
• This is used to get people focused on the shape or "contour" of the subjects they are drawing.

My Thoughts

I really liked learning how to draw! My drawing never really extended passed stick figures, and now I realize its mostly because I wasn't taught how to draw. I did have art in elementary school, but he focused more on different kinds of projects.... basically i learned how to doodle in my art class. I tried to upload my examples of drawings that I did in class, but it didn't really work, the drawings are too light.

I think it would be great to maybe integrate a little bit of drawing into the classroom. You could easily tie it into english by having students illustrate their writings. But instead of just letting them loose, teach them some techniques. Another way to integrate it would be in geometry. You could draw the different figures using the different perspectives