Vastu 200: Drawing- A Fundemental of Life

Overview
Drawing in its simplest sense is the portrayal of line on a surface. Drawing is a crucial and fundamental branch in the art tree. It may even be a root. That's how important it is.

Drawing has been designed on everything from cave walls and cliffs to canvas and paper. Prehistoric drawings done on the interior of Altamira Caves, and in Lascaux, France are some of the earliest known works displaying drawing. Normally these ancient drawings displayed animals and religious ideals. Ancient Egyptians also drew by using ink on papyrus and pottery. Greek and Romans saw drawing as an art form, but it was primarily used as a preparatory practice for making other art forms such as sculpture and architecture. Drawings from the Renaissance demonstrate a more artistic approach in examples from artists like Da Vinci and Michelangelo. In the 19th and 20th centuries drawing was made using a variety of techniques and materials due to evolution and progress.
Materials
Graphite
An excavated mineral created by a thermal metamorphism of coal usually found in pencils
Charcoal
Vine- Made by burning sticks to varied densities for specific uses
Compressed- Powdered charcoal compressed together with a gum binder
Powdered- Fine dust charcoal used to create large tones
Pastel
Usually pigment in a stick form mixed with a binder such as oil and gum
Color Pencil

Pigment usually mixed with wax as a binder surrounded by wood for support
Crayon
Pigment mixed with wax
Eraser
Rubber used to remove marks

Techniques
Hatching
Repetitive lines, close in proximity used to create tone
Stippling
Repetitive dots, close in proximity used to create tone
Negative Space
Focusing on the space surrounding an object
Chiaroscuro
Use of tone and contrast to show dimension also known as modeling
Foreshortening
An illusion showing an object shorter than it really is because it is angled toward the viewer.