Jim Park 

Sketchbook Week 3: The Perceptual Grid: Pictorial Space and Shape 
Four Drawings 
Subject: Still Life
Materials: 9"x11 3/4" Strathmore 400 paper, 2H, India ink, nylon Hake and Sumi brushes, View Catcher. NO ERASERS!

Drawing #1
1) 2H graphite pencil. Arrange a still-life of 4-5 objects in front of a window so that your subject is silhouetted against the light from outside. Use your View Catcher to help you crop in on the subject in different ways; decide which view is the most interesting in terms of the principal subject (positive shapes) and the space that is behind and around it (negative shapes). Thinking of placement and space, allow the positive shapes to continue off at least two edges of your paper. Consider the window ledge as positive space.

Using a 2H pencil and holding it on its side, begin lightly gesturing in the positive and negative shapes. Continue working with the 2H pencil lightly, using sighting of angles and measuring to more accurately proportion your forms well in relation to one another. 10-15 minutes. Keep your marks consistently light; these searching lines will remain in the drawing as a track record of your process. 

2) India ink and brushes. Use your ten-step value scale from Art 125 Foundation Design I and mix a container of ink that matches value 2 (dark gray) with some ink and water. Select the largest brush you can and fill in the positive shapes with that value 2 gray. You can shift brushes depending on the delicacy of the areas of value you are dealing with. Take your time and begin to feel the changes in the visual dynamic created by the pattern of dark and light as you add more value shapes. 10-15 minutes.

Drawing #2
1) Follow step 1 for Drawing #1, but rearrange your objects
2) Follow step two for Drawing #1.

Drawing #3
1) Follow step 1 for Drawings #1 and #2; you can select some new objects or rearrange what you already have.

2) Follow step 2 for Drawings #1 and #2.

Take ten minutes to compare Drawing #1-#3; which one do you feel has the most interesting interaction of positive and negative shapes? Place an asterisk on the back of that drawing.

Drawing #4

1) Use your critical judgment from the last step and organize an arrangement of forms more complex in nature than the previous three drawings. Follow steps 1 and 2 from the previous drawings. How does the increased complexity of patterns of positive and negative shapes impact the expressive potential of the drawing? Briefly write your thoughts on the back of Drawing #4.