Adventures in Art: Basic Art (1960)

[Music] [Music] there are many conflicting theories regarding the importance of learning the basic fundamentals of art some feel that an artist should be relatively free from noral art training rules and outside influence on the other hand there are those who are very academic and Technical in their approach they feel that everything should be done according to a set of predetermined rules regardless of these basic different lines of thought there is one basic step that is important to both the learning of fundamentals that help one to express graphically his ideas and emotions and that's the purpose of this motion picture to give you the first step in learning to draw basic art the introduction to drawing it is estimated that 15 million people in America draw and paint as a hobby and are often referred to as Sunday painters this figure does not include the millions of boys and girls who obviously also love to express themselves in drawing and painting art is an individual creation of experience the greater the knowledge one possesses the greater will be the experience it is hoped that this motion picture will help to start you toward great fun in the wonderfully exciting field of art our Authority for this movie is a man known to a great many as one of the leading professional artists in the United States hell Cooper Mr Cooper is the author of the book art for everyone he is also the founder of the Cooper School of Art in Cleveland as a topf flight professional artist Mr Cooper has devoted a great deal of his time toward the encouragement of the amateur artist he has dedicated himself toward bringing the fun and satisfaction of drawing and painting within the grasp and understanding of the layman in this capacity Mr Cooper has been National president of the amateur artists asso Association of America he is also founder and National president of the junior artists Club of America and well but his modesty requires us to stop here the only additional thing we should say about HAL is that he believes anyone can learn to draw and has proved it through his 24 years of teaching experience learning to draw is an exciting Challenge and becomes easy only when we know how and gain experience of course well of course it is that easy as it hell for the beginner no not quite in drawing we are concerned with five basic qualities of an object line which is the single dimension of length shape is concerned with two Dimensions length and width form is the third thing we are concerned with it gives our drawing the third dimension depth for tone our fourth consideration we find the quality of lightness and darkness of the object the fifth basic quality to be discovered is texture the smoothness roughness or feel of an object it is generally presupposed that most objects in nature can be seen in terms terms of four basic forms the cone the sphere the cube and the cylinder here are all of the four basic forms we just saw but in a treatment that illustrates how they are applied to drawing take these four basic forms the cube sphere cone And the cylinder and let's draw a picture here all of the forms have been put together in line form although the rectangular box is not a true Cube it is a variation or portion of the basic form now we start adding foliage to the basic forms we have constructed in skeletal design the barn is given more detail the ground and the foreground is worked in along with the bush in the lower right hand corner the horizon line is also added now final detail and tone are added to make our picture more convincing and and interesting to give a picture a third dimension a knowledge of perspective is extremely necessary and important what is perspective a picture drawn in perspective shows the object not as it actually is but as it appears to be from the view of the Observer for example we can see from this picture that these two pencils are parallel with each other now as we take a position looking along these pencils from one end to the other they appear to converge yet we know they do not this is what we mean when we say perspective shows things as they appear to be not as they actually are when creating a picture we must first consider our Viewpoint as we observe the scene let's assume that this is a cube since we are looking at it at I level that is with a horizon line passing through the center it appears to be absolutely Square which of course it is but suppose the cube is parallel to our line of vision and below our eye level now we can see not only the front front but the top as well and the top appears to be getting smaller toward the back the same thing holds true if we look at it from above our eye level we see the bottom and front again the bottom appears to get smaller toward the back this is parallel or onepoint perspective in parallel or onepoint perspective the object or objects are parallel to our line of vision applying what we have just seen about perspective let's draw a table observe that this is basically a box design our horizon line is above therefore the top lines will appear to converge at a single vanishing point on the horizon line fill in all of the legs and tuck then erase the imaginary Vanishing lines and horizon line simple isn't it a railroad track represents an excellent example of parallel perspective this entire picture is constructed in one point or parallel perspective using the same onepoint perspective here is a drawing of a kitchen again all our lines in this picture converge at the vanishing point on the horizon line try this in your own kitchen here is still another illustration of parallel perspective a bird's eyee view first of all we must establish our horizon line quite High since we are above the scene then finishing point is needed next A Street then the basic box designs of buildings adding a bit of detail and finally completing the rendering now let's uh why Inky what is it now Inky has something in his mind over there I believe would you show us Inky that's the boy now what was it that was troubling you Inky why of course angular perspective so far we've just considered our view from a plane parallel with the object at which we are looking but if we're standing at a point where we can see two sides of an object at the corner of a building for example we can see that each side appears to vanish at a point either side of the center if our horizon line is above the object we will see the top in addition to the two sides conversely if the object is above our horizon line we will see the bottom and two sides to draw a building in angular perspective first establish a horizon line and draw a box starting with the perpendicular line that is closest to you far out on the horizon line establish a vanishing point on each side from these points draw the top and bottom lines of your box making them meet at the first perpendicular line you drew now add a second box on top of the first thus forming another tier to the building then add another a larger box that will add height to the building and now that the basic skeleton of our building is constructed proceed to draw in the windows the doors and so on you can get as detailed as you desire circles and other shapes can be drawn in perspective too for example watch what happens when we turn this circular piece notice that it appears to be an elects this type of view would be onepoint perspective with an imaginary line drawn from the outside edges to a vanishing point while an ellipse appears easy to draw it is quite common for the average student to have difficulty constructing it avoid the usual Pitfall of bringing the ellipse to points at the ends of the long diameter here is a good illustration of a series of circles in relationship to the line of vision here are several common objects drawn in circular perspective even here note that they are basically constructed within boxes of different forms the boxes will Aid you in determining the course of lines that are Vanishing when they are not straight a single picture May incorporate any number of Vanishing points which are all located on the same horizon line these Vanishing points are determined by their relationship to our view this picture uses three one to the left one to the right and one in the center everything in the room is parallel to our line of vision with the exception of the chair and foot stool the chair and foot stool then will have to be drawn in angular perspective while the rest of the room can be drawn in parallel or onepoint perspective Vanishing in the center of the picture as you progress in your use of perspective drawing you will find that a greater freedom and more realism is yours when you draw in perspective without the use of a ruler freehand perspective releases your picture from the mechanical feeling that must be present when it is created mechanically these pictures were all drawn without the use of a ruler yet were done with the feeling of depth that perspective brings let's go back to our four basic shapes once again and consider another thing that helps to bring life to our drawing cast Shadows a cast Shadow is one which is thrown upon any other Surface by an object that is in the line of light to establish a shadow for this Cone first it is necessary to draw a central vertical line now draw a 45° line from the top of the cone to the ground plane 45° is about the average angle for natural light next from this point draw lines to the vertical line of the cone at the center and edges thus forming the cast Shadow to add a shadow to a sphere as we have in this scene first draw a vertical line through the center now draw a horizontal line at the base establishing the ground plane as we did with the cone draw a 45° line at both outer edges and through the vertical Center Line notice that our shadow is like an ellipse when the cast Shadow from an object falls over the surface of another it follows the Contours of that object the shadow will be longer or shorter depending upon the height of the light source notice here that one Shadow is cast from the vertical plank onto the horizontal plank which in turn casts its shadow onto the side of the cube the ground Shadow is cast by the cube and horizontal plank giving it an irregular shape here's an interesting drawing illustrating an old style rail fence around a cornfield if you're sketching or painting an Autumn scene you'll find that this fence creates an interesting pattern of Shadows cast by natural light notice that all of the Shadows in this drawing are cast in the same direction to create a more convincing interpretation of a subject in the terms of form tone values textures and color the artist must employ the technique of shading light and shade refers to the variance of tone values ranging between black and white we have broadly seven values in our tone value scale the sphere serves as an excellent example of showing form through the medium of light and shape that portion of the object which is struck by the light source and reflects it back at its greatest degree is termed the Highlight from the Highlight gradually becoming darker we observe a range of values which we call half tones the darkest of these values is called Shadow and along the outside edge away from the light source is an area which is somewhat lighter due to reflected light this is caused by light rays reflecting from a Second Source such as the surface on which the sphere is setting lastly is our cast Shadow here again are the four basic forms this time they are produced in light and shade you'll notice that as the light strikes the objects we have the Highlight receding around their Contours to our right we find the half tone Shadow and reflected light to their base are the strongest of values the cast Shadows now let's see how light and shade are applied to a drawing here we have blocked in the basic form with the use of lines following the perspective rules we learned earlier in this picture we have added tone to the sky and the ground now we have added tone to the front of the house and a darker tone to the side indicating that this is the shadow side this picture indicates that we have added a still darker tone to the chimney and the house is beginning to show realism here we have added the cast shadows and the darkest tone values in this picture we have completed the house by adding the detailed texture there is still another another dimension in drawing that can give your pictures the professional touch that of reflection an important thing to remember in drawing Reflections is that they are equal to the length of their object a reflection always begins at the base of the object therefore if the object is away from the water only that part of the reflection which is cast on the water is visible if the object is in the water the reflection is visible right from the base remember a reflection is always the reverse of the object itself the top of the candle does not show in this illustration but in the reflection it does show on a curved shiny surface reflection is usually distorted and elongated which is illustrated by the can and ball we've shown you in this movie the basic fundamentals necessary to produce on paper the pictures you see in your mind's eye everyone of course cannot be a professional artist but as hell Cooper says everyone can learn to draw practice the fundamentals we have shown you enjoy the wonderful feeling of accomplishment which comes with the illustration of thoughts