accentuate handout 1.0

8/3/2019 Accentuate Handout 1.0

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Accentuate the Postitive : Seminar 2009 Peter Fraterdeus / [email protected] / slowprint.com 1

Accentuate the PositiveDrawing on the Hidden Keys of Perception

A workshop for designers, calligraphers, letterform

artists and students of Conscious DeliberateAwareness

2009 Peter Fraterdeus / [email protected] / slowprint.com


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Introduction: Modes of Perceptione eye doesnt see black on the page, it sees the white. Ieuan Rees

e Right Brain or R-mode provides the 'negative' space against which thought (Left Brain or L-mode) marks time,sequence and order.is is the quiet space, the empty vessel which holds the mind, yet is the mind. It is thecomplementary, the ground on which the figure plays, yet is also primary, for without it, thought itself could not exist,nor could we perceive form without its context.

We can think of L-mode as Logical and Linear, while R-mode is Reflective, Receptive spacial and immediate.

Meditation, Music, Art, Sex, Exhaustion, Trauma, 'Psychoactives' all are paths to R-mode awareness, yet it's fleeting.

Betty Edwards, as with all good Zen teachers, developed practices designed to quiet really to bore or stun thechattering, 'rational,' sequential, symbolic mind, allowing the intuitive perceptual mind to come forward. e consciousrecognition of entering R-mode is as a light turning on!

In fact, enlightenment is a term used for the attainment of that continuous conscious state, when both R & L modes arefully engaged! Drawing (letterforms) is as good a practice as any!

Our approach will be to inform the 'rational' mind, but to prefer the pattern-recognizing, synthesizing, relationship-appreciating mode of the 'empty' mind, which takes what the eye offers without judgement, in order to see 'negative'space as something real and substantial. To perceive the substance of emptiness.

Day One Drawing on Emptiness

What do you see?Practicum : Day One

Drawing as a physical activity, making deliberate marks and expressive marks

Paper Bag Studies :e haptic sense feeling our way to spatial relationships,

haptic : of or relating to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and

manipulation of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception (awareness of theposition of the body and its parts)

Viewfinder studies with the Oak Leaf; of a Wood Type Letter

Heuristic Studies of rules and patterns in letterform constructionheuristic : enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves : a hands-on orinteractive heuristic approach to learning.Jonathon Hoefler's exercise in 'tweening' forms between the 'known' letters

Sketching and refinement, iterative process in the "Letters Mingle Souls" designMac demo?

Finish Day One with a review of progress and perspectives.


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Betty Edwards: Strategies for Perception, Saturation

Perceive the EdgesPerceive the Negative SpacesPerceive the Relationships and ProportionsPerceive the Lights and ShadowsPerceive the Gestalt eingness of theing.

Edge is a shared boundary - Liminal Study of edges, boundaries - Scribble / string studiesPure Contour Drawing, five minutes of the wrinkles in the hand. Toning the paper w/graphite

Sighting has to do with constants: Reason, Ratios and Relationships

St.omas Aquinas:

e requirements for BeautyIntegritas, Consonantia, Quidditas(Wholeness, Harmony & Essense)

What is the hardest letter to draw? To see?

Which is harder, drawing or seeing?

Haptic (touch, fasten) perception of negative space. [Wood Type Exercise Large Small ]

Heuristic (self-discovered) perception of shape & space [Non-Alphabetic Symbols ( Jon. Hoeflers exercises)]

Drawing for Design Progressive Refinement, Iterative Process [pin-marks for registration, overlay]

Using the computer for refinement Hidden sources of problems, kinks in curves, vector entrance & exit

Day 2 Applied Perceptions of Space

If negative spaces are given equal importance to the postive forms, all parts of the drawing seem interestingand all work togerher to create a unified image. If, on the other hand, the focus is almost entirely on thepositive forms, the drawing may seem uninteresting and disunified even boring no matter howbeautifully rendered the positive form may be.

Betty Edwards (e New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, p120)

Practicum : Day Two

Putting flesh on the bones or wrapping the stone?

Watercolor Postcards

Calligraphic Writing

Letterform Design

Ann Hechles Aspects of Language : Sound panel, etc. (http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/learning/csc/hechle/essay.html)Platonic Ideals enter the Material World

e Eye, the Mind, the Hand, the Heart.


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Supply Listis is a list of important tools and materials. Most will be in your toolbox already.

Pencils, soft, medium and hard ie: 3B HB 2H 4H

Technical Drawing Pens size 0 or 00 (.35 or .30 mm) (the higher priced refillable pens can be used withsubtle colors...) with appropriate inks. Watercolor inks (light-blue, purple) for refillable pens. Blackwaterproof fiber pens

Rapidograph or Mars pens or equivalent high-qualityfiber tipped like Zig Millenium)

http://www.dickblick.com/products/staedtler-mars-technical-drawing-pen-set/

http://www.dickblick.com/products/koh-i-noor-rapidosketch-pen-set/

http://www.dickblick.com/products/artline-drawing-pens/ (fiber)

Long-hair sable 'pencils' (lettering brushes) # 3, #5

http://www.dickblick.com/products/winsor-and-newton-sceptre-gold-designer-round-series-202/

"one-stroke" flat lettering brush 1/2 inch

http://www.dickblick.com/products/robert-simmons-white-sable-one-stroke-series-721/kneaded rubber eraser & white plastic eraser (Mars, etc)

paper: 11x14 (or larger) pad drafting vellum (18x24 can be divided to 12x18 which is fine)

http://www.dickblick.com/products/bienfang-graphics-360-marker-paper/

http://www.dickblick.com/products/clearprint-1000h-drafting-vellum/

paper: cold-press watercolor block 6x9

http://www.dickblick.com/products/canson-montval-watercolor-blocks/

drafting tape : http://www.dickblick.com/products/drafting-tape/

watercolors, travel/pan set & small watercolor palette & small squat bottle for rinsing brushes, etc

http://www.dickblick.com/products/raphael-watercolor-travel-set/

http://www.dickblick.com/products/winsor-and-newton-cotman-watercolor-pan-sets

magnifier for looking at small stuffup close

Xacto or single-edge razor blades for sharpening pencils (no 'pencil sharpeners' please!)

12" 30-60-90 drafting triangle & small t-square, drafting board, etc

12-18 inches of white packing twine / nylon cord

MacBook (or whatever, ok! :-) with Adobe Illustrator and Wacom drawing tabletAviary.com account : this web-based graphics tool application may be VERY useful to those who don't haveaccess to Adobe's professional tools). Sign up for a free account and check it out...Also, Inkscape, an open-source vector drawing tool. Of course, theres nothing like the real thing. If youredoing serious or professional work, Adobe Illustrator is de rigueur.


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Excerpt from Drawing on the Artist Within : Betty Edwards


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Excerpt from Creative Lettering : Michael Harvey


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Tirty spokes share the wheelshub; It is the center hole that makesit useful.

Shape clay into a vessel; It is thespace within that makes it useful.

Cut doors and windows for a

room; It is the holes which make ituseful.

Terefore beneft comes from whatis there; Useulness from what is not

there.

Tao te Ching (11)

ranslated by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English, Vintage Books, 1989


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