DRAWING MATERIALITY

Our drawing tools influence our forms. Drawing is a physical act.

Johannes Itten, working at the Bauhaus, developed Vorkurs, which was the foundation course of design. Itten was primarily interested in the fusion of man / nature, internal / external, subject / object, etc.

He wanted students to harness their inner emotions. And to do this he required that they become free from oppressive cultural conditioning. The Vorkurs was a liberation of their creative mindsets. And the way to achieve this is to let students learn as they go. Learning, in Itten’s class, was a matter of self discovery.

“By encouraging his students to experiment randomly and creatively with materials like paper, cloth, wood and paint, Itten hoped they would discover within themselves certain feeling about the materials that would help direct their creation of form.” Gelernter.

These pages have included diverse and random materials of drawing. In the spirit of Itten, we have incorporated gold metallic spray paint, bum wad, saran wrap (still to come), charcoal stick on wet paper, ink stick, to name a few. How the materials react with each other shapes the creation of form. This provides a direct physical and emotional response to our actions. We are allowed to feel our way into what the drawing wants us to do next. Thus, the materials of our drawing direct the creation of form.

The drawing above is an example of Drawing Materiality. Based on the two Source Images below, I drew first with blue marker, and then with blue pastel pencil which generated a Form Combine. The pastel, when built up with enough pressure, creates a water resistant line. You can see the depth of the pastel. After outlining my emotional response to what I had applied to the paper, I next applied clear water within the forms with a brush. Lastly, I dripped acrylic ink onto the water segments. The physical boundary of the pastel directed the water in unexpected yet satisfying ways.

The beginnings of form and pattern begin to be revealed. And this is a direct result of the materiality of the drawing. I was given the opportunity to respond, in real time, to the physical effects of my materials. My random application of these materials in this order elicited strong feelings within me. The decisions I made were the emotional responses that Itten was looking for.

And the result is pretty close to a holistic form.

1. Gelernter, Mark. Sources of Architectural Form. Manchester University Press: Manchester. 1995.
2. Haeckel, Ernst.  Kunstformen der Natur.  Leipzig ; Wien : Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, 1904.