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Blotted Line

Learn Warhol's Commercial Illustration Technique

Andy Warhol, The French Look, 1950s, ©AWF

Students learn how to use Andy Warhol’s early drawing technique that incorporates a very basic printing process. Critical thinking skills are used to judge commercial advertisements and students make decisions on what they will include, embellish and edit out of their own drawings to gain a desired effect.

Grades:

4-12

Subjects:

Art, Graphic Arts, Aesthetics, Communications

Suggested Time Frame:

1-2 class periods

Objectives:

Students will examine visual and written data
Students will identify, describe and analyze Warhol's use of design elements
Students will use materials to learn the drawing/printing process and application of watercolor and goldleaf
Students will apply aesthetic decisions: color, line, etc. in their own work to create a particular visual impact
Students will predict marketability to intended audience
Students will establish criteria for successful advertising

About the Art:

Andy Warhol’s drawing The French Look is one of many shoe illustrations he created using a special type of line drawing known as the blotted line technique. Warhol first experimented with blotted line while still a college student at Carnegie Institute of Technology. He continued to craft this technique in his commercial work in New York City throughout the 1950s. Blotted line enabled Warhol to create a variety of illustrations along a similar theme. He was able present multiple drawings to clients and increase the likelihood that his work would be chosen for the final advertisement.

Blotted line combines drawing with very basic printmaking. Warhol began by making a line drawing on a piece of non-absorbent paper, such as tracing paper. Next he hinged this piece of paper to a second sheet of more absorbent paper by taping their edges together on one side. With an old fountain pen, Warhol inked over a small section of the drawn lines then transferred the ink onto the second sheet by folding along the hinge and lightly pressing or “blotting” the two papers together. Larger drawings were made in sections. Completing a large blotted line drawing could take quite a bit of time and multiple pressings. The process resulted in the dotted, broken, and delicate lines that are characteristic of Warhol’s illustrations. Warhol often colored his blotted line drawings with watercolor dyes or applied gold leaf.

Andy Warhol, Female Head, n.d., ©AWF

Andy Warhol Quote:

I was getting paid for it, and I did anything they told me to do. If they told me to draw a shoe, I’d do it, and if they told me to correct it, I would - I’d do anything they told me to do, correct it and do it right.

Andy Warhol quoted in article by G.R. Swenson, “What Is Pop Art?: Answers from 8 Painters, Part I,” Artnews 62 (November, 1963) p. 26.

Points of View:

Another reason why he liked it [the blotted line technique] so much [was that] by having your master drawing with which you made your blot, you could keep blotting it and redrawing it and blotting it each time and make duplicate images.

Nathan Gluck, commercial art assistant interview with Patrick S. Smith from, Andy Warhol’s Art and Films, UMI Research Press (Ann Arbor: Michigan, 1986), p. 311.

It was absolutely true that he could draw anything and very, very quickly. And so we used him a lot.

Tina S. Fredericks, art director, interview with Patrick S. Smith, Warhol: Conversations about the Artist, UMI Research Press (Ann Arbor: Michigan, 1988), p. 100.

Andy and I began a campaign, which was unprecedented at the time. We ran full pages, half pages, every Sunday in the “New York Times.” And it was a spectacular showcase for I. Miller and for Andy as well. It expanded his audience in a way that no magazine editorial ever could have. In a sea of tiny little images that were the pages of the Times, these bold blockbuster fantasies were extraordinarily effective. What the ads did was to revitalize and revive the I. Miller brand, and from a dowdy, musty, fusty, dusty, dowager establishment, it became a stylish emporium for debutantes.

Geraldine Stutz, art director, from an exhibition audio guide produced by Antenna audio in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada.

Andy Warhol, Fantasy Shoes, ca.1956, ©AWF

Discussion Questions:

Use adjectives to describe the lines and colors Warhol uses in his drawings.
Does Warhol draw in all the details? What is left out? Why?
What type of person do you think Warhol was trying to attract with these ads? Explain your answer.
When you look at advertisements, how do artists and designers manipulate images to make products seem more appealing? Look through magazines to find examples to support your answer.

Procedure

Tracing paper, calligraphy pen and blotted line drawing

Materials:

Ink pens and nibs	India ink	Dr. Martin watercolor dyes
Source images/magazines	Paper towels	Tracing paper
Arches 88/Coventry Rag paper	Clear tape	Gold leaf
Aquasize, gold leaf/Aquasize brushes	Watercolor brushes	Paint trays and containers

Andy Warhol, Hand Holding Leafy Branch, 1950s, ©AWF

Procedure:

Cut full sheets of Arches 88 or Coventry Rag paper into smaller sheets. Cut tracing paper to corresponding sizes.
Collect a range of magazine source images: models, shoes, perfume, jewelry, etc.
Select a source image then tape a piece of tracing paper on top of the image, tracing it with a pencil. Next, hinge the tracing paper with tape to the Arches 88/Coventry Rag.
Opening the papers like a book, ink a small part of the traced drawing then lightly blot the ink onto the watercolor paper with fingers or the opposite end of the ink pen. Continue to ink and blot small segments at a time until the drawing is finished. Dr. Martin’s dyes or gold leaf can be used after the ink is dry to fill in the drawings.
When using gold leaf, apply a thin layer of Aquasize on selected areas and wait for it to become tacky before placing pieces of gold leaf on top.

Assessment

Wrap-up:

Hang up all of the drawings next to the original source material. Identify what you chose to include and embellish and what you chose to edit out of your illustration from the original. Assess the appeal of the products drawn with blotted line. Which drawings are successful, which are not? If there is time, make a series of drawings from the same source image with alterations to color, decoration and impact.

Warhol Education Rubrics

Click the Warhol Rubric headers below to reveal associated rubrics to which this lesson applies.

Aesthetics

	Developing	Emerging	Proficient	Advanced	Exemplary
AE.1	Personal Aesthetics: aware of perceptual preferences in relation to a work of art and how their own interpretations affect how they experience a work of art	Difficulty in communicating personal opinions and feelings about an artwork.	Possesses a beginning recognition of how their own interpretations affect how they experience a work of art.	Analyzes personal feelings, likes/dislikes, values and associations as part of the process in interpreting works of art.	Deconstructs an artwork's formal and expressive qualities along with their own preferences as part of the process in interpreting works of art.	Formulates an analysis of works of art that combines formal, expressive and personal intepretations.

Communication

	Developing	Emerging	Proficient	Advanced	Exemplary
CO.3	Listening and Speaking: Ability to express ideas and listen to others.	Somewhat organized, but off topic. Unable to respond adequately to questions from others or summarize others' conclusions or viewpoints.	Answers reveal a partial understanding of material. Misses some aspects of the topic and inconsistently comments on others statements.	Expresses ideas well. Listens and responds to peers thoughtfully and respectfully. Grasps concepts well enough to ask questions about what is still not understood.	Responds to questions accurately and with supporting facts that are engaging. Established eye contact and demonstrated an awareness of audiences’ needs. Demonstrates additional curiosity in subject.	Explores topic thoroughly providing multiple details, examples and supporting facts. Answers convey a deep understanding of topic. Highly responsive to audience. Active participation in discussion brings group learning to a higher level.
CO.4	Media Literacy: Use technology to express ideas.	Uses the technological and multimedia tools in a limited way to express conclusions or viewpoints.	Technological and multimedia tools are relevant and functions in a basic way to express intent.	Media choices convey message of work and are applied by student in conscious way.	Media is used skillfully to enhance the impact of the work. The media illustrates important ideas, details and relationships.	The media reinforces the main ideas in original and creative ways. The student's use of media is highly perceptive and intelligent.

Creative Process

		Developing	Emerging	Proficient	Advanced	Exemplary
CP.3	Experimentation and Play: Flexiblity and adaptability in problem-solving.	Uses materials and ideas in straightforward manner without testing various possibilities.	Tries multiple ways of using materials before deciding upon one idea. Is able to make predictions about a project based upon experimentation.	Develops an artwork in a way that is innovative by analyzing successes and failures and adapting their working process	Analyzes the results from their new way of working to create new “rules” for work that is personally gratifying (fun).	Combines experiences of play and experimentation to pose unique parameters for new artwork.
CP.4	Planning: Making decisions about how resources and time will be used.	Works with little or no plan for how to produce an artwork.	Creates an artwork with basic revisions based upon internal and external critique.	Exhibits maturity of thinking in reception of critique. Is able to admit mistakes or difficulties and devises new strategies to solve problems.	Analyzes the feedback from peers, the effects or impact of work as well as own perspective and desires. Demonstrates flexibility in expansion or editing work because of assessment.	Completes work after multiple revisions and is able to share working process with others in a way that is inspirational.
CP.5	Skill and Craftsmanship	Handles materials in a limited way and lacks an understanding of the techniques, methods and conventions used to create work.	Uses materials in a basic way to create work.	Demonstrates dexterity and skill in creating a work of art.	Able to adapt materials to create their own distinctive mark, style or identifiable characteristic.	Craftsmanship and construction of work (form) is fully integrated with the ideas (content) and is aesthetically excellent.
CP.6	Observation: Experiencing works of art.	Description of visual data is inaccurate and is unaware of an artist's methods and creative intent.	Recognizes an increasing number of formal elements in works of art and attempts to interpret them using a wider range of perceptual methods.	Identifies significant qualities of an artwork and employs a wide range of sensorial and aesthetic methods to explore their own intuitive and aesthetic responses.	Compares and contrasts the aesthetic qualities of an artwork or visual data to infer meaning in a sophisticated manner. Is able to express own experience of visual data or a work of art creatively.	Conveys a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of an artwork. Able to hypothesize about the artist’s intent and to ask relevant questions for further research or inquiry.