I started teaching myself to draw in 2003 with Betty Edwards’ book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. She suggests that you do some pre-instructional drawings before you start so that you have something to compare your progress with. Well, here is my pre-instructional self-portrait drawn three years ago. I do hope I’ve come on since then, and I also hope this doesn’t look like me!
Category Archives: Drawing
Spoon
Another challenge that is harder than it sounds! I fancy having a go at this in paint, or with black paper and white pencil. Maybe tomorrow. It’s been a long week.
We bought these silver teaspoons from a junk shop in Masham, North Yorkshire. It’s one of those shops you can get lost in for hours, and we usually do.
Egg Box II and the Shop
What is there to do on a grey wet afternoon except draw? Realising that I’d cheated on the egg box challenge (not reading it properly!) I thought I should challenge myself to draw the box open rather than closed. I have enormous respect for anyone who has attempted this challenge in paint. It is hard enough in pencil.
I’ve also drawn a previous challenge – our local store. We are lucky enough to have a local Co-op in the village, and it does a great job of stocking most things that we may need.
Egg Box
You can probably tell I’ve been less than patient with this sketch! It is also interesting how clearly I can see all the mistakes once I’ve scanned it in. Why can’t I see them as clearly in my sketchbook I wonder?
We buy our free-range eggs from the farm in the village. This involves standing in the farmhouse porch which has roses rambling round it and stone bench-seats either side, often with empty egg boxes left on them. We rattle the knocker on the heavy oak door to summon our eggs. After some brief chit-chat with the farmer’s wife, we wait quite a few minutes while she presumably goes and finds some from wherever the hens lay them. You don’t get much fresher than that.
My favourite egg dish is probably a good old english fry-up with fried or poached eggs.
Paper Bag
Click to enlarge.
Last week’s EDM challenge was to draw a paper bag. Challenge was the right word! I drew this in colour pencil. When I scanned it, the scanner was still set to black and white. I thought it looked much better in B&W, which is interesting. I like the tonal values, but not the combination of the colours for some reason. It’s interesting to see what you can learn by looking at a sketch in B&W.
Drawing Workshop
I went to a drawing workshop today run by a commercial illustrator within a museum. His professional work tends to be incredibly detailed, photographic quality painting. We had a selection of objects from the museum to draw – skulls, drawstring bags, pots, candlesticks etc. He started by suggesting we do a drawing using only lines. He forced us to look properly and get the proportions and angles right which was good discipline for me. We then moved onto another object and started to add tone as well. This soon became boring for me, as it required a lot of shading – putting down one layer and then building up the tones. I just do not have the patience to enjoy this. He came round and started to add darker shades to my drawing to show me how this helped define the shape of the object. However, I abandoned it without finishing it in favour of moving on to another exercise (the only one of the group to do so). This was to use colour paper and colour pencils, thus removing the need to shade the whole thing. You just add highlights and low lights. Much more my thing. I think what this has taught me is:
a) I’m not going to be an illustrator as detail bores me and makes me fidgety;
b) I probably enjoy painting because I can slap colour on quickly – none of this rub-rub-rub with the pencil;
c) I never finish anything. What’s ‘finished’ anyway?
I guess it’s all trial and error to find the type of art techniques and materials that fit my personality.
Chinese Lantern
I found this a while ago at Ryton Organic Gardens. Something about it really appeals to me, and it has substantially influenced my 3D project (as you will see later). My art tutor was telling me how these pods hold fleshy seeds inside them, and when they fall the pod structure is strong enough to prevent the seeds from rotting on the ground. What a clever design.
Teasel and 3D progress
We are starting to put the finishing touches to our 3D project. For next week, we need to create three A2 size design sheets to show how our work has progressed. I have spent most of this afternoon taking and printing out photos to include. I’ve also photographed drawings from my sketchbook – why draw them again? I’ll post the design sheets here when they are finished; but meanwhile here’s some teasel.