You Can Draw! - Class #5

Tonight we had the option of drawing three things: a garden deer statue, a bugle, or the Indian doll. I opted for the doll even though she was more complicated. There was more opportunity for fudge factor with her. If I gimped up the bugle or the fawn it would have been obvious. I think about those kind of things when I pick what to draw. Cheatercheatercheater.

There were lots of geegaws on her dress I couldn't make out. Just rubbed the pencil across those parts and called it done.

The teacher said that he was please with the progress of the class. We all took lots of time tonight and spent the whole two hours drawing just one thing. The drawings of the other four are vastly improved over the first night. I think they're beginning to "see" what they're drawing and can get it down on paper.

I don't know if my drawing has improved but my patience has. If I spend more than about 15 minutes drawing one thing I get antsy and have to move on. I finally got in the groove last night and found the zen place of drawing. It felt good.

It stands to reason if I take time with a drawing it will be better than a quick sketchy-sketch. However, I do have the tendency to overwork and not edit. I can see myself spending hours on something and putting in every single nit-picky detail. That's not always a good thing. Still trying to hone the editing factor.

Teacher said I should take this home and frame it. That was a very nice compliment but, ummm....no. Don't really want her hanging on my wall but will be pleased to have her live in my portfolio.

Next week we start a new class, "Sketching Historic Downtown." It will be good to get out of the classroom and sketch in the wild.

You Can Draw! - Class #4

This is supposed to be a Teddy Bear but it looks a little like a Teddy Pig to me. Oh well, this is Arkansas so a pig is fittin'. I think I got his feetsies too small. He's got a big ol' head compared to his feet. Hummm....

I used the chiaroscuro method of drawing the shapes of the lights and shadows on this. Wow! That made it sooooo much easier than drawing an outline and the result was much better too. Woot!

The second drawing of the night was our hand. I only got the basic shape down before everyone else finished and starting packing up to leave. That's probably a good thing because it was starting to resemble Frankenstein's hand. Eeek!

The class started with 10-11 people. Tonight there were only four. Next week is the final class. Wonder how many will show?

Drawing Class

Journaling:

Took two of my favorite things to draw in class tonight. It's easier to draw something that's interesting to me.

I didn't want to do another copy-cut-paste of the pencil drawings in my journal because it's getting too fat.

Wanted to come up with a new and interesting way to redraw the geegaws from class.

Quite a departure from the usual, eh? I like it.

You Can Draw! - Class #3

Fell asleep on the couch last night at 11:30 p.m. The cat woke me up at 5:30 a.m. this morning wanting breakfast. I threw a pillow at her, rolled over and went back to sleep, thinking Hubby would wake me up in an hour or two. Wrong.

I slept soundly until 1:30 p.m. Un-BE-LEEVE-able. That is 14 hours, count 'em, 14 hours of sleep. I must have needed it. I know I didn't feel jittery and annoyed when I got up like I have over the last few days.

A couple of loads of laundry, a bath, then off to drawing class. I must admit I was a little groggy from all that sleep so I wasn't so wound up in class tonight. I did move to the front row and my eyeballs appreciated that.

Since I crabbed previously about the things we were drawing, I took stuff I wanted to draw - stuff I love and cherish. It's always easier to draw something I find interesting. If I don't care about it, I don't care about drawing it.

Anywho, first up tonight was a model boat. It's about 3 1/2 feet tall. I thought its shapes were fairly simple without a bunch of geegaws to trip up beginning drawers.



I just let loose and drew kinda sketchy-sketchy like I normally do. It was much more fun and relaxing than last week. After I got it blocked in with correct proportions I erased the sketchy-sketchy lines and left the one that was correctest. Other folks really struggled with this and I was surprised. This was way easier than the guitar from last week.

Next was the lightning rod. I ran out of time with this one. Realized after I got home there is supposed to be a bunch of curlicue doodads on the shaft of the arrow. I missed them completely. Shows how much I was looking at this thing.



The arrow is a black rusted metal and the ball is glass. On this rough sketchbook paper the texture of the metal came out perfectly, but I couldn't get the texture of the glass smooth. There must be a trick to that. Must remember to ask.

No class next week due to spring break.

You Can Draw! - Class #2

Bob, the teacher, started out tonight's class explaining about different kinds of papers: hot press, cold press and rough, and why to use each of them.

Then he showed the trick about getting scale and proportion correct by measuring down the pencil with the thumb at arm's length. That part I knew already. But what he added I had not thought of before. It was a Doh! moment for me.

If you eyeball out the thing to draw and it's only an inch or so of pencil length, but you want it to be four inches tall on the paper, make four equal marks to arrive at the top and bottom of the thing. Then any other measurement you take multiply by four lengths also.

That's a big ol' Duh! but I would have never come up with it on my own. That's why I wanted to take a class with real people...to learn practical applications of art theory.

Then we start on our first drawing. Lighting conditions weren't ideal because the fluorescent lights washed out all the shading and shadows from the spotlight he brought. And the things we are drawing are sitting on a desk at eye level. It's tough to get perspective going at that angle. If there were any shadows we wouldn't be able to see them.

So what did he choose? Cut glass. Grrr.... Glass is probably one of the hardest things to draw. And it was a little bitty cut glass candlestick thingy I could barely see from so far away. On the candlestick was a white marble ball. Behind it was a rough Mexican blanket. He let us cheat on the ball and trace around a styrofoam cup so we all at least got the ball part correct.

I worked mainly on the candlestick and had just started putting shading on the ball when he started around the room doing show-n-tell. Since I'm on the back row I'd be the last one. The first drawing he held up had darkness all around the ball to make it pop. Ohhh! Good idea!

I cheated and whipped out The Magic That Is The Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and scrubbed in a little black around the candlestick before he got to me. Yes, I cheated in class. I filled in the rest of the blackness with pencil after I got home.

I have no idea what that candlestick actually looked like. I drew the dark spots and saved the light spots and kinda just let the rest be what it wanted to be. I don't think it really had fluting around the top and it looks a little weird around the base. Not cut glass-y at all. Oh well.

The next thing we drew was this old guitar. I struggled and struggled getting the proportions correct even using the measuring down the pencil trick. Everyone else moved right along and was finished by the time I started shading. This is as far as I got:



I had to keep fighting the urge to whip out a PITT pen and do a five-minute sketch like I would do in my daily journal. But no, no, I'm here to learn to draw in a new way.

My frustration level is building.

After one more class I may not be able to draw anything at all.

le Sigh.

You Can Draw! - Class #1

Started out with an overview of materials: pencils, erasers, blending stumps. I had a blending stump and threw it out not six months ago thinking I would never need it. Made one after class out of a rolled up bit of drawing paper. Sanded and softened the tip with an emery board. Yes, I'm a tightwad.

Tips and tricks:

-Cut slits in a white block eraser leaving thin ridges to pull out highlights in hair. Cool!

-Don't blow on a drawing to remove eraser crumbles. Turn it vertically and tap it instead. Blowing leaves moisture on the surface and can mess up a drawing.

On to values, white to black and how to apply them to what you see. Excellent!

Next was shading on curved objects to make them appear curved, and shadows on the table surface so things wouldn't look like they're floating. Clipping right along.

The first thing we drew was a coffee box thingy that happened to be sitting in the room.



As with every box-like thing I try to draw, it turned into the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Slanted decidedly to the right. Tried to fix it but didn't quite get it all plumb. I was sitting in the very back of the room fighting with my new glasses. Couldn't quite see what the coffeecup part of the label was supposed to be so all I could do was draw the dark shapes I could see.

A show and tell when we were all finished. He held up each person's drawing and pointed out all the good stuff on it. He concluded every one with, "That's a good drawing right there."

Next he drug in a plant from the hallway. Yes! Something with major fudge-factorability. Nobody is gonna know what the stalks and leaves really look like so freeform time on the foliage.

I was drawing away and the teacher stood behind me and watched. For some reason that gave me the heebie-jeebies. Because I couldn't see my drawing with the new bifocals, I just looked at the plant and drew what amounted to a blind contour. He watched me doing this for a while and said, "So how long have you been drawing?" Arrggh. Busted.

Told him I had never had a drawing class, that this was the first. (eyebrow cocks in disbelief) But I study and read a lot....

He loaned me a book he had brought for show-n-tell, The Artist's Complete Guide to Drawing the Head, by William L. Maughan. He said he had a whole library of art books at his house and I was welcome to borrow all that I wanted. Woot! Tightwad's Nirvana.

Realized on the way home that my brain is geared for speed sketching...quick, imprecise, capturing only the essence of a moment. I've tried very, very hard to break myself of the need to draw all the little nit-picky details. To sit and draw them now was proving difficult. Skerritttt! Zzzzzztt! Major synapse disconnect.
I have much to learn.

And lastly, apropos of nothing, the song "Sylvia's Mother" has been stuck in my head for the last three days.

And the operator says "40 cents more for the next 3 minutes"
Ple-ease Mrs. Avery, I just gotta talk to her
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just wanna tell 'er goodbye