I love art in open spaces.
Lovely indication of movement
On Tippy Toes
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Category Archives: Art
The Artist’s Handbook
Here’s how to use The Artist’s Handbook by Ralph Mayer.
First I sketched the bottom book by itself, then added the top book.
The Artist’s Handbook by Ralph Mayer
The Artist’s Handbook, sketched
Books as models
I was amazed at how may ways I had to measure — and readjust — my sketch.
Sketched books, an exercise in perspective
Red Pear in Charcoal
It took me a long time after starting art classes to try it sketching at home: about seven months, elapsed time (calendar time was longer, but with some breaks). In class, I struggled — and continue to struggle — with line drawings and tone. I finished the line drawing and tone courses and went on to the beginning oil painting course. One effort there and I knew I wasn’t ready, so I chose to return to the drawing and tone courses.
I could understand what my instructor explained when going over the steps: identify the tones, sketch large to small, triangulate, review and correct as necessary. Yes, I understood as long as she was demonstrating these aspects at my station, but as soon as she went to help another student . . . Poof! My understanding evaporated and back I went to sketching loopy dark globs. For a while I considered not even trying to accurately represent an object, but to announce that I was following in the footsteps of Salvador Dali or Picasso (in his Cubism phase). I am pretty sure neither of them would have been happy to hear that, so I continue my efforts to learn what my instructor teaches.
Red pear at my home “studio:” the corner of my dining room
Red pear, sketch 1
How many times did she tell me that a cast shadow cannot be all one tone? I don’t know and I’m pretty sure she’s not finished reminding me. (Oh sure, I can remember that when I’m writing . . . )
Once I went back to charcoal sketching, I knew it was time to start sketching at home. Scary stuff. About this time, I came across the OneDrawingDaily blog, and I was inspired. I haven’t done one drawing a day, but I’m working on it.
My sketch mostly looks like the pear
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My first pear sketch was okay, but something was off. I couldn’t figure out what to correct, so I tried it again.
Practically deja vu
Sketch #2, better
All together now
Even in the few sketches that I’ve done (two pumpkin sketches, two red pear sketches), I think I’m starting to understand tone and line. And I can believe that as long I don’t show the sketches to my instructor, right?
Return to Charcoal
The Cat Muse helped me with my return to charcoal sketching. The bamboo skewers help me with the ellipse of the bowl opening and the spacial relationship between the plum and the white vase.
Muse of the arts
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For this sketch, I decided to create the shapes only using the tones; I didn’t draw the shapes at all. Dark objects still present difficulties for me; they should be more than a shadowy glob.
Shaped by shadows
Not The Great Pumpkin
‘Tis the season. Pumpkin sketching season, that is.
My first sketch. Looks like a pumpkin. Or what I think a pumpkin looks like; just not like the pumpkin I was looking at, so I abandoned the sketch.
Recognizable as a pumpkin
The real pumpkin.
Pumpkin model
My second effort. And there is something funny about this one. The real pumpkin is a little lopsided but my drawing doesn’t reflect it accurately. Usually it’s the other way around: my drawing is lopsided and the model objects are not. I’m looking forward to the time when my drawings match the model shapes. Won’t that be something to celebrate.
Second try
This was only my second independent (not in class) sketching effort.
It's a long story ... 