In my art class, there is a fake Red Delicious Apple. Sketching it gives me fits. It’s a dark object, so there are only four tones (6-10) that can be used, other than the tiny spot where the light hits it.

My bright idea was to buy one, one with as many contours as possible, and sketch it at home.

For most of the time, in my sketch it looked like a bell pepper. I worked on it until I didn’t know what else to correct. That’s always my stopping point.

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.

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.

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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.

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?