SketchKon Sketches #9 Learning Life Drawing

Veronica Lawlor did a terrific session basically designed to teach us new ways to approach life drawing.  You can see from the sketches I made during the workshop that it included things like blind contours, non-dominant hand sketches, one-line drawings, and so on.

She emphasized that getting rid of "normal" habits of seeing and drawing would open up our drawing skills.

After some warm-up lessons, we sketched poses.  The models from Dr. Sketchy's were great!

Thinking about Dressing Up and Turkeys

Just a quick sketch for fun, this holiday week.

Drawn with my eyes closed, except for the eyes.  Watercolor added with my eyes open.

Confession:  that lovely turquoise feather and pink hat?  When my eyes were closed those lines were supposed to be her head.  They got disconnected from her body... but the rest held together pretty well.

So when I opened my eyes, I fussed a bit with how to save it.  So I created the feather, added her eyes, and splashed on the watercolor.

Great fun! 

Scotland Sketchbook Part 11

The Highland Coo!

Other than I wish some of these lived near where I live so I could draw them more, what else can be said?  They are magic.  And really fun to draw.  Even if you are standing in a horizontal driving rain and your fingers have gone numb from cold.

Developing Drawings from Soccer Sketches

Having scribbled a bunch of pencil drawings during a fast-moving live soccer game, I sat down with ink and watercolor and developed some more careful drawings from those sketches.

You can see here that first, I drew one based on a stick figure.  Then I drew the exact same figure again, trying to flesh it out to be more realistic looking.

Then I decided to work from a photo of my nephew, but keep in mind what I had learned doing the fast scribbles.

On this page you can see I drew and redrew the image four times.

In the center left is the blind contour which I drew first.  I love the wonkiness of blind contours!  And I am amazed that you can actually see what the heck it is!

Second I drew the image directly below it, a faceless contour, working out the shapes a bit more accurately.

Third I drew the image on the lower right, adding a bit of face and uniform detail.  As the notes on the page say, I was working out how the twist worked in terms of the proportion of the limbs and the movement of the clothes.  All very hard for me! But so much fun.

Then finally I completed the big sketch.

I am pleased with the composition of this page--I like seeing the growth of the image through the version.  And the notes add a nice sense of "study" to it.

And though it really doesn't look anything like my nephew, it reminds me of watching him play.

Sketching a Canadian Lynx

Still working from a taxidermy specimen at Call of the Wild in Gaylord, Michigan, I spend some time studying a Canadain Lynx.

For this set of scribbles, I started with a blind contour drawing.   You can see that at the top of the first page below.  A blind contour is a sketch of just the outline of the shape of the object, drawing with your eyes locked on the object.  You never look at the pen on the paper once you start drawing.

Blind contour drawings often result in goofy scribbles that don't look much like the object--but then again, somehow, they do.  They pick up interesting energy and shapes that while not technically accurate, often have a "true" life of their own.

After the blind contour, I finished out the page with a close-up of the animals's facial structure.  Two really different types of drawings to warm up my eyes and brain and hand and heart.

Then I tried a portrait of the creature with just watercolor.  I wanted to use an unrealistic color, but also approach the painting a bit like a drawing, just to see what it would look like.

You can see how the warm-up ink drawings, the contour and the facial structure study, helped me create this portrait.  I really like the variation of line weight and color, which adds, I think, a liveliness to the viewing experience (at least to mine!).

Consider scribbling something in unrealistic colors and see what you discover!



 

Back to Going Big with Watercolor

As part of my July "Going Big" watercolor class, I decided to try a portrait of my Dutch Shepherd, Nikolaas.

I sketch him all the time, as you've seen if you read this blog, so I am familiar with the subject!  However, in this case, instead of working from life, I worked from a photo.

This is on 18 x 24 Strathmore 400 watercolor paper, with Daniel Smith paints.

First I sketched the main shapes in lightly with pencil.

Then I washed in the spots of quinacridone gold.  While that was still wet, I started the blue wash, because I wanted the colors to blend at the edges.

Still, I wound up with many harder edges than I had anticipated.  Probably I didn't soak the paper adequately before I started!  Live and learn!

Because of the strong cast of sunlight on the right and the strong shadow on the left, I planned from the start to only detail one of his eyes.  However, I couldn't get it placed right, not in the initial drawing or the initial washes.  I measured and measured, but it just didn't come out right.

I did this working in a tiny space, actually.  Just a portion of the table at my friends' house during our weekly Open Studio.  Best part of my week.

After I got home and things dried completely, I went back in with some glazing to darken the darks and warm up some of the gold.

I think I only used four colors in this work--quin gold, indanthrone blue, burnt sienna, and a second blue--maybe phthalo?--for his bright blue tag (and a bit of variation in the lake.

After spending so much time working with the flat photograph (which I think probably was what stymied me about the placement of that eye), I grabbed my trusty brush pen and journal and went outside to scribble Nik from life, while he played with his ball on a hot day.

I want to bring some of this scribbly liveliness into my bigger work!!

Blue Dinosaur in a New Blue Sketchbook

I made a new sketchbook the other day.

I buy some of my favorite paper in large rolls, then cut it to the size I want and bind by hand.  Then I get the paper I want in the size I want.

This new one resulted from an experiment:  I wanted to see if I could bind one that would fold back on itself, and had a soft cover.

I bound the paper with coptic binding and covered it in a thick handmade paper I got at the local Fair Trade store.  So far so good.

I used Bee Paper's Super Deluxe sketchpaper, because I had the end of a roll left from some time ago.

I didn't worry too much about getting everything exact on this sketchbook--I plan to carry it lots of places and beat it up.  So I had a good time tossing it together and now I'll enjoy it.

Anyhow, after scribbling in my contact and current palette information on the first page (which I do to start any new sketchbook--it gets me past the "new book" syndrome), I decided to practice my scribbling on a dinosaur!  A triceratops to be exact.

In phthalo blue and cadmium red orange.

This is the first time I've drawn this particular toy, so I viewed this scribbling session as a "getting to know you" time.  I even sang the showtune as I drew.

First, a blind contour; that's the delightful mess on the upper left.  Then a modified contour.  Then a slower scribble of just the head, but still a scribble, not attempting to catch everything, but just exploring shapes and angles and then, some values.

Let me tell you:  this only sort of looks like my dinosaur!

But I feel like I had a successful sketching session.  I got to scribble with one of my favorite fountain pens (a Pelikan M200 fine), splash paint around, study a complex and super interesting figure (boy, I sure wish I could find a time machine and go back and see a live dinosaur), and practice my scribbling skills.  What a delightful way to spend an hour!

What I want to practice next time I draw this dino again is how to capture the horns when they are pointed toward the viewer.  Foreshortening them is hard.  They kind of disappear in my painting.  So, something to work on!

The Aqua Blue Iguana and I

Today I went to PetCo (a chain pet store not far from where I live).  I knew they had parakeets and I thought maybe I'd try drawing a bird.  Since my class last winter on drawing live subjects in public, I've wanted to give live animals (who are not my own pets) a try.

Yeah, well, the birds were lovely, but WOWZA:  there was an Aqua Blue Iguana in a large space right next to the birds, and I had to draw the iguana!  It's like a living version of my Allosaurus.  All you dino sketchers out there, I highly recommend finding a live iguana to draw.


I had a few kids come up and look over my shoulder, but no one stayed long.

And by the end of my hour with the iguana, I had so fallen in love with it (I mean, I spent an hour gazing into its eye!), I was ready to buy it and bring it home, but I resisted. 

Also, I must purchase some Cobalt Teal paint if I go back to sketch it again.  My colors were completely inadequate for any sense of local color.

You can see the four pages I completed below.  I don't know if the resizing of the image allows for you to read the notes, but I've included them anyway, in hopes that you can if you want to.

I used my Strathmore 500 mixed media journal, an 03 fineliner, and two colors of Daniel Smith watercolors, indanthrone blue and burnt sienna. 

What most interested me about this sketch out (and I guess what interests me most about life) is the story.

I sit down to start drawing, starting with the iguana's eye and very quickly, things start to go "WRONG!"  Note the quotes.  That voice in the head that tries to scare the creative beejeesus out of us.  Roz Stendahl calls it the Internal Critic, or the I.C.  I have named mine Ichabod.  Anyhow, piped right up and tried to stop my fun.

I've learned my best defense is to go loose, get scribbling, and remind myself I'm just learning. 

And I sketched the iguana over and over.

 So I sketched again and again.  I knew I wasn't getting the proportions right, despite measuring and looking.  Frustrating.  Ichabod chimes in that this is a waste and I should quit while I'm ahead and go draw a bird.  Or maybe a cricket.  I will never get this iguana, even if it does look a lot like the Allosaurus.  And why bother, because you don't have cobalt teal anyhow and any paint you add will not look good. 

That Ichabod--he is just hilarious, isn't it?

So I paused and took some editing notes.  What was working.  What wasn't.  None of Ichabod's chatter, but sensible observations.  

Then I started again and guess what?  My contours were suddenly more accurate than anything I had started earlier.  So I just let my pen play until I had filled two pages, then I went back to the contour that seemed most accurate to me, and built on that, restating, refining.  This is the darker pen sketch in the middle of page 2.  I got a lot of good parts of that drawing.

Then, I turned the page (I was in about 40 minutes now), and said, well, let's try a portrait again.  I spent the next 20 minutes working on that sketch and painting, ignoring local color (except for the general "blueness") and working on values.  

When I finished it had been 61 minutes total.  And I thought, well, this outing was a smashing success!  I almost quit, but I did not quit.  I got some really good experience with this iguana.  I got amazing experience with cranky Ichabod, and with "failing" at initial drawing attempts. 

Then I took a few more minutes to write out notes to capture the whole experience, so that later I remember not to get discouraged.  And also to remember the power of the 60 minute sketching session.  If I had only had 30 minutes, I would have quit before I turned that page and started that portrait.  

And while it is not the best portrait of an iguana, what happened on page 3 is so much better than what happened on page 1, well, it is totally amazing to me.

It was a stellar sketching day!  I hope you have one too!

This post comes from work I did in a class with Roz Stendahl, Drawing Practice:  Drawing Live Subjects in Public.  I recommend it!

Practicing Values on St. Patrick's Day

Last week, on St. Patrick's day, I scribbled for the day using my new toy gorilla as a model.

I had not drawn him before.

Inspired by the holiday and some new paint, and wisdom I had read recently about the relationship between color and value...

First I did some contour studies in black and white.

The wisdom I had read (and now I regret that I didn't write the quote down) indicated that while color is a matter of taste, the value (or darkness) of the shapes that make up a picture are "fact."  If you want something to look like something (and, of course, we don't always want that, but if we do...) you have to get the values right.

I have a hard time seeing them, much less getting them down on paper.  I'm still practicing with my scribbles!

Somehow, using funky colors made it more fun to experiment and practice these ideas.

I think I'll do a blue dinosaur next.

From Gesture to Contour and Back Again

More notes from the front lines of Roz Stendahl's "Drawing Practice: Drawing Live Subjects in Public" class...

After three days of intensive focus on fast gesture drawing, Rox had us switch to slow contour drawing.  I thought, no problem.  I've been practicing contour drawing for over two years now.

Yeah, well, not with the impact of gesture drawing behind it.

I loved the sense of volume and energy I got from my gestures!  I didn't want to give it up for contours, which suddenly feel stiff and a little cold to me.

How to think about gesture--energy, shape, volume--and still follow contour?

One of my classmates made the terrific observation that this is all a bit like learning a foreign language, and having to consciously translate into new syntax all the time.

Yeah, it is like that.

Roz encourages us to use detailed, made to scale, plastic toy animals, or taxidermied animals, to practice learning animal anatomy on something that doesn't move.  Then we should be better suited to draw live animals when the time comes.

Following her example, I "adopted" several such toys.  Below you'll see my work with Trike, my triceratops.  First, a gesture, then a blind contour, then some modified contours in different positions.  Finally, a study of negative space.  I used my Lamy fountain pen with an EF nib for these.

We are supposed to draw live subjects out in public as frequently as possible too.  And for contour drawing, which is slow and concentrated, coffee shops and waiting rooms are the best.  People are generally preoccupied and fairly stationary.

When you adopt scribbling as a habit, you never get bored in a waiting room!

Plus, when I do pages like the ones above, I find myself wondering about the people as I draw them.  Who are they?  What are they thinking about?  What passions and struggles to they carry as they sit here, waiting to see a doctor or waiting for an oil change or waiting to get their new driver's license photo taken?

I like how creating these sketches brings me more awareness of the strangers whose paths cross my own.

Also, perhaps obviously, I had pre-painted those pages, just to add a little random color for my sketching.  I don't always like practicing on just white.

As another shot at practicing contours on live subjects in public, I attended a local musical showcase.  Here a different artist or group sang every song.  So I got a relatively stationary subject for a few minutes, and then a new subject.  It was a challenge to move slowly, stick only to outlines, and capture a bit of each performer.  Just one of the pages I produced during the two-hour concert appears below.  Here I am using a .03 fineliner waterproof ink pen.

I combined contour with gesture in some places.  For instance, I used gesture to capture the choir in the middle, but contour for everything else on the above page.  I liked understanding the different qualities of each and being able to choose which to use in which situation.

The "aha" of finally getting what gesture is and why it matters finally clicked as I chose it, or chose not to use it.

I think I heard the music better because I was drawing.  I certainly felt completely lost in each performance.

Drawing Artists at my Open Studio

I am blessed to have co-founded an Open Studio group that has been meeting once a week for about five years now.  What a great place to practice sketching!

Every now and then I don't have a project to work on, so I scribble the people and things at the big table we all share.

Here are a few from the last few months:

One of the "rules"--sort of--of Open Studio is that if you come, consider bringing food to share.  So we often have delightful munchies.  This early season watermelon just looked and tasted so very good!  I had to sketch it.

Plus, I find plates, and all dishware, very hard to draw.  It was good for me to practice.  And I need to do more.

Of course, the table where we all work is piled high with art supplies.  I find I can never go wrong drawing art supplies!  The shapes and colors always make such a lively sketch.

This may sound silly, but I am particularly proud of the paper towel roll.  That was hard for me to SEE, much less translate to two dimensions.  It was a puzzle to me how complex a simple, white, cylindrical object could be!

And of course, the people around the table are terrifically interesting and easy to practice on.  They all work on their own projects, so they tend not to move very much! Perfect subjects for sketching.

Here a made a grid spread of people and more things on the table. 

Sometimes it's fun just to do a little comic of some of my fellow makers.

Looking at people, trying to move beyond a comics style to a little more of a scribbly portrait.  Lots of practice per page.

Here I did several blind contours of the same person as I worked up to the larger portrait.   Boy, mouths are really hard to draw.

For this next one, I drew everyone around the table (including myself) and had everyone sign their names. This is a cool practice I learned from the sketchbook artist lapin.  It captures the memory of the event, allows everyone to see the drawing, and invites everyone to add their own mark to the final version.

These pages contain so many of the things I LOVE about sketchbooks. 

Where else are you going to see fresh blueberry donuts and a glue stick depicted on the same page of art?

More Practice Scribbling People Using Blind Contours and the Television

I always like to change things up in my scribbling, so after drawing a bunch of different single-line blind contour portraits of TV personalities (I shared my work with Lester Holt of NBC news in my last post), I decided to try a few modified blind contours on a game show host.  These exercises were just as fun for helping me pay new attention to something I had seen many times and for improving my drawing.

Here is one example I did, with apologies to Alex Trebek.  I didn't label it clearly, but the drawings are blind, five looks, and ten looks (with hair and shadows added later).

I had great fun doing it and feel like I want to try him again.  Even in the final scribble where I looked ten times, I couldn't get his chin right.  Ah, well.  There is always another drawing to come!

(Plus, I just realized I spelled the man's name wrong in my sketchbook--apologies!  But I don't proofread what I write there...)

Here are the steps I used for practicing drawing portraits using modified blind contour drawings and TV personalities!

Practice Drawing Portraits with Modified Blind Contours

1.  Find someone to sit for you.  Or choose a TV show (like many game shows or talk shows) where the people sit fairly still.  If you have a DVR and want to freeze the screen, I would not consider that cheating!

2.  Grab some paper and smooth quick flowing pen.  It's important to be able to move your pen as quickly as you wish.

3.  Decide what part of the person's face you are going to start on.

4.  Look at the paper and select where you are going to start the drawing.  Put the pen down.  For the first sketch, do not pick it up again!

5.  Look up at your model.  Move your eyes slowly around the person's features.  As you move your eyes, move your pen.  No matter what the speed, keep your eyes and your pen together.  Remember not to pick up the pen if you can help it!

6.  Finish and look at your drawing!  Appreciate for just a few seconds what is lively and keen about it. 

7.  Pick a new point on the person's face to start your next drawing and put your pen down on the paper.  Draw the person pretty much the same way as you did before, only this time, allow yourself to look a few times.  Maybe twice.  Or three times.  Or five.  It's up to you.

8.  Have a look at this drawing!  Appreciate it.  

9.  Pick a new point on the person's face and put your pen down on the paper.  This time, draw the person, but allow yourself to look a few more times.  Maybe twice as much as you looked during the last drawing.

10.  Do as many as you wish!  Try to do at least three, so you can see the differences in your drawings. 

When you are done, sit back and have a look!

What do you notice about the similarities and differences among your drawings?

What do you appreciate about your subject that you hadn't noticed before (no matter how many times you've looked at him or her)?  Any surprises there for you?

What did this drawing exercise help you learn, not only about drawing, but about seeing and appreciating?

How to Practice Scribbling People Using Multiple Single-Line Blind Contours and the Television

Recently, I put together a few different techniques to help myself practice drawing portraits, even though I have a nasty cold and no one wanted to be near me, much less sit for me while I drew them.  So I used multiple single-line blind contour drawings and the television to help be get some scribbling practice into my sketchbook.

I have done a few more blind contour scribbles in the last few days to help myself warm up before I do something more "serious" in my sketchbook.

The funny thing is, often I kind of like the weirdness of the blind contours better than the slower sketch!

On the other hand, the blind contours always warm up my hand-eye coordination and help me do a better scribble of anything, no matter what I'm working on.

The other evening I decided to give it a try using two television personalities.  First, Lester Holt, the anchor on the NBC Nightly News.  These are single line contours for the most part.  In other words, I drew them with my eyes glued to the TV, and without lifting my pen.

You can see how some sections of the face stay together pretty well, but once your hand loses its spot, well that's when things go wonky!  On the left scribble above, I really like how the glasses moth and chin stick together, but the nose is all on its own there in the middle.  And the eyes--how did they wind up so far to the left?   You really learn a lot about how your brain receives information from your eyes and transfers it to your hands by doing these.  Look at the upper right:  where is the man's chin?  I don't know. 

To me, perhaps the most amazing thing about this exercise is how you can look at the same person or picture and do several blind contours one right after another only to have them turn out so completely differently!  I think this happens in part because I challenge myself to start from a different place each time.

Here is a scribble I did of Mr. Holt after the blind contours, looking at the page as much as I liked:

I'm rather pleased with this as it sort of looks like him!

So, to summarize, here are the steps I used for practicing drawing people using multiple single-line blind contours and--when no one else is around to sit for you--TV personalities!

Practice Drawing People with Multiple Single-Line Blind Contours

1.  Find someone to sit for you.  Or choose a TV show (like the news) where the people sit fairly still.  If you have a DVR and want to freeze the screen, I would not consider that cheating!

2.  Grab some paper and smooth quick flowing pen.  It's important to be able to move your pen as quickly as you wish.

3.  Decide what part of the person's face you are going to start on.

4.  Look at the paper and select where you are going to start the drawing.  Put the pen down.  Do not pick it up again!

5.  Look up at your model.  Move your eyes slowly around the person's features.  As you move your eyes, move your pen.  No matter what the speed, keep your eyes and your pen together.  Remember not to pick up the pen if you can help it!

6.  Finish and look at your drawing!  Appreciate for just a few seconds what is lively and keen about it. 

7.  Pick a new point on the person's face to start your next drawing... and repeat.  

Try to do three or more of these single-line blind contour drawings in a row of the same subject.

When you are done, sit back and have a look!

What do you notice about the similarities and differences among your drawings?

What have you noticed and appreciated about your subject that you hadn't noticed before (no matter how many times you've looked at him or her)?  I am always humbled when I draw something I've looked at many times before and feel like I have really seen it for the first time.  Even, it seems, a TV news anchor...

Warming up with Fast Blind Contour Selfies

Credit for this idea goes to the artist lapin, who shared it on a Q and Art video about warming up which you can check out here.

He recommends warming up by quickly scribbling blind contour drawings of people.  Less than a minute or so on each, and you do it without looking at the paper.

Of course, what results is often a mess in terms of looking like the person!  It can be hard to place the mouth in relation to the nose when you can't look at the paper.

But blind contour drawings help train your eyes to see and your hand to follow.  The process is good for your skills at paying attention.

Plus, sometimes the resulting wonky drawings have a vibrancy and charm all their own.

Today, when I had a few spare moments before I had to leave for an appointment, I did four blind contour selfies--all four in under two minutes.  Here they are:

None of them looks like me.

They all look like me.

Super fun.  Super quick.  An interesting way to look at yourself and others.  I can't wait to give it a try out in a public place later this week.

I also think this will be fun to try with other members of the family.  Imagine how closely--and sweetly--you will have to look at each other to draw each other in this way.  What wonderful things, other than the drawings, might result?