Finishing up assignments before another class Tuesday

This assignment was "draw a mechanical object".  Practice squinting.  Allow 30 minutes.  I am finding that in using graphite I need to draw by "removing" graphite as well as putting it down.  That's interesting!  

I did use about 30 minutes...maybe a little bit more.
I've always enjoyed drawing mechanical things, incidentally.  
But doing this in graphite is very different for me.

I am spraying the pages in this notebook with a workable fixative to keep them from smearing all over the place.  

We are also trying to practice using "practical dialogue" with ourselves.

That is kind of a nice way to put it.  Instead of negative things like "no that's not right" or "that doesn't look like the angle"...you are to practice saying things like "is that line horizontal or vertical?" or "is the distance from this to that greater or smaller?".  In other words do not use negative self prompting.  I find many of students start their comments to me with "this looks awful" or "the legs are too long" etc etc.  It's a bad path to take.  And can get to be a habit!

I showed someone a drawing a did recently and they went right into the old "I can't even draw a stick man" routine.  That is surely ground into everyone's mind! Of course they could draw better than that if they really wanted to.  But we so often start out negative.

The author of the textbook tries to get us out of that routine right on the first chapter of the book.  

One other thing I "may" have time for today is the study of using the free vs the control grip on the drawing tool.  Because I generally work in a sketchbook...I'm used to working with a more controlled grip.  But the author is suggesting that I try a more relaxed grip in the initial sketches.  Having an easel is nice for more free hand drawing.  

I'll see how time goes.  It's a gorgeous Indian summer day and great to be outside sketching but also great for hanging out laundry and finishing up outdoor chores around the cabin!