One Last Homework exercise before Class 2 on Tuesday

The last homework lesson I quickly squeezed in this afternoon was labeled "free hand and control hand".  

What the author is getting at here is simply that he recommends that you take a pencil (or drawing tool) and with it held it at a distance from the drawing end...causing you to more freely or loosely sketch the large outer shapes of whatever you want to draw.

He suggests a bowl of flowers.  

(I just happened to have one on the table.). You can see the author's two examples above.  It also somewhat requires you to stay back a bit from the drawing surface...standing up or at an easel makes this easier.  Instead I propped my paper up on a drawing board against the table edge. 

 

I used an HB and 2B here to try to loosely pencil in the larger shapes.

I am finding using graphite to do what I normally do in ink and watercolor to be somewhat frustrating.  But trying new things is what this class is about.  

This is the same drawing...right on top of the first one.  The idea is then to re-define the shapes using a more controlled position on the drawing tool...closer to the paper.  

First off, I found that this subject matter is very complex.  If I was completely new to drawing I would be very intimated by trying to draw flower petals during the 2nd chapter!  I found making values with graphite to continue to be so challenging.  I think I'll get better with practice but I am constantly having to clean up...you have to put a paper under your hand/arm while working on graphite or it smears all over the place.  I have only my kneadable eraser and I think I need a few different erasers.  With graphite you draw by erasing it as well as laying on graphite. 

And again...trying to get the contrasting values is so difficult.  (where is my paint? 😳). I find I am moving from HB right up to 8B  (softer) by the time I am this far.  And the above is not really a finished piece..just an exercise.  I love lots of darks in a drawing.  

Good contrasts.  I do think different papers give different results as well.  

The one good thing about this frustrating exercise is that it is helping me to know what I don't know.  Dave wants to talk about what are our drawing "roadblocks" tomorrow.