Finishing Up the Drawing Class

Giving portrait drawing a little try.

The first one--not so good.

The second--a little better.

A proportional divider is a device to help artists get proportions correctly.  I am also trying out a new eraser called Vanish.  

This is a very small 4 x 5" pencil sketch.  

Sketching and Drawing as Autumn Comes

You may have thought I'd abandoned my "littles".  Not so.  But I have been busy with my drawing class and other things so I did not post as often as I often this time around.  but I did complete one last night during a rain storm here at the cabin.  As you can see this one went from mid July to mid September!  But it still marks the time nicely for me with memories.  I love looking at Dean's dog, Molly, who came for a visit and being reminded of the wild flowers (like Tansies and Butter and Eggs) of late summer and early fall.  And that wild orange sunset was REALLY that color.  It was just amazing.  

I see the baby loon in the top right corner. The little loon is looking adult size now.  The parents have been teaching it all summer.  I think it is a "slow-learner".  It seems everyone on the lake has been rooting for the little fella.  I watched one afternoon while mother tried to teach it to dive and feed itself.  (It much preferred being fed!)  Now they are working teaching it to fly!  It's not going well.  They have to hurry up with this.  October is just around the corner.  (Loons are swimming birds and the flying thing is hard.  They are heavy in the water and it takes them forever to get up out of the water.) Sometimes in late September they take a practice fly because they haven't been flying all summer.  

This tiny little graphite sketch was my first attempt at using powdered graphite.  This is applied to the paper before you start drawing and then darkened or lifted out as you go along.  The birch and the road are lifted out.  It's only 3 x 5" but I learned a lot as I went along.  SO many things to learn about drawing!  I have one more class on Tuesday.  

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.

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!  

Drawing Class Homework

The theory that you can put your text book under your pillow at night and sleep on it and get to be a better drawer doesn't seem to work.  So I have to resort to the next idea which is to actually do the homework assignment.

The assignment is just an exercise in following line...in keeping your eyes more on the object you are sketching than on the paper. Looking back and forth.  

The purpose of the onion drawing is first to think about what the vegetable looks like and draw it from memory.  Then go and get the onion (or whatever fruit and veggie you chose) and draw what you see.  We often remember somewhat stereotyped versions of things.
Combating that illusion and drawing from what is right in front of us...drawing what we see (not what we remember) is the point of this lesson.  The pencils used in both these lessons is a Derwent graphic 2B graphite.

The assignment is using something with dark glass, draw shapes and highlights and shadows.  This is challenging for someone like me who is used to putting all those things in with watercolor!  Now I have to look solely at the pencil values.  In some cases in this drawing I had to "remove" graphite to get at the highlights.  This takes more time.  This was done on Stonehenge 100% cotton paper.

There are several more small assignments to do before next Tuesday.  

Day One of Drawing Class

Dave is instructing the class about how to position a photographic reference for a study on tone...or value.  

The lesson is about shapes...trying to stop thinking about this as a "hand" and more about a group of "shapes".  Drawing my own left hand.  

After doing a value study of a 2B pencil's range of dark to light...

then we all looked at this photo example and with help from "gridding" of our paper and the photo planned out a copy of the photograph.  Working hard to look and replicate some of the pencil tones.  I switched to a 6B Derwent pencil for the darkest darks.

This was day 1 of a 3-day class.  

We have some suggested homework assignments to read in our text book....Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson.  And a few exercises that Dave has suggested we try.  Looks like a rainy couple of days up north and so good to be in the studio!  

The book has been around a long time...but has a lot of good information.  Can be purchased used for about $5 plus shipping.

Walk-And-Draw Journaling

This kind of journal entry I call "walk-and-draw" journal entries.

These quick line drawings were done in a 5x7 journal with a PN Sakura pen.  I was standing while sketching...talking with my daughter Julie as we walked (ambled) along the road near our Northwoods cabin...discussing what we were seeing and trying to identify some of the plants we were seeing.  Some easy and other not so.  Julie identified a Sarsaparilla plant which I had seen but never identified.

(note corrected spelling from my notes.) It appears this plant is used for medical properties.  

There were two plants we noted but could not identify.  I'm still searching my wildflower book.  

I stopped to do a brief sketch of the neighbor's old pump they use for a name holder for their cabin.  I've seen it a million times but today it just seemed so old and lovely that I had to add it.

We also found what we think is a "white milkweed" and at least 20 tiny Monarch caterpillars on each plant...less than an inch long!  Must have JUST hatched.  I never would have noticed this if I wasn't walking slowly with my daughter and my sketchbook.  How lovely and amazing is that.

So how are you feeling about happenstances that change thinking?  Or change the course of your thinking? Or coincidences that just seem (at the time or later) to have impacted your life in small but sometimes amazing ways?  Perhaps opening new doors or allowing you to change your mind or even making you wonder about the "magic" in your life?  It's a topic my daughter and I have been exploring. It certainly fits with my journey to "pay attention".  

See Sidewalk Oracles: Playing with Signs, Symbols, and Synchronicicity by Robert Moss.  

So tonight around 7 a storm blew up on the lakeside and we had about half an hour of wind and rain which has now moved off, leaving everything dripping and the temperature down.  Julie and I are curled up on the porch doing a jig saw puzzle, reading, and chatting. She has to leave tomorrow.  Sigh. 

Prompt #27 plus studio organizing

The prompt yesterday was to draw a layout of a room.  I ended up thinking about the house I grew up in.  I ended up posting it on my FB page which drew a lot of interest among family and friends.  And other folks checking in with what they remember about where the grew up as well.  Tender memories.  

It's amazing that I haven't lived in that house for 66 years but I can still remember where we put the Christmas tree, where the wasp stung me in the kitchen one summer, and how the morning glories looked climbing up the house near the kitchen window.  I remember the upstairs window overlooking the croquet games in the evening, where mother kept the box of our curls tied in ribbons that were our first haircuts, sitting on the stoop with our trading cards... the smell of the apple blossoms in the orchard next door, the sound of the corn rustling in dad's garden, the picket fence by the lilac bush, the sidewalk where we chalked the hop scotch and the driveway where we put our handprints in the cement one summer day and all those elm trees that later died and had to be replanted due to Dutch elm disease.  I could go on and on.  What a great prompt.    

This little sketch is done in my studio here in Florida of some of the materials I am putting together for a drawing class I am taking this summer in Wisconsin.  I believe "in making plans" and having things to look forward to.  Keeps the juices flowing.  The materials needed are simple...some different kinds of leads with varying hardnesses and a good eraser, a fine book of instruction, and good paper.  The classes start in June.  

I decided on a little inventory of some of the various pencils I already own include some charcoal pencils of various hardnesses and some carbon pencils which are almost as dark!  I am reminded that I own a few water soluble graphite pencils as well.  

Colored pencils are a whole other ballgame and not part of this class but as long as I was on a binge of pencils...I decided to inventory some of the "watercolor" pencils and crayons I own.  And that is not even touching the regular colored pencils (for another day).  

I am reminded of a little bit I saw in the internet recently which appears to apply here...

A Shady Spot

 

Lone Oak Cemetery in Leesburg, FL last Thursday.

 

Such a quiet day...

Preparing a graphite drawing for watercolor

Using a dry Cleaning Pad

In Ann Abcott's classes she teaches the use of a "dry cleaning pad".  They are absolutely marvelous for preparing your graphite drawings for watercolor painting.  You rub over them lightly with the pad and the whole drawing lightens up.  Can you see I've done the right side but not the left?  It may be hard to see.

The reason is that wc is so transparent that when you paint, the graphite may show through.  In some cases this is fine.  Even planned.  Other times you'd rather not see the lines.  And once wet, most graphite become pretty permanent.

This drawing (of a steam punk time machine) is done in .03 graphite pencil on 9 x 12 Fabriano 140# hot press paper.  

Do not disappoint the squirrel of judgement

Someone posted this on Facebook and I am sorry I don't have a reference for where it came from.

But it hit both my funny bone AND my "uh oh" bone.

You wouldn't want to disappoint the "squirrel of judgment"!!!  Hahaha.

Having TWO new computer devices arrive for Christmas has "sucked" a LOT of time over the last two weeks...getting things "migrated" from one computer to the other, getting used to a new format for my Apple (Sierra) and then also a new format on my new iPad.  How nuts with THAT decision.  Hahaha.  Whew...how is that for a confession!  

Back to art...I have a huge array of ideas on my studio table...no problem about what ideas to create...more a problem of where to start.  I usually start with clean up and organization.  This NEEDS to get done.  I want to throw open the studio windows this morning (it's 85 again here in central FL...no complaints there).  

When perplexed, I always start with re-organization.  I finished up the paper clay projects (for now) and I'd like to move back to wc painting and sketching for part of January. Some new ideas on the back burner there.  And I'd like to work a bit on the ZenAgain workshop I am planning for later in January here in the park (for folks who had basic course already). 

I haven't done any gelli printing this fall at all.  

That studio table is mess.  Sigh.  A catch all.  

I am trying to work up a group here in the park for a "drawing a day" challenge until Feb 6 (about 4 weeks).  I think I need the support for that challenge too.  I am always inspired by Danny Gregory.  That link by the way takes you to a little video about drawing every day.  There is a new course on Sketchbook Skool if you want to get serious about it.  

Okay...am off to that organization excitement.  Hahaha.  Photos of neat and tidy studio to follow.  I hope.

A few things to share

First gemstone painting

Gemstones in your Zentangle anyone?  Okay, it's all the rage now on the Facebook groups.  Come on, you HAVE to keep up here.  So this is just my first ever try at it.

I see it can be kind of addicting. I need to give my watercolor students their grade after the 3 workshops.  Everyone got an A.  Thought I'd make it a cool one.

Mike (9)

Okay so this is my grandson, Mike, sending me a Happy Thanksgiving card. On the front is his cat.  Very nice cat.

But inside is this.  Okay help me on this.  My first though it is Mayflower with sails bringing over the hapless Pilgrims. 

 But it looks for all the world like they have a trolling motor on board.  (Mike is an avid fisherman…his dad does have one of these).  It must be early in the morning or late in the evening as the sun and stars are out at the same time.  Always an amazing event when that happens.  

I adore kids' drawings.  They are so wonderful.  Mike has not yet been told he can't draw so he does and he can.  In a few years he'll stop.  Somewhere in there we lose that fresh joyous spirit that says "just do it" and we forget how.  

And then someone will have to re-teach him again when he is 40.  

Drawing Class with Frank Zampardi

Watching images emerge out of the paper....

Contour drawing

Every drawing class I have ever taken has been a joy.  and it reminds me that I should be drawing every day.  This was Frank Zampardi's drawing class held at the Center for the Arts in Leesburg, FL. yesterday from 9-4.   Frank teaches up in The Villages at the College for Learning.  

Frank is an excellent teacher and the workshop came with a notebook FULL of excellent hand outs.  We worked mostly in graphite and a little charcoal (charcoal is NOT my favorite). 

Drawing Class continues

Yesterday was a pleasant interlude into thinking about sketching and drawing in graphite. The class was given by David Kapszukiewicz ( and you can go to his website by clicking here.)

It was a big group..maybe about 18 of us? I forgot to count and fun to see a lot of my north woods artist friends again!

So many talented people. This little drawing was small about 10 x 12 or so.

Here is Joan Stephens sketches. Isn't she amazing?

Joan and I and a "gang" of others plan to try out some en plein sketches this morning over by Mercer Lake. A great way to celebrate the first day of summer!! And to break in my "Brenda's Bag" sketching bag!

Big storm here yesterday and a ton of rain but it looks like it breaking up this morning and we "might" get some sunshine. Knock on wood. More on that later!!!

Drawing Class continues

Trying to get my "homework" done is quite a challenge with all the distractions here in Florida!

For week two class I completed the eggs (as posted in beginning stage). Lucina felt the pencil was better than the ink (I think) only because the dark dark background in the ink draws your eye away from the egg. That can be fixed. She also like my use of texture in the background. I did a rubbing over a rubber stamp.

Also this ink egg needed more "darks" in obvious places. I found the ink cross- hatching to be tedious and would never attempt something this large in ink again! The egg is about 8" x 10".

I am busy now working on some one and two point perspective for Class 3 homework. Challenging also. More on that later.

I am into getting some framing done now for upcoming shows. As you know I whine about that periodically.

But as I read recently on Robert Genn's blog:

There is a deeper reason to express ourselves: just as the author's "journey" is complete when his words are read and possibly taken to heart. For the visual artist, merely creating anything is not the end. Without the creation being enjoyed, shared, observed, it would be like an orator standing in an empty room talking to himself! Betty Billups,

So I am working at how to display a wc on canvas that is not stretched. Now there is challenge. I probably will think twice about doing an un-stretched canvas again. But the arches wc canvas comes in a book of canvas sheets and it was a more economical way to teach the fractured wc on canvas technique. Any idea about that? I am thinking of using a spray glue and glueing to a foam core backing. But am worried about it leaking through the canvas and spoiling the painting. I don't want to get into buying stretcher bars. I could stretch it over another canvas I suppose? Hmmm.

My Drawing Class

I feel badly I haven't been posting very regularly. I can think of excuses...but they are not very creative ones. So I'll skip those.

Instead I will mention that I am in a 6 part drawing class (two sessions) taught by Lucina Roark here in Leesburg, FL.

SO much information! She is is really trying to give us a big general overview and allowing us a lot of freedom in different ways that we can respond through practice. We DO have homework! This one is to draw an egg (two times) in two different drawing media such as ink, pastel, charcoal or graphite. I took on ink crosshatching and right off the bat am in pretty rough territory. Leave it to me. Getting the nuances of shadow with cross hatching is going to be a BIG challenge (and I used a small pen too!). Uh oh. But we do have two weeks before the next class!

Our first drawing challenge included drawing our own hands. These are graphite 4B and 6B using a stump for shading.

Oh boy. These have a ways to go also! But it's a start!

I found some pretty nice Strathmore 400 series drawing paper "buy one, get one free" sale at Michaels up in The Villages on Monday. 14 x 17- 80# which I think will hold me in good stead during the classes.

75 Day Sketching Challenge!

I had to laugh at this sketchbook cover. It looks like one of those funny "plan ahead" stickers! I thought it was kind of appropriate, however!!!

I needed something that would make me smile every time I got it out!!!

Okay...how many of you are taking Brenda Swenson's sketching challenge? A sketch every day for 75 days (ink only)!

I think this could be SO helpful and fun.

First off...go to Brenda's blog for all her information on the "challenge rules".

Click here and scroll down to her July 20 post.

After you have read the rules go up to her Aug 1 post for some more hints and suggestions.

Then follow her instructions and send her by email your entry information so you make a "commitment" to do this!

I am starting today so day 75 for me will be October 27.

She would like to have a digital photo of yourself to put on your Artist License when you write and tell her you are done!!! All on your honor!!! You don't need to show anyone the sketches unless you want to!

The materials are some paper and a pen! Duh. We can do this people!

The sketches can be small...you don't need to do anything huge!

My personal hint for this would be to find a small bag of some kind for the sketchbook and pen(s). SO that you can throw it into the car when you are waiting at the dentist or at any meeting while you are waiting for something to happen and so you can find your materials and do not have an excuse that you lost them!!!

Lost for an idea? Empty your purse out and sketch what you find.

Sketch the place setting at your table at lunch.

Go for a walk and bring home some leaves to sketch.

Hey blogger buddies...I am NOT going to do this alone. Who is with me!

Asking for Your Input

My friend, Lou, from Canada and I spend the winter in Florida exploring art. This year Lou was wondering if we could, among other things, do a refresher on drawing. We know that Betty Edwards 1999 book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, has been quite a classic for a long time for good reason. And it has a 2002 workbook to go along with it. I have copies of both of these that Lou and I can use for our "personal" drawing practice this winter.

In an initial exploration of the book and revisiting the ideas for her practice sessions this summer, I came across information about a DVD. The image here is from the DVD cover (not the book). You can get it from Amazon for about $35...it is a 2 hour DVD exploring the ideas from the book. I had never heard of the DVD (it also comes VHS).

I've never heard of anyone mentioning it, owning it, or using it.

So what I am asking out in the blogging community is if anyone has ever seen it and if so, would it be a worthwhile investment?

Lou and I began to wonder if maybe we could ask some friends to join us in our revisiting the discipline of good drawing. If anyone has ever seen or used this video or DVD, let me know.

You can send your ideas or reviews to ginny.stiles@gmail.com. Thanks