Contour Drawing
2 yellow writing pencil, sharpener, and eraser The aim of this exercise, as with the previous one, is to cause your brain's language mode to drop out as you draw, this time by presenting it with a task that seems boring, repetitive, and unnecessary. A second purpose is to introduce the first basic skill of drawing, the skill of perceiving edges. 1. Turn to page 29 of the workbook. 2. Tape the workbook to a tabletop. 3. Set your kitchen timer for 5 minutes. 4. Sit at the table with your drawing...
Your Hand an Object
2 writing and 4B drawing pencils, sharpener, and eraser An object to hold a pen or pencil, a set of keys, a handkerchief, a small toy, a glove, or anything else that appeals to you In this exercise, you will again draw your hand. This time, however, your hand will be holding an object, thus adding compositional interest and providing a new challenge while encouraging you to practice the skills you have just learned. 1. Turn to page 42 in the workbook, with the pre-drawn format and faint...
NegativeSpace Drawing of an Actual Chair
2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser Graphite stick and paper towel for setting a ground Drawing an actual chair, as opposed to a photograph of a chair, is a good way to summarize all the skills you have learned so far. In a photograph, the image is already flattened. In drawing a real chair, which exists in three-dimensional space, you will call on all of the previous exercises. First, you must flatten the image by viewing it on the Picture Plane Viewfinder and close one eye to remove...
Sighting an Open Doorway
2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder Felt-tip marker In this exercise you will practice the third component skill, the perception of relationships, also called sighting. This is a two-part skill sighting angles relative to vertical and horizontal, and sighting sizes relative to each other. Commonly known as perspective and proportion, sighting has been the Waterloo of many an art student. It is a complicated skill, both to learn and to teach, but the Picture Plane...
Drawing a Profile Portrait
Be sure to check the proportions you learned in Exercise 26. 2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder Felt-tip marker Graphite stick and paper towel for setting the ground Note For this exercise, you will need a model willing to pose for 30 to 60 minutes with breaks, of course the model can be reading or watching television . Now that you have learned the proportions of the head in profile by copying the two-dimensional image of the John Singer Sargent drawing, the next...
Drawing a Household Object
2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser A household object, such as a corkscrew bottle opener, eggbeater, whisk, scissors, or any gadget that appeals to you. This exercise provides further practice in using both negative spaces and the Basic Unit in order to help set these skills. You will be drawing on an ungrounded paper, to again demonstrate the beauty of pencil line on paper. 1. Turn to page j8 of the workbook, with the printed format. 2. Lightly draw the crosshairs in the format with your...
Proportions of the Head in FullFace View
In Exercise 26, you learned to draw the proportions of the head in profile. The next challenge is to draw a portrait in full-face view, incorporating the fourth skill, the perception of lights and shadows. This exercise in learning the general proportions of the human head in full-face view is helpful in portrait drawing, because these proportions seem to be difficult to see without training. The most frequent error is enlarging the features relative to the whole shape of the head. It is well...
Copying a FullFace Portrait
Charcoal and paper towel, for toning a ground Charcoal pencil and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder In this exercise, you will be using charcoal to copy a full-face self-portrait by Picasso, also drawn in charcoal. You will gain practice not only in drawing the proportions of the head, but also in using charcoal to create a range of dark and light values. Portrait drawing requires precise discriminations in terms of edges, spaces, relationships, and lights and shadows. Before you start your...
Copying a Master Drawing Man Reading the Bible by Vincent van Gogh
During and after the decades of Abstract Expressionism, a school of painting originating in New York in the 1940s, copying masterworks was out of favor as a way of training artists in America. Now, however, new appreciation of drawing skills is bringing the practice back into art schools. Copying master drawings is an excellent way to practice your drawing skills, and you will learn a great deal from copying this wonderful artwork. Note that the format of Man Reading the Bible the proportions,...
Setting a Ground
2 yellow pencil or 4B drawing pencil, sharpener, and eraser Setting a ground, which means toning the paper you will draw on by rubbing it with graphite or charcoal, provides several advantages. First, the toned ground provides a middle value or shade to which you can add lights and shadows by erasing the lighted areas and darkening the shadowed areas. Second, I find that students seem more comfortable starting a drawing when they have already worked on the paper to tone a ground. For some, a...
Workbook
Still life, figure drawing, landscape, imaginative drawing Learning to draw is very much like mastering a sport or a musical instrument to advance your ability, you must practice, practice, practice. But in practicing, what, specifically, should you draw This convenient workbook contains the answer forty basic and new exercises that reinforce the five basic skills of drawing. Each provides appropriate subject matter, brief instruction, sample drawings, a ready-made format in which to draw, and...
NegativeSpace Drawing of a Sports Photograph
2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder Felt-tip marker A sports photograph from a newspaper or magazine, preferably one that includes a foreshortened view of an athlete, and preferably one as large or larger than the opening of the Picture Plane Viewfinder The five component perceptual skills of drawing -seeing edges, spaces, relationships, lights and shadows, and the gestalt apply to every drawing, no matter what the subject matter. For the purpose of these...
Drawing Your Hand on the Plastic Picture Plane
2 yellow writing pencil, sharpener, and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder inserted into this workbook. Remove it as directed. To make the Picture Plane Viewfinder more rigid, cut a narrow frame about an inch and a half wide from cardboard and use tape to attach it to the back of the Picture Plane Viewfinder. Slightly dampened tissue or paper towel James Montgomery Flag, I Want You, 1917. 30 x 40 inches. Poster by Walter Rawls. Imperial War Museum, London, England. This exercise introduces the...
Charlie Chaplin in Light and Shadow
Charcoal, natural or synthetic Charcoal pencil and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder Charlie Chaplin. Photograph by Hartsook. International Portrait Gallery. Charlie Chaplin. Photograph by Hartsook. International Portrait Gallery. In the exercises on edges, spaces, and relationships, you were encouraged to see and draw fine details in order to increase your ability to discriminate slight changes in edges, shapes, angles, and proportions. With the fourth skill, the perception of lights and...
Drawing a Flower
2 writing and 4B drawing pencils, sharpener, and eraser Fresh flower or a silk flower, if necessary , with the stem and a few leaves This drawing will show you the beauty of simple pencil lines on ungrounded paper. You will be drawing a flower with its stem and leaves. Flowers, of course, are three-dimensional, and the leaves are arranged in different directions around the stem. How to portray this three-dimensionality often mystifies students. As you have seen with your hand drawings,...
Sighting a Still Life of Books on a Table
2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder Felt-tip marker Graphite stick and paper towel for setting a ground Several books, spread at random on a table Because you are so familiar with what the shape of a book looks like, it can be hard to accept the apparent shape changes that occur when you draw books that are lying flat on a table and receding from your plane of vision. In certain positions, and at certain angles, a book lying flat on a table may appear on the...
Transferring Your Hand Drawing from Picture Plane to Paper
Picture Plane Viewfinder, with the drawing of your hand in foreshortened view from Exercise 8 2 yellow writing pencil, sharpener, and eraser In drawing a perceived image, an artist copies onto paper the flattened image seen on a real or imaginary picture plane. In Exercise 8, drawing your hand on the plastic, I made the imaginary picture plane into an actual plane on which you drew your hand with your felt-tip marker. You will now copy that drawing from the plastic Picture Plane onto paper....
Drawing a Chair in Negative Space
2 pencil, sharpener, and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder Felt-tip marker 4B graphite stick and paper towel, for setting a ground Photograph of a chair, about 5 or 6, cut from a newspaper or magazine advertisement or use the one on page 54 of the workbook Sheet of white paper, 9 x 12. One common problem in starting a drawing is deciding how bigto make the first shape. If you draw the first shape too large, the subject of your drawing will go off the page. If you draw the first shape too small,...
Drawing Your S elfPortrait in Light and Shadow
Graphite stick and paper towel, for setting a ground Note You will need a floor lamp or clip-on light to illuminate one side of your head. Self-portraits are often described as one of the most difficult tasks in drawing, but they are actually neither different from nor more difficult than other kinds of drawing. All drawings require the same basic component skills that you have been studying seeing edges, spaces, relationships, and lights and shadows. I believe the real problem is that each of...
Still Life with American Flag
Charcoal and paper towel, for setting a ground or, if a flag is not available, a striped So far, you have been focused on the first three component skills of drawing edges, spaces, and relationships. This exercise is a return to still-life drawing, emphasizing the same three skills but using a different subject the American flag. The flag is useful as a subject because we know it so well. We have an embedded knowledge that the flag's stripes are straight and all the same width, and that the...
Drawing an Egg Lighted from Above
Charcoal and paper towel, for toning a ground Charcoal pencil and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder Felt-tip marker White-shelled egg or eggs, in an egg carton Piece of white paper, 9 x 12 Lamp or spotlight This exercise introduces the fourth skill, the perception of lights and shadows, and builds on the first three skills edges, spaces, and relationships . You will see the edges of the shapes of lights and shadows as either negative shapes or positive forms, and you will see the shapes of lights...
UpsideDown Drawing
Picasso's 1920 drawing of the composer Igor Stravinsky, page 18 or, alternatively the drawing of the horse in foreshortened frontal view, page 20 the drawing Horse and Rider, by an unknown German artist, page 22 or the figure drawing by the Austrian artist Egon Schiele, page 24. 2 yellow writing pencil, sharpener, and eraser This exercise is designed to reduce conflict between brain modes by causing your language mode to drop out of the task. Presumably, the language mode, confused and blocked...
Sighting a Room Corner
2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder Felt-tip marker Graphite stick and paper towel for setting a ground For this exercise, choose a room corner that is complicated by including a bed or sofa, tables, lamps, and curtains. Alternatively, choose a corner of your kitchen, with its countertop, cupboards, and appliances. Because this subject is more intricate than the open doorway, this exercise is a good way to demonstrate to yourself how much progress you have made....
The KneeFoot Drawing
2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder Felt-tip marker Sighting relationships of angles and proportions is needed for every drawing, not just drawings of buildings and interiors. This exercise provides excellent practice for seeing and drawing edges, spaces, and relationships, the first three component skills of drawing. 1. Turn to page 80 of the workbook. Leave the format untoned and lightly draw the crosshairs. 2. Use the Picture Plane Viewfinder to choose a view of...
An Urban Landscape Drawing
Free-flowing, fine-tipped, black-ink writing pen, such as the Sanford Uniball Micro pen Since few of us have an easily accessible rural landscape available, in this exercise you will be drawing a scene more familiar to many of us, an urban landscape. This may seem an unlikely subject for a drawing because such scenes are so familiar we barely take notice of them. The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate that any scene and any subject when lovingly viewed and carefully drawn, can be the...
Copying a Master Drawing of a Profile Portrait
2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser This beautiful 1883 drawing Mme. Pierre Gautreau also known as Madame X , by English artist John Singer Sargent, provides perfect practice for seeing and drawing edges, spaces, and relationships especially the proportions of the head in profile. 1. Turn to page 98, with the reproduction of the Sargent drawing, and see the accompanying diagram on page 97. On page 99 of the workbook, you will find the printed format. Using a pencil, lightly draw the...
Warmup and Free Drawing
Felt-tip marker or 4B drawing pencil This exercise is designed to give you a feel for the very personal expressive quality of pencil lines on paper. You will try out the line styles of master artists and then experiment with your own marks, both fast and slow Your personal style will emerge in the course of using this workbook. It comes from your history, your physiology, your personality, your cultural background, and all the factors that make up you. You cannot plan your style or foretell it,...
Hatching and Crosshatching
2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser Pen and ink, or a writing pen with a medium-fine tip Conte crayon, black or sanguine reddish brown Hatching and crosshatching are techniques of shading with rapid parallel lines that often intersect or cross. Almost every trained artist uses hatching or crosshatching to give the effect of shadow or texture change. In addition, crosshatching allows a lovely sense of light and air to permeate a drawing. Each artist over time develops a personal style of...
Using Ink and Brush
Drawing ink, such as India ink or brown ink made for writing pens Saucer or plate for mixing the ink with water Jar of water and some paper towels or clean rags Brush and ink drawing by student Brenda Sanders. Instead of charcoal or pencil, in this exercise, I'd like you to try using ink and brush. This medium is a bit daunting at first, because you cannot erase to correct mistakes. In this drawing, however, you will lightly sketch the image first and then add water-thinned ink with a brush....
PreInstruction SelfPortrait
Materials Wall mirror Masking tape 2 yellow writing pencil Pencil sharpener Chair Pre-instruction drawings provide a valuable record of your skills in drawing at the present moment, a record that will enable you to appreciate your advance in skills at a later date. 1. Look at page 3 of the workbook, Pre-Instruction Drawing 1, Self-Portrait. 2. Place a chair in front of a mirror on the wall. If necessary, tape a small say, 6 x 8 mirror to the wall. 3. Sit at arm's length from the mirror, leaning...
A Still Life with Ellipses
Picture Plane Viewfinder Felt-tip marker Still-life setup The breakfast table is always a good still life, or you may wish to set up a teapot, a cup and saucer, and a glass half-filled with water. Any objects with circular tops will provide ellipses for your still life. An ellipse is an oval shape, like a stretched-out circle with slightly flattened sides. When you look at a circular object, such as a coin, with one eye closed, it appears to be not circular but elliptical in shape when tilted...
A Figure Drawing in Crosshatch
Conte crayon, sanguine reddish brown In the previous exercises in this workbook, you have used a smooth tone to delineate shadows. In this exercise, you will be copying a figure drawing by Alphonse Legros in which nearly all of the shadows are formed b hatched lines. As you can see, aside from the lines defining the edges of the form, the drawing is formed almost entirely with hatched lines that cross, not at right angles, but at very small angles. Crossing at small angles allows the artist to...
An Imaginative Drawing Based on Leonardo da Vincis Advice
Small amount of ink, coffee, tea, or cola preferably diet cola, because it contains no sugar that would make your drawing sticky Four or five sheets of newspaper Time needed About 30 minutes of drying time and about 15 minutes for drawing Thus far, the exercises have been based mainly on something seen in the real world. This is a form of drawing called realism. However, drawing need not be confined to portrayals of real life. Drawing can also depict the world of the imagination. One of the...
PreInstruction Drawing of the Corner of a Room
2 yellow writing pencil Pencil sharpener 1. Look at page 7 of the workbook, Pre-Instruction Drawing 3, A Room Corner. 2. Look around the room in which you are working and choose one corner to draw. It can be a simple, empty corner, a corner with a few items, or a very complicated scene. 3. Sit in a chair with the workbook on your lap. 4. Draw the room corner to the best of your ability.
Sighting Relationships in a Figure Drawing
2 and 4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser Picture Plane Viewfinder Felt-tip marker In this exercise, you will see how sighting works in drawing a human figure. You will be copying a sketch of a life-size sculpture of the writer Edgar Allen Poe, which is situated on the campus of the University of Maryland. With the sketch is a diagram of the sights I took to make the drawing. Turn to page 89 of the workbook, where you will find the sketch and diagram of the Poe sculpture. On page 89, you will...
