Drawing a Household Object
Materials:
#2 and #4B pencils, sharpener, and eraser
Picture Plane/Viewfinder
Felt-tip marker
A household object, such as a corkscrew bottle opener, eggbeater, whisk, scissors, or any gadget that appeals to you.
Time needed: About 20 minutes
Purpose of the exercise:
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.
Instructions:
1. Turn to page j8 of the workbook, with the printed format.
2. Lightly draw the crosshairs in the format with your #2 pencil.
3. Set your chosen object in front of you, propping it upright if you wish.
4. Hold your Picture Plane/Viewfinder up in front of the object. Now, close one eye and move the Viewfinder around until you find a composition you like. Choose a negative space to use as a Basic Unit. This can be, for example, a space in the handle of the scissors, a space between the wires of the whisk, or the space between the handle and arm of a corkscrew bottle opener.
Drawing by student Kenneth McLaren.
j. Holding the Picture Plane/Viewfinder as steadily as possible, use your felt-tip marker to draw your Basic Unit on the plastic plane.
6. Using the crosshairs to guide you, use your #2 pencil to transfer your Basic Unit to your format on the paper.
7. Set aside the Picture Plane/Viewfinder. Now draw the rest of the negative spaces of the object, using either your #2 or #4B pencil. The #2 pencil produces a thin, light line; the #4B, a wider, darker line. Be sure to close one eye to remove binocular vision, so that you can see the object as though it were flattened on the plane.
8. Continue until you have drawn all of the negative spaces, thus drawing the object itself.
9. Erase the crosshairs if you wish; sign and date your drawing. Post-exercise remarks:
One of the striking characteristics of negative-space drawings is that no matter how mundane your subject—a chair, a bottle opener, an egg-beater—your drawing will seem somehow beautiful and significant. This demonstrates, I believe, the power and importance of negative spaces in art. When you look at classic artworks in museums or in books on art, I guarantee that you will see strong emphasis on negative spaces over and over again.
Drawing by student Kenneth McLaren.
EXERCISE
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