Class 223

Sketching: Lines

Drawing on a USB tablet is harder than on paper. This drawing process can overcome the inaccuracy of the stylus, going from fast and messy to slow and controlled.

Gestural Pass: Paint the forms loosely while keeping the document zoomed out, so you can see what you are doing on the whole picture. Now lower the opacity.

Second Pass: On a new layer, sketch out the more specific forms. It’s still not clean, but you’re preparing the image for the final pass. Now you zoom in further. flatten 1 and 2 together, and lower the opacity again.

Black Clean Line-work: Up the resolution, to get cleaner lines. Zooming in gives you more accuracy, but zoom out occasionally to make sure it still looks good.Adding detail and polish will never fix a broken drawing, so make sure you’re satisfied with each pass before moving on to the next one.

The Drawing Habit

Drawing is like bicycling (exercise). At first, it feels like a chore, lots of work, not even that fun. It's hard work. But after a while, you get better at it. Make it a habit to draw every day, so it becomes part of your routine. Eventually, you'll miss it when you can't draw.  The flip side: If you stop drawing for a while, you get rusty. So it does inquire upkeep. Sketching: Lines

Drawing on a USB tablet is harder than on paper. This drawing process can overcome the inaccuracy of the stylus, going from fast and messy to slow and controlled.

Gestural Pass: Paint the forms loosely while keeping the document zoomed out, so you can see what you are doing on the whole picture. Now lower the opacity.

Second Pass: On a new layer, sketch out the more specific forms. It's still not clean, but you're preparing the image for the final pass. Now you zoom in further. flatten 1 and 2 together, and lower the opacity again.

Black Clean Line-work: Up the resolution, to get cleaner lines. Zooming in gives you more accuracy, but zoom out occasionally to make sure it still looks good. Adding detail and polish will never fix a broken drawing, so make sure you're satisfied with each pass before moving on to the next one.

Drawing Shape - Simple Still Life

Homework: Draw one 'simple' still life, keeping in mind the techniques you learned so far. Whether you use a blue pencil underneath, or just straight graphite, you should end up with a pretty clean line drawing.

Crosshatching

Homework: Crosshatching is a great way to build up tone and volume with a pencil. Enjoy sketching with some crosshatching techniques. 

Drawing Shape: Negative Space

Homework: Sometimes the best way to see an object is by looking at the space surrounding it, the so called 'negative space'. Pick three complicated shapes and carefully draw the space surrounding the object.

Drawing Shape: Linear Block-in

Homework: Pick five (complicated) objects and draw them by starting with a large 'envelope' that encapsulates the entire form. As you work, the envelope is refined into smaller and smaller angles, which can eventually rounded out into curves.

Artist Will Terrell addresses a common problem in the art community.

Drawing Shape: Contour

Homework: Take ten relatively simple objects, and do a contour drawing. The idea is to be very careful, and very specific.