The Tea Set

This is my tea set, and other than not appearing to be flat, I think it is quite good actually.

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First Lamp

I have abandoned the book for a while, and looking around I saw a lamp which has been a persistent feature of my living room for several years. I went for it, and well, here is my simple but elegant rendition.

Giant mug

Here is my rendition of my giant mug. In this case, I think symmetry was the most difficult.

My radio

It is thanksgiving and I was going to do a drawing of a turkey, but here is a drawing of my radio instead.

Yeah. Not bad, could have done better on the details, and it was difficult to represent depth at the top.

Apple - Getting Better

I took another try with the apple, this time with a real model. I think with many lines and shading it came out ok, though I had to wait a while and take a step back to appreciate what I had drawn.

A bird with a flower

My 5 year old niece(who really inspired this whole blog) was over today and so we were exchanging drawings. I did this rendition of a bird out of one of her kids books recently given to us by good friends from the Netherlands....then, my niece proceeded to draw over it. ;)

A barn and apples...are still difficult

Took another stab at drawing the apple today. I think more lines and different shades really helps. It still doesn't look like an apple at first glance, but it is better than last time.

Also I drew a barn for fun. =)



(Plz ignore the floating stools on the back of the page. k thnx)

An Onion

The concept with the apple and the onion is to try create a round appearance through shading and where the light falls. This can be achieved by the direction, thickness, or darkness of the lines.

I find with the onion I could have made the threads out of the top thinner, and maybe could have added in more lines for contrast. (Actually I probably really do need a lot more lines in there). I did try to get the different directions, but I think creating shade and the spot where light falls is going to take some time and practice.

Zucchini and different line directions

Next practice is zucchini which I feel is a little easier than the apple. Drawing the lines in different direction for each angle of the zucchini helped to differentiate it.

Apples are Difficult

Apples are difficult. It is difficult to get that kind of round shape. Well, it is going to take practice anyway.

The can of anchovies

Drawing a can of anchovies was another exercise in perspective and relative size. It was difficult to get the dimensions right, and having to include letters in the drawing made it easy to run out of room and brought home the reality that it is good to gauge relative distance.

flowers

Went for drawing the flowers in the vase. It was difficult to get both sides even. Otherwise the rest went alright, it really isn't too difficult to sketch flowers.

Scissors

Today the book had an exercise to draw a pair of scissors. The point, as I understand it, is to figure out which lines define shape, and which lines define depth. More than that, it is to figure out when you even need lines to define depth. In this case, it is mostly at the handles, and I tried to use the shading technique (like yesterday with the mug) to show where there is some depth.

I am taking another break from the book today, and drawing a mug. This one had a scene of trees and hedges which I tried to capture. I also tried to to shade in the bit at the top to show where there is liquid. I think it turned out alright, it is becoming quite fun to just free draw things in a room, especially if I am stuck in a boring chat or something.

Guitar player and stools

Still trying to get the perspective on the stools, stuff is tough. My brother told me to draw the circle at the top more as an ellipse... that is to say, not so round and perfect, it does make it look more flat. Then I drew a guitar player in tribute to the open mic I went to on Friday...guitar players are fun to draw.

First Self-portrait

Feeling brave, and here is my first stab at a self portrait:

Human ninja forms

OK, so I decided to press on with the human forms, because they were new and rewarding to draw. These are martial art type characters with bulky clothing and belts, which makes things a bit more forgiving on the artist to be honest.

There are some perspective problems with the size of the arms and legs. The book I am using suggests drawing triangles and other geometric lines you can measure to get a good idea of relative size. Otherwise, I don't think the figures are that bad, better than what I usually draw anyways.

The human form in a chair

The next lesson in the book is the human form in a chair. Tired of dealing with trying to get the perspective on the stool, I thought this would be a good change of pace. It worked out OK. The drawings always look better in the pictures I think, so it is good to see them.

Stools for fools, flowers for comfort

I am still stuck on getting the perspective on the stools, I am sure I will get it one day. The flowers and vases seem to just be natural, it is easy (relatively) to get the perspective. I suppose it is just that geometry that is difficult?

Stools and Vases

Day 5 and back to trying to perfect the stools after my past success with the chairs. It is still difficult to get the perspective right, and know where the legs should start on the circle of the seat.

The book then goes on to the challenge of vases, which I think I did OK, except I couldn't get the two sides exactly symmetrical.

Discovering parallel lines

Today I decided to go for the chairs again, are they looking any better?


My sister in law came over yesterday, and she is actually good at drawing. I asked her about the chair and she mentioned keeping parallel lines, and she was right. The trick to getting the seat up there at the top was just to keep it parallel with the seat I drew at the back two legs! Really I could make that top right corner of the chair anyway. I am sure that the book mentioned this...but as it goes with learning it takes reading, trying, having someone tell you, and then trying again.

The struts across the bottom of the legs are still a bit tricky, but I will get em'!

Perspective Again

As it happens, perspective is going to take more than two days to master. So today's exercise is an office chair, tricky because the seat might not match up with the feet. To combat this the book advises drawing legs down from the seat, which I did. It didn't turn out too bad, though I feel the neck is a little long, which is mainly cause I didn't take enough time to measure.

Perspective - Tricky business indeed

So, day two of perspective, and here are the results:
(they are meant to be stools btw)




What I am learning is that it is really important to measure the relative lengths of things, often using the pencil and my thumb to mark length. This is what the book recommends. Also, when drawing things with depth at an angle, triangles and diamonds fall out. Like in the middle stool on the top you can see the triangles I drew at the bottom between the legs, draw lines between all the legs and you would have a diamond.

The triangles help understand where the legs should fall, while the box helps keep the relative lengths correct. It is a bit hard to explain, but if you really want to understand it, try sketch a stool in a box and you will see what I mean. (then come back and explain it to me. k? thnx.)

A Study on Perspective

The point of this exercise was to gain an understanding of depth and perspective. So it was good to draw some cubes and see how the angles of the lines affected the angle that the box appeared. Then I tried to draw some chairs that matched the chair in the book I am using. The whole trick with the chair is the seat, the part that juts out from the legs. The book had the top right corner of the seat in line with the top of the chair. The bottom right chair is my attempt at this, but I think I failed. I will try again another day. As is, I don't think my other two chairs turned out too too bad, but they were not at the same angle as the book, which was the whole point of understanding perspective.

On Drawing

Drawing is a way to define the world, and helps us see more intelligently.

This my journey in learning to draw.

Drawing is full of happy accidents waiting to be found.