My Weekly Themed Sketch and Other Art Works

[terri]

And, what have I learned from my classes? Most importantly, that I need a better eraser.

 

[snowbear]

I think they are quite good; I especially like the furniture pieces. Keep at it.

Outlining is one of my things, too. I try not to, if I'm working in pencil, but it's difficult to not fall back into it. I guess if you draw all the time, you get over it. Another thing that can "get" you are shadows - the value varies a little going away from the object. I'll have to dig up some of my pencil & charcoal things I did in class. I threw a bunch out - mainly fast 1-minute sketches of human form, but there are one or two I'm fond of.

 

[jcdeboever]

I really like that you work with inks - love the look of that wash. Me, I remain fearful of any medium I can't erase or remove with marlene. [emoji38]

Over the last couple of months, I took some basic drawing lessons online - 5, to be exact. I still suck.

Practise drawing an object without looking at the paper. Try it maybe 10 times. Then draw it while looking at it and the paper. If you continue this over a period of time, your drawing skills will improve dramatically. Another method is to tape some paper down to a table. Grab a magazine image or photo, tape it to the table upside down. Draw it. You can also buy some transparent film, use a sharpie and ruler, make a grid on it and place it over image your copying. Draw in smaller chunnks until image is completed. All these exercises will train the right side of the brain to coordinate with your drawing hand. People with serious drawing skills have a solid connection in the right side of brain and the hand.

 

[snowbear]

Or, like the smaller chunks that JC mentioned - cut a rectangle in a stiff card stock - about 3x5, or so. Then look at the wall or larger object through the window, held at arm's length. Draw what you see through he window, then move the card (try to get the side to line up with what you just drew) and draw what's in the window. Keep going until the paper is filled.

 

[terri]

I really like that you work with inks - love the look of that wash. Me, I remain fearful of any medium I can't erase or remove with marlene. [emoji38]

Over the last couple of months, I took some basic drawing lessons online - 5, to be exact. I still suck.

Practise drawing an object without looking at the paper. Try it maybe 10 times. Then draw it while looking at it and the paper. If you continue this over a period of time, your drawing skills will improve dramatically. Another method is to tape some paper down to a table. Grab a magazine image or photo, tape it to the table upside down. Draw it. You can also buy some transparent film, use a sharpie and ruler, make a grid on it and place it over image your copying. Draw in smaller chunnks until image is completed. All these exercises will train the right side of the brain to coordinate with your drawing hand. People with serious drawing skills have a solid connection in the right side of brain and the hand.

I've actually heard of this - drawing objects upside down, so you are forced to pay attention to line and shape, rather than what your *think* the object should look like. Excellent suggestion.

Well, you've been very kind, Charlie. I appreciate it, as this is wayyyy outside my comfort zone. Even when hand coloring, it's on a B&W photograph: no drawing skills necessary. But it's nice - and I really have come to believe, beneficial - to force your mind to wrap around other objectives, creatively. I really have little interest in drawing with pencils, but the classes did force me to spend time on the effort needed to draw what you see in front of you.

The basic premise from these classes is that there are 4 shapes in all of nature: the cone, the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder - and that once you train your eye/mind to recognize them in everything, in their various presentations, it becomes easier to draw more realistically.

I've actually been doing some work with oil pastels - it started as another medium to work with hand coloring B&W photos, but I started doing some free-form work. That's when I realized how crappy I am at drawing.

 

[jcdeboever]

I really like that you work with inks - love the look of that wash. Me, I remain fearful of any medium I can't erase or remove with marlene. [emoji38]

Over the last couple of months, I took some basic drawing lessons online - 5, to be exact. I still suck.

Practise drawing an object without looking at the paper. Try it maybe 10 times. Then draw it while looking at it and the paper. If you continue this over a period of time, your drawing skills will improve dramatically. Another method is to tape some paper down to a table. Grab a magazine image or photo, tape it to the table upside down. Draw it. You can also buy some transparent film, use a sharpie and ruler, make a grid on it and place it over image your copying. Draw in smaller chunnks until image is completed. All these exercises will train the right side of the brain to coordinate with your drawing hand. People with serious drawing skills have a solid connection in the right side of brain and the hand.

I've actually heard of this - drawing objects upside down, so you are forced to pay attention to line and shape, rather than what your *think* the object should look like. Excellent suggestion.

Well, you've been very kind, Charlie. I appreciate it, as this is wayyyy outside my comfort zone. Even when hand coloring, it's on a B&W photograph: no drawing skills necessary. But it's nice - and I really have come to believe, beneficial - to force your mind to wrap around other objectives, creatively. I really have little interest in drawing with pencils, but the classes did force me to spend time on the effort needed to draw what you see in front of you.

The basic premise from these classes is that there are 4 shapes in all of nature: the cone, the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder - and that once you train your eye/mind to recognize them in everything, in their various presentations, it becomes easier to draw more realistically.

I've actually been doing some work with oil pastels - it started as another medium to work with hand coloring B&W photos, but I started doing some free-form work. That's when I realized how crappy I am at drawing. [emoji38]

I always loved charcoal and graphite. For pen and ink, just your standard bic pen, you know, the one with the cap. I used a large amount of rapadio graphic pens back in the day for large pointalism works. I used to melt down a certain type of oil pastel into liquid (hot) beeswax for encaustic work, brand name escapes me at the moment.

Drawing without looking at paper will advance your render skill fast but it takes insane discipline and concentration. Lots of practice at it helps too. The guy that taught me that used to wack me with a stick when I peaked. I was like 9 or 10 years old.

 

[vintagesnaps]

You're better than you think Terri. But I don't get what this class is! lol I always took art in school, although by college only two art electives - drawing and art history. Then got more into my major. Maybe I have a faulty memory but I don't get what they're having you do! it doesn't ring a bell at all.

 

[vintagesnaps]

And I don't get the not looking at the paper either... if the teacher whacked you for peeking that was unacceptable and shouldn't have happened. That's hardly a teaching technique any decent teacher would do with a kid so I have to wonder what the heck kind of a teacher that was with anything you were being taught by that loser. Sheesh.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Nice Charlie, I didn't realize you started with pencil sketches. I haven't done ink drawing; closest thing was using those Sakura ink pens on fabric to do a design and lettering.

I should do some drawing, haven't done that in ages!

 

[snowbear]

And I don't get the not looking at the paper either... if the teacher whacked you for peeking that was unacceptable and shouldn't have happened. That's hardly a teaching technique any decent teacher would do with a kid so I have to wonder what the heck kind of a teacher that was with anything you were being taught by that loser. Sheesh.

I think it's to get you used to making the motions with your hands, if that makes sense. When I was in Scouts, a thousand years ago, we practiced making knot with our eyes closed. It's a lot like knowing all the controls on your camera.

Nice Charlie, I didn't realize you started with pencil sketches. I haven't done ink drawing; closest thing was using those Sakura ink pens on fabric to do a design and lettering.

I should do some drawing, haven't done that in ages!

One or two of these were done without pencil. Admittedly, when I do that, I make multiple attempts before I get one I'm satisfied with.

Yes! Please draw something, and post it.

 

[jcdeboever]

And I don't get the not looking at the paper either... if the teacher whacked you for peeking that was unacceptable and shouldn't have happened. That's hardly a teaching technique any decent teacher would do with a kid so I have to wonder what the heck kind of a teacher that was with anything you were being taught by that loser. Sheesh.

Snowbear hit on it. Something to do with the brain naturally using the left side of the brain, which uses ties in emotional response to the hand. Kind of like drawing your mother and it doesn't look like her but more like how you see her emotionally but you could nail a complete stranger because there is no emotional connection.

As far as the teacher, he wasn't a real teacher but someone in my life that could draw. I remember laughing about it some years later, he said the nuns at his school did that to him and it worked. Worked for me too, different times I suppose. It wasn't a big deal at the time, things were kinda like that. Our little neighborhood village was pretty violent on all levels. Lots of physical discipline in them days.

 

[snowbear]

Sharon - I missed the part about "getting whacked" as physical - sorry. I was referring to it figuratively.

Our nephew is a professional artist & designer. He specializes in playing card and magician's card designs, but does other art drawings, as well. At one time, he was hosting an "artist hangout" on Google+, and still may (they were on Monday afternoons, when I'm at work). If you or anyone else is interested, send him a note and see if he's still doing it. He's always willing to help others improve their art.

 

[snowbear]

The series wasn't intended to be the normal post, so here's the week's entry.

This is an idea I've been playing with to use as an ink sample catalog. My current method is to write the name, a flourish or two, and a wash swipe on a small card (about 2" x 3"). I need to scale it down to 2x3, and I might try to make a linoleum block cut for the outline , so I don't have to draw it every time.

1. What I do now:


2. What I want to do:

Ink sample catalog idea by Charlie Wrenn, on Flickr

 

[terri]

I vote for the bears! That's a more fun sample to look at.

Once I started playing with the oil pastels, I had so many different shades of color to keep track of it was difficult to make any decisions. That was a new problem for me, as I never had an issue with deciding what photo oils to use - it just came easily to me, I guess. Oil pastels leave me baffled half the time.

Anyway, I eventually made a sample page, too - trying to keep all the reds, blues, etc., on one 9x12 sheet. A line, a block of color from light to heavy, with the name underneath it. I put each sheet in a loose photo album with a cellophane sheet cover and tied the album pages together with yarn for a little book. It's been extremely helpful to look at before just grabbing a random shade.

 

[Gary A.]

And I don't get the not looking at the paper either... if the teacher whacked you for peeking that was unacceptable and shouldn't have happened. That's hardly a teaching technique any decent teacher would do with a kid so I have to wonder what the heck kind of a teacher that was with anything you were being taught by that loser. Sheesh.

JC is the exception to the rule. I would have clipped electrodes to his earlobes ... every time he peaked I'd ramp up the voltage.