Drawspace: Lesson B05

Hi all!!

This is a Lesson B05 of a Drawspace Art program. It suggests the method of drawing with only one line. Which means that the moment the pencil touches the paper - it doesn't leave it until the sketch is done. And you have to draw without looking at the paper. Sounds difficult, right? It does to me.

As you know, I usually carefully read the lesson before I actually start drawing something.
And while reading this one I thought to myself, how on earth am I going to do blind drawing? Obviously, Brenda, the author of this program, considered these doubts of her students and she gave this great advice: ".. move your pencil very slowly in the same direction as your eyes...".

And then it hit me! One's eye is a great measurement tool, when you learn how to use it. You draw as you watch. You start a line and when your eyes stop - your hand stops. Your eyes follow a curving line - your hand does the same.
And as long as your hand and your eye work together - look-draw-stop-look-draw-stop - the exercise is being done. And since this lesson is about doing the exercise and not about creating a perfect form (at least not at this point) then it's all good.

So the idea is to draw any object without the pencil leaving the paper and without looking too.
In both cases your eyes don't move from the object you draw!!!

So let's start with the first part.

I took a plastic cup and started drawing.
On my first attempt I cheated on the last minute.
So I did some more. Only on my 6th attempt I did something that slightly resembles a glass. Probably.

After that I moved to the challenge.
And, surprisingly, my very first sketch was pretty bearable. I did some more - and they all were decent. You could actually say it's a drinking glass.

And that made me really happy.




I can't say that I enjoyed this exercise but must remind myself to do it more often. Because it's a really great one and since I'm not looking to do great sketches at this moment but to learn, I'll let my perfectionism go so I could live with the ugly sketches.

(Brenda's) Tip of a day: Always let your pencil follow your eye: draw-stop-draw-stop. Use your eyes as a measuring tool.

Have a great day,
Dalia

Purim is here

Happy Purim everyone!!

Well, the holiday is here and everyone is dressed up and eating Hamantaschen.




So happy Purim and enjoy the party!

Drawspace: Lesson B04

Hi hi.

This is Lesson B04 of a Drawspace art program and it's all about "training your right side of the brain". And creating optical illusions. Remember the Vase/Two Faces illustration? This is the one. 

It wasn't simple. There were two challenges for me in this lesson. First - to draw a symmetrical image. Second - to draw a symmetrical image which is a human face. 

This is my sketch followed by the one given in the lesson itself. 

These - are outlines of faces I found online.

But if you want to see something really cool, check out This Portrait. 

Can you see the "it"?

Have a great day, 

Dalia

Drawspace: Lesson B03

Hello!

This is Lesson B03 of a Drawspace art program and it is all about a symmetry. Or, to be more accurate, it's about symmetrical drawing.

The reading of this lesson was really nice and it looked like a really simple one. But while reading I found myself thinking if I could make it even simpler.

I found that if I want to do a really symmetrical artwork I should create some additional helping lines/dots between the curving lines. For the sake of the blog I made these dots almost visible...

So here are the sketches - these of the lesson itself.

And here are some of my own.

I really enjoyed doing this session. It gives you an excuse to deal with some symmetry and it also helps to work on some abstract art. You can draw lines and forms within the half square and then play with it on the other half of it. It also might be a great way to brainstorm before the actual sketching while looking for an idea.

I could really do it the whole day but I should move on to the next lesson.

See you really soon,
Dalia

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello and happy Valentine's day!!

It's here and love is definitely is in the air. Or at least, the smell of all these roses carried around.
The shops are decorated with reds and whites, men carrying flowers everywhere, heart shaped balloons are flying around... Oh, love....

Anyway, this is my latest illustration and soon it will be found in my Graphiking gift shop for purchase...





Have a great Valentine's Day,
Dalia

How to draw a laying paper cup (or any other laying object).

Hi all,

This post is actually my own How to draw a paper cup tutorial followed by a B02 Drawspace art program.
I was working on some mug drawings and realized that I had some difficulties while sketching a paper cup.
The B02 Lesson is focusing on Overlap sketching and for some reason, when drawing this paper cup, I overlooked this idea completely! But when I did use it - life became happy again. So here I'm going to share it with you, guys.

It is pretty easy to draw a standing object. I guess that the main reason for it is that the standing position is the natural one for most objects. But what happens when this position changes? Say, you put it on its side - what happens then? Yes, it becomes complicated. So what do you do? You use the Overlapping method.

First - you observe an object and break it into basic forms. In this one there are two circles - big and small, one overlapping the other. After that you connect them with 2 lines. And then you erase the unnecessary.

That's it.
2 minutes.

While writing these lines, I've realized two things. First - that I've been doing this all my life when drawing boxes. So how come everything else should be different? Second - That it was a simplified version of a Drawspace Lesson B02. 

And I know that there are plenty other tuts teaching the same stuff, but who cares? Sometimes it easier to create one of your own than go and look for other's people creations.
Isn't it?

Have a great day,
Dalia

Drawspace: Lesson B02

Hello all,

This is Lesson B02 of a Drawaspace art program. It shows you how to draw an object by breaking it into simple shapes. Also it slightly touches the subject of proportion in drawing, and I'm sure there's a full lesson somewhere in the program dedicated to the subject.

The drawing subject here is, again, a candle-duck. I followed the lesson and these are my results.

This is the pre-sketch - detecting the basic forms and placing them where they belong.

This one is the outline of the actual shape.

And this last one is with all the helping lines erased.















There was also a challenge - to do the same exercise with another object.

So I took a simple paper cup and drew it.








And then I took a simple mug and drew it too.

When I did this mug I realized that some helping lines will be in order and I added two short vertices lines in a round areas.







And then I've decided to go further and draw them together, one in front of the other.
Here I used some more helping lines to make the work simpler.

The hardest part here was to proportionally draw a laying paper cup. I sketched and erased, sketched and erased and then it hit me! I've realized that while fighting the sketch I was ignoring the very theme of this lesson: breaking the object into basic forms and draw them one over the other. So I drew two overlapping circles - big and small and then connected them with two side lines. To me - the paper cup looks perfect.



And today's Tip of the day would be: Always examine and analyze the shape you draw before actually drawing it.

Have a great day,
Dalia

Drawspace: Lesson B01

Hi hi!

After reading a little bit of theory and getting to know the art supplies I'm being brave enough to begin the section B of a Drawspace art program. This section comes with some actual drawing involved and it challenges you right from the first lesson.

Lesson B01 introduces the (completely unfamiliar to me) concept of Negative and Positive Spaces.   A Positive space is the space the actual Subject occupies and the Negative space is it's surrounding/background. It suggests that at times it is easier to outline the surrounding first that the object. My main question was, how can I outline the background? After my second read I've realized that I have to make the ViewFinder Frame and to just start drawing.

I did drew the duck from the lesson and it was interesting because

So these are my Viewfinder Frames, which I made from an empty cereal box.









and these are my duck candle sketches from the lesson.

There was also a challenge - to draw some simple forms using this technique.



Since these are simple but important exerciser I've decided to do small thumbnail sketches, half page size. I drew two frames on some sheets of paper and these were made.

Like I said, it took me two reads to understand what it means, and I think I understand even more at this very moment, while writing these lines, before even making some sketches.















But even now I don't really understand why is this technique important?

Anyone?














Have a great day,
Dalia


P.S. Interesting fact: First lesson of a new section fell on the beginning of the second month of the year.