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Beginners Drawing Class - Week 1 - Pre-instruction drawings
anable
North TexasRegistered User regular
North TexasRegistered User regular
Why
At the recommendation of the internets, I picked up Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, which is based off of the five day workshops she hosts.
I'm woefully lacking in artistic talent and I figure there's a few other lurkers here that would also like to be able to draw. So, I'm going to host a drawing class based off of the lessons in the above mentioned book. Anyone that wants to follow along can.
Instructions
In addition to the basic white paper, pencil, sharpener and eraser, there are a few additional materials we need that can be found at most hobby or craft stores. These aren't needed for the Week One assignment, but we need them on hand to move into the next few weeks.
Reply to the thread if you're interested in working along and simply edit and update your post as you complete each of the assignments. Feel free to comment on anyone else's work.
Week One Pre-instruction drawings
It's always nice to have a baseline to compare future works against so the first thing we will do is just draw with no instruction. These three exercises shouldn't take more than 1 or 2 hours total, though you can take as much time as you'd like.
Self-portrait:
A Person, Drawn from Memory:
Your hand:
To help motivate some folks, here are before and after pictures from students that took Betty's five day workshop.
At the recommendation of the internets, I picked up Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, which is based off of the five day workshops she hosts.
I'm woefully lacking in artistic talent and I figure there's a few other lurkers here that would also like to be able to draw. So, I'm going to host a drawing class based off of the lessons in the above mentioned book. Anyone that wants to follow along can.
Instructions
In addition to the basic white paper, pencil, sharpener and eraser, there are a few additional materials we need that can be found at most hobby or craft stores. These aren't needed for the Week One assignment, but we need them on hand to move into the next few weeks.
- A piece of clear plastic about 8" x 10" and about 1/16" thick. Use permanent marker to draw a horizontal and vertical crosshair that cross at the center of the sheet.
- Two sheets of black cardboard about 8" x 10". Cut a 4 1/4" x 5 1/4" rectangle in one and a 6" x 7 5/8" rectangle in the other. These are your "viewfinders."
- A non-permanent felt-tip marker.
- Two clips to fasten your viewfinders to your plastic sheet.
- A #4B graphite stick.
- Some masking tape.
Reply to the thread if you're interested in working along and simply edit and update your post as you complete each of the assignments. Feel free to comment on anyone else's work.
Week One Pre-instruction drawings
It's always nice to have a baseline to compare future works against so the first thing we will do is just draw with no instruction. These three exercises shouldn't take more than 1 or 2 hours total, though you can take as much time as you'd like.
Self-portrait:
Additional materials: a drawing board (like a breadboard or sturdy cardboard) and a mirror, imagine that!
- Tape two or three sheets of paper together so that you are drawing on a padded surface.
- Sit at arm's length (about 2 feet) from a mirror, leaning your board up against the wall, resting the bottom of the board on your lap.
- Look at the reflection of your head and face in the mirror and draw your self-portrait.
- When you have finished, title, date, and sign the drawing in the lower right-hand or lower left-hand corner.
A Person, Drawn from Memory:
- Call up in your mind's eye an image of a person.
- To the best of your ability, make a drawing of that person. You may draw just the head, a half figure, or a full figure.
- Title, date, and sign your drawing.
Your hand:
- Seat yourself at a table to draw.
- Draw which ever hand you are not using to draw in any position you choose.
- Title, date, and sign your drawing.
To help motivate some folks, here are before and after pictures from students that took Betty's five day workshop.
anable on
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Edit: Hmm. Those supplies are more of a pain than I thought, but I should be done tomorrow. Pro tip: I found the plastic sheet in the framing department.
Here is the plastic sheet and the two view finders:
This hand picture is unfit for a mother's fridge. Here's looking forward...
Person from memory. I would be seriously surprised if anyone figures out who this is:
Hint:
Self-portrait:
I'm actually pretty happy with how that came out.
Count me in.
I'm left handed as well!
This thing actually took 1.5 hours, so I've got some improvin' to do myself
Man, she looks totally different in my head!
Yeah, I have no idea how to draw hair
Here's a hand. The first lesson I have learned: Must draw darker lines.
Here's my head. Don't have a mirror, so I used a photo. My hair didn't even show up, and I look like Neville from Harry Potter in this image. I don't usually. To my knowledge.
These came out a bit smaller than I drew them. Maybe I'll have a few more go's on my portrait.
I'm onto my third attempt at a draw from memory. This is the best I've got. I see I'm not much in the way of shading.
I should add that no matter who I try to draw from memory they wind up looking kind of like this. This looks nothing like anyone I know.
Both of those looks pretty good, btw.
Napoleon Dynamite.
*looks at spoiler*
YES.
Holy crap you get a cookie.
So I'm all done for week one. Everyone finish up, enjoy the week end, and get ready for round two on Monday.
right hand!
self portrait, I was looking slightly down. I don't think I conveyed that very well, I just made myself look fat.
So... Drawing from memory... this is... really difficult... It's supposed to be a professor of mine, I guess. A LOT younger, and not really him at all.
I'd suggest doing it again with a mirror, it really is a lot different. During the school year I had been drawing models. Over the summer I started using pictures again as its much easier to find and doesn't require you to have a friend hold still for a while. I just did this exercise and remembered just how different it was. I find it much easier to draw from picture than from life.
I watch TV or movies while doing art all the time. In fact I usually have the TV on in the background when doing anything.