Drawing Journey Part14 - Resources Update

A just a little update on the resources I'm using.

As an addition to materials I mentioned in Drawing Journey Part2 I got myself:

- Daler RowneyAquafine Watercolour smooth hot pressed paper pad - I could not believed how many different types of papers are out there and of course I bought the wrong one for the purpose I needed. Good advice - search for the difference between cold and hot pressed watercolour paper :)

- Winsor and Newton Medium kneaded putty rubber - it is brilliant for lifting (press and lift) graphite form paper instead of rubbing it off (left to right motion) with vinyl eraser

- Paper stump (no brand)- used for blending graphite

- Masking tape (no brand) - very important when you do picture/sketch transfer

- Fine Sandpaper - for preparing my pencils

Resources and resources additions:

I had many emails asking me for a name of books mentioned in Part1 so here they are

Book 1= How to Draw a Cool Stuff (purple one) by Catherine V. Holmes - this is the one even child can follow. There are an instructions on  how to draw a very basic shapes step-by-step. This is a very nice book but I was missing a methodical approach where I could build on some previous knowledge so I did not use it very much ( to be exact I used it about five times).

Book 2= Drawing for the Absolute Beginner by Mark and Mary Willenbrink - I ditched this book as I found out it was no use to me. It was fine to read it but as soon as I tried to follow some tutorials I got immediately lost. Contains a little bit of everything and it could be good as a  drawing techniques overview. Just did not work for me.

Additions and other resources:
Drawing on the Right Side of the  Brain by Betty Edwards - it is more about psychology behind the drawing. It is a hard read for me as I found the writing style a little bit boring and I needed to force myself to continue but info there is very good even thought is somehow hidden in a lots of unnecessary words. However, it makes you think about things. The exercises included are very interesting I must say.

6 Pencil Techniques by Cindy Wider. This is an online email based two weeks taster course with two exercises and two bonus ones . I paid 0.67 GBP (equivalent to 1USD) It has simple instruction from how to hold the pencil to how to make a different strokes to achieve different textures. I did learn a lot from it.

and Drawing, Shading and Portraiture Course also by Cindy Wider. This is a self teach course which I found discounted on Amazon local and I am planning to follow this course for the next few weeks.

Have a nice day and stay tuned for another drawing adventure :)


Note: Just to say I have not received any commissions for mentioning these brands/names

Drawing Journey Part13 - Old Hay Shed

Continuing with 6 Pencil Techniques course by Cindy Wider I was able to finished this Lovely Old Hay Shed.

The outline of the shed was provided in the one of course pdfs as well as some notes on how to shade it.

I was terrified when I was starring for few minutes at an empty paper with few lines not knowing where to start than I made a big decision and went for something easy like big black spot inside of the shed. Then I spread cross roof, wood, background, trees and so on. When I finished with all "required parts" I added my own such as additional tree branch on the left, bees, birds and butterfly.

Knowing that I've done it feels great and rewarding however feels confusing at the same time. Took me few days to finish it. During these few day my feelings were going up and down, from "I can do this" to "There is no way I can pull it through" and seeing it in front of me is like somebody else drew it for me :) 

Drawing Journey Part12 - Pencil Strokes

I have bought a 6 Pencil Techniques two weeks course by Cindy Wider. It was a taster correspondence course, cost me 1USD and pencil strokes were a first exercise.

I did enjoy it and found a pencil preparation quite interesting, especially for a chisel point which I'd never heard of before in relation with pencil.

There was a recommendation that you should fill one full A4(210x297mm) with each stroke. I can honestly say that I managed to fill a half of A4 and got bored (happens to me easily I must admit) and I did not practice any of hatching, crosshatching or fine lines. Broad stroke was quite tricky for me for some reason and I fully enjoy chisel point stroke.

Next: Putting in all together with Old Hay shed attempt. See you then :)

Drawing Journey Part11 - Corner of My Room

A Corner of my Room would be a last Pre-Instruction drawing.

I was so pleased with this one as I felt like I could finally cope with it. After all I found out that I was very comfortable with drawing straight lines, parallel lines and cubes while drawing curved lines threw my sense for proportions completely off.

Self Evaluation:

Positives: looks exactly like a corner of my living room, I like it overall

Negatives: none

Action Plan: keep drawing relaxed at all times

Feelings: felt more confident, also I felt like I had a control over drawing instead of panickin

Have a nice drawing day and see you next time :)

Drawing Journey Part10 - Left Hand

Another Pre-Instruction drawing was my own had.

Another strange feeling as I was trying to keep my left hand still while drawing with my right one.

This time I kept in my mind that I needed to speed up a little and not overthink it. I set up an alarm clock to 20 minutes and started to draw.
  
Self Evaluation:

Positives: looks better than I though it would be, looks like a hand, I like the palm and fingers, still can not believe it was me who drew it

Negatives: maybe more shading on forearm

Action Plan: keep drawing without thinking and don't let any doubts or worry enter my mind

Feelings: I feel very encouraged now especially after my self portrait sort of fiasco :)

Next will be a Corner of My room. Stay tuned :)

Drawing Journey Part9 - Self Portrait

It is a good idea to do a Pre-Instruction drawings which essentially means that you draw with skills you have right now. Over some period of time, and after learning some techniques, these very same drawings will be re-drawn and you would be able to compare your skills and hopefully see some progression- something like Before and After picture.

Mine Pre-instruction Drawing will be: Self portrait, hand and corner of the room

This is about the first one - Self Portrait 

I had a very strange feeling to look at myself in the mirror and observing all different shapes and shades and wrinkles ... and you get the picture. Usually if I applied make up early morning it takes me no more than few minutes and even than I watch TV with one eye half open so suddenly staring at my face and trying to draw it was very uncomfortable for me for some reason.

So, this exercise should have taken about 30 minutes - in my case 2.5 hours. I freaked myself so badly that I was trying to do everything perfect. I spent much more time with small portions like ear or nose than I should've. The complexity of facial expression was overwhelming, did not know where to start and generally I just wanted to give up an move on to something else.

Anyhow, after all that effort I could confidently said that my self portrait did not look at all like me and I mean not like me at all. Good proof was when I sent a picture to my boyfriend and his reply was "Who it should be again?"

That led to thinking about one of my ground rules in my previous post - keep good sense of humor :)

Self Evaluation:

Positives: it still reminds a human being, I like an left ear, right eye, lips are not bad either and I like nostrils

Negatives: does not look like me at all (however there is resemblance with someone but still couldn't figure out whom) and took me far to long

Action Plan : care less,  don't spent far to much time with just one small section, don't overthink it and just relax and let go

Next time will be attempting to draw my left hand. Fingers crossed that will go better :)

Drawing Journey Part8 - Cube Basic Shape

Apparently there are four basic shapes square, circle, triangle and rectangular and any object can be simplified into these shapes. With additional few lines you can transform 2d object to 3d so from a square you can draw a cube, from a circle a sphere, from a triangle a cone and from a rectangular a cylinder.

I decided to start with a cube as I found it the simplest from all - just few parallel lines. How hard it can be? Right?

I did three session and  started with very basic cubes trying to draw them from different angles. Eventually I got bored with simple forms and started adding more details to it. Was quite surprised when I finished and realized that I drew a cute Robot. I just let myself go without trying hard and some inner feeling was guiding me. Then I understood what people meant by " drawing was unfolding in front of my eyes" feeling.

As you can see I progressed from simply shapes to more complicated ones. Some of them involved quite a lot of thinking which I did not expect but found it relaxing at same time.

After all, had a great sense of achievement :)

Note: small written numbers on picture represent the sequence in which I was drawing however with some I got back to and re-do them completely.

i.e. number 6 was a plain cube - one hour later got back to it and made it a robot or number 12 was a dice from weird angle, did not like, it started to play with it and made it to Telly Family :)

Drawing Journey Part7 - First Attempt

This was my very first attempt to draw something. Came to me very spontaneous after I'd seen some tutorial about light reflection from a ball.

So firstly I drew an outline of the ball which would be a circle. Then I started to play with shading, added some cast shadow and then I started with adding more  details like a stem and leaf.

I recently bought a watercolor pencils for coloring stamp imprints and I thought it would be good opportunity to try them out. To be honest I still can not get over them. I was not aware that such a thing even existed and it is like a magic happening in front of your eyes when you slowly add water, such a brilliant idea to put watercolor pigment into a pencil shape.

And "VOILA" a piece a fruit was drawn. However I am still not sure if it looks more like an apple or a plum ;)

Drawing Journey Part6 - Ground Rules

Writing down some ground rules might have been seen as a silly idea first but over the time when there is a potential for failure and frustration is very important to stay motivated and keep trying - practice makes it perfect.

This is especially important when you learn a new skill. It needs to be practice about 10000 time to master it and a consistency is the key to success.

My ground rules:

1. Have a fun - the most important from all!

2. Have a sense of humor and Be kind to yourself - look for something nice in your drawing instead of criticizing it.

3. Do the research to find the best resources for learning - once you found them stop looking for new ones. Spend more time with drawing that browsing on the internet (I tend to overdo researching stage!).

4. Stay in relevant lesson - don't skip to more advanced ones. Too much too soon leads to frustration.

5. Practice until it's automatic and you don't need to concentrate anymore.

6. When drawing feels natural practice for two more sessions - helps pushing information from short term memory to long one.

7. Have a look back from time to time - you can see how much you have progressed when comparing your old work with new one.

8. Take break - especially when you feel you are about to loose your patience. Drawing needs to be associate with something nice instead of feeling bad.

9.  Keep going and don't give up under any circumstance. Learning a new skill requires a lots of time and effort but it's all worth it at the end.

10. When you feel down read this rules from beginning ;)

Note: Remember that although you are not Picasso yet you have a great potential to become one !