Sketching With Jon Gnagy

“I watched his show every week and 

I bought all his books.”

 ~ Andy Warhol

I decided to draw along with my very first art teacher, Jon Gnagy, today. I did a good bit of drawing with him as a kid and a week of drawing along with his videos in DrawingEveryday, back in 2011. At that time, his charming daughter (who now maintains his website) contacted me when she saw my blog posts and we exchanged a few emails. I felt a little nostalgic today and thought I'd give it another go. You can learn more about Jon and see my 2011 sketch of this same winter scene and video here ...

"I don't think anyone could draw as fast as Gnagy, but then he seems to have spent a great deal of time preparing so that he could get his picture into 15 minutes or 1/2 hour." 
~ Ron Csuha

In the demos, Jon is using a hard square charcoal stick. (Looks like a conte crayon.) I still have his "Pastel Painting Set" and it has a black and a grey stick in it. You could also use a charcoal pencil or a soft (3B - 5B) pencil (like I did) for the drawings. Notice the way he is holding it like a wand - using his whole arm! (Holding it between his thumb and forefinger.) Although I don't know if he ever really mentioned it, I watched and imitated his approach. He is the first one to teach me how to hold my pencil that way and I have been drawing like that ever since! See more ....