Paying Attention

"Sketching on a regular basis requires you 

to pay close attention to the visual world 

around you. With practice, you begin to 

see things you never noticed before. 

~ Paul Lasea

3 minute blind contour

You Are Simply Drawing

"As each new skill is learned, you will merge

 it with those previously learned until, 

one day, you are simply drawing; 

just as, one day, you found yourself simply 

driving without thinking about how to do it." 

~ Betty Edwards 

 3 minute Blind Contour

To See More Clearly

"Be clear in your mind why learning to draw well is important. Drawing enables you to see in that special way that artists see, no matter what style you use to express your special insight. Your goal in drawing should be to encounter the reality of experience... to see ever more clearly, ever more deeply."

 ~ Betty Edwards 

Today's three 3 min. blind contours

Mindful Repetition

"Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, 

the discovery of endless richness in subtle 

variations on familiar themes." 

~ George B. Leonar

"Repetition is the mother of study." ~ Latin proverb

Got The Blues?

"There ain't no cure for the summer time blues."

 ~ The Who

Meet my newest models; a bevy of bluebirds. All the same shape but all in different poses.

Some ¼ turn, 2 minute sketches of the one on the right.

Detail of one sketch with a tonal watercolor wash applied.

I hope the bluebird of happiness visits you today!

Happy Creating My Friends!

X ♥  O

 

Everything is Sketchable!

Jerry is a bit of a hoarder and trash picker from way back,

so there is never a scarcity of things to draw around here.

Here is how I set up today's model. I think it helps to get it up
close to eye level and put a solid background behind it.

This is a 15 minute blind contour of a very cute toy dinosaur.

Blind contour doesn't necessarily create a beautiful drawing, but

it is a wonderful exercise in developing your skill of really seeing.

In my opinion, artists put too much emphasis on creating paintings
or finished pieces (a product) and not enough on practicing (the process).
The real joy for me, is in being in the moment, engrossed in the process of creating.

You can see more about blind contour in the side bar here.

AAARRR!

Happy Creating My Friends!

X ♥  O

 

Learning To Draw

"You learn to draw by drawing." 

~ Mick Masle

Buck Jackson came over today for a 3 hr. drawing session.

We reviewed and executed several exercises from Betty Edwards' book,

 "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". We explored face vases, upside down drawing

and 2 minute gesture drawing with watercolor wash applied. I hope Buck posts

some of her drawings on the DE facebook group. She's a quick study and not afraid of practice.

"To gain confidence, constant practice is essential. Just as a musician needs to practice regularly to retain his touch, the artist needs to be constantly in touch with the medium." ~ R. Lovett

Seeing Takes Time

“O snail
Climb Mount Fuji
But slowly, slowly!”
~ Kobayashi Issa

 My friendly model for today's 15 minute blind contour drawing.

It is such a wonderful exercise. I should really do it more often.

 

"Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small.

We haven't time, and to see takes time - 

like to have a friend takes time."

~ Georgia O'Keeffe

 

Happy Creating My Friends!

X ♥  O

 

The Right-Brain Shift

"The right brain perceives and processes visual information, 

in the way one needs to see in order to draw, 

and the left brain perceives in ways that seem 

to interfere with drawing. 

An individual's ability to draw is... the ability to shift to a

different-from-ordinary way of processing visual information 

- to shift from verbal, analytic processing 

to spatial, global processing." 

~ Betty Edwards

I am finding that my left-brain mode is still getting in the way of my seeing. I am still pretty rusty and the "ALL IMPORTANT RIGHT BRAIN SHIFT" comes and goes, so I decided to do some blind contour this morning. Although it doesn't produce a good drawing, it is one of the exercises that really helps with seeing. I am not going to go into lots of details about it this morning, because you can find out more about it by clicking on previous posts here. There are so many tips and exercises on this blog. All you have to do is click on the subject in the side bar or type it into the search bar to find LOTS of resources for honing your skills.

I suggest searching topics such as blind contour, gesture drawing, upside down drawing exercise, face vase exercise and Betty Edwards and following the many links provided here for your enrichment.
~~~~~~~

Happy Creating My Friends!

X ♥  O

 

Dark Shadows of Doubt

Life has not been real easy since I shattered my ankle on April first. Sure, it could have always been worse.Things are getting better day by day though and I am very grateful to all my friends and family who have helped me through the worst of it. Drawing was a great spirit lifter and enjoyable pastime on many days for me during my convalescence.

Today I've been debating whether or not I would start up my online Summer Sketching Series for the seventh straight year. Daunted by deep, dark shadows of self doubt all day, I've been wrestling with this blog's worth. Is it too predictable and boring? Why haven't I been able to engage my readers in more of my posts? This year, unless I hear from some of you otherwise, sketching challenges have been discontinued for lack of interest. Do readers find the writing, material and approaches here dated, substandard or stale? I used to feel inspired and energized by drawing. I enjoyed the daily routine and blogging about it. I'd really like to feel that way again. Any input you could offer me would be greatly appreciated.

Due to my state of mind, and probably to my lack of daily discipline, I've found that the left brain / right brain shift was very hard today. This is my major stumbling block and it probably is for many when it comes to drawing. While in left brain mode, sketching is a difficult and frustrating task. Once the shift is made, however, obstacles and time seem to melt away. As usual, after searching online, I found several good posts about making the shift. This site suggested a series of warm-up exercises, while another went into great details about seeing shapes, not things. They are good links to bookmark and I will refer to them again in the future. Here are a couple of pages of warm up exercises that I did today which did help. So if I do not continue with this blog on a daily basis, or otherwise, I wanted you to know why.

"There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt." ~ Budda

"When in doubt, scribble." ~ Jean Wilson

"All uncertainly is fruitful... so long as it is accompanied by the wish to understand." ~ Antonio Machado

"I felt so insufficiently equipped, so unprepared, so weak, and at the same time it seemed to me that my reflections on art were correct. I quarreled with all the world and with myself." ~ Edgar Degas

Stuck In Left Brain Mode

ACCORDING TO BETTY EDWARDS, AUTHOR OF DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN, "The right brain perceives and processes visual information, in the way one needs to see in order to draw, and the left brain perceives in ways that seem to interfere with drawing. An individual's ability to draw is... the ability to shift to a different-from-ordinary way of processing visual information - to shift from verbal, analytic processing to spatial, global processing." ~ Betty Edwards


I had a hard time shifting into Right Brain Mode when drawing this complicated sketching challenge. Maybe it's because it's my horse and it was hard for me to see the image as just shapes. Anyway, after a couple of attempts I was unhappy with, I put a grid on my photo and did the same one on my paper. I put more lines where the image was more complicated. This allowed me to break the subject up into bite sized pieces. Finally I felt my Right Brain Shift and began seeing only the shapes in the box, instead of thinking about what it was I was drawing.


Here is next week's sketching challenge photo. I hope it's a fairly easy one.

Upside-Down Drawing Exercise

In Betty Edwards' book, "Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain", the next exercise she has students do is draw a few pictures upside-down. This frees up the Right Brain to do its' thing without a whole lot of interference from the Left Brain. According to Betty, "The right brain perceives and processes visual information, in the way one needs to see in order to draw, and the left brain perceives in ways that seem to interfere with drawing. An individual's ability to draw is... the ability to shift to a different-from-ordinary way of processing visual information - to shift from verbal, analytic processing to spatial, global processing."

I did this quick sketch of last week's drawing challenge in less than five minutes, copying it from the photo upside-down. It probably would have taken me longer had I approached it right-side-up. This approach made it easier than ever to see the shapes and forget about what it actually was that I was drawing.

Tip Of The Day: There's no need to print these photos out. Just draw them from your computer screen. I rotated the image 180 degrees for this exercise with my image editing software.

Here also is this week's challenge photo. I hope a few of you will give it a try!



Have a great 4th Of July holiday. Thanks for reading, drawing and for your feedback!

Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain

I just got my new and revised, expanded and updated copy of Betty Edwards' wonderful classic, "Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain". Betty says learning to draw is like learning to drive or ride a bike. Once it's learned, we don't have to think about it. I decided to go through the book and do the whole class again. (It has been a while.) The first steps are:

1. Draw a self portrait.



2. Draw a person from memory.



3. Draw your own hand.

Here are my attempts. I did all three in under an hour. I imagine we'll be drawing the same subjects again at the end of the course, with lots of improvement, no doubt! The person from memory is Zack Arias, a photographer who I've been watching on video in an online lighting workshop from Creative Techs. Zack Arias' three day seminar and all the Creative Techs courses are out of this world!