Drawing Flowers

These are a couple of five minute drawings with reference photos. At first, I am mainly concerned with composition and getting the feel of the subject down.

I am thinking of design, center of interest, movement, impact and exaggeration at this stage of the game.

Sketching flowers may not be as simple as one might think. This is possibly due to the fact that we want to over simplify things and not really "see" the shapes we are drawing. This week's challenge will be to sketch flowers and make a pleasing composition using the Momma, Poppa, Baby Theory and the Rule of Thirds.  Here are some flower photos to sketch from. I also encourage you to sketch from life. You can see several of my finished paintings that demonstrate the two design principles I've mentioned here, on my Web Log today. This week's challenge is not just to sketch what you see in front of you, but to change sizes, directions and placement of elements. This is called artistic license and all accomplished artists use it. Begin by doing gesture sketches, studying the various shapes and noticing their differences. What I'm ultimately looking for is interesting shapes that lead the viewer's eye around the piece in a well designed composition. I will be expanding on this throughout the week.

Gesture Drawing From Life

The whole family likes to watch the hummingbird action here. Tommy and Tigger spend hours on the screened porch everyday. They never seem to tire of it and neither do I. These cat sketches each took about a minute and a half and the hummers, well, probably about 5 to 10 seconds each. I used a soft 5B pencil and my big pad and drew holding my pencil like a wand, using my whole arm, large and fast.

Hummingbird Gesture Drawings

These two minute drawings were done with a 5B pencil from photos I have of my hummers. 

While searching online today for gesture drawing information, I came across  Kimon Nicolaides' book, "The Natural Way to Draw" . The introductory caption there reads; "The key to gesture drawing is speed. Work fast and trust your instincts. Practice holding the  charcoal loosely between your thumb and index finger."

Stepping Up To The Plate

A gesture drawing can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 or 3 minutes. I decided to set a challenge for myself and do these in one minute instead of two. I was surprisingly satisfied with my one minute gestures, drawn from the photos I posted here yesterday. I only wish I had drawn them a little darker so you could see them better. I used a soft 4B pencil held like a wand at various angles to the paper to draw. There is a beautiful, intuitive quality to a good gesture drawing. It has to happen so fast and it becomes so spontaneous that your left brain has no time to get in the way. 

I know I wouldn't have done so well a month ago! It's amazing how much practice everyday changes things, even if it's just for a few minutes! It is such an important skill to keep exercising. Drawing, like music or dance, is something that requires constant effort. "Draw, as much and as often as you can. When drawing lies fallow, the skill diminishes." ~ Gene Black

Susan and Vicki are really stepping up to the plate here this summer. Both girls sent in more sketches since yesterday's post and both are getting closer to the idea of "gesture"! Way to go! Lets keep the ball rolling here, gang.  Ten minutes a day will get you started. I encourage you do do these exercises again. Also do the 1/4 turn exercise with your own objects. There is nothing quite like drawing from life.

I'm going to post more about gesture drawing here all week. When doing it, we want to exaggerate movement, sloping quality, angles and length. When doing gestures in figure drawing class in art school, we would always draw a circle for the head and then draw a line down the page to the supporting foot. Here are some of my two minute gesture drawings from college to illustrate my point. We all (myself included) need to pay more attention to the internal forms and be less concerned with and confined to the outer contour.