Practice Exercises

"Don't be afraid to draw or paint the same thing over and over!"

Learn from a good musician or athlete, because
 "repetition is the key to mastery"!!

~ Sandy Sandy

 See more about how to do these quick ¼ turn gestures here.

Cultivate Patience

Cultivate patience in your heart and you will improve. 

Learn to see well and your hand will become sure." 

~ Charles Philip Brooks 

Today's model

2 minute gesture with watercolor wash

 "Growth is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, 

reassessing and regrouping."

 ~ Julia Cameron

At Least Two Hundred Times

“Forget perfect on the first try. In the face of frustration,

your best tool is a few deep breaths, and remembering that

you can do anything once you've practiced two hundred times.”
   ~ Miriam Peskowitz

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"If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery,

it would not seem so wonderful at all.”

~ Michael Angelo

Happy Creating My Friends!

X ♥  O

 

Grin and Bear It Again!

“The way anything is developed is through practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice and more practice.” ~ Joyce Meyer

Today's little bear model for these two minute sketches has been drawn again and again and again over the years. My advice to you today is; don't be afraid to draw or paint the same thing over and over! A musician doesn't learn the scales, learn to play "Three Blind Mice" and immediately move on to "Beethoven's 9th Symphony"! Yet everyday I see students again and again, moving on to more advanced subjects before they have mastered their primary skills. It can take a while to train yourself to really SEE. Then the coordination skill of putting down what it is you see also comes into play.

So my advice to you today is to give yourself a break and take a step back. Simplicity is a key to starting out in any complex field of study. This coming week's CHALLENGE (Week 2 of the Daily Summer Sketching Series) is to try some gesture drawings from life! You can see more about gesture drawing on this blog in the side panel. See a previous Gesture Challenge Here. 
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Happy Creating My Friends!

X ♥  O

Lions, Tigers and BEARS, Oh My!

There was a large black bear spotted in our area last week. Our neighbor just reported that something got into his trash last night and really made a mess. AND, there were huge claw marks on his garbage can. Awe, I'm sure the poor guy just wandered out of the woods looking for food.

Bear symbolizes an awakening to power and is always a good sign. 

Mostly a shy and solitary creature, the bear teaches us to take time out for ourself, like taking time out for drawing or some other self-improvement activity.

It may be time to step back from the noisy world.

In alone time and through our dreams, we can get in touch with the universal creative mind and our own higher self.

I wanted to use some different mediums on these bear drawings. The first three sketches are done with a Bruynzeel design - Aquarel - 8635 - black watercolor drawing pencil. I only have black and have never used them wet. I did a step by step demo of this last watercolor sketch today. I was not happy with the photos, so I want to reshoot them before I post. If anyone wants a sketching challenge, here is a good shot of a black bear to draw from. Use your imagination! I started out with a bear here last year. You can also type "bear" into my search this blog box in the right column to see more bear exercises and drawings.

You can see the bear painting I did today from this final bear sketch on my web log. 

"If the human race is to survive, then we must respect the rights of other species to survive. Sharing bedroom space with a grizzly bear is not practical but sharing wilderness space is. We must therefore, restrict human activity in spaces where threatened or endangered species live. We must stay out of their bedroom. Set aside some wild spaces while they yet exist. Closing the wild spaces after all of the wild things are gone will not work." - Bob McMeans

But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day

Lucky Sunday's Child . . . 

"I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright."  ~ Henry David Thoreau

"Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful.  Everything is simply happy" ~ Author Unknown

Saturday's child works hard for a living,

Just look at him go . . .

"The poetry of the earth is never dead."  ~ John Keats

"Shall I not have intelligence with the earth?  Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself."  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Friday's child is loving and giving,

                          

"I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes." ~  e.e. cummings

Thursday's child has far to go,

This could be taken two ways . . . 

Since I'm a "Thursday's Child", 

I choose to interpret it to mean, "will go far"!

Done today in my sketchbook on regular drawing paper.

"Oh hummingbirds, mighty little ones, stay a while. The sight, sound and touch of you fills me with such love and joy. Thank you for inviting me to hover a while and savor your sweet magic." ~ Sandy Sandy

:-D  ~ C H E E R S ! ~  {-:

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Poor Wednesday's Child . . . 

Hummingbirds drink nectar and eat small insects constantly throughout the day. They hibernate at night to conserve energy. It is the only species that can fly backwards.

Done today in my sketchbook on regular drawing paper.

 "Hummingbirds teach us to hover in the moment and to appreciate its' sweetness." ~ Costance Barrett 

Tuesday's child is full of grace,

C'mon princess, pose for me . . . 

"The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man."  ~Author Unknown

Done in my sketchbook on regular drawing paper.

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."  ~ John Muir

See a color sketch of "Monday's Child" here.

Monday's Child Is Fair Of Face

I've been trying to photograph the hummingbirds the past few days with my big camera. It's a real challenge! Even though they are not as sharp as I would like them to be and I've got lots of quality issues, my images will be fine for drawing and painting reference. I'll be posting ones I like for various reasons, like wonderful hummingbird gestures! 

"Monday's Child" is a traditional fortune telling song and Nursery Rhyme that dates back to the early 1800's.  I am going to use the poem as my theme this week and post a new "child" each day!  What day of the week were you born?

Please feel free to sketch and or paint from my photos here on sketchingeveryday.com for this week's Hummingbird Sketching Challenge.

See a "Monday's Child" sketch in color here.

Jon Gnagy - Mountain Lake Demo

Approximately 7.5 x 9.5 " done with grey and black charcoal sticks in my sketchbook. I liked working smaller in pencil yesterday. Perhaps I didn't work big enough for the charcoal or maybe I just like the pencil because I am used to using it.

Rose Of Sharon

Today's sketch is a little blind contour study of a Rose Of Sharon from life.

Poppy Composition Sketch

Here's a quick vignette flower composition layout on tracing paper using some of my old poppy drawings. Using tracing paper is a wonderful aid in placement of the stars of the show. Notice how the background leaves are downplayed here. If I do a painting, they will be of mid value, have lost and found edges and be in less sharp focus than the main actors. The main flowers will be large light value with a small dark. It is a basic value pattern and one of my favorites.

Drawing Composition

Here's another flower composition I came up with for this drill.

 What I am trying to stress this week with this exercise are tried and true systems and aids in composition. They are key to creating consistently successful drawings and/or paintings. The Rule Of Thirds and Momma Poppa Baby Formula are highlighted here.


We also got our first drawing in from one of our followers, Judy Scott.

I especially love the Babies here! Judy is really starting to SEE SHAPES and think about placement of her players. Getting looser, more sketchy and using the side of her pencil more often, I can she she's been practicing. Nice job Judy. Thanks so much for following along, participating and sending in your lovely sketch! 


Since I know Judy is eager to learn and improve, I would strongly recommend using tracing paper to move things around a little to get better impact. Also REALLY look at the reference. Your Momma and Poppa just look a little too perfect to me. 


Tips: Boring shapes are circles, triangles and squares. Interesting shapes are irregular and have two different dimensions. Attention grabbing forms have an oblique thrust (at an angle) and have interlocks (shapes that tie it to another area) and/or incidents (uneven protrusions, ) at the edges. Shapes and compositions lead your eye around the piece, or not. 

Designing With Flowers

I love using tracing paper for working on compositions and like to use the cheapest, thinnest kind available. Today I traced some of the blind contour flowers that were posted here earlier this week. I used my copier to enlarge and reduce the flower sizes. Using the rule of thirds, and the Momma Poppa Baby Theory, I was able to see various shapes, sizes and relationships before committing to them on paper. This is my first composition using artistic license with the sizes and foliage shapes. Notice the use of value pattern and directional thrust. This may become a watercolor vignette at some point, but I am still undecided. See the painting done from this sketch here.

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.