A Pink Elephant

I decided to do a little painting of an elephant of a different color to finish up our last sketching challenge. I drew over, corrected and refined one of my gesture sketches with tracing paper. When I was satisfied with it, I transferred it to my Arches 140lb. cold press watercolor paper and finished it off with some color.

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.

More Two Minute Gesture Drawings

I worked on this week's elephant sketching challenge today and produced several two minute 1/4 turn gesture drawing attempts. I tried several different approaches. I drew from the computer and from life. I even pulled out my old easel and set up the elephant on a ladder with a presentation board behind it on a table to isolate it from the background. I dug out my old Conte' Crayons from college and did one series with a reddish colored iron oxide one. They are a soft, waxy pastel type stick. They are very messy, so I don't think I'll be doing more of them in my sketchbook. I have some other paper I want to try them on though. The drawings in this photo were done in my bigger 11" x 17" sketch pad using a soft 5B drawing pencil while standing at the easel with the object at about eye level.

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.

Rough Sketches

"Rough sketches, which are born in an instant in the heat of inspiration, express the idea of their author in a few strokes, while too much effort and diligence sometimes sops the vitality and powers of those who never know when to leave off." ~ Giorgio Vasari

More On Gesture Drawing

I got two elephant challenge drawings in already!  I am thrilled that a few of you are now jumping right in with these challenges. Thank you Susan and Vicki! Good job!! I hope you'll both try these again, once you read this post. And also, I would love to see you take it a step further and do a more finished drawing of a pose or two.

There seems to be a little bit of confusion between gesture and contour drawing here. Perhaps that is my fault for a misleading post yesterday where I did a blind contour drawing and posted a gesture challenge. Everything has a gesture, whether alive or inanimate. A contour is seeing the surface where a gesture is feeling the movement or action of a thing. See what Wikipedia has to say about gesture versus contour drawing here.

Today I did these four gesture drawings and I am posting another 1/4 view series of this deer figurine. Please feel free to do this also! These gesture drawings took about a minute and a half each. See how I tried to get the feeling down without being overly concerned with the outside edges. I hope some of you will try these exercises several times. It takes a little while to get used to drawing this way. Once you do however, it is a wonderful tool for warming up and getting the big shapes down quickly. Remember to hold your pencil like a wand as it frees up your whole arm and consequently, your interpretation of it.

Drawing Exercises for Improving Your Skills

There are several easy exercises that are very beneficial to developing the skill of drawing. Today I did a blind contour drawing from life. I used one of my potted flowers as a model.

Drawing elephants is fun and easy too! Because of their unique shapes, seeing them seems easier to do. I've used my figurine elephant collection on numerous occasions in my workshops as models. One of my favorite exercises is to do 2 minute gesture drawings with them. We turn the object 1/4 turn after each two minutes is up. In just eight minutes, you should have four different views. It's a great exercise to get you loosened up and really makes you see shapes instead of things! I've taken four different shots of our red elephant here and I hope you will try this exercise for our next sketching challenge. Even if you have no intention of turning it in, just do it OK? Eight minutes is all you need. And all you industrious people, please feel free to finish and add some details to your favorite pose. You will have to use your imagination and some artistic license as this elephant is not very detailed.


See more information about doing these exercises on your own here. 

Portrait Of A Princess

This morning I decided to do a watercolor of Princess from yesterday's sketch. Somehow the drawing got a little squashed vertically, so I elongated it a little in Photoshop. I traced the sketch onto my watercolor paper with my light box, using a 2H pencil and a light touch so as not to score the paper.

Years ago, I used to do lots of pet portraits. I learned early on to do the eyes first, because they are the gateway to the soul of the animal and if the eyes are not right, the rest of the painting won't be either. I was satisfied with the way they turned out, so I went on to finish it. You can see the painting on my web log here.

"The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat."  ~ Jules Reynard


"Dogs come when they're called; cats take a message and get back to you later."  ~ Mary Bly


"In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this."  ~ Terry Pratchett



I will post our next sketching challenge tomorrow.

Art Is Healing

I just got an email and some drawings from a friend I haven't heard from recently. I was unaware that she has been through some really tough times over the past year. Last summer, Judy was forced to leave a job she loved as a wildlife rehabilitator due to a severe lung condition caused by the animals. In addition, her husband and best friend suddenly passed away in November and she had to to move out of her home of 36 years and into an apartment.

Judy writes; "I am sharing this with you, because reading your daily emails and finding time for myself to sketch is really a lifesaver.  It takes my mind away from the rest of the world."

I am saddened to hear of Judy's losses. I know that she is a strong, positive person and in time will be doing very well again, however. I feel blessed that I can provide her (and possibly a few others) with a creative outlet where she can find time for herself while taking her thoughts away from her troubles. Art is very healing that way. It can put you into a magical world for a period of time, where nothing else matters or exists.

"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing." ~ Vincent Van Gogh 

Judy sent me two cat drawings and one of a fledgling hummingbird that she cared for and released, (which I will post later). Here is the one she did of Princess. She said the face was difficult for her, but I think she got a darn good resemblance.

And this sweet kitty is a sketch of Buttons, her own cat that she rescued.

Thank you for sharing your lovely drawings and your heart with us, Judy. I'm sending healing thoughts and love your way. You are an inspiration!

Our Cat Challenge is about to end, so I did this sketch today and tried not to get carried away with the shading or details. I intend to finish it tomorrow with a watercolor wash.

A Bird's Eye View

"You can't own a cat. The best you can do is be partners." ~ Sir Harry Swanson

"The cat has too much spirit to have no heart." ~ Ernest Manual

"I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through." ~ Jules Verne

Tommy The Terror

Today's sketch is a side view portrait of one of our house cats, Tommy. We got him at an art show we were doing back in 2005. A lady was bringing him around to all the vendors, trying to find a home for him. He and his litter mates were taken away from a feral mother when they were only a few days old. When we fell in love with him, he was only six weeks old and just a bundle of joy. Unfortunately, being taken from mom and hand reared by humans at such an early age has had repercussions. Who knows what went on in those first few impressionable weeks of Tom's life?! He is a very strange cat today. We just can't trust him.  He'll cuddle up to you one minute and turn around and bite you the next.


Here's what Tommy Looked like when we got him.

And he's still a very handsome fellow today, just a little whacked-out.