Art Class #1 - Basics of Drawing

***Cassiepeia*** · 01-31-2006, 07:52 PM

Hi Everybody and welcome to the very first Art Class.

Each lesson will run for a month and may include several homework tasks and exercises for you to complete. Don’t feel rushed, you have the whole month to complete the class with us and these threads will remain active after the class has finished if anyone would like to go back and have another go or if you’re a late comer. Teachers will comment on work but only to help students improve their skills. No one will ever be told their work is no good. I would also like to ban everyone from making negative comments about their own work. We’re here to teach and learn, not criticize.

These lessons are only introductions to different techniques, mediums, subjects etc… and shouldn’t be taken as the be all and end all of art. The teachers are not necessarily experts but rather avid artists/budding artists who want to share what they know. Oh, yeah...and you shouldn't expect to be an expert after the class is finished.

Everyone is different and you will, over time, develop your own style and perhaps find techniques/methods that you feel are better suited to you.

However, in the mean time I hope you’ll enjoy learning a new skill or expanding knowledge on an old one. The most important thing is to HAVE FUN!

~***~

On with the first lesson!

You'll need: Paper, graphite pencil, eraser, sharpener & ruler

Back to basics

Since this is the first lesson, I wanted to start with the basics of drawing. This lesson will be quite long, but I want you to have a good foundation for the other classes and to be able to go off on your own and have a go.

The aim of this class is to improve your sketching ability and introduce you to the ‘how’ of drawing. It should be said that “Drawing is a skill not a talent”. When we start talking about ‘art’ we can talk about talent…but drawing is just a skill. If you can write your name you can draw and although no one is great to begin with….with time and practice you WILL improve.

Never throw out your sketches!! No matter how bad you think they are. Keep them (hide them away if you must) and look at them each week or each month. Compare your old sketches to your most current and, trust me, you’ll see improvement.

1. Things you should know before we start.

Want to know the secret to drawing? Well this is it….listen carefully…

“Draw what you SEE, not what you know”.

What does it mean? It means that, for example, when you look at a glass you KNOW the top of that glass is a circle, right? But unless you are looking directly down into the cup, the shape you SEE is actually an ellipse, not a circle at all.

Here are two examples of a glass from two different angles. Take a good look at the top and bottom of the glass. Areas we KNOW are perfect circles.

It’s more apparent in the first image, but top and bottom, what we SEE here are ellipses.

“Draw what you SEE, not what you know”.

Now take a look around the room you’re in right now and see if you can see all the different shapes in the objects around you. Look at the computer, books, CDs, clocks, posters/calendars, flowers, windows, curtains and even your pets if they’re with you. Take your time and look carefully, we’re not in a hurry, a trick is to squint your eyes a little. It helps to blur the detail (which is something we get lost in sometimes) so you can see the shapes better.

Artists view the world and everything in it as a series of shapes and tones. Seeing things this way, makes it a whole lot easy to recreate them on paper, canvas, in sculpture etc.

Forget the detail and concentrate on the shapes.

That’s what we’ll be doing in our first exercise. But first….

2. Fun with graphite

Whenever you decide to try a new medium one of the best things to do is to “play”. This means taking, in this case, your pencil and scribbling, scratching, shading, hatching etc. Making a complete mess of your page. LOL

It may seem like a waste, but it’s one of the best ways to get to know your medium. By playing you can see what your new medium can do. Is it easy to control? Is it messy? Does it smudge easily? Can I use it for fine work or just big blocks of colour/tone? Can I just use the tip or will the side of the pencil draw as well?

Now stop for a moment and play around as much as you like on a piece of paper and try out that good old pencil. Get to know it again. Yeah, it sounds corny but trust me, it’s important and it will help you when we start to draw. Use your eraser when you play as well. See how well it copes with the medium.

Here is an example from one of my sketch books. Your page needn’t look exactly like this but I wanted to show you that it really is something I do to get familiar with a medium.

While you’re playing around with your graphite, take the time to try out different ways of holding your pencil. Try pinching it with your thumb and middle finger and holding it underneath your hand. Then try holding it down at the tip and then further up along the shaft of the pencil so that your hand is further away from the paper. How does that work? Can you do anything different with that?
Also try drawing from your elbow rather than your wrist (keep your wrist, not stiff, but firm and use your arm and elbow to control the pencil). If you draw from your wrist you tend to become ‘tighter’ in your drawings and you’re more restricted. This is fine, of course for detailed work but drawing/moving from the elbow instead really gives you better control. It’s also great for quick sketches. Try it out.

3. FIRST EXERCISE – For this 1st exercise we’re not going to be drawing an animal (don’t worry…the animals are coming!). I want you to get use to sketching and looking at shape and form. So! What we’re going to do is draw three items, from life, and I want you to post your results here. Don’t be embarrassed. Everyone is here to learn.

The three items I want you to draw are…
1. A glass, cup or mug
2. A book
3. A piece of fruit or a vegetable (cut or whole, your choice)

Take your time. Don’t bother with detail or shading. I just want to see you draw the shape of the objects. Feel free to do more than one sketch of each item. Break them down into individual shapes if you like.

I know everyone’s busy so I’ll give you until the 4th of Feb (US time) before our next lesson to do this small task. Please post your three sketches when you’re done. If you do finish this first exercise quickly, you might like you look around you and sketch a few other things. Try to stick to just drawing the shapes of things for now. You don’t need to post these ‘extras’ if you don’t want to, so feel free to really have a go. Remember, drawing is a skill that takes practice to learn. The more you draw, the better you’ll be. Even 5 minutes of sketching a day will see major improvements.

See you on the 4th (you can post your cup/mug/glass, book and fruit sketches earlier if you wish).

Cass.
*Err...that's Ms. Cass, and I hope you brought an apple for me

*

***Cassiepeia*** · 01-31-2006, 11:56 PM

Hey everyone...I just wanted to let you know that the 'animal' element of this class won't be included until the second half of it. The reason is, I wanted to give you a bit of the basics before we try to render fur and draw eyes and noses. It'll make it easier for you to understand all of that.

Just in case some of you were wondering why there aren't pictures of cute puppies to draw just yet.

Cass.

***MazieDog*** · 02-01-2006, 01:08 AM

I guess I'll go first.

Sorry the picture isn't the greatest quality.. I don't have an available scanner where I'm at, so it'll have to wait until I get home.

PawNclaws · 02-01-2006, 11:56 AM

Ok, here's mine- I did try another(its the antique washing machine replica I have on my desk(its 4"-5" high and my sister broke the back peice off just so you know why its missing on the sketch) and that thing in the bottom right corner is an orange(my scanner cut the wording in half).

calgal · 02-01-2006, 02:14 PM

Ok, I'm finished.

***Cassiepeia*** · 02-01-2006, 03:30 PM

Can you post your work, Calgal?

Justin & PawsNClaws...Nice work guys.

Paws..I love the antique washing machine, so glad you included it. I bet it'd make an awesome subject for further drawing.

Boy you're all so quick!

Cass.

Shadowkins · 02-01-2006, 03:53 PM

I don't have a scanner available, but hopefully with my little camera you will get a close enought look. Tried to show you the items I was using.

It's tough drawing fruit or veggies when the fridge is quite empty

PawNclaws · 02-01-2006, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Paws..I love the antique washing machine, so glad you included it. I bet it'd make an awesome subject for further drawing.

Yeah I think it will- it has circles/ovals and rectangles mostly so its a great way to get the feel for them two shapes.

Shadowkins I love that apple sketch- great work!!!

Ok, Since this one lessing I have been exploring and re-entering my drawing/sketching. I went to our bird book and got a few down. I'm not very good so I'm very thrilled for this art thread, it'll highten my skills(I know alot of you are very talented at this by looking at your work) and get me into on onward to the sketching basics/advanced basics. I'm afread I need some work- I cant draw re-sketch photos, just out of book prints..So I cant wait to learn more.... Here is what I worked on this afternoon(exploring shapes in birds) - the swan and quail I'm still working on, I have a problem with feather detail so I dont go to much of that sorta detailing...

***Cassiepeia*** · 02-01-2006, 04:24 PM

Nice work! Shadowkins.

You've got a real eye for form, well done.

Paws- OMG..very VERY nice work. You can draw. You're really quite good in fact.

For feathers, I suggest detailing the tips of (for example) the gooses wings where the feathers seperate more and leaving the rest to the viewers imagination. If you're doing a quail, perhaps a little detail (feathering) around the neck, certainly on the crest there and just the tips of the wings longest flight feather.

The closer you get to the subject, the more detail you can add. But when people look at a painting or drawing of a bird, because they already know it has feathers, they actually already 'see' them. People are very good at filling in the blanks when looking at images. So really just a few details here and there are fine.

As for drawing feathers themselves. Perhaps you could go out and find a feather (maybe steal one from a feather duster? LOL ) and use it as a sketching subject?

Cass.

calgal · 02-01-2006, 04:31 PM

Cass, my drawing IS posted. I see it right after PawNclaws, don't you?

PawNclaws · 02-01-2006, 04:35 PM

Thank Cass- they look better on the computer (believe me on this one- the quail looks very funny lol) - I'll try that(with the feathers).

***Cassiepeia*** · 02-01-2006, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by calgal

Cass, my drawing IS posted. I see it right after PawNclaws, don't you?

No I don't see it.

Cass.

***MazieDog*** · 02-01-2006, 05:21 PM

I don't see it either... I see a red X....

01-31-2006, 07:52 PM	#1 (permalink)
*Cassiepeia* Chihuahua Mum Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: NSW, Australia Posts: 8,281 Blog Entries: 9 Rep Power: 284	Art Class #1 - Basics of Drawing Hi Everybody and welcome to the very first Art Class. Each lesson will run for a month and may include several homework tasks and exercises for you to complete. Don’t feel rushed, you have the whole month to complete the class with us and these threads will remain active after the class has finished if anyone would like to go back and have another go or if you’re a late comer. Teachers will comment on work but only to help students improve their skills. No one will ever be told their work is no good. I would also like to ban everyone from making negative comments about their own work. We’re here to teach and learn, not criticize. These lessons are only introductions to different techniques, mediums, subjects etc… and shouldn’t be taken as the be all and end all of art. The teachers are not necessarily experts but rather avid artists/budding artists who want to share what they know. Oh, yeah...and you shouldn't expect to be an expert after the class is finished. Everyone is different and you will, over time, develop your own style and perhaps find techniques/methods that you feel are better suited to you. However, in the mean time I hope you’ll enjoy learning a new skill or expanding knowledge on an old one. The most important thing is to HAVE FUN! ~*~ On with the first lesson! You'll need: Paper, graphite pencil, eraser, sharpener & ruler Back to basics** Since this is the first lesson, I wanted to start with the basics of drawing. This lesson will be quite long, but I want you to have a good foundation for the other classes and to be able to go off on your own and have a go. The aim of this class is to improve your sketching ability and introduce you to the ‘how’ of drawing. It should be said that “Drawing is a skill not a talent”. When we start talking about ‘art’ we can talk about talent…but drawing is just a skill. If you can write your name you can draw and although no one is great to begin with….with time and practice you WILL improve. Never throw out your sketches!! No matter how bad you think they are. Keep them (hide them away if you must) and look at them each week or each month. Compare your old sketches to your most current and, trust me, you’ll see improvement. 1. Things you should know before we start. Want to know the secret to drawing? Well this is it….listen carefully… “Draw what you SEE, not what you know”. What does it mean? It means that, for example, when you look at a glass you KNOW the top of that glass is a circle, right? But unless you are looking directly down into the cup, the shape you SEE is actually an ellipse, not a circle at all. Here are two examples of a glass from two different angles. Take a good look at the top and bottom of the glass. Areas we KNOW are perfect circles. It’s more apparent in the first image, but top and bottom, what we SEE here are ellipses. “Draw what you SEE, not what you know”. Now take a look around the room you’re in right now and see if you can see all the different shapes in the objects around you. Look at the computer, books, CDs, clocks, posters/calendars, flowers, windows, curtains and even your pets if they’re with you. Take your time and look carefully, we’re not in a hurry, a trick is to squint your eyes a little. It helps to blur the detail (which is something we get lost in sometimes) so you can see the shapes better. Artists view the world and everything in it as a series of shapes and tones. Seeing things this way, makes it a whole lot easy to recreate them on paper, canvas, in sculpture etc. Forget the detail and concentrate on the shapes. That’s what we’ll be doing in our first exercise. But first…. 2. Fun with graphite Whenever you decide to try a new medium one of the best things to do is to “play”. This means taking, in this case, your pencil and scribbling, scratching, shading, hatching etc. Making a complete mess of your page. LOL It may seem like a waste, but it’s one of the best ways to get to know your medium. By playing you can see what your new medium can do. Is it easy to control? Is it messy? Does it smudge easily? Can I use it for fine work or just big blocks of colour/tone? Can I just use the tip or will the side of the pencil draw as well? Now stop for a moment and play around as much as you like on a piece of paper and try out that good old pencil. Get to know it again. Yeah, it sounds corny but trust me, it’s important and it will help you when we start to draw. Use your eraser when you play as well. See how well it copes with the medium. Here is an example from one of my sketch books. Your page needn’t look exactly like this but I wanted to show you that it really is something I do to get familiar with a medium. While you’re playing around with your graphite, take the time to try out different ways of holding your pencil. Try pinching it with your thumb and middle finger and holding it underneath your hand. Then try holding it down at the tip and then further up along the shaft of the pencil so that your hand is further away from the paper. How does that work? Can you do anything different with that? Also try drawing from your elbow rather than your wrist (keep your wrist, not stiff, but firm and use your arm and elbow to control the pencil). If you draw from your wrist you tend to become ‘tighter’ in your drawings and you’re more restricted. This is fine, of course for detailed work but drawing/moving from the elbow instead really gives you better control. It’s also great for quick sketches. Try it out. 3. FIRST EXERCISE – For this 1st exercise we’re not going to be drawing an animal (don’t worry…the animals are coming!). I want you to get use to sketching and looking at shape and form. So! What we’re going to do is draw three items, from life, and I want you to post your results here. Don’t be embarrassed. Everyone is here to learn. The three items I want you to draw are… 1. A glass, cup or mug 2. A book 3. A piece of fruit or a vegetable (cut or whole, your choice) Take your time. Don’t bother with detail or shading. I just want to see you draw the shape of the objects. Feel free to do more than one sketch of each item. Break them down into individual shapes if you like. I know everyone’s busy so I’ll give you until the 4th of Feb (US time) before our next lesson to do this small task. Please post your three sketches when you’re done. If you do finish this first exercise quickly, you might like you look around you and sketch a few other things. Try to stick to just drawing the shapes of things for now. You don’t need to post these ‘extras’ if you don’t want to, so feel free to really have a go. Remember, drawing is a skill that takes practice to learn. The more you draw, the better you’ll be. Even 5 minutes of sketching a day will see major improvements. See you on the 4th (you can post your cup/mug/glass, book and fruit sketches earlier if you wish). Cass. Err...that's Ms. Cass, and I hope you brought an apple for me
	__________________ Say NO! to animals in pet shops. Rescue a friend instead: Petfinder Get more out of Global Paw. Check out these great features. Book Club ~ Blogs ~ Art Classes ~ Woof Review As a member of Global paw staff my opinions are not necessarily those of the website or the owner.

01-31-2006, 11:56 PM	#2 (permalink)
*Cassiepeia* Chihuahua Mum Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: NSW, Australia Posts: 8,281 Blog Entries: 9 Rep Power: 284	Hey everyone...I just wanted to let you know that the 'animal' element of this class won't be included until the second half of it. The reason is, I wanted to give you a bit of the basics before we try to render fur and draw eyes and noses. It'll make it easier for you to understand all of that. Just in case some of you were wondering why there aren't pictures of cute puppies to draw just yet. Cass.
	__________________ Say NO! to animals in pet shops. Rescue a friend instead: Petfinder Get more out of Global Paw. Check out these great features. Book Club ~ Blogs ~ Art Classes ~ Woof Review As a member of Global paw staff my opinions are not necessarily those of the website or the owner.

02-01-2006, 01:08 AM	#3 (permalink)
*MazieDog* <--- Eeeevil Kitty! Super Moderator Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Skamokawa, WA Posts: 933 Blog Entries: 3 Rep Power: 107	I guess I'll go first. Sorry the picture isn't the greatest quality.. I don't have an available scanner where I'm at, so it'll have to wait until I get home.
	__________________ "It's never too late to live happily ever after." Thanks, Mirg, for the awesome signature! Get more out of Global Paw. Check out these great features. Global Paw Book Club -- Art Classes -- Woof Review As a member of GlobalPaw staff my opinions are not necessarily those of the website or the owner.

02-01-2006, 11:56 AM	#4 (permalink)
PawNclaws Labrador Crazy Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: North West Posts: 1,930 Blog Entries: 2 Rep Power: 112	Ok, here's mine- I did try another(its the antique washing machine replica I have on my desk(its 4"-5" high and my sister broke the back peice off just so you know why its missing on the sketch) and that thing in the bottom right corner is an orange(my scanner cut the wording in half).
	__________________

02-01-2006, 03:30 PM	#6 (permalink)
*Cassiepeia* Chihuahua Mum Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: NSW, Australia Posts: 8,281 Blog Entries: 9 Rep Power: 284	Can you post your work, Calgal? Justin & PawsNClaws...Nice work guys. Paws..I love the antique washing machine, so glad you included it. I bet it'd make an awesome subject for further drawing. Boy you're all so quick! Cass.
	__________________ Say NO! to animals in pet shops. Rescue a friend instead: Petfinder Get more out of Global Paw. Check out these great features. Book Club ~ Blogs ~ Art Classes ~ Woof Review As a member of Global paw staff my opinions are not necessarily those of the website or the owner.

02-01-2006, 02:14 PM	#5 (permalink)
calgal My Yorkster kids! Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: central ca. coast Posts: 6,807 Rep Power: 232	Ok, I'm finished.

02-01-2006, 03:53 PM	#7 (permalink)
Shadowkins Shadowkins Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Saskatchewan,Canada Posts: 2,726 Rep Power: 129	I don't have a scanner available, but hopefully with my little camera you will get a close enought look. Tried to show you the items I was using. It's tough drawing fruit or veggies when the fridge is quite empty
	__________________ Last edited by Shadowkins : 02-01-2006 at 04:02 PM.

02-01-2006, 04:24 PM	#9 (permalink)
*Cassiepeia* Chihuahua Mum Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: NSW, Australia Posts: 8,281 Blog Entries: 9 Rep Power: 284	Nice work! Shadowkins. You've got a real eye for form, well done. Paws- OMG..very VERY nice work. You can draw. You're really quite good in fact. For feathers, I suggest detailing the tips of (for example) the gooses wings where the feathers seperate more and leaving the rest to the viewers imagination. If you're doing a quail, perhaps a little detail (feathering) around the neck, certainly on the crest there and just the tips of the wings longest flight feather. The closer you get to the subject, the more detail you can add. But when people look at a painting or drawing of a bird, because they already know it has feathers, they actually already 'see' them. People are very good at filling in the blanks when looking at images. So really just a few details here and there are fine. As for drawing feathers themselves. Perhaps you could go out and find a feather (maybe steal one from a feather duster? LOL ) and use it as a sketching subject? Cass.
	__________________ Say NO! to animals in pet shops. Rescue a friend instead: Petfinder Get more out of Global Paw. Check out these great features. Book Club ~ Blogs ~ Art Classes ~ Woof Review As a member of Global paw staff my opinions are not necessarily those of the website or the owner.

02-01-2006, 04:31 PM	#10 (permalink)
calgal My Yorkster kids! Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: central ca. coast Posts: 6,807 Rep Power: 232	Cass, my drawing IS posted. I see it right after PawNclaws, don't you?

02-01-2006, 04:35 PM	#11 (permalink)
PawNclaws Labrador Crazy Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: North West Posts: 1,930 Blog Entries: 2 Rep Power: 112	Thank Cass- they look better on the computer (believe me on this one- the quail looks very funny lol) - I'll try that(with the feathers).
	__________________

02-01-2006, 05:21 PM	#13 (permalink)
*MazieDog* <--- Eeeevil Kitty! Super Moderator Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Skamokawa, WA Posts: 933 Blog Entries: 3 Rep Power: 107	I don't see it either... I see a red X....
	__________________ "It's never too late to live happily ever after." Thanks, Mirg, for the awesome signature! Get more out of Global Paw. Check out these great features. Global Paw Book Club -- Art Classes -- Woof Review As a member of GlobalPaw staff my opinions are not necessarily those of the website or the owner.