Pencil Sketches

Between teaching Drawing in the Museum for Osher at CMU, and Pencil Drawing for CCBC, I've been spending a lot of quality time with just a pencil and a sketchbook.

You can express a lot with a simple pencil -- light & shadow, shape & texture -- all in the way you make your marks and how heavily you lay down the graphite.

These first 4 drawings are from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh -- from the Hall of North American Wildlife, Polar World, and the last two are from the Hall of Botany.

The best approach is to pick something that really attracts your eye, and then make a game of exploring different ways of drawing it.  Being experimental is key to relaxing and making discoveries.

One day after class, David & I ate at the museum cafe. I sketched these two people quickly.

The first fellow was outside waiting for a bus and looking at his phone, and the woman below was dining in the cafe.

The cat below was drawn from a photo one of my Pencil Drawing students brought in, and we both tried turning our sketchbooks and the photo upside down.  It was a really useful trick to help us see the shapes in this foreshortened view of her old friend.

Remember, it doesn't take much.  Grab a pencil and some paper, and start sketching whatever catches your eye.  If you do this regularly, you will make great discoveries and build your drawing skills with every sketch.

Happy Sketching!

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