Mark Making Practice in Beginner's Pencil Drawing Class

A good book can inspire us to get sketching.  These pages were inspired by Pencil Drawing by Arthur Guptill (more on this book here).  I followed the book's mark making exercise as a warm-up, and felt inspired especially by the marks with varying pressure (top right of the page above).

It can help to reduce the fear of the blank page to start off with mark making, and copying another artist's work is even easier.  Even though in school we've been trained not to copy someone else, copying in art (as long as you give credit to your source) is an important part of learning.

Find an artist you admire and make a copy of their drawing, their marks, even a portion of an artwork.  This process will build your drawing skills and help you to see new ways to solve conundrums in turning a three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional drawing.

 Happy Creating!

Pencil Drawing: A Voice from the Past

A dear friend was cleaning out his studio and gave me this book.  I've been admiring the illustrations -- all done in graphite pencil.

Sometimes, it's simply fun to "picture walk" through a book (as my eldest called it in their childhood), absorbing inspiration from the images.

As artists, we learn from copying other artists.  

These simple exercises in mark making and value studies keep our hand limber, help us expand our skills and explore new types of marks we can use in our drawings.

I hope you copy some of these pages and then add your own twist.

Wishing you sparkling inspiration and happy creating!

Is Copying Other Artists Cheating?

I often flip through favorite artists' books for inspiration, and sometimes find a page so inspiring, I want to learn how the original artist created the painting.

That's the case with the page above from Erin O'Toole's book Create Your Own Artist's Journal.

Hungry for the beauty of spring flowers, and admiring Erin's beautiful work, I copied part of her painting, adding my own twist.

I learned new ways of composing paintings of flowers, and discovered how lovely it is to have a light, soft wash of color behind more distinct, defined features of that same color.

That's the beauty of copying other artists -- you learn their techniques. As long as you don't present the painting as your original work, it's not cheating to copy another artist's painting.  It's a great way to learn!

Happy Creating!

Quick Sketches: J.W. Waterhouse

As a patron of The Unexpected Gypsy, I enjoy getting inspired by her art practices.  Lately, she has shared her copies of drawings by British artist J.W. Waterhouse.  She included the source material from the book:  J. W. Waterhouse: 93 Drawings ,by Narim Bender.

Copying other artists'work is called making a master copy.  As long as you don't pass the work off as your own original creation, there's nothing wrong with making master copies.  In fact,  it's a great way to learn from the masters.

Every drawing teaches you something, and especially master copy drawings.  

What artists do you admire? Pick a favorite artwork of theirs and try to recreate it.  The process will unlock new understanding and provide inspiration.

Happy Creating!

Drawing in the Museum

I'm teaching a course for Osher at CMU called Drawing in the Museum.  We meet in the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History each week and tour one of the exhibit halls, making sketches of the artworks and items on display.

We began in the Museum of Natural History's Halls of North American Wildlife, African Wildlife and Botany.

The following week, we moved on to the Hall of Architecture, where we found statuary, columns and facades to illustrate in our sketchbooks.

The museums allow visitors to draw, but only with graphite pencils and sketchbooks small enough to fit on your lap.

Those requirements make copying oil paintings particularly challenging.  

We invite our intuition to lead us in figuring out how to create the textures and values we see in the paintings with our pencils.

My sketch of the painting "Head of a Woman" by Eugene Carriere.

You can see the original here:

https://collection.carnegieart.org/objects/247c15b1-2c83-4972-a02e-8310762d5464

Drawing in the museum is an age-old technique for learning from the masters.  When you draw something, you see it more deeply than when you simply glance by it.

When was the last time you went to a museum?  Why not take a pencil and a sketch book along with you and sketch your favorite artwork?

Mark Making for Pencil Drawing Class

Today is the start of Beginner's Pencil Drawing Class at the Community College of Beaver County.  On the first day of class, we practice mark making.  It's a wonderful way to get familiar with your art supplies and to give yourself permission to play.

I began with an ink brush, creating on old book pages.  

Each different medium - ink brush, pen, pencil, etc. has its own magic for creating marks, and it's relaxing to discover what sorts of things each medium excels at.

Mark making is a great way to see your own style develop if you are new to art.  Even if you were to copy another artist's marks as closely as you could, you would be creating in your own hand. 

It's a good practice in fact to visit a museum and copy the marks or even the whole composition of a master artist.  You learn so much through the process.

So long as you don't claim the work as your own original idea, it's perfectly ethical.

I find mark making a relaxing project, good for when you don't have much time, or for when you've seen another artist's work and been inspired.  It can be a form of notetaking on the marks you saw that you liked.

Next time you are stuck waiting in your car, or have 10 minutes to fill, try grabbing a sketchbook (or even the back of an envelope!) and a pencil and making marks. It's a great way to keep your creative gears turning.

Master Copy

I'm taking a Figure Drawing class at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts & Media, and one of the assignments we were given was to copy a master artist's work.  Copying in art -- so long as you don't try to pass the work off as an original of your own creating -- is not cheating.  It's a traditional way to learn from the great artists.  I love the high contrast in the original drawing, and in trying to approximate the original, I discovered how dark shadows are often accompanied by bright highlights.