Beginner's Pencil Drawing Sketches

The world is full of beauty, and in Beginner's Pencil Drawing, we find ways of seeing & drawing it in our sketchbooks.  

We've just embarked on a new series of Pencil Drawing classes at the Community College of Beaver County, and we're having fun exploring the world with our pencils.

The homework this week is to draw your breakfast or to draw a small piece of your life, daily if possible, even for 5-10 minutes.  When your materials are a few drawing pencils and a sketchbook, it's easy to jump right into making art.

The morning after our first class, I sat at the breakfast table, intending to draw eggs and veggie sausages, but these flowers called out to be sketched.  I started by drawing the scene before my eyes.  

I took the above photo to allow me to put more detail in the drawing after the breakfast dishes were cleared away and the light had changed. In my phone's photo editor, I translated the color photo to black-and-white using a filter.  This helps to clearly see the values in the scene.

I started the sketch with a 2B graphite pencil.

Simple marks lightly laid down were the beginning, and I held the sketch at arm's length to check it now and again.  I began adding tone with a 10B pencil once I felt satisfied with the general layout.

I wanted to show the light values of the lily by creating the darker tones around the flower.

All of the shapes of the other flowers around the lily were interesting to my artist's eye.  It was fun adding in darker values and suggesting the shapes of mums, daisies and leaves.

I took a break from drawing, and when I looked at the photo above, I realized that I wanted to add more dimension to the lily.  It looked flat.

I darkened the values around the lily.  I liked the way this popped the lily forward.  Then I added a few dark spots within the lily, unifying the composition.

Looking at a photo of your artwork or simply stepping back from it lets you focus on the whole composition and assess what needs work.  Or what needs to be celebrated! Sometimes you step back and see that something beautiful has developed.  Make sure to be open to that possibility.

Remember that the more you sketch, the more opportunities for discoveries you create. Each sketch -- whether you love it or don't --builds your drawing skills.

Happy Creating!

Post Card Practice

I keep a stack of 4.5" x 6" postcards cut from sheets of 140# watercolor paper in a ziplock bag in my art backpack.  When I have a little time and some inspiration, I can work small. It's an easy way into creating, a warm-up.

I find the trick to making progress or even maintaining your art skills is persistent practice. Find anything that interests you and practice drawing or painting it.  Working on loose pieces of paper can reduce the fear of making a "bad painting." You can toss it if you don't like the results.

Every painting and drawing teaches you something.  You can step back and notice what you do and don't like about each creation. 

I like the loose hydrangea blossoms in the post card above.  I like the contrast and edges created by the dark shadows around the lower leaf.  I don't like the upper right area's blobby lack of definition.  Perhaps a few ink lines would add the definition I desire, but I don't want to lose the lower leaf's magic, so I'll likely leave it as is.  It's a postcard after all!

I share this to give you a sense of how you might look at your own work.  Instead of saying "It's awful!" or making some other broad statement, notice what you do and don't like about your painting or drawing.  Now you have a list of things you can work on. You have goals.

In my case, I want to make more paintings that are loose and use dark negative space shadows to create positive space shapes. I want to define the subject with high contrasts in color and value.  I'm willing to let things be abstract in places, but want to create lively lines.

I guess I'd better keep practicing!

Happy Creating!