Drawing in the Museum

Last Friday we wrapped up the Osher class Drawing in the Museum.  We had a lot of fun!

Here's a look at some of my sketches.

The Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History allow artists to bring in only a sketchbook and pencils.  Turns out, having a limited list of supplies simplifies the drawing process and helps me to kick my creativity into gear.  The art and artifacts in the museums are fascinating, and you can imagine yourself as an early adventurer sketching a Native American mask (above) or a Goliath Beetle (below).

Next time you plan a visit to a museum, or even a new park or cultural spot, make it an adventure and record what you see with a pencil and a sketchbook!

An urn in the Hall of Architecture.

Details on a statue.

A detail of a lion capturing a horse in the Hall of Architecture.

I hope you'll take yourself on an art date, and bring your sketchbook along.

Happy Creating!

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!

Collage Sketchbook

I was planning a visit to Phipps Conservatory with my friend, and wanted to make a special sketchbook filled with painted pages for each of us with splashes of green paint. 

I've been enjoying videos by artist Rebecca Chapman like this one about making collage papers to use in her vacation sketchbook.  She reasons that having painted papers helps to circumvent fear of the blank page and help her make more art.

Above is a video describing how I made the collage papers, with a flip through of each book. 

I hope you try this technique!

Self Portrait Ideas

In my Pencil Portraits Class last summer, I demonstrated drawing your own portrait using a mirror.  You always have your own face to draw, and self-portraits are great practice.

As a warm-up, you can begin with a blind contour drawing of your face.  

Look at your reflection in a mirror, and place your pencil on your paper.  Now without looking at your paper, and without lifting your pencil, begin drawing. You can go back over lines, just don't lift your pencil from the paper, and don't peek at your paper!

Your hand's only job is to follow the slow movement of your eyes over contours - lines that define outer and inner edges of your face. 

Go slowly, knowing that you are not making a drawing, you are aligning your eyes and your hand, making connections and observations.

You can see from my blind contour drawing that nothing lined up quite right or was in proportion, but that some accurate, alive lines arose.  

By forcing your eyes to remain on your face, you allow yourself to fully drink in the nuances and details, and you practice trusting your hand to follow along.  This is a useful skill to develop.  Looking at what or who you are drawing is one of the most important steps in any drawing.

Now that you are warmed up with a blind contour drawing or two, you are ready to make another sketch, allowing your hands to move slowly, and your eyes to dance between studying your face, and checking that your lines are landing in the right place on your paper.  Look at your face 90% of the time, and steal quick glances at your paper 10% of the time.  At first it feels hard, but soon you'll trust yourself, and you'll fall into a rhythm.

I hope you give this a try!  All you need is a mirror, a pencil and paper.

Happy Creating!

A Watercolor Sketch A Day Brings ... Delight!

I've been painting in my sketch book at the kitchen counter at breakfast, and looking out the window to the trees outside.  I begin by finding one area that fascinates me. Here, it was that deep shadowy bit in the bottom left area of the trees. I paint directly on the paper without a pencil sketch and expand my painting out from there.  

Simply practicing, exploring, playing in my sketchbook brings ...

New discoveries
A low-impact way to learn how to put on paper what I see
Better brush skills
Joy
A meditation on nature, color & stillness
Artwork to prop in my studio to remind me I'm an artist.

What would painting or drawing at the breakfast table bring for you?
What little moments of down time in your life can you fit artistic explorations and peace into?

Sketchbook Wanderings

 

I've been enjoying Koosje Koene's YouTube channel & book, and find that she's right in saying that even the most mundane thing becomes interesting when you draw it.  

Here are a few simple subjects I picked to draw, just for practice and the joy of drawing!

I hope you find a cozy moment to sketch your pet, your snacks, or anything in your life!