Here's some more drawing exercises to keep you going. Enjoy and don't do as I do... keep practicing!
1. Spider measuring
For this exercise you will need a sharp pencil. A biro would also do as rubbers (erasers) are banned for this one. Ideally draw from life. The challenge is to never let the drawing implement leave the page. In order to move across the page you make the marks as light as you can/like. All the time you are comparing shapes and how they relate to each other. I personally loved this exercise and found I ended up with some of my most accurate drawings from using it. Far easier than holding a pencil at arms length and measuring each point for me, so who knows it might suit you too.
The example is of the same model in different poses all imposed on each other which is another thing you might like to try.
2. Lifting light
Cover a page with a layer of charcoal, then rub it into the paper with a rough paper towel. Now draw your picture with a rubber, wiping away most of the charcoal for the lightest areas and less for the mid-tones. To introduce details you'll need to use the edge of the rubber, for broad areas use the side.
This exercise can be adapted to work with pencil as the base. Using the side of a 6B (soft) pencil cover the page just as you did with the charcoal and rub it into the paper as before. As you work into the picture you can start adding fine lines with the tip of a pencil or range of pencils. Remember the softer the pencil is (i.e. the higher the 'B' number) the darker you can make the marks, the harder the pencil (i.e. the higher the 'H' number) the more detailed but the lighter the marks will be.
3. Negative shape
I've saved this one to near the end as what most people tend to do automatically is draw an outline but get frustrated because they don't observe the background against which the subject sits. For this exercise only draw the outline, but take a long time to draw it accurately. Imagine you are seeing that object in silhouette and look for the 'negative' shapes. Spotting the background shape can help enormously when it comes to drawing accurately.
4. Draw with your 'wrong' hand.
I met a lady artist who sadly lost control of her right side following a stroke which meant that she had to learn to draw and paint all over again. To encourage her and to understand her difficulties I tried using my left hand to draw with (I'm normally right-handed). If left handed, draw with your right; if right-handed, draw with your left. Yep, it's a challenge! It forces you to consider where you are placing your pencil on the page each time you make a mark. It also highlights just how much more control you actually have when drawing with your 'normal' hand. It also pretty widely thought that using the 'wrong' hand accesses parts of your brain in a different way and is supposed to increase your brain power!
5. Mix it up
Finally now try mixing the media and/or the techniques described in all ten drawing exercises. Have fun, play and experiment! You could try a montage of different techniques on different areas of your work or take just a couple of techniques to develop further in the same composition. Above all keep practicing. I don't as often as I should so always find it takes a while to get my eye and hand back into the routine after a break.
Drawing is studying. It is all about learning to look and translating what we see onto the page. When people look at the later works of Picasso or Matisse they often forget that both these artists started out learning to draw and paint as true to life as they could. Being able to draw is very much a useful foundation stone many a visually creative activity.
Drawing is studying. It is all about learning to look and translating what we see onto the page. When people look at the later works of Picasso or Matisse they often forget that both these artists started out learning to draw and paint as true to life as they could. Being able to draw is very much a useful foundation stone many a visually creative activity.
