Gallery #3

 Working from life is a difficult stage in developing drawing skill and this week's lesson was geared to help with that transition. With the aid of viewing windows John and Lian worked in the studio to complete a negative space drawing of a stool (there is no stool!) and to do their first composit still life.  



The stool negative space drawing was a real challenge for them both but they managed to make the stool appear by real concentration and effort, focusing on the negative spaces within the format of the frame.

The still life images were really excellent and done in just 45 minutes.
So then we spent the afternoon outside drawing nooks and crannies of the environment of our quinta.

 

 All in all a good day.

Drawings from the first week of home practice.

John

Household chores – still life of 3 objects: I have always admired the pure lines of the white porcelain loo brush holder, and I found the contrast with the softer edges of the plastic bottle and the soft bristles of the brush interesting. I decided to use a ruler for the loo brush holder and handle because the straight lines are so important.
 'Bad boy!!! No rulers in your drawings, you need to practise the art of drawing straight lines as much as the curved ones. The composition is good though and even with slightly wobbly straight lines this would still have had character'

Chair with hat: I had looked across the room at this chair the previous evening, and thought it would make a good subject. But could I do it? First tried to carefully do the negative spaces to form the outline of the chair, and then worked on from there, doing each major space. Thought I had set out the main outer points (legs, sides, top) OK, but in fact it is a bit narrow at the front and too deep at the side. I found the hat v difficult – many attempts to get the circles.

'Did you have your book tilted on your drawing board John? It seems to me that the perspective was affected by the difference of angle between  your viewpoint and your diary. With more practise of working on the board and perspective you will discover how to correctly 'see' the angles and widths before you put them down on paper'

Chestnut tree, seat & stool: What a lovely way to pass an hour and a half on a spring morning! The base of the old chestnut tree has really interesting gnarls and lines – hard to represent. And those curves of the tree seat …. 

'You have chosen quite a difficult perspective view again John but managed to cope with the differing viewpoints well. Trees are notoriously difficult to reproduce but your attention to negative spaces really helped with the overall composition. Well done' 

 Lian

Garry was visiting us, during his visit I drew his hat. I tried to make more long lines, because I saw on the scanned drawings that I
draw with very short lines. It needs a little bit of courage to do so. 

 
'Working with confident lines will become easier with your increased confidence in the construction of your drawing Lian. You captured the perspective of the objects and the spaces well and I particularly liked the business under the table in your garden corner drawing. The hat perched on the corner of the chair was a nice touch.'

Gallery #2 Negative Space

This second gallery of work on negative space shows the second phase of Lian and John's practice in their drawing.

Working from two drawings and one life study they have worked to create drawings which combine the skills that they have been taught so far. Using edges, contours and negative spaces, to draw within a format to create a whole image.

 Lian

Copy of sketches by Rubens

When I draw the contours only, the legs become bigger and bigger. The negative spaces helped to copy more exactly.

'Yes, perspective can distort very easily if you don't use the negative spaces to keep them in check within the frame of your drawing. You did this very well. (Sylvia)'

Section of a drawing by Winslow Homer

It was not so easy as it looks

'Again when you work on a segment you have to really just look at shapes and spaces and how they fit in the frame because you don't have a whole image for your left hand brain to name the parts for you...but you made a very good attempt.  (Sylvia)'

I was inspired by the picture of Barbara Kruger 'I shop therefore I am'. The more I draw the more I am inspired by the big artists! To see exactly the contours and negative spaces is very difficult. I like that struggle to do it over and over again.
'A great idea and fun! I can see that you have had a struggle with the fingertips because of the fore-shortening of the view. You lost your way a little in drawing the contours around the spaces of the fingers, which are hard to see as negative spaces between the edges when they have flesh! Plus I can see you have been allowing the left hand brain to keep telling you what fingers should look like. Your observation and managing of perspective will develop Lian over the next few weeks. Well done. (Sylvia)'

John

Section of drawing by Winslow Homer

Section of seated child (55 mins): All seemed OK, really doing the negative spaces, until I got to the foot area (last section), and the foot was just too small. Tried to enlarge it, and became intent on drawing the foot, not the spaces. QED! So next morning (20 mins) I decided to redo just that small section, and really concentrated on the negative spaces. Better now, I hope!
'It's great that you take the initiative to go back into a piece of practice and improve on the initial effort John. It really pays off because your observation is much improved on the second section, showing that you have done a lot of looking!(Sylvia)'

Copy of sketches by Rubens

  Rubens arms & legs (1 ½ hrs): Difficult! But really concentrating on the negative spaces got the limbs in place. Doing the contours on the limbs really made me appreciate his skill in showing the power and strength of the muscles. 
I experimented with different grades of pencil, and feel happier using mainly B rather than HB – not pressing so hard now.

'This is a great piece of copying John and I think using a softer pencil is making your line work much more confident. Well done (Sylvia)'

My hand with pen (65 mins): Difficult, but I’m not disappointed with the result. Seemed to run out of space with the 4th & 5th fingers!

Hard to: 
a. Keep the subject hand and fingers still
b. Use the frame
c. Draw and keep body and board still
d. Pick up the all-important eraser from the floor when it dropped
- all at the same time!
 'Yes, but you did it all the same and the drawing here of your hand is far superior to the one you did in class John. I think your viewpoint shifted which is why it was more difficult to get the last finger in but overall it is a well-crafted image will fingers that look real! Good work. (Sylvia)'

These drawings and copies are really impressive and the development of their line work is greatly improved. They are ready to move on to more challenges! But that is for next week.

Gallery #1 - Negative Space

Lian and John have been working at home over the past week on assignments to enhance their awareness of negative space. Here are their results and comments. 
I am really pleased with their progress after so short a time. Congratulations both of you.

John

Oak tree: 1 hr 10 mins, including carefully looking first. Well - did I do this?!! As it was [yet another] wet morning, I had to take a photo and work from that, which made it much easier. I think I really would have struggled from pure observation. The negative space technique really helps to get the object correct.  
'A good first attempt. The difference in shading strength breaks the unity of the work, but if you were planning to do an abstract piece, that change in shading could further help with fragmenting the image. (Sylvia)'

Nude: 50 mins. head too far to right on page - my quarter divisions wrong! Tried to ignore the shade on the original and use the true contour of the body. Found the dividing lines into segments very useful. 

Did the work as portrait with feet at top (habit from last 3 weeks?) 'Totally valid John, since it helps to focus on the spaces and not name parts. Well done (Sylvia)'

Bighorn sheep: copying 55 mins, 

negative spaces 20 mins, segments 15 mins.

 I felt my shading improved as I got used to 5B pencil - first time.  

I really enjoyed copying the image, and using the negative spaces helped enormously.  'Watch out for slight distortion when you re-do the shapes. Just a small change can create a whole new image; again great for abstraction work though. (Sylvia)'

Chair: 1 hr 30 mins. My first real attempt at drawing from observation, not copying, and whilst difficult, I so enjoyed the work. I thought that I had set out key points OK using a viewing frame, but ... The seat is too wide and the back too short. 

Having done the negative space drawing, I just couldn't resist going on, so to save time I took a photocopy and did the rest. Made me realise even more how using the negative spaces helps so much to get shape (well, roughly!). 

'Your observation is really improving already John. The distortion of the seat and the back is normal at this stage of your experience. As your observation improves and with more practice you will be able to correct inconsistencies more readily.

I like the negative space chair drawing very much and glad you enjoyed filling in the chair! (Sylvia)'

Sylvia - 3 weeks ago I would never have thought I could do this. Thank you so much. 

'You are welcome. But remember...I can show you how but the quality of the results are all down to your own hard work !'

Lian

Bighorn Sheep: The first modified contour drawing and negative space reproduction was nicely observed Lian, well done. 
  
But I really liked the third fragment too. (Sylvia) 

Tree:When I started to draw I saw every moment more negative spaces! So I stopped and started to do a 'pure negative space drawing'. Together with the frame it helped to organise everything I saw.
'You really have made the tree appear!(Sylvia)'



Chair:
The little window helped to see the space around the chair. Sometimes I caught myself using contour drawing with the difficult places.

'The viewer really works well to frame the object and you have good proportion in your chair Lian and have seen the negative space well. (Sylvia)'

Nude: 'This is a very tricky exercise Lian, and using the idea of breaking up the negative spaces with key lines (erased by me for this image) really does work well. (Sylvia)'

Practice makes Perfect

Both John and Lian completed homework related to our last session to practise skills of true observation and to the define lines, edges and contours of real objects. I was really pleased with their home studies, which displayed improved observation and development of their awareness of  both contours and spaces.

  

 This week the focus was on format and negative spaces.

The concept of negative space is a tricky one but basically is this; the shapes created by the spaces within and around the lines and contours of an object, are as essential to accurate drawing as the lines themselves. If the spaces are not well observed and accurately recreated on the page then the drawing will not appear 'true'.

So our practise today was to create a drawing by copying the outlines left by spaces. Tolouse Lautrec's drawing 'Le Jockey' was a good beginning...here are the results of copying the drawing's spaces upside down..................................................................................and the original

 

The copies however were achieved by drawing the shapes of the spaces...not the objects themselves. Pretty cool results which pleased us all.

Finally we did a triptych (three panels) based on real objects...drawing the objects first..then the negative spaces only.

The final panel..(not shown) was a smaller section of the negative spaces which were drawn into the format of the piece in its exact position.    

I am looking forward to seeing their homework over the next two weeks. Stay tuned!

The feather and the skull

Let's Draw!
After a first lesson of pre-instruction drawing and homework on edges, lines and contours, we set out today to improve how to visualise and trace the contours of objects. This is really hard to do, since you track the shape of the subject with yours eyes and practise coordinating the hand to move at the same speed and in the same direction.......without looking at the paper!

So, after doing several of these exercises this morning , both John and Lian completed modified contour drawings of a peacock feather and skull.

The results speak for themselves. A great day's work today.

Well done!