I'm putting together some resources for my children’s art club group and I though it would be fun to share them with everyone!
This week we are drawing from observation, a key artistic skill, to broaden our visual grammar and vocabulary. If you have already drawn from observation, go ahead, if you are a beginner or in doubt to how to go about it read on.
We are going to concentrate on looking, really looking at how light changes as it bounces off the shapes of the surfaces of the objects that we see.
Pick your favourite toy and place it on the table or anywhere where it will not be moved while you draw it. If during daylight, only use natural light from one window in the room; if at night try to use only one lamp.
Decide the angle you would like to draw and sit or stand in place accordingly to make your drawing either on paper or a sketchbook or notebook. Any paper and pencil will do! Try for your head to remain in the same place. If you change your point of view, it will become a different drawing!
Before you make a mark look at the overall shape of your soft toy and the shadow it makes on the table. It makes it easier to see shadow on a light surface, so if your table has a lot of pattern perhaps put a piece of paper/plain fabric under your toy.
Considering that overall "blob" of toy+shadow, decide on the direction of your paper that best suits the drawing (unless you have a square paper) more flatter ones will fit better placing your paper landscape, etc.
I know you really love and know your toy, but when we are drawing from observation we are not seeing what we know, but looking, so please don't draw the bits that you can't see.
Now where to start the drawing, this is where some people get a bit panicky. It doesn't matter where you start, the important thing is to continue until you have put down as much information as possible and that what you lay down is relationally consistent to the rest. Some people like to start at the fine details and work their way out; others like to lay out the broad geometries and save the details for later. There is no wrong approach. If the unblemished sheet intimidates you, make a random mark on it so it’s no longer pristine.
Because drawing is a form of looking, how you look at something, (anything, everything) is unique to you. To draw in a way that effectively communicates how you look at something, requires practice. With wide experimenting with media, you will find the one that fits best. Some people draw very finely with mechanical pencils moving mainly their fingers, others use wide brushes and require their whole arm. Finding your tools is an exciting quest, but as we are living in the times of insides and not great journeys and as our opportunities to discover new tools are a little bit limited, please use whatever you’ve got at hand.
What you notice about the thing you are drawing will not necessarily be what anybody else sees. What you do by making marks to represent what you do see is drawing attention (pun deliberate) to that which you find interesting, or worth telling.
Once you have described the main bits that form your toy, start shading in the shadows.
There is no shape without shade. So in order to give the illusion that your 2D drawing is representing a 3D object, you need to use light and dark and the range in between to describe the volumes. This is why we have started with a single light source, because this way we can take our time to observe how the light increases or decreases as we move our eyes across the surface of our object.
We represent those changes in light by adding more and more shading or darkness(some people like crosshatching, some like adding little dots, some people use increasingly concentrated washes of ink). If we are using a dark medium on a light support (pencil on whitish paper), whereas if you were working the opposite (white chalk on black paper) you would be adding more and more light.
There might be some smudging as you work your way around the drawing, this is fine. See it pop out as you continue to add the shadows as you see them. If you are using a window and natural light, you might want to work quicker because the sun will move and the light will come to your toy in a different direction!
Have fun and enjoy this drawing exercise.
I look forward to seeing your work so please share online using: #artCLUBwithElena
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