I’ve always said that I can’t draw. I can use tracing paper and photos and come up with images that I need but I’m terrified of just putting pencil to paper and drawing. I’ve often heard that a great way to open yourself up artistically is to take classes that are outside of your normal medium. So today I started a drawing class. The teacher is my good friend Susan who is an amazing artist. She draws, she paints in watercolors and oils and does both realistic and abstract work. For years I’ve been threatening to come and steal one of her big oil paintings right off her wall. And she makes beautiful quilts as well. I should hate her!
Today was our first day. We started by drawing each other. We could not look at our paper or pick up the pencil from the paper. We were to think about what we were seeing, to think about what were the most important lines to capture. This is called contour drawing.
Next we did contour drawings of vegetables. I did several; several tomatoes, a chili pepper, and a pair of scissors. They were pretty simplistic and my lines were very regular. Susan really uses her pencil to get wider, darker and softer marks. and one of our exercises was to work on that very thing. She asked us to just play with making marks on paper, to work to get different results and to get the feel of using different pencils. This was much more fun for me, no pressure for it to “look like something.”
We also talked about Notan or the concept of negative space. We isolated a portion of one of our vegetable drawings using a frame and then colored part of it in so it was divided into dark and light.
Then we traced the same little section and colored it in opposite from the first one. I like this version much better. And when I took the picture, I placed the tracing on top of some writing on Susan’s table and I love how that looks.
Like any other skill, drawing is something that needs to be practiced. I’m going to try and draw every morning after breakfast, even if it’s only one small thing. Susan says to go slow, quiet your mind and SEE.
4 Comments
You are a brave woman. I was scared just thinking of the class!
i like anything to do with pencil drawing, thats why my web site is called http://www.drawing-is-fun.com. go and take a look.
Glad to hear that you are up and about, well enough to take a class means well enough to teach at Camp in 3 weeks, see you then….
I agree with the above response in that you are a brave woman. Seriously, the class sounds very interesting. Good Luck, I’m sure you will do great.
I downloaded your pattern that is available and it came through wonderfully. Thank You!! Your patterns are so interesting. I love trying different techniques. I check back often hoping you have time to post your Ying Yang Quilt. I sure wish I was closer so I could take one of your classes.