Ways to Fulfill the Daily Drawing Practice

June has skittered away from me somehow with seemingly little to show for it, although I know I haven't been that idle. I continue to play a bit of catch-up as I choose what to use to keep up with some kind of daily drawing. These two Zentangles are from videos showing how one simple repeated shape can grow into something that looks quite complicated. They are akin to tessellations, and by adding addition lines or circles in the basic tessellation shape, magic happens. They are also the kind of tangle that encourages adding a bit of color, so I was pleased to be able to add these to my "and then add red" sketchbook.

Then I moved on to complete the last unit in a Sketchbook Skool course I started 3 years ago. I know - I get distracted or diverted and lose track of time. I'm saving telling you about those exercises until I finish them up and can present them as a whole. In the meantime, I've been working through some free lessons from Christine Elder whose interest and forte is in nature sketching. The first short lesson was on drawing birds, something I don't have a great interest in, but her method can be adapted to most anything. She relies on observation and breaking down the specimen into general shapes like circles, triangles and rectangles and recommends starting with the big shapes first. This is contrary to what I've always instinctively done with animals, which is to start with the head and move to the body. I was surprised at how much difference it made to do the opposite. I was doing this sketch quickly so didn't take time do double check against the photo, nor darken the lines, and once scanned next to the illustration, I can see where I got off. Still, I was pleased with how easy this was to do with Christine's instructions.

Now I'm into her longer "Drawn To Nature" course, which is taking longer to get through the materials before getting to the "homework" of drawing. But again, I am learning helpful tips on observation, identifying and roughing in shapes and sequence. For instance, in this exercise to draw a leaf, I probably would have put the stem and veins in last. But now I see the value in getting the stem and main vein in first, then basic leaf shape, followed by secondary veins, and then working on the detail of the leaf edge, be it lobed or jagged or smooth. Little things but things that make a difference in accuracy if that is where you're headed. I couldn't resist pulling out a stamp pad so I could use my leaf specimen to stamp its image on the opposite page to show the smaller veins I couldn't see from the front and how close I got to getting everything right.

Each lesson has suggestions of how to improve your observation skills. For the suggestion to choose a real subject to first note what you think you know about it before observing it, then sketch it, then note what you learned through this process I chose a sand dollar, something I picked up often during my time living near the beach and which I knew I had one sitting where I could easily find it. I hadn't looked at one for so long that there were several things I would have gotten wrong if I'd drawn from memory. And then with deep observation, I spotted things I had not noticed before.  The next lesson sent us out looking for something out of the ordinary to sketch, or sketching at an out of the ordinary time (like after dark), or out of the ordinary place (like a mud puddle). I happened to spot a leaf on my walk that had what struck me as an out of the ordinary bug trail on it. That bug took a much more wandering path than I generally do! (Full disclosure: I was in a hurry and traced the outline of the leaf.)

The next lesson is to choose to draw something you want to learn more about. I've recently been reminded of a piece long on my design wall that I wanted to paint some koi on (to cover up an oops) but have been reluctant to proceed because I'd have to draw out that koi. So I'm going to use this exercise to learn more about koi and start sketching one. There are more units and videos under this "Drawn To Nature" course, so I'll be dipping into it for awhile, feeling that it is teaching me valuable things while helping me maintain a daily practice.