WIP (driftwood)

Click on the photo for a larger view.

But of course I named my boat Miso.

George, the elderly maintenance man for my building, forgot he already tested my fire alarm 12 days ago. He showed up again today to test it. When he saw my sailboat drawing he asked, “Do you draw portraits?” I told him I didn’t, though I do. Between us, I don’t enjoy drawing portraits nor fruit. To that response George said, “Do you know who Hitler is? Of course you do. He was an artist. A painter. He didn’t do portraits either. Mostly landscapes. One of his paintings recently sold for a half million dollars. Who would pay a half million dollars for one of his paintings?” 

What?

Did he just compare me to Hitler?

Sigh.

DRAWING LESSON 3

In previous drawing lessons I wrote, “Detail always comes later.” Reason being, there are many different styles in which to draw. How you detail your drawing is entirely up to you. The lines will come to you. Example: Some pencil artists draw in the style of realism, thousands of detailed lines. Some draw abstract, heavy use of blending and/or grid and geometry. Some draw Impressionism, using less lines and more space. Some draw pop art, using mixed media. There are many different styles of art. You will learn your style as you go. My goal here is just getting you started. I want you to draw, paint, and sculpt, as all artists do.

I started drawing in 7th grade, 1981. Before computers. Before Adobe. Before cell phones. Most of you weren’t even born yet. My first art teacher, incredibly handsome as he was, never taught us methods on how to draw. He was just following a god-awful outdated “draw this picture” textbook curriculum, but he was very handsome and I was going through puberty, so I took his class both years of junior high school. Even so, I wasn’t taught anything about drawing until high school.

Side note: I’m moving on rather quickly now because I’m almost done with my drawing. Google references when needed.

In 38 years of drawing I’ve never used a ruler or any measuring instrument other than my thumb and pencil. Unless you’re a drafter, or an architect, or an inventor, numbers don’t mean anything here. Your eyes are a better judgement of creating height, width, and distance. Juxtaposition. Trust your eyes.

I can never stress enough the importance of practicing your craft every day. One drawing a day no matter how small. 

Art teachers will tell you to buy all these needless store bought tools for drawing. Don’t. Do not. God bless teachers, but most art teachers are forced to follow an outdated school county curriculum written by people who were never artists. 

Need to draw a circle? Use a clean glass. Use your imagination. Items in your home make excellent tools for drawing.

Aside from pencils, paper, eraser, and pencil sharpener, you already have most artists tools for drawing in your home. If not you can buy them at the 99 Cent store, Dollar Tree, or whatever dollar store is nearby. 

Examples: 

Blending sticks for contouring - Most artists use Qtips. Trim the tips of your Qtips with scissors to your liking. Myself, I just roll the tip of the Qtip between my thumb and index finger until I get the firmness I want. If you do buy blending sticks, just buy the sticks, not the entire tool kit, and sharpen the blending sticks to a point with a cardboard nail file. You can buy both Qtips and nail files at the dollar store. You might get lucky and find blending sticks there too. 

Matte finishing spray - Once you start drawing for your portfolio and/or display, you’ll use paper specifically made for graphite. This particular brand of paper is made so graphite clings to it. It will read on the drawing tablets “Made for graphite” or “Made for Pencil”. You don’t really need graphite matte finishing spray to keep your drawing on the paper anymore. I never use it. I’m just careful not to smudge my drawings until they get into frames. Back in the day we all used Aqua Net hairspray rather than professional matte finishing spray. It was pretty much the same thing except your drawings smelled like 1986 for a few hours. If you do get professional matte finishing spray follow the directions on the can to the letter. Can’t stress that enough. 

Your homework: MULTI SUBJECTS 

Anytime you draw multi subjects in your drawing you need a starting point of reference. Where do you want their eyes to go first when they look at your drawing?  

If you’ve ever watched an ANG LEE movie, he is a master at points of reference. He has all these gorgeous glorious backgrounds in his movies but they never outshine the narration of the movie’s storyline. You look at what ANG LEE wants you to first look at. He directs your eyes and from there your gaze widens. In my sailboat drawing there’s birds, water, driftwood, a cat, footprints, and water plants, but you’re going to see the sailboat first. From there your gaze widens. 

Points of reference are created by using a simple dot. Start with two subjects. Three if you’re feeling it. Trees. Buildings. Orbs. They don’t have to be two of the same thing. Tell a story. Birds in flight. Various aged trees. Household items sitting on your counter. Flowers in your yard. Etc.

What are you drawing? What’s the narration of your image? Will your story go left to right? Up to down? Will it start in the center of the page and move outward? Place a small erasable dot where you want your first image to be drawn and from there decide where you want the other images to go. It’s not uncommon for artists to stare at a blank canvas, mentally drawing and painting the picture before creating it. 

Because I draw large scale drawings, I use a 32x38 portable drawing board. In my former years, when I was your age, I was stationary at a desk. At home I used the kitchen table. Amazon usually has great deals on portable drawing boards for under $30 and drafting tables at reasonable prices.

Once you start drawing pictures for display or commissions, you’ll want to use the same clean flat surface to draw on. Get used to it. Be comfortable. Do not draw in the tablet. It’s ok to practice drawing in the tablets, but for serious drawings draw on individual sheets of paper. Tear the sheet of paper from the tablet. You don’t want imprints of your previous drawing on the current one.

If you use a portable drawing board it will come already equipped with clips and a rubber binder to hold your paper in place. If you’re using a desk or table I suggest securing your paper down on the desk with small pieces of clear tape just on the four corners of the paper. And then very carefully remove the tape when you’re finished drawing. 

This was a long lesson. Sorry. I wrote a lot of things Google can explain further if you have questions. 

Last thing, Marvel starting video tutorials on drawing comics. How cool if someone created a new Superhero in 2019. A new Villain? 

Now go draw!

Practice practice practice.