We had such a great last drawing class today! After learning about composition in the classroom, we took our easels and pads outside and sketched on location! I worked in charcoal focusing on setting up contours and value in my scene by adding and subtracting values. It was great practice in both form and tone. It’s fun to see a barely begun piece like this knowing what I’d do to keep going, adding and subtracting, until it’s all finished. This beginner’s understanding of the unfolding of the drawing process is all due to this class!
My biggest challenge is remembering to take a step back and not get overly focused on one small piece of the page, but to keep working the whole piece evenly throughout: to not get too focused on only tone or only line and overwork one small section, for example.
I also got some super helpful feedback from my instructor on how to better see the address book in my homework project. I knew it was wonky, but didn’t problem solve it well. So I’m very glad to have help seeing it more accurately! Additionally, I was able to ask for some feedback on how I could have better translated some problematic pieces in my ink-pen drawing that I did at the last urban sketch meet-up. (Can I just say that it is the most miraculous thing to me that my instructor can just LOOK at my drawings and know immediately how to fix it?? It’s honestly so fun and impressive to watch. He’s never studied any of the buildings or still life scenes that we bring into class, and yet he can walk right into the drawn image and demo a fix for you on the spot. It’s so cool).
I know I already said it, but I’m so glad I took this class. And now I’m even toying with the idea of taking figure drawing later next year, which I never would have ever expected from myself. Meanwhile, I’m just going to keep practicing what I learned these last five weeks and keep growing my skill set!
