WE’RE BACK AT UNIVERSITY PEOPLE!
Much to our surprised delight on this Monday morning however, our teacher merely gave us the brief and a hand out with tips on Gesture drawing. Then told us to hop off and do observational drawing for the rest of the day!
I didn’t know what Gesture drawing was, but got an idea from the handout – Gesture Drawing is about capturing the essence of the subject. When I got home I looked up some examples of gesture drawing and felt my heart sink as they seemed very different to the kind of bog standard observational sketches I had assumed to be the right thing to do.
Nevertheless, I still felt that today’s activity stimulated my observational skills and shook the dust off from my drawing abilities after the christmas break.
I did these sketches in various locations, focusing on people, objects/locations and animals. I particularly enjoyed sketching a pair of Collie dogs in the local park who really provided a challenge as I tried to keepup with their movements. I liked their characterful bounciness and their various poses and the fact that a few simple lines could show all this. (although very roughly)
This first observational work is of people in the school canteen. I was using a 6B pencil throughout this session and rather regret it as it was difficult to work with; it was too heavy, I couldn’t accurately render some body parts or faces the way I wanted to. Maybe I need more practice sketching with softer pencils.
This is the interior of the canteen, I’m not at all happy with these. Definitely need to use a harder pencil.
However, the softer pencil was very effective at giving depth to the sketches.
I much prefer these sketches – these were done in the local park, using an Conte Aquarelle Pencil, (without water) which comes out nice and lightly.
The dogs were particularly challenging as they moved about the most, yet I think their sketches are one of the better products from today.
More Sketches from the park, including a Man who was sitting on his bike but resting his leg on a bench, it was like he was posing in mid-cycle! I couldn’t believe my luck!
I had a go at sketching some of the surrounding buildings, these were a bit fiddly because of how geometric a building’s shape is in comparison to a dog catching a ball, nonetheless I enjoy drawing architecture. It’s pleasingly logical.
I got a little too involved in drawing the tree in front of the building, it was on the road to turning in to an illustration rather than a sketch; I was focusing too much on it!
This is the Church opposite my bus stop where I continued my observational sketching. The church itself is quite big, intricate and full of lovelly architecture. I focused on the front doors, as it sort of encapsulates the whole church’s aesthetic. I may have gone a little overboard with shading, it’s defintley more than a sketch, but it was nice to be able to sit and draw something without it running off!
The Bus provided a fantastic array of people to draw, the only trouble was the seats often obscured their bodies and I could only draw the people in front of me (having a messy haired student twist around and stare at you your whole journey can be a little disconcerting! Some people may not want to be drawn) I’m quite pleased with the results, I could look closer than normal and focus on the faces of the subjects, some of whom were very characterful. It was a very enjoyable experience, (up until I got travel sick and had to stop!)
In a last ditch attempt to get some final sketches done, I challenged my drawing speed by trying to sketch passing parked cars or the back ends of cars in front of the bus. IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT! (Especially when the bus is moving a lot and you’re still feeling travel sick, but excuses excuses!) The fact is, I find it hard to draw cars quickly and need to practice more!
Tune in next time for more … well drawing! What else?! 😀
dddmiriamfox 