If everything fails.....follow instructions

While I will definitely do Joan of Arc in collage, I also want to develop my realistic drawing skills.
When I whinged to Deb it wasn't happening, she asked: " Are you measuring???"
I had to say "no" and I really wasn't doing any of the other things.
So yesterday I decided to allow myself the time to set up properly: floor easel, a masking tape line on the floor so I measure from the same distance. Object set up against a black cloth.
I am attempting to draw a simple narrow necked vase and I did it all: measure, draw guidelines, then do the curves, then finetune. Once I had one half I liked, to used the tracing paper technique we learned to create a fresh, symmetrical drawing.
Today I am going to put a light on the vase and start creating some form.

Re JoA: I bought different mediums and some small canvas panels to practice the collage technique on.

Boots and hat

As I promised: boots and hat. Plus some stuff in the background!

I haven't attempted any more drawing, because I got sidetracked with French lessons. More about that later.

But tomorrow I am going to my Friday art class and, unless Gina has something special she wants us to do, I am having another go at this, using the 2 pictures: one in colour, the other reduced to grey scale. You have to agree: it must be easier to work in pencil from a greyscale picture. I might even use my value scale: a piece of paper that has 10 shades, from white to black through grey. Deb taught us to hold the value scale against a section of the original so you can see how dark or how light you've got to shade it. Anyway, that's the theory of it.

That didn't work

I set up a still life with a pair of hubbies' riding boots and his hat, but I couldn't get it done. I tried different ways: blind contour, blind contour with some looking, contour, creating guidelines, working with angles. I might take a photo tomorrow to put here. The drawings were too large to scan, I'd have to take photos of them.
I might have another go tomorrow.

They aren't worms...

After drawing the wisteria stems last week, I played around with some imaginary stems. I wanted to capture form, light and shadow and the relative position of the objects. The drawing was cropped a little to fit on the scanner.
It wasn't difficult to do, although it was a lot of work. I drew the "worms" with a double line, just drawing through them. Then I used an eraser to create the "overs and unders".
After that I did the shading.
I've done a lot of
celtic type designs, so this was not altogether new to me.
Today was the last class of Deb's Beginners II course and I hope she will have enough takers to start an intermediate class in July.

Some drawings and a pastel

I don't know yet how to move the images around on my page! :-(

Anyway, here are some of my better efforts.
The pastel was done by using step-by-step instructions in an Art Magazine.
The nude was a copy from a drawing book, using the technique Deb taught me; using guidelines and a compass is part of it.
The eye was from a lesson in Drawspace, online drawing lessons.
The twisted stems were done in the Japanese Gardens in Toowoomba, they are wisteria stems. The fig tree was done at Gina's place.
I didn't manage to capture the actual ridges on the wisteria stems, but I did capture the twist and I was happy with that. Learning how to show the ridges is now on my drawing to-do list!
I am finding that the more I draw, the more I enjoy it. Next term we're going to work with coloured pencils with Deb. I've got a heap: pastel pencils, ordinary coloured artists pencils, watercolour pencils, coloured graphite pencils, so that should be fun.

How did I get into art classes?

In June last year I started with art lessons. It happened in a weird way, although I have always wanted to be able to draw.What happened was that I won a prize with my wearable art. (see pictures) As well as some cash, I also won a $200 voucher towards the workshop of my choice at Artsfest Grafton.

What appealed to me was the workshop: "The Dynamic Pose", with Janis Lander. It required artists with some experience, I contacted her and she suggested that I do some basic drawing classes and learn a bit about anatomy prior to the workshop.

I started classes In Fernvale with Gina and also booked in for 10 sessions of life drawing classes in Toowoomba. Although I was totally out of my depth at the life drawing classes, I got a lot out of it, because the coordinator of the sessions was very helpful.

In the end, the Janis Lander workshop was cancelled because of lack of numbers, but by that time I was hooked. I did a class with Damian Kamholz, where I was also out of my depth, but then, I didn't have any depth, I was such a beginner. Again, I learned stuff there too.

Gina encouraged me to do some painting, but I didn't enjoy the acrylics. I didn't enjoy the mixing and the fact the paint dries so quickly and neither did I want to go to oils.

I did a pastel workshop and I liked it.

Earlier this year I started classes with Deb Gilmartin in Toowoomba. This was drawing for beginners and I loved it. She teaches classes in 6 week courses and they are fantastic! The classes are well planned and organised and I am learning such a lot!

I am also still going to Gina's classes, which are more relaxed and have a very social component, as Gina wants to establish an artists group in the region. The two classes are very different and I enjoy them both.

Oh...and if you like to see the full range of the Tarots I finished, go to http://www.hetty.mosaicglobe.com/