Sketching Tips and Tricks

We will explore:

Gesture, Negative Space, Ellipses (and the problems with ellipses), Drawing, Light and Shadow (the lock in), and Structure, Speed and Dry and Wet Media

The presentation from our class is below in video format (no sound) and you can stop it anywhere you wish.

Post Course Resources

• Presentation on Negative Shapes and Positive Shapes and Pencil Scales
• Presentation on Line Types
• Light as it Applies to Geometric Forms and Natural Objects (Creative Commons Video)
• Basic Geometric Forms: Light and Shadow
• Sketching Tips and Tricks Handout:

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Exercises to Gain Speed!

Exercise 1:

Exercise 1: Brush Control
Purchase a lined notebook and practice making lines and “0s”  (circular shapes with a brush).  Put the lines close together and far apart.

Exercise 2: Value Patterns in Black
Set up a still life and light it from one side. Do a contour line drawing with a Uniball pen.  Then with a brush and India ink indicate value patterns in solid black.

Exercise 3: Quick Sketches
Set up a still life and light it from one side. Mix a light and dark wash in watercolor. Draw your still life in pencil (no shading) and apply light and dark washes to the paper creating light and dark value patterns. 

Exercise 4: Thumbnail Studies
Create a set of thumbnail grids.  On each thumbnail mark the center and thirds.  Then arrange a still life and sketch trying to get key objects on the lines indicating the third of the paper.

Exercise 5: Taking it to the Park (Cemetery Drawing too)
Take your sketchbook to the park or a place with statues such as a public historical site or cemetery. Do quick sketches. (Socially distance.)
 

• On Facebook I have been posting hyperlapse demos in my Isolation sketchbook. 
  • Hyperlapse Demo from Photograph: Three Figures Sitting on a Beach in Florida
  • Hyperlapse Demo from Two Photographs: Two Figures From Two Photos in One Sketchbook Spread
    
    BOOKS:
• The Sketching and Drawing Bible by Marilyn Scott
• Conversations in Paint by Charles Dunn
• Simon Jennings: The Complete Artist’s Manual

In a nutshell:
“Sketching is the most beneficial act of brevity in art!”