Studio Rousar Memory Drawing Group - Weeks 24 to 27

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 27 Day 8?

Weeks 24 to 26 of the Studio Rousar Memory Drawing Group (see http://www.studiorousar.com/2013/01/01/memory-drawing-group-week-one/) are about drawing landscapes.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 24 Day 2

In week 24, you draw a different landscape on each day. You stare at a view for 10 minutes and then hurry home to draw it. Darren Rousar’s instructions are to focus on simplifying the tones and shape in the scene.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 24 Day 3

The exercises are a good reason for spending some time outside - just standing and looking at the scenery for 10 minutes.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 24 Day 4

In week 25, you draw the same view on each day. You study the scene at either dawn or dusk because the half-light helps to simplify the shapes and tones.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 25 Day 5

I did most of the drawings for week 25 in the evening, but on the last day, I got up early. The flat early morning light seemed more reliable than at dusk. In the evening, the light seemed to be changing constantly. At dawn, the light conditions remained the same through out the exercise.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 26 Day 2

Week 26 is more of the same, except you choose a new landscape every other day.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 26 Day 4

The challenge for week 27 is to reproduce a charcoal drawing by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon. You can see the original here:

 http://www.studiorousar.com/2013/06/30/memory-drawing-group-week-twenty-seven/. 

On the first day, you:

• Print out the drawing, add a centre line and 3 marker points
• Copy the line and marks to a larger sheet of paper
• Study the original for 10 minutes
• Hide the original
• Copy what you remember on to the larger sheet of paper using charcoal

On the second and subsequent nights, you:

• Compare your drawing with the original
• Make a mental note of your mistakes
• Study the original for a further 10 minutes
• Hide the original
• Work on your drawing - making corrections and adding more details from memory. 

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 27 Day 3

I normally only follow each exercise for 4 nights, but I decided to work on this for 2 weeks. On the first 4 nights, I focused on drawing the shapes accurately. On the second 4 nights, I worked on the tones and made some refinements to the shapes.

Studio Rousar Memory Drawing - Week 27 Day 5

This is the first time I’ve used charcoal. I was impressed by how easy it is to erase and correct. Eventually it stains the paper and the drawing looks over worked, but it is very forgiving.