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| Narcissus - Common Daffodil The Elements of Drawing - Exercise 2 Ink on Paper 23cm x 15cm (9" x 6") |
This is my third go at Exercise 2 from John Ruskin’s The Elements of Drawing (see The Elements of Drawing - Exercise 2 and The Elements of Drawing - Exercise 2 (Take 2)). I repeated the exercise as I worked on exercises 3 (The Elements of Drawing - Exercise 3) and 4. I followed the same steps as in my previous attempts:
Chose an illustration from British Phænogamous Botany; Or, Figures and Description of The Genera of British Flowering Plants.
Narcissus - Common Daffodil
Copied the outline as closely as possible with a soft pencil on to a piece of scrap paper.
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| Narcissus - Common Daffodil The Elements of Drawing - Exercise 2 Pencil on Paper 23cm x 15cm (9" x 6") |
Used Gimp (a free image editing package) to compare my drawing (in red) with the original. This is the most complex example I've tried. The comparison identified the need for more significant alterations than in my previous attempts.
Assessing Outline 1
Corrected my outline (by eye) based on the comparison.Made another comparison and repeated the correct and compare steps until I reached a reasonable level of accuracy (this is my sixth and final version).
Assessing Outline 6
Transferred my drawing to a clean piece of paper (using a lightbox) and then drew over it in ink (the outline at the top of the post is the result).
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I still can’t get on with Ruskin’s suggestion for the last step:
rest your hand on a book about an inch and a half thick, so as to hold the pen long; and go over your pencil outline with ink, raising your pen point as seldom as possible, and never leaning more heavily on one part of the line than on another.I can’t draw with any fluidity while resting my hand on a book. Instead, I don’t rest my hand on anything. I try to hold the pen (a fineliner) so that it barely touches the paper and then draw from my shoulder while maintaining the slow control that Ruskin demands – its tricky.
