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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.
Hey! Glad to see you are still active. I saw your posts about the natural way to draw since I have started to follow it too.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I will also do a blog like you did. I wanted to ask that if you recommend the book and a review of it.
Other than that did you follow any other books alongside it? Since how long it takes to finish it? I was thinking if i should follow another book alongside it or not. I feel attracted to old books too for some reason.
Finally, your blog seems really interesting so I will follow it and try to comment when I can. Also your art is beautiful.
Thank you for your comments and interest.
DeleteYes I recommend The Natural way to Draw, but with a few qualifications/caveats. It is a huge undertaking. It took me 2.5 years. If you are looking purely to develop your drawing skills, I think there are better and faster ways. A major gap for me, is it doesn’t give much attention to the skills of accurately measuring proportion and angles by eye. Perhaps the most important point is to stress the focus is on life drawing. I don’t think you can do the book justice without access at least one person who will pose for you and it doesn’t give much coverage to other subject matter - still life, landscape, etc. I’ve seen posts from people who have used photographs and other subject matter, but this wouldn’t have worked for me.
The unquantifiable thing I obtained from sticking with the book is an awakening of an artistic sensibility and a change to my whole outlook to art and learning.
The Training Material Index in the Pages section, lists the other study material I’ve used. Bert Dodson’s Keys to Drawing is a good introduction and Marc Taro Holmes’ The Urban Sketcher gives some good coverage of techniques to improve accuracy.
Blogging is an important learning tool for me. It forces me to take some time to think about a topic and to clarify what I've learnt.
I'm interested in what you decide and if you start a blog.