I have been painting every day for the past two or three weeks. I enrolled in a couple of online courses, both of which I have totally enjoyed. However, my poor drawing skills keep flying in my face. Yes, I can render things realistically quite often, but all too frequently I tumble when it comes to proportion of multiple objects together, and a lack of ability to convey perspective.
So, after doing a bit of research, I decided to get myself some help. Not online course here, but a jan-yoo-wine book. Ebook, admittedly, but nonetheless, a book. The book is called Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson. I have other books on the basics of drawing, perspective, pen-and-ink, the right side of the brain. I just wanted something that starts out with basics and straight-forward writing. I think this will be a good choice to rediscover drawing.
I am not going to get into this book in depth here online, but I am planning to follow it and see how my skills evolve. I need to renew my knowledge, and baby steps and exercises are the key. I plan to continue to paint every day, too, so I will be a little nutso I expect – but who isn’t without people to socialize with in person or being able to go for a hike? This seems like a perfect time.
Thus, with no further ado, here are my beginning exercises from Keys to Drawing: Contour drawings of my feet and left hand.
Yeah, I really do have a big gap between my great and second toes!
The first exercise was feet – I did three but did not include the first. Dodson says, “Look, hold, draw.” Look at whatever you are drawing, observe the curves and angles, and put them down. Spend more time looking at the subject matter to see if you are getting the lines correct, not if you have a good drawing. (Ah, monkey mind!) As I progressed, things got better and I began to look at relationships of this to that, and things began to improve.
And that, she said, is what I want to do.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 