Week 1: Lines, Shapes, Patterns, Overlapping

It's exciting to start with this new group of sketchers! We got right to work and started learning how to measure accurate proportions and how to hold the pencil while moving the whole arm to draw.

  Warm up sketches by Mariaelena (above,left) and Billy (above, right)



As they worked from reference lesson pictures, students learned about proportions (the sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) and drawing on top of mistakes. Luis was like a drawing machine for our first session. He made a lot of study sketches of the toucan (shown above), each progressing in accuracy of proportions as he drew light guidelines before finishing with darker outlines.

 

Maria's toucan (above, left) and Ashley's puffer fish (above, right) show how students got into adding light and dark tones to their drawings. 

Highlight of the day: While learning how to show depth of space by overlapping the frog's legs, Jasmine dropped into the Zone, gained control of holding the pencil on its side, and put together and excellent sketch (left).


To view everyone's sketches and reference pictures...

Welcome Louden Nelson Sketchers!

I look forward to drawing with Louden Nelson Community School. This is the official blog for all students to view their drawing lessons, along with my comments and suggestions.

Here's how the first 8 weeks of the course will be set up (2 weeks for each topic):

1. Lines/Shapes: pencil grip, guidelines, outlines, different kinds of lines, combining shapes, overlapping
   
2. Patterns/Textures: repetition, rhythm, surfaces
3. Space: positive/negative space, edges, foreground/background, scale, composition
4. Form: contour lines, light/shadow, perspective

We'll meet each Wednesday, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. at Louden Nelson . I'll post your drawings the following week. You'll see suggestions on what to practice for the next lesson, and ideas for you to explore.

If you would like to try more advanced lessons from this blog ("Start a Lesson" section) along with your weekly class lessons, I'd be happy to coach you through them on this blog. Talk with me about it, and we'll get you started.

Louden Nelson Sketchers, get ready to draw! --Rob