pencil

Drawing Practice

| terriaw

Something I’ve always wanted to be able to do is draw.

Ever since my semester of Drawing for Illustration ended in early May, I have been practicing. Artists always say, practice practice practice!

I actually started this idea while we were on vacation in Vegas.

I was inspired by the cool bench and chair in our hotel room.

I’ve just been going back to the basics – pencil drawing everyday objects, trying to capture the shapes, and get the lighting and shading just right.

I had fun illustrating another favorite quote, which I framed with a gothic looking mirror.

I’ve been slowly working on a page full of thumbnails of flowers from our garden that I’m calling a Flower A Day. This one is a work in progress, so you can see I have faint outlines of the next three flowers to work on, and the rest of the page planned.

I would love to make time to do one sketch every day. It’s a very rewarding, gratifying skill to learn!

Sketchbook Project – Powder Day Illustrations

| terriaw

Thank you all for your positive feedback on my pencil illustration! I want to share more drawings with you from our next big project, which was to work out a composition with a crowquill pen and dipping ink.

Here was my inspiration photo from a skiing magazine. I love this image because in many ski towns, there is an unwritten powder day rule where you can call in “sick” if the ski trails receive 12 inches of snow. I admit I did that a couple times when I lived in the mountains – it was awesome! Fresh tracks and pow-pow, baby!

Once again, it was all about the process, so first, we had to do a small thumbnail sketch (3-inch square).

Then we had to do a full-page rough pencil sketch.

Then we had to work out the light and shadows on smaller copies using a Sharpie marker. When I practiced on these smaller copies, I realized I enjoyed working with pen more than I thought I would.

Here is my first practice drawing, which had several things I wanted to fix on the next edition, so I did another one.

Here is my final illustration, done on a formal, heavier Bristol paper in a 9×12-inch size. (ready to be framed) This one turned out to have a cool 3-D effect I’m diggin!

I liked this final one so much better, which goes to show that it pays off to practice. I did grow a little tired of working on this drawing over and over again, but I’m happy I kept at it.