Sketching is a terrific way to start a drawing, because you don't have to do a perfect sketch. Here's how to get your pencil moving, and how to startle yourself with a great drawing done in seconds.
Lines in drawing are made in several ways. The smallest lines are made by means of the medium (pencil, crayon, pen, or brush), held so as to be controlled principally by the fingers, wrist, elbow, or even by the arm at the shoulder socket. In a s...
The countryside may be conducive to poetic ideas, but you cannot be at your best with wet feet. So have a good pair of shoes when you go out. Outdoor drawing should be a pleasure and a fount of good ideas for pictures. Don't let it deteriorate int...
A large book is clumsy to hold and difficult to manage. You will rarely do large drawings outdoors and in any case it is not advisable to do so. They take too long to complete, for one thing, and for another the labor involved takes out all the enj...
A sketch book is a record, amongst other things, of the places you have visited, the ideas you have had and what you have seen. If you use each page as you go along, without skipping any, you will also have a record of your development. I would adv...
I am not a great believer in easels for outdoor sketching. If you have to walk around a bit before settling on a subject they can be a burden to carry about. Nevertheless there are some good light sketching easels on the market that will serve yo...
When you first go out it would be unwise, obviously, to start by going straight to the most crowded place you can find, however attractive it is and however much you want to put down that particular place on paper. I am referring to such places a...
Often, traveling on a bus, I spot places that I think might make a good subject. Then, when I have time, I go back, look the place over, like a burglar casing a joint, for possible intrusion and, if it looks safe, I fetch my gear and start to work. W...
For instance, you might be walking along, not thinking of anything. You turn into a side street and there, at the end, is a rubbish dump leading on to a railway yard. You stop, surprised. It looks wonderful. All those shapes and textures and th...
In the Victorian era a sweet, sentimental subject received the accolade. An honest painting of something really seen and experienced would be by-passed or condemned. A good example of this was with the movement known as Impressionism. Th...
A good, flexible rule for settling the main shapes of the subject is to have a good foreground, a middle distance and then the background. It is easy to ignore the foreground and only look at the middle or background. Because our eyes take in a s...
There is no such thing, for our purposes, as accuracy of vision. It is not so much that we don't all see alike. We don't. But nature is constantly moving and changing all the time. What we see rapidly alters from minute to minute. All we can do is t...
VIEWPOINT
The viewpoint you take up will affect the angles of the things seen. It will affect your foreground and, by being either up or down, change the middle and background too. If you are high up you will see more background; you will be loo...
In these circumstances, it is better to train your memory. You will find that it is much easier to draw an image just after you have seen it. The longer you leave the impression the weaker it becomes. Train yourself to look at people and observe...
Our usual level of looking is in front of us. Generally we look ahead. When you start to draw outside, you will find that you will be looking down, on to the ground, and up, into the sky.Both the ground and the sky are important to an artist. They a...
A drawing is complete when you have nothing more to add to it. It is finished when you feel you have done enough. It is as simple as that. But one or two points occur to me that might help you arrive at that decision. Fill your page completely, from...
