Hi Everyone!
Welcome to worksheet one for The Seasonal Sketchbook. Every month I will publish a worksheet that introduces a technique or concept, with exercises, that will support you on your sketchbook journey. You will be able to access the worksheets at any time and they should inspire you to create your own drawings with different materials and objects.
This week we are going to look at ‘line’
You will need.
Your sketchbook, a pencil (2H and 2B if you have them) and a rubber
3 objects from your house (I’m going to use 3 items from my kitchen)
About 2 hours
A hot beverage of your choice – I’ve gone with tea, obviously.
Most drawings are completed by picking up a mark-making tool: a pencil, pen, charcoal etc and drawing some form of line to kick you off.
The essence of drawing is the line exploring space.
Andy Goldsworthy
If you’re drawing from observation you are generally using an outline or a ‘contour line’ to mark out the shape of your object onto your flat surface.
If you want to capture a realistic representation of your object, it helps to slow down your observation process. By observing length of lines, angles of your lines and shapes of your lines you start to piece together a variety of little marks to make something much more cohesive and accurate to your object.
Exercise – Getting Started
Pick an object from your home, nothing fancy, I’m going to use some items from my kitchen cupboard (see below).
If I were to draw a box around my object would it be square or rectangular? Start there. Draw that box with a 2H pencil. It’s a nice light pencil so it will be easy to rub out later.
Lightly sketch your object into its box, going all the way up to the edges. No-one is watching, it doesn’t matter if you use your rubber or change the shape of your box – this is just for you. Don’t forget to drink your tea.
This is a great way to think about the framework that underpins your drawing. By looking at a box shape to start with you are already having to think about scale and where different points of your item touch the box. These are really useful observational skills to practice with all kinds of objects.
Traditional Technique
Straight lines are a great way to draught out the overall shape of your object. Think of it like erecting scaffolding. Tiny straight lines join up and overlap to give you the feel and the shape. If you look at my drawing process below there are lines everywhere. I have used them to:
· Check the height of objects in relation to each other.
· Look at the height and width of the overall drawing.
· Capture shapes where colour changes on the bottles. Your lines don’t just have to go around the outside they can ‘block-in’ other areas of visual interest to help you fill in the whole piece.
When I’m happy with the overall shape I’ll darken the lines I want to keep and rub out the ones I don’t need any more
Exercise – Straight Lines
Practice with 3 different items and draw them together. Think about the size of each of your items and draw boxes around them before you start so you can compare the sizes to each other. Try drawing them only with straight lines.
Exercise – Continuous Line
Let’s look at another approach to drawing to start off a still-life study.
Take your pencil and starting at any point draw your same 3 objects WITHOUT TAKING YOUR PENCIL OFF THE PAPER. At All. No rubber even. Cruel I know.
You may need to do double back on some of your lines, cross over to capture detail, if you want to, or even shadows.
I used the same three kitchen condiments just to show you how a different approach can create different styles. I’ve also added some colour to this one. It’s a really relaxing thing to do. Because I’d already started to ‘block-in’ various shapes where the colour changed I selected different pencils and turned it into a ‘colouring-in’ exercise.
Have a look at all of your drawings together and begin to understand the possibilities of where a line can take you. Imagine them thicker or thinner, darker or lighter, straight or curved…. Just your ability to make the mark on your paper as you choose can change the whole dynamic of your sketching. The power is very much in your hands. Exciting!
We’ve looked at only two ways here. Slowing down to observe shape, scale and detail in the first exercise and a looser, more contemporary approach in the second. You’ve just completed two still-life studies in your sketchbook though, so how does that feel?
Further Reading
Here’s a link to a brilliant video by Sir Anthony Gormley about how he uses drawing to influence his sculptural practice. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08bll64/culture-in-quarantine-get-creative-at-home-masterclasses-antony-gormley
In an interview Eileen Cooper RA said she was ‘slavish to the line’. Take a look at Eileen’s work here to see if you agree. https://www.eileencooper.co.uk/
I came across Charlotte Ager’s work in the brilliant book ‘Ways of Drawing’ by The Royal Drawing School. She has a really playful way with line and colour that conveys mood and setting so well. https://www.charlotteager.co.uk/
Let me know who inspires you and feel free to visit our members-only Facebook group to post your work and let me know how you got on. Check out next week’s ‘weekly prompt’ to see if it inspires you to take your lines anywhere else.