Drawing – Flashback (3)

The story continues… It’s been almost three years now, since I started this new drawing hobby of mine. And looking back at those three years, it is interesting for me to see what has changed… or what has not. Materials, techniques, subjects, styles, I’ve tried a few along the way. I do not practise a lot – I haven’t got the patience – , I just draw. So I like to look back at several drawings, see what I’ve learnt…This is part 3.

When I started drawing, I was fascinated by the fact that a piece of paper could turn into a perception. A perception of depth, of dimensions, but also of a certain structure. Smooth, soft, shiny, fuffy, wet,… the surface of paper can make you feel an object that is not actually there. There must simply be some kind of trick of the eye involved. When I look at a photograph, in 2D, I ‘see’ the 3D dimensions through my imagination. When I then copy every square millimeter I see on a blank sheet of paper, I suddenly see an object, the same way as I see a photograph: as if it were 3D.

Intriguing. So, I started to try to draw all kinds of ’things’.*

In the beginning, I watched a video on youtube by Fine Art-Tips about drawing cherries. I think that’s when I realised, for the first time, the importance of layering (I think I should have done a few more… ), and the effect of dark and light spots suggesting shine and roundness.

And Easy craft drawing shows something similar, an apple, but with tiny water droplets on it… I had to try that! The left drop shows that a very sharp pencil is clearly a necessity.

I found more and more nice video’s and drawings, like the one by Lachri Fine Art showing an ocean wave. Wow! I cropped an image taken from the video, and was amazed how pencil strokes could form a rolling wave, just by imagining the movement in your strokes… I just kept adding round strokes in various colours, creating the top of the wave. Choosing the right blues, greens, turquoise and yellow on top and on the inside of the wave, make it look shiny and transparent.

Farah Amin has a nice demonstration how to draw bubbels with colour pencils. Unbelievable what you can achieve with pencils on black paper! Just use all the rainbow colours…

All these forms and materials are so interesting… A spoon, with a graphite pencil, just putting black and white next to each other… and there it is! Or a glass of water… I think I’m going to make a serious effort soon to do something like that again. I’ve seen several examples of artists who are phenomenal at drawing water with graphite pencils!

Looking for more colour effects, I wanted to draw a peacock feather. I think I’ve done this one after Mark Crilley’s example.

The structures and surfaces of fruit and vegetables are so interesting… and very educational! 🙂

Another interesting speed drawing on youtube by Jasmina Susak was a shiny snake, which looks quite 3D to me… And I learnt a lot about layering, light and shadows and… suggesting scales.

I soon discovered that drawing eyes is very satisfying. Not only the roundness, the shine, the reflections, but the extra ‘feeling’ that comes with it… As if you’re giving life to the paper!

Well, I sure have learnt a lot from all this. All these experiments are definitely helping me, although I tend to favour drawing animals. Especially eyes, noses, fur and feathers! And who knows what I’ll be trying to draw in the future…

*Most of them are drawn with either cheap colour pencils, graphite or Polychromos, on cheap printer paper or sketch pads.