I gave the garbage trucks another go without worrying about measuring everything. Then, I started exploring blob-boxes and different ways to develop the blobs. I think directly going to boxes is more intuitive for me, currently. Finally, I tried simplifying a Nurse Shark using simple forms as a starting point for organic objects.

Day 1 and 2

This assignment reminded me of the visual memory games from Drawing Basics. Thanks so much Marshall for the blob method. It helped so much with figuring out the orientations of the boxes! When drawing something with multiple tumbling boxes like a figure, how should I make sure that those smaller forms conform to the perspective of a larger box that envelopes the figure? I often feel that the individual perspectives feel right but don’t work together.

Level 2 before watching solution - I struggle with confident lines while sketching so much

Hi :). Today was my last day of the challenge, that I successfully completed! I drew projects for this course, I completed longer drawings, I drew cats from life and I did lots of little doodles. Here are some of them. I enjoyed drawing more often. I found myself being less afraid to try new things: toned paper, drawing a background, drawing animals I never drew before. I don't think I would keep drawing everyday, but I will plan more drawing sessions during the week. I really saw the benefits. Feedback is obviously welcomed :)

I chose a duck from the Henri Rousseau painting “The Snake Charmer’ and the aeroplane from the Diego Riviera mural “Allegory of California’

Had some long overdue home DIY before I could start this project. Fixing a leaky bathroom tap led to a cosmic resignation that the replacement valve cartridge was as good as anything to draw. Pretty dry subject matter (sorry). Studied it for a few minutes then copied Peter Han process in demo of steam train and started with an ortho to eyeball up the proportions of different sections. Then simplified to 4 forms, then a blob. Next, drew a load of blobs in different orientations. Cross contours were used as markers for the tops of each different form as a rough proportion guide. Thought about different degrees of foreshortening whilst blobbing these out. Converted to boxes with a messy pencil phase, then stuck some tracing paper over and inked with some line weight variation. Finished with some ellipses in boxes practice from the Drawing Basics course to create the lowermost form (1). Learned a few things… i) Overlapping forms create an appearance of offset from centre. Saw Peter Han do this with the cow guard of the steam train, I understood why, but only once I saw him do it. I’d never have done that if I’d been drawing cos I would not have known to. Constructing forces it to happen. ii) After drawing the ortho and simplifying to four boxes, there was zero need to revert back to the object itself - which was both revelatory and practical…cos it’s round and does not sit still on my sloping desk. Again, constructing means you just needed to draw some boxes. iii) I used a fat, blunt, soft lead mechanical pencil for the messy blob to boxes part. At first I thought I should switch to a hard, fine point pencil due to the smudgey mess…but actually the blunt soft lead meant I felt much looser and the lines were more forgiving so it was way easier to construct. iv) some viewing angles produce boring drawings! v) Hard to be perfectly consistent with proportions for all orientations done free hand but guess that is not the point here. After I finished the blobs, I could not be sure that they were gonna be at all useful but they actually were. Trust the blobs! (But ignore the bits that don’t perfectly match the subject)

Here, I’m adding my own spin to the exercise, starting with Monday’s task: rotating a kitchen item in perspective.