11/9/10

Why Draw Garbage?

A plastic bottle, drawn very quickly and carelessly with Faber-Castell PITT artist pens. They are felt tip markers with a brush tip, lightfast, waterproof, fun.

If you want to draw, you might be letting the search for the perfect subject interfere with your practice. Draw things that do not matter and get going.

Negative Space
Here is assignment #2, #1 was to Draw Garbage.
Grab a mail order catalog of clothing and choose a picture of a figure. If it is not cropped like the one in the sample, get your sciccors and trim it. Clothing catalogs have well cropped photos, as they are trying to make you focus on one garment, mostly. Now shade in, with a Sharpie, or something similar, everything that is not the subject. I used magenta to emphasize all the area that is not the subject, artistically known as "Negative Space."

Get comfortable, relax your shoulders, calm the part of your mind that is trying to think about a hectic day. Think only about your paper and pencil. Try not to think about erasing. Your eraser tells you you aren't doing it right.

 Draw the scene, exactly the same size, while only drawing the highlighted, negative spaces around the figure. You may have to try this several times before getting the hang of it. And it is good practice to do it often. 

Be sure to click on the image to see the actual size. You will see my scribbley lines that I traced over with pen to make it show up better for you. I am using all my drawings actual size. (I don't think scribbley is a word.)


Don't wait for the perfect subject.
Don't wait for the perfect day.
Draw now so you will have had one day of practice by tomorrow.
Don't wait!

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