Finding that technique is as important as knowing how to look.

The last few weeks I’ve been drawing assignment out of the book “Drawing with the right side of your brain”.
Although I tried to draw what I saw I wasn’t satisfied with my last drawing of my chair. It felt like something was wrong but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Green chair

Obvious one thing that has changed in this drawing is that there are two instead of one ornaments under the armrest. In my last drawing I drew only one because I didn’t have room for the second. The problem was that I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t have room.

Hoping it would give me more room I drew this chair with a thinner pencil then last. I also thought about how big I could draw the chair to use as much of my paper as possible.
It turns out that under this angle the chair is almost diamond shaped. I tried to incorporate that knowledge in this drawing. But as you can see I drew the chair a little to big.

While I was drawing I figured out what the problem was. I’m sitting so close that lines that look parallel aren’t. The two armrest face in slightly different directions. The top line of the top pillow isn’t parallel with the bottom of the lower pillow.

At the beginning of the year I did a drawing course. Among other things we where taught about the disappearing point. That is the point where all the lines seem to cross. To judge in which direction a line goes you can run your pencil in a parallel line.
A second lesson we learn was the importance of estimating the relative size of the different parts of your object. Which you measure by closing one eye and holding you pencil in front of you object. So all and all an artist waves a lot with his pencil.
Much more then I like to do.
And then, off course, there is the fact that I want to draw the pictures in my mind. It’s quite impossible to wave my pencil in front of an object in my memory.

This drawing shows that although it is a good thing to learn how to look at your object it’s also important to know what you should expect.