by Henk ter Heide on Friday February 22, 2008
Discovering a new technique.
Cycling home after a rather boring activity I came across this beautiful lit tree. The almost thread like branches caught the sun in a way that had them looking almost as though they where made of gold.
Of course the building in the background wasn’t as beautiful.
I thought for a while how I could draw it. I’ve learned from earlier experiments that it isn’t possible to just put two colors on top of each other and then expect them both to be recognizable. After some thought I remembered a technique I saw in a book about drawing a while ago. Drawing with lots of short strokes.
When I tried it I found that my strokes are a little longer. But I do like it.
The only problem is that the technique takes much more practice then I imagined. The bark of the tree looks almost like I pictured it in my mind but the thread like branches and the grass doesn’t look right.
I’ll have to practice this technique some more before I can really use it.
Golden lines tree
Discovering a new technique. Cycling home after a rather boring activity I came across this beautiful lit tree. The almost thread like branches caught the sun in a way that...
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by Henk ter Heide on Monday February 4, 2008
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by Henk ter Heide on Friday February 1, 2008
Drawing my first freehand circles.
Reading a little more in the book I found that one of the reasons to practice a lot of shapes with box was to practice drawing freehand straight lines. Which worked perfectly. While concentrating on getting the right shape and the right perspective I didn’t think about the lines what helped my lines.
The other thing I found is that I’m apparently to be envied for my ability to draw straight lines in more then one direction.
Here are my first freehand circles. The technique is to draw the circle from the shoulder and to hit the paper running.
well, I’m not sure whether that good English. What I mean is that you should start making the circler movement before the pencil hits the paper. If you don’t you tend to begin with a very little circle that grows to a larger one.
That doesn’t look very good.
Freehand circles
Drawing my first freehand circles. Reading a little more in the book I found that one of the reasons to practice a lot of shapes with box was to practice...
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by Henk ter Heide on Wednesday January 30, 2008
One other table and chair. This time with a little more interesting perspective.
Thinking a little more about my last drawing I thought it should be possible to do more interesting things with a table and a chair.
This table is a little bigger which makes it possible to put the chair at more interesting angle.
It took some figuring but I think the perspective of the chair came out all right.
The only thing is that I was so buzzy thinking about perspective that I forgot to look at the composition of the drawing. As a result the legs of the chair are a little short.
Box table and chair 2
BTW Some one pointed out to me that I shouldn’t post to many links to my Twitter account.
I must admit that I got a little carried away with this new tool. Posting to Twitter is so easy I kept going on and on.
That said. Twitter does offer the possibility to subscribe to an RSS feed. Either of my Twits or of all the Twitters you are following. So you can read every twit on a time of your choosing.
I will try to contain myself. Little more quality and less quantity. But there will always be days I’ll post more then others.
One other table and chair. This time with a little more interesting perspective. Thinking a little more about my last drawing I thought it should be possible to do more...
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by Henk ter Heide on Saturday January 26, 2008
Using the box technique to draw a chair with arm rests.
It keeps surprising me how easy the box technique is. I’ve put this drawing ofs for a few days thinking I wouldn’t have the time to do it. But now I finally came around to doing it I found it only took about 10 minutes.
I drew the boxes a little more pronounced so you can see what I’m doing.
Basically the chair consists out of three boxes on top of each other. The bottom box shows where the legs should meet the floor and what angle the seat should have.
The middle box shows where the arm rests should come.
I was planning to use the top box to draw the angle of the top of the back rest. Only when I was drawing it I realized that you wouldn’t be able to see the top of the chair due to it’s hight.
Box chair with arm rests
For my next drawing I’m going to combine a table with one or more chairs. Should be interesting to see how to mix the perspective of different subjects in one drawing.
Using the box technique to draw a chair with arm rests. It keeps surprising me how easy the box technique is. I’ve put this drawing ofs for a few days...
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by Henk ter Heide on Saturday January 19, 2008
Figuring out what was wrong with my earlier boxes and finding out how to use the technique to create nice drawings.
I didn’t even have to read. Just flipping the page and looking at a few pictures was enough to realize why the boxes I’ve been drawing the last few weeks where so distorted.
They were meant as an exercise to understand the geometrics of the box. By drawing the vanishing point on the paper you get a feel for the way the lines go.
But to get a real box you have to put the vanishing point far beyond the edge of you paper. Even far beyond the edge of your room. To get it right you have to imagine the vanishing point at a distance of some kilometers.
So here is a box the way it’s supposed to look.
From boxes… 1
After this I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to draw any more boxes for a while. But it turns out that the book has other ideas.
The whole point of learning to draw a box free hand is that you can use it to draw other objects that are more or less box shaped.
So here are some more boxes.
From boxes… 2
And here is the fun bit.
By only adding a few more lines and curves you can make a bed of these boxes.
…to beds
Figuring out what was wrong with my earlier boxes and finding out how to use the technique to create nice drawings. I didn’t even have to read. Just flipping the...
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by Henk ter Heide on Friday December 28, 2007
Trying out a new approach to drawing with color pencil.
Ever since I started, I thought about drawing with color pencils as though it was a cross between Rembrandt and the way Bob Ross painted.
I thought that to get a nice picture I would have to cover the paper with a thick layer of pigment just like Rembrandt did. I puzzled with the problem that using color pencil you can’t start out with dark colors and put lighter color on top the way Bob Ross used to do.
Although I like most of my color drawings I always had the feeling that something was off.
A few days ago I came across a video tutorial about painting with water color. The main reason for watching it was to see whether it was suitable to link to from my StumbleUpon account. But as it turned out I did learn something from it.
The maker of the video advised people to always start out with the lightest color and then work there way to the darker colors. She also showed a little practice painting to show what she meant.
It suddenly dawned on me that drawing with color pencils is much more like painting with water colors then it is alike to painting with oil paint.
Here is my interpretation of the practice but then in color pencil.
Color practice
I clearly used to many different colors. I must try a more minimalistic approach.
Trying out a new approach to drawing with color pencil. Ever since I started, I thought about drawing with color pencils as though it was a cross between Rembrandt and...
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by Henk ter Heide on Sunday December 9, 2007
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.
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...
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by Henk ter Heide on Wednesday October 31, 2007
While trying to draw a hand I discover that shade shapes.
The book “Drawing with the right side of the brain” instructs you to draw three drawings before you receive any instruction to create a kind of base line. That’s because people tend to forget how bad they were. At the end of the book you can take these drawings to compare and see your progress.
For the third drawing the assignment was to draw the hand you don’t use for drawing. So for someone who’s right handed that would mean the left hand. But after posting the picture from which I drew yesterday I thought it would be nice to also post the picture from which I draw today. So I’ve made a picture of my right hand holding a pencil and drawn that.
Drawing a hand turns out to be a little more challenging then drawing a portrait.
There’s not much that can go wrong with a portrait. There are a few distinctive feature that should be present. But they have very clear shapes.
But that’s not the case with a hand. If you only draw the shape you end up with something out of a comic book.
But of course I didn’t know that when I started with this drawing. I kept the lessons of the last few days in mind and withstood the temptation to start with some detail.
I started out by drawing the shape of the forefinger and thumb. The rest of the hand and a little piece of the arm. Then I wanted to draw the middle finger and run into a little problem.
You can’t actually see the shape of the middle finger in the middle of the hand. You can see a little piece sticking out. But that’s about it.
It’s gets even more complicated when you try to draw the ring finger. You know it’s there but you can’t see it.
This problem left me no other choice then to try to draw shades.
Starting out with the shade where the ring finger should be. Since that’s about the darkest part. Then came the folds in the forefinger and the lighter parts that show the curve of the finger.
After that I noticed a nice dark shade under the pencil.
The tips of the fingers that stick out under the thumb where very hard to draw until I realized that the shade made them stick out. By leaving a little white you can even see the white of my nails.
All in all, although not perfect this drawing is a lot better then I had expected it to be.
Right hand drawing
The picture from which I drew:
picture of righthand with pencil
After thinking about it for a bit I decided that this drawing should go in my Favorite drawings list.
There is kind of a difference between this drawing and the other in that the others are finished and this one is much more a work in progress. Or to say it an other way. If I had to do it over I would draw the other favorites just the same. In this drawing however there is a lot of room for improvement.
That said. If I compare this drawing to my first drawing I see a lot of progress. Something to be proud about.
While trying to draw a hand I discover that shade shapes. The book “Drawing with the right side of the brain” instructs you to draw three drawings before you receive...
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by Henk ter Heide on Saturday October 20, 2007
Taking the different elements I’ve tested and putting it into one drawing.
I must admit that I’ve put this drawing of for a bit.
Although I’m almost certain that I won’t fail. I’ve thought about it and tested the different bits of this drawing. But this is the first time that I’ll be putting a drawing like this together.
Tree and clouds
This tree stood outside of my kitchen window a few years ago. The left part is still there but the councel cut the right part down. Presumably they were afraid that it would fall over and kill a few cyclist.
With my last drawing I wanted to know whether it was possible to see the branch through the leafs. But although it is possible I thought it would be nice not to see the branches but to see the sky through the leafs.
So I drew the branches with yellow pencil. Then I drew the blue part of the sky. By this time a large part of the branches had turned green. Drawing in the leafs meant that the branches disappeared.
The other reason why I put this drawing of was that I was thinking about what to draw next. I think I’ll leave the trees for a while.
The next project logical project is to learn to draw water. Much harder then trees. But many of the drawings I want to make have water in them. Mastering water should expend the sort of drawings I can do.
Taking the different elements I’ve tested and putting it into one drawing. I must admit that I’ve put this drawing of for a bit. Although I’m almost certain that I...
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