Tag Archives: line drawings

Got the Doodle Bug

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I really need to be sketching more - days go without me even putting pencil to paper. So I got out one of my many sketchbooks the other evening and started drawing my foot.

doodleA

I used the contour drawing technique as described by the brilliant Betty Edwards in her book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Have you got it? I’d get it if I were you - especially if you are doing anything creative - it helps get your right brain activated which is more creative than your dominant left brain. Click on the image to go to a listing to buy this book - you won’t regret it.

I had lost my well-read copy and so bought a new one last week.

The book that has taught me the most about seeing and drawing

The book that has taught me the most about seeing and drawing

 

Anyway - back to the foot. It was so relaxing to just concentrate on that ONE thing - right there under my nose that I then moved on to a nearby Swiss Cheese Plant leaf and then my purse on the table beside me.

DoodleBAll fueled up now I started doodling from my mind and there are the results above.

Doodling - putting your mental images onto paper - try it sometime:)

Sketching a young male deer

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I have been asked to paint a young stag and it’s with delight that I begin.

Just before Christmas I bought The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and it cast a spell over me for the whole week during which I sat snuggled up reading it. Why? because it is set in times past in frontier Alaska where snow, log cabins and basic living are the norm - my kind of escape material for some reason.

Anyway - getting back to my sketch. The story features a great deer and I imagined his antlers silhouetting against the barren snowy nightscapes and with this image in mind I began my baby stag.

I selected a few images from royalty free sites and my customer chose one. One that I would have chosen too, which boded well.

To push me to draw fast and focussed I stood bending over slightly at a table in my studio. It was not comfy and made me get down the essential planes quickly. I was happy with the funny knuckle and finger-like horns and the eyes as I drew.
I never realised just how asymmetrical and un-matching the horns are. They are both quite different in shape and width as they grow out of the head.

Looking at it now I feel overall he has too austere a look and is a bit unfriendly. I may have drawn his face too thin overall and I need to create a small disconnect between the inner edges of his ears and those antlers to make a shadow area - what do you think?
Anyway - I might be able to soften this skull-like line drawing with the warmth and fluidity of watercolour washes which I will do tomorrow.

To see a doe watercolour demo I did a while back click here.
If not I will draw again. I love the curvilinear and sensuous planes and angles in this animal. So graceful.

Watch this space.

Alison