We did this still twice — although we were allowed to move around and find another view after the first one if we liked. The first one was a straight value drawing in charcoal. My first one went so badly that I never finished it. And no, I don’t want to talk about it. On the second day, we started by covering our paper with a mid-tone gray and then “drew” in the highlights with a kneaded eraser. Only after all the highlights were lifted out did we go back in with charcoal and get the dark tones. I still have some work to do on the darkest shadows.
These things take so long! This was 2-1/2 hours.
Hang in there Beth, you are doing great. I know it is not as easy as it might seem. But then nether was lettering. give yourself some time. It will get easier as you go. You will also notice an improvement in your lettering.
Thanks, Toni. When we put our pieces up on the walls on Monday, mine was by far the lightest one. Which is understandable, I guess, given my tentative approach to drawing but also my unfamiliarity with the medium and with shading. I’ve vowed that my next drawing will be too dark! Otherwise it may take me the entire semester to get to dark enough.
Dear Beth,
Your post of 2005 appeared in my RSS just today, weird, ah? Anyway, I would be grateful if you answer my comment there… here is the link:
http://callibeth.blogspot.com/2005/09/spring-haiku-1997.html
Thanx!
Your drawings are beautiful especially the gorgeous lines on the Sharpie drawing….you get such fluid lines with the Sharpie.
Anabel, I left an answer to your question back at the old post, so check there. I guess renaming my tag “artist book” to “artist books” updated those 5 or so posts.
Lorraine,
Thanks for your comments. I’m not so taken with Sharpies but I did like having a really black, really definite link to work with.
really enjoying your adventures with drawing. drawing is why i do embroidery:) it does come after a while. and, for me, it’s a great way to slow down. your work is nice to look at.
maggie
portland maine
and fellow anne tyler fan
takinanap, thanks for the comment. I agree that it’s a way to slow down. So far I’m not necessarily going with “great”. Embroidery, now that *is* a great way to slow down.
My brother and I were talking about my drawing class, and I was saying that I look upon it as a character building experience, and he said, “But there comes a point when you can just decide that your character is built and it’s time to take a break.” I laughed and had to admit that I at least *expect* to enjoy drawing in the future. After a suitable period of character building 🙂