Drawing People Summer Art Class - Day 2

I realized yesterday that I didn't give much explanation of our class and why we are doing it. So here it is--I love kids and I love art. It makes me sad how little art instruction kids are getting in school right now and I truly feel like I, personally, have to do something about it. So I open my house to kids and we make art together and we talk about art together and I LOVE IT!! and I hope they do too. And then I put explanations and class re-caps on my blog for my students, their parents and anyone else who may end up here.

Okay...

Day 2 – Proportions

We began today with Blind Continuous Contour Drawings. This is done with one continuous line, and no peeking! Look at the person across from you. Draw them without picking up your pen/pencil and don't look at your paper. We did several in our sketchbooks.

Why Blind Continuous Contour Drawings?? Here's a great explanation from Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes: One of the best ways to get over the fear of drawing people is to draw without looking at the paper. It removes the artist from the responsibility of result, and allows him to study the subject more closely. Yes! I love this idea. I also really like to start each class with a sort of warm up/loosen up type exercise.

I did a few samples last night to show the kids. I honestly find these drawing so fun and relaxing. You never know what you might get!! (Try some!)

Here are some the students' drawings:

We found it very interesting that everyone's drawings had their own distinct style.

Drawing the Face

Drawing people is best done from observation, but there are a few guidelines that help you get started. These simple guidelines will help improve your drawings immensely!

There are 4 basic face shapes – round, heart shaped, oval, square. Today we used an egg shape as our inspiration. For this we used actual eggs. I had the kids draw the horizontal and vertical midline. Having an actual egg to hold in their hands seemed to help them get the concept of the shape better.

We used some visuals to talk about common mistakes made in drawing people. Noticing these downfalls and avoiding them in your drawings can take your drawings from immature and childlike to more mature and realistic looking.

I drew a face on a clear page protector. I drew many of the common mistakes people make.

Eyes too high – remember to leave room for the brain

No room for the hair – they look bald

No eyebrows or “rainbow” eyebrows

Outline of the nose is too dark

“Pig” nostrils

“Banana” lips

Eyeballs too big

Ears too small

Stringy hair or, alternately, helmet hair

I had all the labels covered with Post-It notes and the students named all of them. But for them to really SEE what was wrong with the drawing, I slipped in a photograph of a face. This seemed to really drive the concept home. "Oh yeah, I can see how the eyes are way too high and the hair is weird..." etc.

Using the same picture (a copy of it, actually) we then talked about all the measurements that will help us draw more realistic faces.

Here are the basics:

When starting a drawing of the face, divide the "egg" in half vertically and horizontally. The horizontal line will be your eye line (#1 below). Now divide the top half in half. That midway point will be your hairline (#4 below). Divide the bottom half in half. That notch mark will be the bottom of the nose (#2 below). Now divide from nose to chin in half and that notch mark will be the mouth (#3 below). By simply doing these quick measurements, you'll get much better proportions and placement on your face. Do all these lines and notch marks very lightly as they will most likely be erased eventually.

I love that by just making those few quick lines and tick marks, you already have the idea of a face. And voila, now you know where things need to go. Tomorrow we'll be working on the actual features.

And then we practiced. We did a little with the full body too. Basically I tried to convince them that yes, really, people are about 7-1/2 heads tall. I don't think they were convinced. They'll need to do some observation on their own.

Optional At Home Fun Playfulness (not homeWORK!):

1. Do more Blind Continuous Contour drawings

2. Collect pictures for you Art File

3. Take a magazine picture of a face (someone looking right at the camera--like our Nicole Kidman example), cut it in half vertically and draw the other half. This is a great exercise for practicing placement and proportion!

Drawing People Summer Art Class - Day 1

This class is for kids ages 10-15. There are 6 kids in the class. Today was our first day. This is a re-cap I send to the parents and students, but if you happen to wander onto my blog and find this information useful, great! Let me know and link back to me if you use it. 

Day One– Intro and Basics 

1.    Pre-instruction drawing

a.    Put your name and age on the paper and draw a person. This is done on a loose sheet of paper and I keep the drawing until the end of the week. Students are given about 10 minutes on this drawing. We will re-visit this drawing at the end of the week to compare it to our final drawing--done after all instruction is finished. I love to start my Drawing People classes this way. I think it's a great way for the students to see how much they can improve in just a weeks time!

2.    Intro to Drawing

a.    Basic Supplies – no. 2 pencil, kneaded eraser, sketchbook and/or loose paper

b.    Sketchbook vs. loose paper - some people are intimidated by a sketchbook and afraid to ruin a page in it. If that's the case, use loose pages until you feel more comfortable. 

c.     Draw: (from Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists by Carla Sonheim)

                                               i.     Things you like - if you HATE drawing horses and the thought of practicing drawing horses makes you cringe, don't draw horses!

                                             ii.     With materials you like working with - some people like to draw with pen (I do!), others hate it. Some love the mess of charcoal, others (myself included) don't.

                                            iii.     Using styles, methods, or processes you like - if you love fashion illustration, go for it! Don't completely limit yourself to just one genre, but if something speaks to you, explore that.

d.    Why I like drawing

                                               i.     It’s quick - you can do a quick sketch in a matter of minutes. That can be it or you can return to it later to add more detail

                                             ii.     It’s portable - throw a small sketchbook and pencil in your bag and you're ready to go

                                            iii.     It’s fun

                                            iv.     It’s a way to express yourself creatively - I have several different drawing sketchbooks going at all time (people, lettering, fashion, etc.)

e.    Have your supplies handy and get them out and just see what happens - not feeling inspired? Just get out your sketchbook and pencil, sit with if for a bit and see if something comes to you. See if you just start doodling. Or see if a full detailed drawing wants to emerge.

3.    About Drawing People

a.    We looked at some of my samples—both realistic and funky, both straight graphite drawings and mixed media work (if you want to see more, feel free to explore this blog)

b.    There are rules

                                               i.     Rules, in art, are made to be broken

                                             ii.     To break the rules, you must first KNOW them. Then it’s a choice, not a mistake. (We will begin with the real math of drawing people tomorrow)

4.    In the sketchbook

a.    Make an “Eyes” page, a “Noses” page, and a “Mouths” page - we will be adding to this all week

b.    Start an “Art File” now - this is a folder or a box full of picture you gather, pictures that speak to you. I have several sections in my art file (I use a pocketed folder)--technique (the work of other artists that inspires me), faces, fashion and full body pictures, food/flowers, animals, design, and misc. Your categories will be different than mine. Or maybe you don't like categories. Figure out what works for you and start saving pictures.

5.    Let’s Get Started

a.    Gesture Studies using an art mannequin, magazine pictures, or imagination

Here are some samples of the students gesture drawings:

Take Home (Optional -- this isn't school!) Assignments:
1. Do more gesture drawings
2. Start looking for pictures in magazines for your Art File
3. Practice the Grid Method - this is another very useful tool in drawing people

Illustration Friday - Children

I love drawing children! It's so fun to try to capture their sweetness and playfulness! This is a drawing I did a couple of years ago for my daughter's friend for her birthday. She was turning 8. (Not sure why she didn't make it onto the blog until now.)

Illustration Friday - the theme this week is CHILDREN

Paris Inspired Bracelet

I'm a little obsessed with all things Parisian. In a search for "Parisian Street Fashion" I came across THIS post. I immediately fell in love with her bracelets.

Image via http://blog.netrobe.com

A little memory wire, some beads from Hobby Lobby and a lovely afternoon spent crafting with my daughter, and I have my own version of her cool bracelets.

I decided to make it all one long bracelet--the joy of memory wire!! Combined with a couple bracelets I already had and voila...

A Gift For a Friend...with a Familiar Image

I took my little drawing of the baby boy and printed it small to make some gift bags and cards.

And here's what's inside. A little washcloth (for baby) and soap (for mama), oh and a little rubber ducky just for fun.

IF - Sweet

6" x 3", Sharpie, paint and Prisma colored pencil on chipboard

I finally found a little bit of time this week to draw which was a sweet, sweet feeling. 

She is part of a new series I'm doing drawing on found objects. We get a lot of notepads at our house and where I work so as we finish them off, I've been collecting the chipboard backing. I plan to do a whole series of faces on them. They are all different sizes and I love the contrast of the white paint, the black lines, and the yummy brown chipboard.

And all you need is chipboard, Sharpie (or other black pen), white paint and a little colored pencil if you choose to add some color. Sweet!

Illustration Friday - The theme this week is SWEET.

IF - Tribute

I did this drawing for a friend as a tribute for his birthday.

Illustration Friday - the theme this week is TRIBUTE.

Painting Tutorial - The Coloring Book Method

I call this The Coloring Book Method because basically, you're creating a drawing with dark outlines (like a coloring book page) and then filling it in with color (paint).

This method works great on paper, canvas, or wood (coat wood with a layer of gesso first).

Supplies Needed:

• A painting surface (paper, canvas, or wood) - for this tutorial I'm using wood but will always refer to it as 'canvas' as whatever you paint on can be referred to as your canvas
• White gesso
• Sharpie, paint pen or black paint
• Paint brushes
• Watercolor crayons and/or pastels and/or paint
• Colored pencils, stamps, bubble wrap, carpenter crayon, etc. (optional)

The Basic Steps:

Step 1 - Prime your surface. Here I put down a layer of gesso on 1/2" MDF.

Step 2 - Draw your thumbnail ideas of what you may want to paint. Try some with a vertical orientation and some with a horizontal orientation.

Step 3 - Draw your design on your canvas lightly in pencil. These lines will be erased later so keep them light. (oops forgot to get a picture of this step)

So far we're following pretty typical painting technique. But here's where we veer and go into the Coloring Book Method. I find that this way of painting is GREAT for children and beginning painters. It's much less intimidating than setting a canvas in front of them and telling them to paint a person or flower. These steps break it down and make things MUCH more simple. You will end up with a more Pop Art or Folk Art type painting but even if that's not your end goal, this is a great way to start to feel more comfortable with putting paint to canvas.

Step 4 - Draw your outlines. I usually use a paint pen or black paint on a very fine brush. But when I paint with my art students I have them use a Sharpie. It's a bit easier to handle and an inexpensive tool. I like my lines to be relatively thick and I do have some variation of thickness and that's just fine.

Step 5 - Here is where you can go right in with paint. Which often times I do. But for this tutorial and when I work with my art students, I have them 'make their own paint'. We do this by putting down some watercolor crayon and/or pastels and then going over that with gesso. You can blend either with your finger or a paintbrush. I usually do a combination of both. The gesso blends with the color and creates soft, deep, beautiful color!!

The reason I like this for kids and beginners is, again, control. It's less intimidating to go in with crayon or chalk, rather than a brush loaded with paint. I also love the variation of colors you can get and the shading it allows. And on a truly practical note you don't have to squeeze out a bunch of paint. :)

Still not sure what I mean?? Maybe this will help...(Try it, it's FUN!)

And here's our girl with the color added...

Step 6 - Go back over your outlines, if you'd like. I usually do. I like my lines to be neat and clean.

Step 7 - Embellish with colored pencils, graphite pencils, rubber stamps, paint, etc. I love using a carpenters crayon to add some extra lines here and there. (After this picture I also went back in with a fine tip sharpie and added some scribbles to the background and with gesso I added the dots on her shirt and the highlights on her eyes and lips).

And VOILA...You're done.

To see some of my students working in this method and their finished paintings, click HERE.