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What Do You Want to Draw Today?

High School Group: Weeks 1 & 2: Lines, Shapes, Proportions, Contours, and Tonal Values

It's great to be back drawing with the high school group again! We've got several students from last year who are taking their work to exciting new levels as well as new student sketchers who started drawing with lines and shapes.

Martin learned about positive and negative space and contour edges to form the egret (upper left). Jairo used positive and negative space and different values of tone to form a skull (upper left). And Robert pulled together a couple of wonderful contour studies of a skull (lower left and right).



 Thalia got into the Zone to complete her drawing of a Vincent Van Gogh sketch (above left) and a drawing of a flower (above right).

Students started the new semester by doing pencil warm ups. Shown above left is Brandon's warm up and to the right is Robert's.

 
New sketchers worked their way through lessons about lines, shapes, patterns, and proportions. Upper left is Martin's jaguar; upper right is Jose's jaguar; lower left is Charlie V.'s monster truck; lower right is Brianne's toucan.

To view everyone's drawings and Mr. Court's comments click 'Read more' below...

Middle School Group: Weeks 1 & 2: Lines & Shapes

The middle school students at Monterey Community Day School got started on a lot of great drawings! Everyone got right to work and learned how to hold the pencil and move their whole arm while drawing.

   
As they worked from reference lesson pictures, students learned about proportions (the sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) and drawing on top of mistakes. Desmond's toucan (above left) shows how he sketched light guidelines to measure proportions of the bird's head and body. Omar added lighter and darker tones to his toucan (above right).

 
Edwards's jaguar (above, left) and Carla's tiger show how they learned to draw accurate proportions. Curved and angled lines were used to show the patterns on the jaguar's body and tail as well as the tiger's face.



 

Pedro's frog and Sarai's monster truck show how they used overlapping to show depth in their drawings.














Click on Pedro's drawing (above) to view the eXpReSsiOn sEsSiOn. If you have drawings you'd like to submit ask Mr. Court about posting them. They must be approved by Mr. McDowell.

To view everyone's drawings and Mr. Court's comments, click 'Read more' below...

Weeks 7 & 8: Realism, Proportions, Contours, Color

I've thoroughly enjoyed drawing with the Community Day Sketchers! For our last two lessons we learned to draw roundness and realistic contours as we chose things from the crate of realism (shown below); then we learned to blend colored pencils by using only red, blue, and yellow to represent an apple.



You've all gained confidence and knowledge in drawing during the 8-week course. Some of you will be getting jobs in fields such as the graphic arts, construction, or office management--your drawing skills will prove to be very useful! And many of you will someday have families. I guarantee you that your children will one day ask your help in learning to draw. And just think... you'll be able to draw a crab and a puffer fish and a bowl of fruit with them! :-)

Sketch on! --Rob


above: study sketch of contour edges and final rendering with a woodless graphite pencil by Daniel


above: exploring different styles of drawing by Brian (left) and Daniella (right)

Sydney

You've got real drawing skills now, Sydney!!! Throughout the entire course you've always been willing to push beyond your comfort zone and learn new things. I know that the first lessons were challenging, but your determination and positive attitude helped you to develop your own drawing style. As you drew the shell and squash from real life you stepped into a whole new level of artistic expression. Your strong contour lines and accurate eye for proportion really shine in these sketches! The roundness of the squash and the textures of the shell look very natural. Keep practicing sketching realistically and remember to loosen up your line work to express yourself on paper. Keep drawing! :-)

To see your progress, check out your first lesson from 8 weeks ago: Click here

Thalia

It usually takes you 10 minutes to drop into the zone and start sketching, (okay, probably 15 minutes for that way cool apple!) but once you did... whoa!... you became a drawing machine. From drawing wonderfully accurate proportions (the dog), to insanely tight contour lines (antique iron and roundness of the squash), to blending colors on the apple, your ability to grasp the essence of each lesson is amazing! Being able to understand concepts and visualize composition is a valuable life skill. Keep building on this foundation, Thalia; it will take you far in life. And keep drawing!

To see your progress, check out your first lesson from 8 weeks ago: Click here



The contour curves of the squash look very realistic and natural!

Jairo

Your ability to focus on each drawing lesson helped you to progress rapidly, Jairo!! Your natural ability for drawing accurate proportions and realistic contours showed in the early lessons; then continued to improve as shown in the dog and shells--stellar work! Keep working on sketching faster, using more expressive lines and tones. And keep sketching from real life, too. I think you've discovered skills that will be useful in everyday life and hope you explore the possibilities drawing can offer you. I think you really enjoy drawing... keep it going!

To see your progress, check out your first lesson from 8 weeks ago: Click here



Excellent blending of colors and capturing the round contours of the apple. Keep experienting with Prismacolor pencils, I think it will open up a whole range of artistic possibilities.