Weeks 5 & 6: Proportions, Form, Contour Lines

You all made a lot of great progress drawing with contour lines and accurate proportions. Everyone also got into cool abstract drawings which I'll be posting soon.

A big welcome to our new sketcher, Crystal!

Attention all sketchers, show your best drawings! Enter your work in our Online Student Show, opening May 7, 2010. Your drawings will be featured with students from other schools in the Drawing League Gallery. Choose 2 of your favorites, either from your lesson drawings or work you've created during your own time at school. One drawing is to be from observation (drawing things you're looking at) and the second drawing is to be from your imagination. For Details: Click here

See you all Friday! --Rob

Christian

Excellent! Drawings! Christian! Your eye for accurate proportions gets stronger with each new sketch you make. The control of your line work really shows in these drawings, especially in the contours of the dragonfly's body and transparent wings. Great job of drawing accurate proportions of the egret's body and head. By seeing the negative space around its body you were able to capture the 's' curve in the neck.The shading of the body and neck is a step to drawing realistically. And you did an awesome job of drawing the 3D angle of the jaguar's body.

Kira

Really, REALLY awesome job of drawing accurate proportions of the dog!!! The facial features are very well drawn, especially the details of the nose. The contour lines that form the folds of the ears and curves of the eyes look realistic and give 3D form to your drawing. Wouldn't it be cool to figure out a way to use your drawing skills in studying to become a veterinarian. :-)

Michael

Welcome to Star Sketchers, Michael!!! You're truly off to an excellent start in drawing with lines and shapes! The proportions (sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) of the crab, puffer fish, monster truck, and jaguar are accurately drawn. Compare your drawing of the crab to the reference picture. Are the sizes of the claws, compared to its body, drawn accurately? Great job of showing the 3D angle of the jaguar's head and body. By seeing the negative space around the egret's body you drew accurate contour edges forming its body, neck, and head. Keep drawing light guidelines for the shapes of things; then finishing with darker outlines or contour lines.

Crystal

It's great to have you drawing with the Star Sketchers, Crystal---welcome!!! EXCELLENT start in drawing with lines and shapes. I can see that you have a lot of control in your line work and shading with gray tones. The shading on the crab's body is a nice touch. The proportions (sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) of the fish and crab are very accurately drawn. Cool facial expressions! :-)

Freddy C.

You've punched through to a new level of drawing realistically, Freddy!! By starting with lightly sketched guidelines you were able to make adjustments to the proportions of the skull before finishing with darker contour lines. Great work in showing the depth of the eye socket, cheek bone, and roundness of the skull with shaded tones. Overall, the proportions are very accurately drawn. Keep it going, man!

Yvonne

I know that drawing the egret was a bit of a challenge, but you stepped up and pulled off a GREAT drawing, Yvonne!!! You made excellent use of the negative space around the bird in drawing accurate contours or its body, especially the 's' curve of the neck. Really, REALLY nice start in drawing the details of its face and shading the area showing the feathers. Be great if you could finish shading its neck, body, and legs. :-)

Weeks 3 & 4: Lines, Shapes, and Finding Your Style

Okay, Star Sketchers! We've got an great mix students drawing with us now. Christian and Jesse jumped in last week as they drew lines and shapes while holding the pencil sideways. Some of you have moved into drawing ore realistically while others are exploring larger paper formats and different kinds of pencils.

As you explore new drawing styles and materials, be thinking about submitting drawings to the student show in May. For details: Click here

Want to compare the work of Star Sketchers to other schools? Check out the Drawing League to see what other students are doing: Click here

See you Friday! --Rob

Brianna

Bravo, Brianna!!! You put all the skills you've been learning to work in this drawing of Fernand Leger's painting. You nailed the overall proportions, spot on! Great line work--thick outlines for the fence and chair, thinner contours for the cow and coat. Your experiments with different pencils really paid off; excellent job of using harder and softer leads to show light and dark tones for the different colors in Leger's painting. White pencil on dark paper next?

Kira

Absolutely stellar line work, Kira!!! The proportions of the dragonfly are VERY accurately drawn! The contour lines showing the edges that form its body and wings are very well drawn, and the details look realistic and natural. And, Whoa! the egret looks awesome! I really like how you got into sketching looser guidelines to get the form of its head and body; then finishing with tighter contour lines. Excellent how you made a few study sketches until you found accurate proportions. This will be a valuable skill as you get into drawing realistically in the coming weeks. Each time you made a new sketch, the proportions became more accurate. Great start at drawing the proportions of the profile of the old man by Leonardo da Vinci.

Yvonne

Alright, Yvonne!! You stepped up to the challenge of drawing accurate proportions! Your drawings of the jaguar show very accurate proportions of its head and body. You did an excellent job of drawing the angle of its head and its body overlapping the left paw, making your drawing look 3D. Keep practicing making a lot of quick study sketches using light guidelines showing the form of the things you're looking at. The dragonfly really shows that you have an eye for accurate proportions! Overall, the size of the head and wings compared to body are very well drawn. :-)

Freddy C.

Sketching like Vincent Van Gogh was a big change for you, Freddy!! Excellent job in loosening up your pencil strokes and using curved and angled lines to show textures. Great work in showing the correct angles of perspective leading to the buildings and hills in the distance. I really like the combination of bold strokes and shading to show the contrast of the grass and wall in the foreground. And it's really cool how you used loosely sketched lines to indicate the large tree.

Freddy S.

Excellent shift to realistic drawing, Freddy!!! Way cool how you've gained control of your line work to lay down light, accurate guidelines. You followed with very natural looking contour lines and light/dark tones to form the leaves of the agave plant. Great job in drawing accurate proportions compared to the reference picture. You got a great start in taking the proportions of the plant to a larger format paper--maybe you'll finish it sometime? :-) Also, you got an EXCELLENT start on the skull on Friday; look forward to seeing the finished drawing.

Christian

Welcome to Star Sketchers, Christian!!! You jumped right in with some FANTASTIC drawings with lines and shapes! The control of your line work is superb! And the proportions (sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) of the crab and puffer fish are well drawn. Compare your drawing of the puffer fish to the reference picture. How does the overall outline shape of your fish's body compare to the reference picture. You did an excellent job of nailing down accurate proportions of the toucan's head and body. The different values of lighter and darker grays are a really nice touch. Cool facial expressions!

Yessenia

Hey, Yessenia!! Your eye for accurate proportions (the sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) just gets better and better! Overall, the crab and puffer fish are really well drawn, and you've got excellent control of your line work. The proportions of the tiger's face are VERY well drawn. You did a great job of including facial features such as the whiskers and stripe patterns. The 3D form of the jaguar looks awesome! Excellent work in overlapping the body over its front left paw to give depth to your drawing. Keep practicing sketching light guidelines of the shapes of things you're looking at; then finishing with darker outlines. :-)

Jesse

It's great to having you drawing with the Star Sketchers, Jesse!! I know you really want to work at improving your drawing, and you're off to an excellent start! Holding the pencil on its side started out as a big challenge, but you settled into sketching light guidelines for the shapes of the crab and puffer fish. Overall, the proportions (sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) are accurately drawn. When drawing from observation, keep comparing the proportions what you're looking at to what your drawing. For example, compare the size of the crab's claws compared to its body. Keep practicing, man!