Fun Drawing Exercises

Have fun with these drawing techniques & send me an email with your works & I will post them on my blog!

The drawing exercises I have for you are :

• Contours and negative shape
• Working witha 2B pencil and a fine tip felt pencil or fine ball point pen
• Using weight and shape & direction in line
• And some exercises for you to complete and email me

Contours & Negative Shape

A contour is an outline of a positive form and negative shape is that nameless space that surrounds the positive form. So, if you placed your hands on your hips, that shape that your arm and body captured is called a negative shape.Its relevance is two fold. Firstly, just knowing that it is there. Seeing it. Looking at it and at the same time looking at the positive form. You draw both. In many instances when our minds are busy, busy, busy, then just drawing the negative shape causes us to focus.The wonderful thing here is that the negative shape doesnt have a name (unlike hand) and therefore you have no choice but to truly look and draw the shape. And in the process of such focus, you will feel like you have been away – well your mind has. So it is almost a meditative state.

And a meditative state is a thoughtless state – a state absent of thought. That is the state that I would like you to access during these exercises. Not because I dont want your mind involved in the creative process (well okay I dont – not at this early stage when you are learning). Thinking of course plays a role – observational thinking that is – not judgmental thinking.

Negative Shape then as a compositional construct. Just moving the still life objects and doing thumb nail sketches allows you to feel the composition. Do you like it? Is it interesting? How does it make you feel?

Is it typical or unexpected? What do you seek from it?

Or if you are out en plein air, well of course you don’t move the objects. You move around – find an interesting position to draw what you see – both the contours and the negative shape.

In both cases you can use a small view finder (you can create this by cutting out a small square or rectangle – about 2cm, from a piece of black cardboard – then look through it – the same way you look through the viewfinder of a camera and move it around to capture a composition).This helps you focus in to see more clearly the negative shape and the composition. So do not be in a hurry to draw. Looking takes time.

I have chosen Morandi to inspire you with the way he plays with contours, negative shape and composition.

The Kanizsa figure, named after the person who invented it. The illusiory contour. Can you see the triangle?

The above etching by Morandi is created by drawing up to the edge – a beautiful way of creating a contour. The lines are not neat and straight. They are not perfect in that manner and yet they every way perfect in their beauty. Have a look at it for 10 seconds, gently moving your eyes across the surface – not too fast now. Then take your eyes away from the image and bring them back. What happened? Did you feel that the still life was not so still? Did you see something a little differently than before? Do this a few times – each time you will enjoy it more and more.

Working with a 2B pencil and a fine tip felt pencil or fine ball point pen

These exercises are about getting to know different pencils. You will need to go shopping and explore which pencil brand you like to work with – experiment on the paper that you will drawing on.

Not all 2B’s are the same.

If you want to explore with more that a 2B (the graphite in the B series is softer and is capable of being blended, H series are hard – not blending and can actually tear the paper if you put too much pressure on them however they give a sharper line). So choose what it is they you wish to experiment with this
week. Go and play with graphite’s or buy asset of them.

Fine felt tip pen or a pilot drawing pen gives you no opportunity for erasing, which I like! At the same time its fine non smudgeable line creates its own beauty. Again – go explore in the art supply store. The decision you make will not be a mistake. It’s a learning opportunity.

Using Weight & shape & Direction of line

The line work in the horse is beautiful in its directional movement and short Line marks. They are at times straight, curvilinear, pointing to the left & sometimes to the right. Look at the weight used around the nostrils, ears and eyes. There is a clear contour outline prior to working the internal contours. In contrast, the jug below has no external contour. There is an illusory contour. And the lines are smudgier (a nolaspeak). They are fluid and soft. So think about the weight (how much pressure have you used) and shape of your line (straight or squiggly or curvy) and direction of the line. Each individual stroke is like a word in a sentence.

Try this drawing activity

1. Draw a contour drawing of the above photo of Morandi’s studio, just the table and whats sitting on the table. Use one of your pencils.
2. Do the same drawing using a felt tip pen or a drawing pen.
3. Create your own table top composition of items that are around your home or office. Once more do a contour drawing only using pencil or pen.
4. The size of these works should be about 20cm wide and 15cm high.
5. Throughout the week I would like you to do one drawing a day – just a thumb nail sketch this time – in your pocket drawing journal. It can be a coffee cup or whatever is there and handy in front of you – can be just a 10min exercise. With these baby drawings I would like you to begin experimenting with weight, shape and direction of your line. And half of these thumb nail sketches are to be done with your non dominant hand. Pay attention to both the positive and negative shape of your composition and each should be a complete drawing so there needs to be a context – eg apple sitting on a plate on a table. Pay attention to your horizon lines too! All the clues are in Morandi – go buy one of his book maybe and study him.

When you have finished – take a photo & send me an email – I will send you feedback and also pop the images up on my blog.