Thursday 14 June 2007

observation

Observational drawing today at work, still life of bottles and stones and fruit. 2B pencils.


And it's so inspiring to see these people who have never done anything like this before to start to really look. I could almost see the lights going on in their heads as the teacher talked about line and tone and texture, measuring distances with thumbs and pointing out areas of light and shade. And their drawings have improved so much just in the last few days. It's great to see.


Some find it hard (which it is!) to concentrate, and need lots of support 'how do the tones change from here to here' 'what shape could you use as a guide to draw this' and its really rewarding to be able to help, to explain a little thing something to someone that makes them think 'I understand'. Today a student (after an hour of struggling to draw a shiny, oddly shaped jelly mould, but really persevering and ending up with a really good, well observed drawing) turned around to me and said 'You know, I'm really proud of myself today'. And that felt so good!


(And it inspired me to get my sketch book out, drawings of my hand, click on them to see full size... maybe I'll try tone tomorrow... )

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