Week Two: Lines, Shapes, and Overlapping

I can see that everyone's confidence in drawing has increased a lot. All of you rose to the challenge of overlapping shapes. Placing things in front of other things (overlapping) creates depth of space in your drawing. You also made excellent progress in drawing accurate proportions. Keep comparing the shapes you draw to the picture or object you're looking at. Are the tires too small compared to the body of the truck? Is the dinosaur's body too long compared to its tail?

Overlapping
We got started drawing guidelines of three geometric shapes, then erased lines that put a shape in the foreground and another shape in the background by overlapping, then finished with darker outlines and tones. We learned to use overlapping in the lesson drawings. We'll explore overlapping again in future lessons on space and form. Gage overlaps shapes to create depth in his drawing shown at left.

Warm Ups
Before getting started on the class lesson we spent five minutes on pencil warm ups. As you all know by now, this helps you learn how to grip the pencil and create strokes using your wrist, arm, and shoulder. As always, keep practicing and learning different ways to hold your pencil and keep drawing millions of different kinds of lines. Example at left is Ricky's warm ups.



Outlines and Contour Lines
I really enjoyed your drawings of the picture of the two men by Picasso. Those of you who spent the extra time on this project got an excellent start at drawing the outlines of human figures. When you draw outlines that show the edges and roundness of something, they are called contour lines. Do you see the contour lines in the picture of the two men? We'll learn more about contour lines in future lessons.

I'll post your Picasso drawings with next week's lessons. Some of you didn't put your names on them, so I'll talk with Hilda so I get the proper names on them. I'll post your wonderful comments, too. This comment is from Elvis (his drawing is shown above, right): "Thank you Rob for commenting on my drawings. This is an exciting class and I hope I learn a lot from this class." You're all very welcome! And your questions and comments are welcome, too!

For all you brave sketchers looking for an extra challenge with edges and contour lines, draw the egret in Sketchy's Challenge. Follow Sketchy's helpful tips when drawing this elegant bird. For the challenge click here.

Great progress, SLV Sketchers! Coming up on Friday: Patterns and Texture. Here's some info on Patterns and Texture. Keep Drawing! --Rob

Jaime

Great job of drawing the details of the frog, dinosaur, and car. You're doing an excellent job of drawing light guidelines before your final outlines. Your outlines have improved a lot! You also did a good job of overlapping in your pictures. The proportions of the dinosaur and the car are drawn well. Compare the back legs of the frog you drew to the picture you were looking at. Are the legs the same size?

Ricky

Your guidelines and final outlines show a lot of improvement since the first class. You're taking time to make study sketches with light guidelines, giving you more accuracy with proportions. If you compare your sketch of the dinosaur on the left to the one on the right, you can see improved proportions (compare your drawings to the dinosaur picture you were looking at). Keep doing lots of studies, each time taking time to draw accurate guidelines and comparing proportions. Excellent work on overlapping the frog's front legs over the back legs. The outlines in your two frog drawings show very natural-looking features--it looks like it's going to spring to life and hop right off the page!

Michael

You've made lots of improvement in controlling your guidelines and final outlines. You did a good job of overlapping shapes in your drawings. You're also improving a lot in drawing accurate proportions--especially on the picture of the frog! The depth in the picture of the frog makes it look 3-D. Keep working on making several study sketches, comparing proportions of what your drawing to the picture you're looking at.

Leif

You're starting to get the hang of trying lots of study sketches. There's an improvement in the shapes and proportions each time you do a sketch. Notice how the monster truck on the right has more accurate proportions than the one on the left, compared to the picture you were looking at. I like how you're taking time to add details and working on your accuracy with guidelines. Keep practicing sketching accurate proportions.

Gage

Your own style of drawing is starting to show in your pictures as you get better control of sketching with your whole arm and shoulder. Your guidelines show accurate proportions, and your confident outlines show many interesting details. Good job on overlapping the tires over the truck engine and the dinosaur's legs over its body. Keep looking for the overall shape of things, then drawing the shapes, then comparing what you've drawn to what you're looking at. Your accuracy will continue to improve.

Elvis

Your outlines have improved a lot! You're getting into a good routine of sketching guidelines then finishing with accurate outlines. You've also improved in drawing accurate proportions. I like how you've added gray tones to your drawing, too. Keep practicing comparing the shapes you draw to the picture or object you're looking at.

Craig

You've drawn accurate guidelines followed by crisp outlines. Your lines and shapes are getting more accurate each time you draw. Excellent job of overlapping the truck tire over the engine and the frog's front legs over the back legs. Compare the back legs of the frog you drew to the picture you were looking at. Are they the same size? You also did a good job of drawing the proportions of the tires compared to the body of the truck. You've included lots of details in your drawings.

Shaylah

I like how you went for the monster truck challenge! You did an great job of adding details and overlapping where needed. As you drew more in class, you were relaxing your sketching hand and moving your hand more freely. This makes your lines smoother and lets you draw your guidelines with more accuracy. You did lots of study sketches of the truck tires. This helped you get better proportions of the tires compared to the body of the truck. You also improved the proportions of the dinosaur each time you sketched.

Jared

Good job with your study sketches. I can see that with each sketch of the dinosaur and car, your lines and shapes become more accurate. Your guidelines are improving too! You're getting more control with your pencil. I really like how you started using shaded gray tones on the monster truck drawing. This is called a tonal drawing. Since we're practicing drawing lines, try drawing darker outlines. By adding mountains in the background you've started a composition.