Drawing What You Love/Sketching Scottie

When Jen wanted to make a drawing of her delightful Scottish terrier, Molly, I suggested she use a photograph of her dog for reference. We worked with the same toned paper technique I taught to a group of high school students in my Drawing Animals lesson.

After toning her paper, Jen drew Molly's features with charcoal lines. Then she established all the darkest shapes on Molly's face by making intuitive repeated bold strokes within those areas, suggesting fur. She achieved beautifully loose movement and texture with this approach. Jen also used her kneaded eraser to remove the charcoal in selected areas of her drawing, establishing lighter tones, as well as near-whites.

Jen's close familiarity with her dog contributed meaning and enthusiasm to the process of drawing Molly. When you decide what to draw, think about using something or someone close to you as your subject. Try using this charcoal-toned paper technique to draw animals, people, landscapes or still lifes. It's a very forgiving process that allows for easy modifications and changes. To change a line, just rub it out with your finger or a paper towel, and redraw it.

I really love drawing with charcoal, & I created a series of large drawings of fruits and vegetables, including the charcoal diptych drawing, "Three Peppers." I'm thrilled that based on this drawing, I was recently awarded a solo exhibition at John Slade Ely House New Haven in September 2012!

Here are the steps for making a toned paper charcoal drawing:

TONED PAPER DRAWING

Materials:

soft willow charcoal in 1 1/2" lengths

white drawing paper

kneaded eraser

paper towels

photograph for reference, optional

spray fixative

Procedure:

1. Using the side of your charcoal, make broad, dark strokes on the paper, covering the whole surface. It helps to work on top of a pad of paper for smooth application.

2. Using a paper towel, gently smooth and blend the charcoal as evenly as possible all over the paper. If too much charcoal is removed, just apply more, and smooth it again.

3. Draw the basic shapes of your subject, and fill in the dark areas with charcoal. You can blend and lighten any areas with your finger or paper towel. Also, use your kneaded eraser to "pull out" charcoal in order to create very light areas. Keep adding darks, middle tones and lights, to establish a three-dimensional representation of your subject.

4. In a well ventilated area, lightly spray the fixative on your drawing to prevent smudging.

"Molly" by Jen

Drawing Animals: Kittens & Whales & Giraffes, Oh My!

Last week I taught a "How to Draw Animals" lesson to a group of high school students. Most of the students provided their own reference photographs to work from. Having the students copy their reference materials, would have produced acceptable results, but I wanted the students to get the most mileage out of this one-day project, and go beyond copying.

First, I discussed and demonstrated how to look for the main shapes of a subject, whether it's an object in a still life, a landscape or an animal. I advised them to look for and establish the shape of the animal's largest part first (usually its body), and draw an abstract shape, such as a rectangle or oval to approximate it. Then, keeping aware of relative size, distances apart and gesture, the other body parts could be added as general abstract shapes as well. I explained that while developing the drawing, the artists would be able to keep refining their judgements to make appropriate changes, as they gradually added detail.

Next I introduced the students to the process of working with vine charcoal and kneaded erasers on white paper toned with charcoal. First each student covered his/her paper with a layer of dark tone, using soft vine charcoal. This was smoothed over lightly with a paper towel. Then, using the same charcoal sticks, they drew the basic shapes for their animals. As the drawings progressed, I showed the artists how to use their erasers as drawing tools to "pull out" whites from the paper, and to blend grays. Erasers could also be used to add light strokes for background texture or fur. Fingers were also very useful for blending, adding and subtracting values and practically "sculpting" the darks and lights.

None of the students had used this drawing approach before, and all found it satisfyingly forgiving, effective and fun. Many of the artists were pleasantly surprised with their results, and parents and other adults were surprised at the sophisticated level of work that was accomplished in only two hours.

You can use this technique of initially toning the paper to draw an animal, a portrait, a still life, a landscape, a seascape or an abstract fantasy. Your fingers and eraser will be a mess, but you can always clean up, and I think you'll really enjoy the results.

The Students' Drawings

Recycled Boxes: One Cool Cat

There's more than one way to sculpt a cat! Here's the way one five year old artist used his imagination plus boxes to build a cat sculpture. At first, when he started construction, he kept joking that he made a "chair-cat," because of the flat back, head and four legs! But by the time he finished, it looked unmistakably cat-like, whiskers and all.

The whimsical colors and patterns make this sculpture unique. When you create art, think of the ways you can make your work look special. Add details and design. Add color, line and texture. Add fabric and buttons. Make your art the way nobody else would do theirs.

Outside the Box

Some of my students are working on box sculptures, one of my (& their) favorite open-ended art projects. First, kids decide what they're going to make and then they join boxes sturdily with masking tape and glue, making sure to tape over any gaps or holes. Choice of subject matter is vast. Consider animals, people, vehicles, fantasy creatures or inanimate objects. One of my students made a garden gnome with a birdbath, and another made an awesome sky diver with a parachute! Some of my students have kept their box sculptures for years, and have even used them as coffee tables!

The next step is to brush artist's gesso onto all surfaces of the sculpture & allow to dry. Then paint the sculpture with tempera or acrylics, using realistic or fantasy colors. When the paint is dry, any collage materials, such as buttons, feathers, fabric or pipe cleaners can be glued on for decoration and detail. The more color and detail, the merrier, so even paint markers can be used to add lines or dots.

Try to save clean, dry boxes and cardboard tubes at home to have available for this project. It's a great way to recycle boxes, and box sculpture is a wonderful creative project for kids to make independently.