Keep Practicing

Today I started with writing my name and signature on the right side of the page.  Then wrote them again backwards.  Then I made two face goblets.  One profile of a normal face and one profile of a monster face.  Then shaded to give them shape.  This is a good exercise for loosening up and getting ready to draw.

Next, I drew a few different positions of my hands. Hands are always close by and make a great subject for drawing, especially since everyone needs practice with them.   I was looking back and forth the entire time.  The contour drawing of my dog Sparky, below, is drawn entirely without looking at the paper for placement of my pencil.  While the cabbage next to Sparky is called a modified contour because you can look at the paper, but, only for placement of the pencil.  You can't actually look at the paper while drawing.  Contour and Modified Contour drawings are great exercises that we shouldn't neglect.  They teach us to see like an artist.

Do a pure contour drawing of any complex object and then do a modified contour drawing of it, then draw it again without worrying about looking at the paper at all and have fun getting lost in the drawing.