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Mike Sibley   Comment Posted Jun.15th, 2023, viewed 24 times

EXERCISE 2
I like this. It's getting there - full of interest if I care to look, but not dominating the scene (assuming this is a part of a larger scene and this part is incidental).

This is a technique I use very locally and for foreground use - maybe into the mid midground. The secret is: don't over-think it. Just fix a scenario in your mind (location: barn floor, chicken run, car scrapyard, grocery store stockroom floor) - anything you have a little knowledge of.

You must - as I can see you did - know your lighting direction. Without it, you can't create anything three-dimensionally.

Make a mark. Any mark. Does it suggest something? Probably not. Make more random marks. Let the marks suggest what might be emerging - and look at the negative space as much as the positive marks. In fact, the negative space is arguably more important.

If a shape emerges that you recognise as being relevant to the scene, you can either render it immediately or (my preference) leave it as a white shape and return to it later. The latter means I can continue without breaking the flow.

Look at the slightly bigger question too. If you find you're drawing with more pressure and an area is becoming darker than its surroundings - what does that suggest? Possibly a bump in the ground and you're drawing the shaded side? So maybe it would be fun to draw up to the crest and then, by deliberately reducing the pressure on the pencil, begin creating the side that the light can see.

In the three stages I've attached, you can see the progress. I began with a hazy idea based on compositional balance. Later, I either ignored or modified my earlier ideas. Notice how the pebbles changed.

See how I felt the need to ground the paw by having it stand on blades of grass. They are NOT a part of the technique, so I broke off, created the outlines, and then went back to the ground technique. The grass was completed later. It's simpler to work on one thing, using one technique, at a time.

So, that's the idea. Fix a locality in your mind, make a mark, recognise what those marks might represent, then develop it.

Just the ground - no background required. Keep it simple. And, above all, have FUN. This is a completely stress-free method because it has no end goal. Just watch the scene unfold as you draw :o)

This technique, which I use a lot for unplanned foregrounds, allows me to lose myself in the drawing. I'm a firm believer in NOT over-planning. I know what the story is and where the principal elements will be placed, but outside that I leave as much room for spontaneous creation as I can. If only because I'm a crazy, dreaming artist and not a drawing machine :o)

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CyndiK Jun.13th, 2023
Comment added to Drawing from Line to Life: DG201:5 Creative shading:
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