Purpose
This session served a dual purpose. On one hand, we got to do something fun together. Gary and both love making things, so this gave us an opportunity to do something together. The other purpose was instructional. I wanted to practice my shading skills.
I learned about hatching, cross-hatching and doodling. I also learned how to turn a colored pencil so that the tip will last longer and I won’t have to sharpen it as much.
Materials
- Prismacolor® Colored Pencils
- Pencil
- Mechanical Pencil
- Sketchbooks
- Erasers
Procedure
We took a drawing for inspiration and tried to copy it. It was a lot of fun. I started by doing the outline of the flower using a regular #2 pencil. Gary was using a mechanical pencil. I tried to keep each line as true to the original in terms of length and curve as I could. When that was done, I looked at it and just kind of stared. There was one petal that was a little too big, so I erased and kept at it.
Then, I took the colored pencils and practiced my shading. This was all very relaxing and brought down my blood pressure a bit. It was easier to breathe, and my mood improved. Gary said that he had his doubts as first, but in the end was pleased with our little session.
The Image
He did the one on the left, so you kind of know that I did the one on the right. Really, there is no political significance to this, it’s just a coincidence.
Even though we both started with the exact same flower, we deviated slightly with the shading. Value judgements are not appropriate for this type of thing. Oh, what the hell! We did a great job.
This is the first post in our personal series on learning artistic techniques. Although Gary minored in Graphic Design at UM where he graduated, I am a sort of novice. This is a wonderful experience. I hope that you like our humble sketches.
Rule Creations 