Z fails to draw part 15.

Well, here we are again. Different chair, same place but I removed some of the clutter. It’s gone rather better this time. The first drawing, it took me ages to get the right arm – as you look at it, that is – because it’s so foreshortened that it looks wrong if you draw it as it is. But then Tim pointed out that it wasn’t that arm that was wrong but the other one. It curved down and it shouldn’t. I corrected that and it somehow made the other side look better, although I hadn’t touched it – it’s still not quite right, it goes up too much at the end, but the thing that one arm pointed up and the other down has gone, pretty well.

There’s still a lot that’s wrong. The seat, the angles of the spindles at the back, the left front leg is the wrong angle and so on. But it looks more like a chair than yesterday’s attempt and it even looks quite a bit like the chair I was drawing.

What wasn’t especially successful was the negative space thing. I was supposed only to draw them and then the actual chair would appear in the gaps. But I could only do that when I had a tricky bit. The gap between the front and back leg, for instance. I drew the shape then. But the seat is a whole great bit lump of positive space, I couldn’t pretend it wasn’t there. Also, I needed to line up the spindles, the upper ones with the lower ones and I had to draw them.

I’m going to try the next thing without toning the paper. It’s a nuisance. Every time I rub out a line, I have to rub a tissue over the paper to remove the white mark and the pencil tends to fade into the graphite-toned paper after a while and I have to draw over the lines. I do see the point of it, it can be effective, but a photo certainly doesn’t show up well.

I might, if I can be bothered, do a bit more work on this chair. I could even try drawing it again, but it took ages and I haven’t got much confidence that the next time would be better. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

5 comments on “Z fails to draw part 15.

  1. Allotmentqueen

    WOW!!! That is such a vast improvement! I could have sworn I was looking at a Renaissance drawing. There’s a real sense that you are looking, shutting out what your mind is telling you is there and drawing what you can see. Very, very well done! Star pupil badge for you this week.

    Reply
  2. Blue Witch

    Just catching up… agree with all AQ has said this week! Huge improvements, and you’re finding/recognising almost all the ‘faults’ yourself, which many people never manage to do. Well done!

    Just one idea to add – does the book mention using your pencil, held up at half-arms length, to gauge the relative verticals and horizontals and relative sizes, of the constituent parts of whatever you are drawing? Sometimes it helps to close one eye when using this technique.

    And that book really does have you doing the most complicated things. I wonder why? I’m sure it would put off many less stoical people.

    Reply
  3. Allotmentqueen

    I agree with using the pencil as a measuring tool, but I’ve always understood you should hold it with your arm straight out so that you would always get the same result, whereas half-arms length is not precise.

    If you’re drawing a person, draw an oval for the head and then you can measure how many head lengths to the waist, or the knee or the whole figure.

    Reply
    1. Z Post author

      Yes, haven’t done much since. A few sketches, but nothing very interesting. I must start again. Creativity is going to cooking at present.

      Reply

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