For a very long time, I've wanted to draw, but did nothing much about it. Four years ago, I found what is - to me - a marvelous website, Drawspace.com now full of over 200 different lessons on drawing and painting. The artist who created the site, Brenda Hoddinott, speaks to me through her art... so I began following some of her lessons and purchased her book, Drawing for Dummies in which the author/artist does not assume the reader has any previous knowledge of drawing... which is exactly what I needed.
All too often, my efforts prove unworthy of showing, but over the last several years, I have drawn and/or painted a few pieces that will be posted here. Comments are active and constructive criticism appreciated.
This is the sole picture I don't actually deem worthy of being here, but it's something to compare with my more current pieces to help see my progress.
Original sketch dated 11/04/2007, this is a blend of a Drawspace lesson on atmospheric perspective and some ideas (loosely) taken from a couple of photos of Mount Lassen, located in northern California; one taken from Kings Creek meadow, and the second one taken from the vicinity of Hat Creek. Unfortunately, my second source photo is no longer online.
I used a standard 2B pencil for the line drawing, several colors of Derwent Graphitint pencils for most of the shading, and a blue Faber Castell watercolor pencil for the stream. The paper is from the little sketch pad Derwent included with their pencil set, which is 80lb paper suitable for multiple media. Because the Derwent and Faber Castell pencils are water soluble, I could do a very similar drawing with the same pencils and get a very different look if I used them wet instead of dry, as you see here.
As you can tell, my result doesn't much resemble any of the source materials or anything remotely real either. I jokingly say it's nowhere on earth... but I'd really like to be able to be more realistic with my drawing.
