Good job, Ernest! There is no doubt of what she is doing, and the shadows are well done too! Wasn't it fun to try to imagine how the body, arms and legs would move to achieve the motion, yet keep the girl from falling? *happy to see you trying out new things!*

A chair -- the only thing holding still as I sat in Danielle's group piano class yesterday afternoon...
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This is a photo of a sketchbook page and the large shadows are real, not part of the drawing -- but I like how they look!

I like the shadow as well .. the chair makes me feel like I am waiting to see the pricipal at school and I am after the kid who just left that chair lol ...swear thats the first thing I thought of .lol

wait so am I saying I got into alot of trouble at school ..lol opps

I had my own little desk in the principal's office, with a nameplate and a phone. I got my mail there, too

(Kidding)

I was going to say ..." Hey what school did you go to ! me too ! "

Hello, everyone!

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Very nice
Slim

Thanks

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I'm speechless....
Information about this drawing is in my gallery...
I just can't write that story again... I'm too surprised... I think I should go to bed now...

Isn't it wonderful when it all clicks!

I've been travelling and working and teaching with not much time to draw, but a long layover at an airport gave me a chance to people watch and sketch. Here are some of the results. They're all in my 'red' sketchbook that I take on the road with me. Everything in this particular sketchbook is done in red pen.

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These are great Jeanette. I love the idea of a red sketch book.

Fantastic Jeanette! You're an inspiration. I will make the effort to do the same. No promisses but very inspirational to see your sketches. Much like what Dan Flowers does. I'm also a big fan of his.

Jeanette interesting drawings .. like slices from your life .. thank you for sharing

this is my sneaker ....Its actually black ...but I am too tired to do tha t...lol...oh well....this was really fun !!!!

It has been some days since this thread was at the top of the line. So here we go: this is a drawing I did in a drawing class I'm taking - the teacher is making go back to basis, and she is teaching me patience (so she must have a lot of it herself) and I like the results that come from this.
So here: a fresh and an old pepper.

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This is a nice thread ..its been around for a long time and it is really helpful in just drawing what you see .. ID your sneeker is very cool .. looks like the checkers on the toe is something my daughter would do on her own shoes lol .

Marie ...nice job on the peppers

Yeah, I love this thread too. Nice peppers, Marie -- the crinkly texture of the dried one is well done.

I drew the little toy car during TV time while my parents were visiting, and I drew my knee today waiting for my daughter to get out of piano class.
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5 minute rough cell phone sketch.

Just got back from North Scottsdale, Arizona. These impressive saguaros were right by the back patio. What a beautiful area it is up there; it's alarming how fast it's being swallowed up by development, though.
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Beautiful, Ernest. I lived in Tucson about 3 years (35 years ago) and I loved the desert. Those were the most amazing cacti and also the tallest things I have ever seen. I guess they get up to 50 feet tall. Great drawing..

More more more sketches! I draw everyday purely out of habit. The pencil is in my hand before I'm barely awake in the morning it seems and last thing at night. You can never have enough practice and practice will hone your skills amazingly well.

Here are some more sketches from my sketchbook.

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Jeanette,

Your "people in airports" sketches are inspiring. How can I learn to sketch things that don't hold still? Your sketches are clearly based on real scenes, but they're frozen moments in time that in reality, wouldn't last long enough for me to sketch. I'm guessing you are picking a representative moment, then using things as references even after they've moved out of the original position. Do you have any advice on how to do this?

Good question Ernest. Sketching, in its simplest form is a quick process, so I concentrate on capturing the basic lines of a position with as few lines as possible.

In situations where there is a captive audience such as airports or restaurants, people are sitting in one place for varying periods of time. They can, at any moment, move, so you have to be quick to capture the pose and not concentrate on details too much. Put down stick figures to capture human position, the build on it from there if your subject sticks around. You can fill details in from memory or let the surrounding environment become more detailed to draw the eye away from the sketchier subject.

Practice is very much the key. The more you draw, especially from life, the quicker you are able to establish shapes and values. Sketches are not meant to be finished drawings, but simply snapshots of time.

Study the skeletons of the individual or animal and imagine how it moves. That will give you the position. Then adding 'meat' to it becomes easier, provided the person stays around long enough to capture some detail. Use minimal lines to capture the essentials that help the viewer see what you see.

Try some quick sketches from television programs or movies. See if you can get just the body positions in stick figure form. Allow yourself 30 seconds to do this. It doesn't seem like a lot, but once you get used to it, you can capture a lot in 30 seconds. Draw in restaurants, waiting rooms, hotel lobbies, airports, train stations, airplanes - anywhere that people will perch for a few minutes and become absorbed in their own world.

There is no real advice to give, except to not be self conscious when drawing in public, be unobtrusive - I keep my drawings in a hardcover spiral book so it doesn't scream ' I'm going to draw you' if I take it out at Starbucks. I look at people but past them, so they and I are not uncomfortable, though I have never had unfavourable comments if someone knows I'm drawing them, they're usually just interested in the process.

And practice. Constantly. Daily. Forever.

You Use stick figures Jeanette?

I have been trying to do more sketching of people and have been trying curved lines to get the gesture / stance in a couple of lines and then trying to put ovals & circles in to flesh them out (not very good though - I do much better when I can spend lots of time ).

Might try those stick figures out and see if it improves. You know I have 2 fountain pens for sketching but I am not quite ready to try lead free yet . Maybe this will be the year.

When I say stick figures Sue, I mean simple lines to capture body position. Joints come in as circles or ovals, triangular pelvis, etc. I then flesh it out over that. It really is a matter of practice. You could use a mannikin to pose and practice on.

As for using a pen, for sketching it makes no difference and using something that you can't erase, makes you think more carefully about where you place your line.

In homeroom in school in the morning there's fifteen minutes of nothing to do, so I draw in my assignment notebook during that time. Also when I have a study hall last period on Friday. They're mostly pictures of people's backs, because I don't like having people know I'm drawing them. One of the pictures is a sketch of my teacher's desk, which is incredibly cluttered.

Fabulous sketches Purple, that's just how it should be done. You've really given your hand/eye coordination a good workout with these sketches.

new to the forum....any idea where to get free lessons on caricatures....thanks

Great sketches!!! Ive been busy with school, but I started one of my cat - im not good at animals so I figure im not gonna get any better if I never try!!! - Good job.

Great work Purple!

Ah ! Gesture type lines Jeanette, its so hard sometimes when you're not talking face to face (especially when you wave your hands around like I do ).
If I'm not on the same wavelength it zooms over my head like a B52!

I had a long day at work today and driving home I went past a lovely old Queenslander (house style) that I have sworn to paint sometime - so I took 10 mins and did a quick pencil sketch and tossed some watercolours around on it - makes you feel really good when you just take that little bit of time and draw!

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Lovely sketch Sue, its great to take a few minutes and capture your surroundings. Well done.

Thanks Jeanette - there is no better therapy!

When I stop & draw on the way home I find that I seem to have shrugged off most of the percieved troubles from the day by the time I have finished.

My daughter was drawing a picture of me. I was drawing a picture of her hand. She has a very strange pencil grip, as you can see.
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How old is she Ernest?

It looks like the way a lot of preschool kids hold their pencils. As long as she enjoys what she's doing and is happy with her stuff it doesn't matter.

I did a real quickie in the carpark when I took Mum to the hospital for her last post-knee replacement surgery. Over here we have Govt cars & drivers who act as a taxi service for eligible Veterans so they can get to doctors appts - this is one who was standing & talking to another in a car - but he only stayed there about 3 mins!! Wish they'd stay still longer


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I have seen a lot of girls young and older too that hold their pencil or pen that way. Don't think I have ever seen a guy do it tho. In fact last week at my sons basketball practice there was a high school girl sitting close by and she was writing like that. I couldn't even get the pencil that way

She's nine. When she was little we had an OT (occupational therapist) working with her to try to fix it, but they eventually gave up!

Ernest - she'll probably turn out to be a female Da Vinci !

You know I always believe in the "If it ain't broken don't fix it".

She is obviously happy - I would hate to try and write in cursive or copperplate with that style though.

I tried sketching from life again. It's been a while. I did this one of Jack LaLanne during a juice machine info-mercial. It's on printer paper with a crossword puzzle pencil. He wouldn't hold still and the girl on the show took up the camera but here he is.

Looks good!!!!

Cyn, I have no idea who Jack Lalanne is (must be a local US personality) - but it looks pretty good for someone who spent the whole time being upstaged by a juicer and its girl.

I just googled him - he's the original strong man by the sounds of it - he doesn't look too bad for 93 either! However I'm not sure I agree with part of his healthy eating philosophy. "if man made it don't eat it" is OK but "If it tastes good spit it out " is going too far for a chocaholic

Ha Ha Ha I wouldn't give up chocolate either.. My mother used to exercise to the Jack Lalanne Show in the early 60's when I was a kid. The only thing I liked about the show was his muscles and his white German Shephard.

Thank you Jimmer. I have a hard time sketching things that are sitting still, so someone moving was almost too much challenge.

I've started up in a life class again, so here are a couple of very quick (3 min and 6 minute) sketches from last night. Its been forever since I've taken part in life classes and I was worn out at the end of 2 hours of standing at an easel drawing.

These drawings are done in charcoal on newsprint - about 2' x 3'

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Jeanette, looks pretty good if it's been ages since you have taken one of those type classes. I hate standing and drawing.

Ernest, I can't tell exactly how her fingers are positioned from your drawing, but I hold my pens and pencils weird too. Plus, when I shuffle a deck of cards, I turn my wrist in and use my four fingers instead of my thumb to shuffle the deck. People always thought it was weird or laughed, but then I didn't care because I like being different and unique.

Can't imagine that shuffle Venus!!

Jeanette they are great quickies. I think you never know how quick 2 mins can be until you do a warm up sketch .

You poor things having to stand to do your life classes. The one I used to go to we had desks that we could sit at with a board on the table or our laps, if that is what we preferred - could set up an easel and stand too if that was your thing.

Ummm... the angle makes it hard to tell for sure, but that looks like how I hold my pencil now... Well, it works for me!

An umbrella.
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Great subtlety of shading in this Ernest.

Seem to be Interesting, I will try it

Ok. It's a chair... You can clearly see that.

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And with this one.... Could you tell that it's a can?

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