Folding Chair - My New Frenemy

Last week, I drew the legs of a chair by focusing on the negative space and stopping to see the shapes created within the negative space. This is an exercise from one of the video segments of How To Draw Without Talent at Sketchbook Skool. It's been a good online class. I wish it had existed when when I first was learning how to draw, since it covers basic concepts which would help anyone get started. I plan to take more courses from Sketchbook Skool.

It's taken me awhile to work through the various chapters of the course. Each one has a short on-line video and usually there is an exercise to do. This was one of the exercises. It took me a few tries. This was the best one. The chair legs are less wobbly than when I'm usually trying to draw or paint a chair.

02/13/17 - chair legs (by drawing the negative space)

After my relative success from last week, I decided I was ready to try and draw the entire folding chair. I tried focusing on the negative space. I tried focusing on the shapes of the actual object. I did not take pictures, since it did not go well. Last night, the score was folding chair: 1 and me: 0. Back in October, I had a similar experience with some donuts. It's humbling to be bested by a donut, but eventually I figured it out here.

I have similar mixed feelings towards the folding chair at the moment. Needing help, I turned to my trusty homemade viewfinder.

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I haven't been using the viewfinder lately, but the chair is too complicated for me without it. This was a quick sketch. Whether or not I post pictures, I will revisit this chair, since there is more to learn from it and about it.

02/21/17 - folding chair

There are times when I feel like a remedial student in the school of my own choosing. The experience of learning to draw and paint can be humbling. Still, I'm stubborn and I'm hooked.

This is a long post. It originally started out as a daily sketching recap. Here is a daily sketch from last week.

02/16/17 - kitchen scale

Since I've been doing more painting or sketching out in the world, I got away from doing my daily sketch in pen. That's okay, since the overall goal is to do something each day.