Pencil Sighting

I've been slowly watching a Craftsy class called Sketching Essentials In Graphite. It's a beginner class and it's really good. The instructor is a teacher and it shows in how he is able to explain concepts. I watch the class in short snippets, mostly when it's my turn to feed the cats. The cats have to be monitored and one of the older cats needs to be fed often, so there are four scheduled feedings per day. During the two (or three, if I fit in an extra meal for the one cat) that I do, I've figured out that watching a class fills the time well.

So far, the class has gone through the process of planning a simple outdoor sketch of a building. After watching the chapter on seeing and measuring, which included a good example of pencil sighting and sight sizing, I decided to try my neighbor's garage, which has an interesting shape. The problem was I forgot some of the approach and went for some of the details too soon. I re-watched part of the class and will select an easier building for the next try. The instructor suggested that we try 8 - 10 "planning" sketches and spending only 5 minutes or so on each one.

02/22/17 - neighborhood garage

Next time, I need to use a harder pencil at this stage. Something like a 2B or an HB. Also, I caught myself trying to use the pencil to measure in 3D rather than 2D. What I mean is that rather than measure both the front and side of the garage by holding my pencil flat in front of me (like the flat piece of paper that will be drawn upon), I caught myself cocking my wrist at somewhat of an angle. I think I've been doing this all along, but never realized it. This is hopefully part of the reason that my proportions are off.

This morning, during one of the cat feedings, I tried a quick sketch of the player piano.

02/21/17 - player piano

This sketch was on the last page of one of the cheap Artist Loft sketchpads that I use. This paper is fine for the level that I am at, although I do like the better paper in the sketch pad that I carry in my purse. This blog is for documentation purposes, so that I don't feel compelled to keep every scribble that I've ever made. The sketchpad is already in the recycling, but before I placed it there I buzzed through and took pictures of some of my favorites. Most of them have already been in a blog post, but it's still fun to revisit the favorites. I used this sketchbook from mid-November through today.

This first one was homework from painting class. It took a long time and it was hard to see and represent the different parts.

This is Ella, my little cat who needs all of the meals.  This was the first time that I captured a cat in a free-hand drawing. The outline was straight lines.

I like the accent lines, including the seeds, of the green pepper. 

This is another one of Ella. 

I like this can opener. When you feed cats four times a day, you use the can opener frequently. 

I also like this teapot. 

Lastly, here is a page where I started making straight lines and devolved into making different types of lines close together to play with creating texture. In the bottom right-hand corner, the blob looked like tree leaves to me, so I added a trunk.