Tag: Proportions

by David Burgess on May 11, 2018 0

The eight most efficient drawing tips for landscape drawing

How to make fast progress in drawing landscapes (and other things)

After years of drawing, having attended workshops and having studied tutorials and art books I found eight drawing that helped me most to improve my landscape drawing skills efficiently and fast.

Everybody who can write her/his own name on a piece of paper can achieve a high level of drawing skills as writing and drawing require in principle the same capabilities of hand to eye co-ordination. This is a matter of fact. Recently I found another interesting scientific article on the topic which underlines these simple insights: Why Are Some People Better at Drawing than Others?. In the end learning drawing from life is nothing but training,learning and changing your perception of the world as you see it.

If you follow these drawing tips and apply and observe them in regular exercises you will see a dramatic change in your drawing capability in relatively short time of weeks and months.
Doing one drawing exercise of 20-0 minutes a day is already enough. The most important thing is to exercise regularly.

Landscape drawing TIP No.1 – Forget the eraser !

Miles Davis : “Do not fear mistakes, there are none.”

Every line you draw counts and is important. Knowing this will

give your drawings the necessary drive and the motivation to accept your own hand-write. Your own hand-write is the basis for a unique artistic development ! Do you want to erase that ?? Draw with media that cannot be erased as often as possible. My preferred media are ink and pens. The more you exercise the more you will like it. You will gain self-confidence in your lines and marks and you will discover your own drawing style. Your skills to hit the “right” line first will improve fast too.

My top recommendation for Drawing books

When it comes to drawing books Bert Dodson is my favorite. His first book “Keys to drawing” set an unbeaten standard from my point of view.

Landscape drawing TIP No.2 – Blind drawing ..blind drawing….blind drawing

Blind drawing often also called blind contour drawing is a method that occurs in all serious drawing lessons and books.

Blind drawing means that you draw without looking at your drawing paper, but following your subject with your eyes and to make notes of what you see on your paper at the same time. I found it extremely helpful on drawing trees.

Blind drawing is a well known thing in the drawing world, but not many people practise it ! So my advice is don´t forget that, do it and try to remember this each time you start a drawing.

The training effect is absolutely great. Within 2 weeks of 15 minutes of blind drawing per day you can make unbelievable progress! Blind drawing will keep your work vivid.. it is a real ANTI-STIFFENER

Landscape drawing TIP No.3 – Drawing negative forms or space

Imagine you want to draw a net of thick ropes. Drawing negative forms means that you don´t try to draw the outlines of the ropes, but the outlines of the empty space in between the ropes.

Negative forms can be seen almost everywhere. Drawing negative spaces makes things quite often much easier, than following complicated outlines of positive forms. Also drawing negative forms helps quickly to develop stronger observations skills.

Link tipp: DRAWING “NEGATIVE” SPACE
description by Robert Gardiner, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Landscape drawing TIP No.4 – Squinting to see values and simple forms

By squinting with your eyes (remember Dustin Hoffmann
in “Little big man” :).) it is easier to see the different tonalities, the patterns of dark and light forms, the contrast between light and shadows in the scenery in front of you.

Link Tipp:
Squinting, Drawing and Never Forgetting
By R.W. STEVENSON
Published: July 11, 2004

Landscape drawing TIP No.5 – Take measurements !

Handling of the proportions is mostly considered an important issue. “Oh I don´t get the proportions right !” How many times is this said and thought ?

There is a way to eliminate that question. Take measurements and start to train your eye.
Use a little stick or your pencil as reference.
Select an important or clear line in the motif as metrestick. Stretch our your arm as far as you can (in order to get same scale each time) and then measure how long is that roof top for example and how long is that window frame in comparison to that. How tall is the chimney in comparison to your “roof top metrestick” and so on.

As time goes by you won´t need much of measurements anymore. You will get rid of wrong proportions quickly if you decide to use the measurements intensly until you don´t need them anymore.

You will learn quickly to place your drawing in the right size so it fits onto your paper, you will be able to estimate lengths and distances amazingly correct. Fractions like 1:2 ,1:4, 1:3,2:3, etc. will be no problem any more.

Landscape drawing TIP No.6 – Use construction lines

Construction lines are imagined connections between to points in your drawing or an elongation of a line.
If your not sure what the inclination of the roof is for example just elongate the roof edge until it hits another line. Use your pencil or a small stick again to take aim. Thus it is very easy to find a second point in your drawing to confirm the real inclination of lines or planes.

Possible useful constructionlines in this drawing:
If you are not sure about the angle of the church roof just elongate a line (no3) until it hits the vertical no1 almost exactly on the border of the drawing. The elongation of the roof line represented by no.4 hits the church door in the lower right edge of the forth window (left row of windows). Line number 2 connects the balcony of the big building on the right with a prominent edge of a tall building on the left. This way you can develop a grid work that connects the parts of the composition into an image that makes sense to the viewer. Of course it is helpful to understand the theory of perspective, but in practise it is much easier to work with construction lines.

How to draw a tree – a paperback published on BLURB

The little book in format 8X5 is based on the content of this lens. It contains

70 black and white images of pen, ink and charcoal drawings. You will find many of the illustrations on this lens, but others also from related lenses on drawing deciduous and coniferous trees and some extra images too in the book.
The book summarizes my experiences in drawing trees. The majority of drawings are deciduous trees, but there is also an explanations about pine tree drwaing and spruce.

Link to the book How to draw a tree There is a full preview available.

Drawing the urban landscape

Exploring the city with a sketchbook
Between April 2006 and May 2007 I have worked on an exhibition project about the urban landscape of the city of Stuttgart,Germany.
I have selected more than 30 drawings for a book now available online at BLURB.
The first 10 pages show panoramic drawings together with the essay about the urban landscape and the experience of drawing such a complex subject. The following pages show two panoramic drawings per page without text.

Drawing TIP No.7 – go into the zoo and get into the flow

With increasing exercise your drawing speed will increase. Also you will find your personal work flow. Most people do not recognize how fast they are drawing when they are in the flow.
To get into the flow while drawing is a wonderful experinece. Everything seems to happen easily without tension just as if you were knitting :).

Drawing moving animals forces you to be fast and almost within minutes most people adjust to the new situation an skip all rational reflections and internal self-dialog and just dive into the visual encounter !
When you come up to the surface again you will feel great ! Drawing a landcape and/ or architecture shortly afterwards is like getting into extrem slow motion and goes much,much easier.

How did I do this drawing:

Everybody who has been watching animals in a zoo knows that animals unfortunate enough to live in cages or aquariums develop an individual moving pattern within the space they can roam.
So instead of trying to draw one fish after the other I worked short sequences on those fish who had taken a specific resting position for a minute or so. When my model moved I looked for the next fish in another resting position. So in fact I always worked on a fish that did NOT move! Some of the fishes are one and the same individual (the big one watched me very interested !)and O.K. the turtle was easy…:).

Drawing TIP No.8 – regular exercise !

If you want to improve your skills repeated exercise is the key. Everybody has his/her own preferences and possibilities to exercise on a regular basis. Similar to sports it is better to practise every day for 15 minutes instead 90 minutes only once a week.

My reading tip : Beginners guide to drawing

Great drawing tip by Michele Weller

The extra tip – 36 pages great sketching advice from 1900

Sketching from nature in line and tone
This is a great find on the net. A fully digitalised version of a book by J. Littlejohns
in the library of the university of San Diego,California. It contains great illustrations and practical advice !

Sketching from Nature
SKETCHING FROM NATURE IN LINE AND TONE
BY J. LITTLEJOHNS, R.B.A., A.R.B.C.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 5,Chapter I. MATERIALS 7,II. HOW TO BEGIN 10,III. DRAWING 16,IV. TREES 19,V. DISTANCE 23,VI. CLOUDS, WATER, AND RE-
FLECTIONS 28,VII. WASH DRAWING 31,VIII. CHALK DRAWING .. ..34

Two awsome stories about people who make their living by drawing

I stumbled into this stories which I can relate to so much. When it come to drawing talent is one thing, but it is not everything. Most people are not prepared to pay the price for aquiring drawing skills: time and practise.

These stories are a great motivation.

Neuland – Dialog: A QUESTION OF WILL MORE THAN TALENT
The story of Jørn Nielsen who was told that he could never make a living out of his drawing skills.

Neuland – Dialog: I do my two favorite things for a living: drawing and thinking.
I do my two favorite things for a living: drawing and thinking.
Interview with Brandy Agerbeck, Chicago

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by David Burgess on May 10, 2018 0

How to draw deciduous trees

Tips on how to draw deciduous trees

This is an introduction to drawing deciduous trees in a realistic way from life. This site explains how to draw deciduous trees with a pen and with charcoal. If your looking for some inspirations or ideas for tree drawing have a look here.

The website discusses the main features of deciduous trees and how to draw them. First simple drawings point out to the basic proportions and parts of a tree. Then tree trunk, branches and tree tops are explained further. Examples and methods how to represent bark and foliage of trees in drawings are given. Finally the making of a very detailed ink drawing of an apple tree orchard is demonstrated in a sequence of intermediate states. Herre you can see the process of drawing step by step.

Let´s try to draw some simple apple trees !

A tutorial for beginners
In the beginning a simple four step approach to drawing trees with pen or ink might help.

In order not to get overwhelmed by the many details of a tree I commend to begin with studies from a distance.
First try to depict the shape or outline of trunk and tree top.

In a second step larger internal forms in the tree top are mapped. The confusing pattern of leaves in fact follows a certain order and on observation one can see that the leaves are organised in typical “groups” following the branch and twig structure of the specific tree species.

In a third step the larger forms can be described further by filling them with a typical smallpattern that the leaves are forming.
I a final fourth step one might add hatches to add shadows, thus the drawing gains more three dimensional look.

No.1 : Starting with the trunk

After the outer form was established I continued with drawing the trunk and then continued to represent the foliage in shade on the right side of the trunk in small circular movements with the pen.
Later the hatching was added for the shadows on the trunk and for the darker tonality in the shadowed area.

The trunk of a tree is a very interesting subject for further exploration. The ink drawing below shows the stem of an old apple tree.

No.2 Mapping the tree tops

detailed view of line pattern
The foliage of trees shows, depending on light, lots of different shades or tonalities. By squinting I identified darker and light areas or clusters of twigs with foliage that have different tonality. Then I try to map the borderlines between darker and the lighter areas by blind drawing.. With some experience you will notice that eqach tree species has a specific “organisation” of branches and twigs and therefore shows a typical pattern of leaves which are grouped by the twigs and branches. So the method here is to establish the bigger forms first and then proceed to the next lower level in the hierarchy.

No.3 Patterns of leaves and foliage

round or jagged outlines?
Each tree species has it´s own pattern or rythm of leaves. I tried to imitate the rythm I saw with my pen movements. The leaves seemed to be arranged a bit like little roof tiles. Also it makes a big difference whether the leaves have rounded edges like on fruit trees or more sharp distinct edges like a red oak or a maple tree. Jagged leaf outlines should be represented by a pattern of jagged lines if the natural character of the tree shall be displayed in the drawing.
With light or heavier pressure on the pen I tried to create thinner/lighter or thicker darker foliage.

How to draw foliage in tree tops

This sketchbook drawing shows a group of apple trees. In the detail below it can be seen how I tried to represent the variations tonalities in the foliage. A realistic impression can be achieved by putting emphasize on the outer branches and leaves of the tree tops and drawing them in very dark tonality. Leaves and twigs at the very tree top often seem to look very dark or almost black in contrast the bright sky. As soon as you move your eyes downwards from the very tree top the foliage seems to get lighter and colors become more visible, because the bright sky does not dazzle the eyes so much.

Apple tree orchard – tree drawing in ink

Development of a landscape drawing with trees
apple trees with ink drawing on site, plein air With more experience the draughtsman develops a strong feel for proportions and an excellent eye to hand co-ordination. The masters seem to know already how the finsished drawing will look on paper and all they need to do is to put it down with their drawing tool. I have not come that far yet, but meantime I can estimate proportions fairly well and I find myself starting a drawing without establishing the outlines visibly on paper first.

See here an example of a detailed landscape study, an apple tree orchard. I have documented the progress of the drawing on several subsequent days. I avoided cross hatching with purpose in this drawing as cross hatchings tend to obscure details and thus reduce the clarity of a drawing. Of course sometimes that can be a wanted effect too.

ink drawing apple tree orchard

I started the drawing with the base of the important tree trunk on the left and then proceeded further to the other more distant trunks and finally into the branches and tree tops. The tree trunks functioned as basic grid and reference for proportions and spatial order. Working all over the page helps to keep the drawing coherent and to make the right decisions about gradadtions of tonalities too. The best is to know from the very start which parts of the drawing shall be the lightest ones and which ones should be the darkest.

In the decidous forest – a charcoal drawing

Oak and beech forest in spring,strategies to deal with an abundance of detail.
The drawing on the right was done on site very near to my home. It shows a beech and oak forest in late spring. I remember those big leaves of Coltsfoots that bloom early along those machine path prepared for logging of timber. You can see those leaves in the foreground on the left.

I found the best way to adopt to the overwhelming amount of details in a forest scenery is to examine the subject before starting with the drawing. I decided to built the picture around the bright spot where the sun hits the grass. It was that light that attracted me to choose that subject.
The big trunks and some smaller ones established the composition grid in this drawing. I start with light marks and lines because mistakes can be wiped out with a cloth easily and the darkest darks should be placed at the end with consideration. The darkest and the lightest spots in a drawing attract the viewer eyes like strong magnets. Wrong placement, wrong form of those “highlights” can spoil the most beautiful drawing. In order to pull the viewer into the picture I placed the sunlit spot of grass at the end of the over grown path in the very center of the paper. To enhance the brightness I placed the darkest darks around the bright spot, which seems brighter than the blank paper in the sky or the foreground.

After the vertical grid was established I concentrated on typical structures of foliage and shrubs and added the background, which filled the spaces between tree trunks. I used a soft eraser to recover some lights in the background to imitate the impresionj that the pattern of light spots on the leaves evoke. To improve that illusion I added dark small marks that resemble the form of leaves.

Finally the foreground was put in. Instead of trying the impossible, to copy each and every grass or leave, I concentrated to represent samples of some of the typical forms and structures I saw. After all the drawing is a simplification of the real scenery, that is just detailed enough to keep up the illusion.

How to draw a tree – The book published on BLURB

A field guide to sketching and drawing trees

Link to the book How to draw a tree There is a full preview available.

Quick tree sketch with charcoal

One day a thunderstorm surprised me when drawing. Quickly I seeked cover under a bridge and made a quick drawing of young trees in a rain shower

A look to the edge of a forest

Drawing a forest with pen
This sketchbook drawing was part of an exhibiton project “A year in the vine yard”.
The full sketchbook can be seen here “A year in the vine yard”
Study of a willow tree
Ink drawing in four stages
drawing of a willow tree in four stages

This ink drawing was done in several short session of 20-30 minutes due to cold winter temperatures. The depiction of the many think twiges at the top of the willow tree was a challenge. Not all of those visible in reality found their way into the drawing. More than ofteb less is more in drawing.

Drawing the urban landscape – publication on Blurb

Exploring the city with pen and sketchbook

Between April 2006 and May 2007 I have

worked on an exhibition project about the urban landscape of the city of Stuttgart,Germany.
I have selected more than 30 drawings for a book now available online at BLURB.
The first 10 pages show panoramic drawings together with the essay about the urban landscape and the experience of drawing such a complex subject. The following pages show two panoramic drawings per page without text.

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by David Burgess on May 10, 2018 0

Foreshortening in the art of drawing

What is foreshortening? Some answers and drawing examples and video tutorial

What is foreshortening? Foreshortening in the arts refers to a specific way to depict three dimensional objects on the two dimensional paper planes. One of the most famous examples of foreshortening in visual arts is the painting by Andrea Mantegna, the mourning of Christ. The painting on wood shows the dead body of Christ from an extreme perspective. The viewer is put on the same eye level as the mourning figures at the side in close distance at the very end of the bed near the feet.

The painting was done in the 15th century in Italy, a period called Renaissance. During that time depiction of three dimensional spaces was fully explored and displayed in visual arts with almost scientific “correctness”.

Foreshortening in this painting means the perspective compression of the body and it’s proportions to a fraction of the actual size. Feet and head come very close together; the limbs are foreshortened in perspective. Mantegna created a stunning and very dynamic piece by choosing this extreme perspective.

Foreshortenings are inseparable connected with the depiction of illusionist three dimensional spaces. Until the 13th century pictures were mostly flat, at least space often was not depicted “correctly” and thus lacked the illusionist effect. Since Mantegna and others renaissance artists drawing and painting foreshortenings has become the standard of illusionist painting.

Andrea Mantegna – the mourning of Christ

An impressive example for foreshortening in visual arts

Image credit: Wiki media commons An impressive example for foreshortening in visual arts

Using a grid to draw foreshortening

The image above is from the 18th century. In the old days using grids in drawing was the state of the art method to produce exact perspective drawings. The draughtsman has a paper with the same grid proportions on his drawing table. All he has to do is to transfer important points where outlines in the scenery cut the vertical grid on the grid on his paper. Then he can connect those points to reproduce the outlines of trees and other objects in the drawing to get an exact flat projection of his view on the drawing paper.

There is a very famous illustration by Albrecht Dürer in his tutorial on how to measure in drawing. It illustrates perfectly how foreshortening in perspective drawings of the human body can be obtained. There is also the vertical grid used to transfer a flat projection of a there dimensional space on the flat surface of the drawing paper.

The effects of foreshortening in drawing

Extreme perspective with foreshortening effect changes a couple fo things. What are the effects of foreshortening in drawing?

1. Foreshortening changes geometric forms: circles will change to elliptic forms, squares will change to rectangles and cylindrical subjects change to a more conical shape for example

2. Foreshortening changes proportions: foreshortening on the human body will change the proportions for example. Parts which are closer to the viewer’s eye can appear much bigger than from a “standard” figure drawing. Limbs might look much shorter, hands or feet might look bigger.

Super retro comic hero thinks about a fly

Video lesson in drawing foreshortening

In this video lesson you can see an example of a manga or cartoon figure stretching the hand directly to the viewer in extreme perspective. As the hand is much closer to the viewer than the body the hand is bigger in size than the head of the figure. This is one of the dynamic effects of an extreme perspective look. The artist shows in real time how he develops the position of hand, palm and fingers in relation to the perspective extremely shortened arm. The video demonstrates the characteristics of foreshortening very well.

Drawing Tutorial: Foreshortening
by markcrilley

Extreme foreshortening as means of a drawing composition

Foreshortening in drawing, charcoal drawing, houses and street

This charcoal drawing of mine (Basic tips for charcoal drawing) uses an extreme perspective with foreshortening as dynamic composition concept. The viewer is massively forced to follow the fence line from the foreground in to a mad dash down the road to the center of the image.

Foreshortening applied in a street sketch

foreshortening in a street sketch
This is a detail of one of my humble sketches of the city of Stuttgart. In the center there are some cars parked and the effect of foreshortening is compressing the outlines of the chassis. It is rather difficult to draw the wheels not as circles but as flat ellipses and the wheel wells so very narrow to shorten the sideview of the vehicle according to the perspective. It helps a lot to close one eye to observe and see the object as it would look as flat projection on paper.

Exercises to learn foreshortening in drawing

One can think of many exercised to learn foreshortening. The first one I did was taken from Bert Dodsons classic book “Key to drawing”. He request the reader to draw is/her own hand with the fingers pointing towards the viewer. It sounds easy but it is a quite tricky thing to do.
Drawing still life subjects like bottles , that are lying flat on a table for example, are also good exercises. Foreshortenings on the human body are a great challenge to

Drawing books that can help to understand foreshortening

In architecture drawing the term foreshortening is rarely used. Foreshortening mostly is mentioned in connection with drawing the human body. Here are two books that deal among others with this topic. especially in comic drawing foreshortening is an often used means to create dynamic and stunning sceneries.

The batman comics are well knwon for their extreme vertiginious perspective views of skyscrapers and the comic hero moving within this environment

Foreshortening in a tree sketch

This sketch is an exercise in drawing foreshortening. The base of old treet trunk pointed towards me. As a result the branches are very close together and the shape of the trunk appears to become a lot thinner from base to top.

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by David Burgess on May 10, 2018 0

Draw people in a landscape

Landscapes with people how to draw them

I love to draw and sketch outdoors and my favorite subject is the landscape. A landscape picture changes a lot when you add the human figure. Often paintings and drawings require figures. Learn here some tricks how to depict people in clothes as they appear every day,moving around on the streets or in the landscape. Be prepared when someone shows up in your landscapes drawing on a sunny morning like the guy with the hunters hat in mine. He has not been there on the previous days, but suddenly he showed up and walked through my picture in a minute.

I want to pass on some of the skills which might help to get those figures into the landscape easier and I want to propose some easy exercises which might help you to be prepared when someone steps into your drawing ! Most important: do not hesitate, start drawing people today !

There is also a list of the best rated books on drawing people or the human figure. Drawing People: How to Portray the Clothed Figure helps you to improve your skills in drawing people as they apear everyday in their clothing.

The proportions of a human figure

Some very basic facts about the proportions of the human body
There are a few easy to remember guidlines about the proportions of the human figure that help to draw people. Click on the images for enlarged views.

A fact that is often ignored is that the head of a human is only about 1/8 of the full body length or 1/4 of the upper half. Of course individual measures deviate from this rule.
how to draw people – proportions of the human body
The eyes are located in the middle of a frontal view of the head. The distance between eyebrowns, tip of the nose and chin are almost equal. Looked at a head from the side it fits into the shape of a square.

It is a good exercise to draw figures in different positions from imagination using the basic knowledge of the proportions of the human body.

Figure Studies in the public

drawing people in public places
Drawing people in public places is thrilling for many reasons and not easy to do. I admire sketchers who are able to capture people in movement. In the beginning it might be helpful to choosea place where people do not walk by, but stop standing or sit. I used the situation in a museum for some studies of visitors and staff. Usually I start with the head and work down my way over shoulders to the feet of the person.

Also sketching at the busstop or at the train station is a good choice as you will find people who do not move around that fast.

I always have a sketchbook with me because waiting lounges in hospitals and other maybe more pleasant public places are great for drawing and sketching people. Waiting time goes by much faster.

How to draw people in a landscape with watercolor

This video demonstrates how the draw or paint simple figure shapes to represent people in a landscape with watercolor

More proposals for studies of the human figure

It is not necessary to go out into the public to draw people.
For exercise purposes you might consider also:

drawing from photographs – your family album
drawing from a TV film or a video

Especially drawing from video is great because you can stop and repeat a sequence that you like.

Learn how to draw a female body with the proportions

video tutorial
This is agreat tdemonstratioon haow to draw a femal teenager body with the right proportions. It start already with an important feature for drawing kids. The teenager bodey is about 6 heads high, whereas the adult body is about 8 heads high. The younger the child the bigger is the head compared to the body.

How to Draw Female Body Proportions: Teenager to Kid, Manga Style

Art supplies for figure drawing

anatomical models for drawing studies at home
Anatomical models can be very helpful for studies on the human body. The limbs can be moved and fixed on almost any position and the model can be drawn from various viewpoints.

So how does it work to draw people in a landscape ?

After some time spent with life studies you will develop a good eye and memory for the position that a human has taken in the scenery in front of you. Even if you could not finsish the specific figure you will be able to reconstruct the situation later. I often only mark the position of the heads and “hang the bodies” later. You can even complete the drawings at home or continue after you have moved to another place. For example the person you started to draw was sitting on a bench,but now stands up and walks away. You can wait until someone else will sit down or you move to another place where people are still sitting on a bench.

Before I place a figure in an empty landscape I sometimes do some trial drawings in the sketchbook to make sure I get he right size and proportions. Then I might use a transparent paper laid over the sketch to trace an exact copy of the draft. Then I can move the draft on transparent paper over the landscape study until I find the right position.

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