Drawing

“Hmmm,” my teacher said.  She tilted her head to compare my latest sketch with the reference photo. “You draw like a photographer.”

“I wish!” I thought.

---

I was enrolled in  an eight-week course on Portrait Drawing for Beginners. I was an absolute beginner and struggling with technique and basic differences between media.

Did you know that there’s a difference between sketch books and drawing paper? I didn’t. The class requisites said to come with both.

It took me hours (… or at least, a very long time) at the craft store to find the difference.  Even then, it was because I was in the aisle with paper pads which were labelled by brand and type.   I hadn’t yet discovered the paper paper aisle where sheets were sold by the piece.

I find art supply stores intimidating. There is so much stuff!  All laid out with a dizzying array of calibration and type with no explanation of purpose. To me, they’re like DIY and hardware supply stores. Like a Home Depot warehouse, but with lower display racks and no help in orange aprons.

Eventually I purchased a sketch book, a sketch pad (there is a difference), a set of pencils, a white eraser and something called a kneadable eraser.   

In the first lesson, teacher said to start with a self-portrait. Use a mirror or your phone and draw.  That was the extent of her instruction.

I’d signed up for a ‘personal interest’ course offered by Toronto’s Parks&Rec.  I’d been drawn by the description but mostly by the location.  Classes were held at a studio in the spectacular Guildwood Park on Scarborough Bluffs.  Usually, I’m leery about Parks&Rec courses. In my experience, they’re taught by expert practitioners, masters of the craft but not necessarily good teachers.  

But maybe it’s because different people have different learning style. My learning style is very old school.   I like starting with fundamentals before moving on to practise.  Did it apply to art?  I thought so. My teacher thought differently. She had a more experiential approach.

I did my self-portrait in class.  Days afterwards, while clearing out the garage, I found an old picture I’d drawn thirty ⁺⁺ years ago.  As you can see, my skill and self-image  hasn’t changed much in thirty years.  Apparently, neither has my hair-style!  

After that first lesson, I turned to the internet for more instruction. I discovered that there are indeed, different techniques for drawing faces. One of them is the Loomis method. It is a deceptively simple method of breaking down head shapes into different panes of a circle. I say deceptive because the awful truth about how-to videos is that experts make everything look simple. Not so for beginners. 

Over the next week, I diligently practised the Loomis method by drawing the same portrait over and over again.  Over five days, I drew the  picture eight times.  Frustratingly, no two pictures looked the same and not one looked exactly like the photo.

The conversation at the beginning of this post, was teacher commenting on my third (maybe fifth?) drawing.  It was an observation and gentle admonition to stop trying to replicate features exactly.  She also said to try a different photo.

It was good advice.  But what was I to do with the many sketchy sketches I’d drawn?  

Just for fun, I re-imagined them into a  short animation video.

Are you an accomplished drawer? What does your self-portrait look like? Is drawing or painting something you do or want to do?

Over the next few posts, I’ll share my explorations in art.

I hope you’ll stay tuned for my spasmodic posts 😉