A Drawing Lesson -Part I

I am always surprised when someone compliments me on my drawings.  Twenty-five years ago, my art world started when I arrived at a watercolor class only to find a still-life set up on the table. The teachers said, “Draw this.”  What!  I thought this was a painting class!  I did not know how to draw or even where to start. 

Here are a few great drawing tips that I have learned over the years. 

I use my pencil A LOT!  Not just for drawing but for measuring and comparing.  So grab your favorite pencil (mine is a Ini OC-Gel  HD 0.5) and let’s get started!

Here is a lovely ocean scene at the Oregon coast near where I live:

The first thing I do is the hold my pencil vertical and stretch my arm out so that my elbow is locked.  All my measurements are done with a locked elbow so that the comparisons will be the same.  

How big are the rocks?  

With my thumb, I measure from the bottom of Haystack Rock to the bottom at the tallest part.

Now I measure how wide the rocks are.

At this point, I would make pencil marks on my paper using these measurements.  

Here I am using my pencil at a slant to get the correct slope of the rock.  Carefully bring this angle down to your watercolor paper.

If I want to add some of the ocean cabins, I measure how tall they are.

Here is how tall the nearest point of land is compared to the house and the other rocks.
Now that I have all my measurements and comparisons the next step is to do my drawing.
How about you practice drawing something using your pencil to measure and compare and let me know how it goes.