The Simple Things

The best way to train your eyes for drawing, is drawing what is around you. I remember an assignment in my early years of college in basic drawing classes. The professor gave us a printout of things we had to draw by first term.

The list was as follows: (what I can remember anyway)

a branch

eggs

something "hard" & something "soft"

ribbon

keys

a rock

I remeber a lot of grumbling...but I learned so much from just drawing mundane everyday objects. Light, shadow, attention to details, etc.

We also learned to draw everyday things in different styles too. Stippling, blak, white and grey colored paper, different ways of looking at the everyday and making the ordinary, extraordinary. I find I like to draw things around me, that most people don't pay much attention too. A coffee cup, the mantle over the fireplace, a spoon laying on the table.

This particular drawing is of our mantle, but not as it really looks. It is drawn the way I want it to look. With the ornate finial scrolls to really dress it up. I enjoyed drawing this, it was simple, uncomplicated and soothing to me.

I think I am going to go back and redo some of my old college assignments and really have fun with them. As I go back to find some of the assignments, I will write them out here and maybe you can try your hand at them as well.

Gotta go...my dental work has been really hurting me (unusual for me because I ususally bounce right back after having work done) and the pain meds I am on, make me..."zoney" for lack of a better vocabulary.

my thought for the day is, there is beauty in the most mundane, or maybe, beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

Have a great evening.

kat