Weeks 4 & 5: Proportions, Contour Lines, Composition

All of you made great progress drawing with contour lines and accurate proportions.

A big Salinas Sketcher welcome to Janeisha and Hailey, our newest members! And welcome back to Leo.

Check out Pedro's new large-scale drawing in eXpReSsiOn sEsSiOn.

Attention all sketchers, show your best drawings! Enter your work in our Online Student Show, opening May 7, 2010. Your drawings will be featured with students from other schools in the Drawing League Gallery. Choose 2 of your favorites, either from your lesson drawings or work you've created during your own time at school. One drawing is to be from observation (drawing things you're looking at) and the second drawing is to be from your imagination. For Details: Click here

See you all Tuesday! --Rob

Aris

Two fantastic drawings, Aris!!! Great job of drawing accurate proportions of the dog and using realistic contour lines to show its form. EXCELLENT work in drawing the contour lines for the eyes, nose and folds of the ears. The angled and curved lines showing different textures on your Van Gogh sketch are very well drawn! Very nice job of showing the perspective of the road and buildings in the foreground and background of your composition.

Hailey

Welcome to Salinas Sketchers, Hailey!!! What a wonderful start in drawing with lines and shapes! The proportions (sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) of the crab and puffer fish are accurately drawn. The 3D form of the jaguar is VERY well drawn. Nice job of adding patterns, tones, and its facial details. GREAT job in drawing the realistic form of the dragonfly! The proportions of its wings and body are very accurate drawn. Excellent start in drawing the contour edges of its body--hope you can finish it. :-)

Oliver

Wonderful Van Gogh sketch!!! You did a great job of using angled and curved lines for the grass in the foreground as well as the large tree and buildings in the background. The perspective angles of the wall, road, and buildings are accurately drawn. Great job in using 1-point perspective in both compositions, Oliver! The UFOs look cool!

Bryan

Your drawing with lines and shapes is progressing wonderfully, Bryan!! The Aztec god shows that you're gaining more control of your line work! The different gray tones shading its face are well drawn. Compared to the reference picture you were looking at, its proportions are accurately drawn. The proportions of the dragonfly's body are also drawn accurately. Check the reference picture to compare the size of its wings to the body. And your sketches of the egret are a huge breakthrough, man! The proportions became more accurate with each new sketch. Nice job in seeing the negative space around its body to draw the 's' curve in the neck.

Jose

You're making EXCELLENT progress in your line work, Jose!! The contour lines forming the dragonfly are very well drawn. The proportions of its wings and body are accurately drawn. And you rose to the challenge of drawing the egret!! You did a fantastic job of seeing positive and negative space to draw the contour edges that form the bird's head and body. Great job on drawing the 's' curve of its neck! Hope you can finish this one sometime.

Lizette

Great to have you back, Lizette!! You got right back into drawing accurate lines and shapes for the tiger, frog, and lizard. EXCELLENT job of drawing accurate proportions and adding all the details of the lizard. I know drawing the egret was a challenge... but... Whoah! You did an excellent job of drawing the contour edges that form its body, head, and neck!

Leo

Nice to have you drawing with us again, Leo!!! Your eye for accurate proportions really shows in these drawings! Fantastic job of using lines and shapes to draw the Aztec god. The gray tones on its face are really well drawn. Great work in drawing the patterns and textures of the lizard and the jaguar! The 3D angle of the jaguar's body is drawn very well.

Janeisha

Welcome to Salinas Sketchers, Janeisha!!! You're off to a wonderful start in drawing with lines and shapes! The proportions (sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) of the crab and puffer fish a very well drawn. Each time you made a new sketch the proportions became more accurate. Great work in drawing the patterns and textures of the the lizard. The control of your line work and eye for accurate proportions really shows on the toucan. Keep practicing sketching light guidelines before finishing with darker outlines. :-)

Ruby

GREAT job of including the details on the face of the Aztec god!! Your line work and eye for drawing accurate proportions just keeps on improving, Ruby!! It would be cool if you could add the gray tones to finish. :-)

Erik

Alright, Erik!!! Really nice work in seeing the negative space around the egret to draw the contour edges forming its head and body. EXCELLENT job of sketching the 's' curve in its neck. And you got a nice start in drawing its facial features and legs. Hope you can finish this one!

Eduardo

Great line work, Eduardo! ;-) Hope you can work on this a little longer to add gray tones.

Weeks 2 & 3:Lines, Shapes, Perspective, Finding Your Drawing Style

We've got a lot of returning students as well as new faces in the Sketchers; welcome to Bryan, he joined in last week. Some of you have been finishing up with 2-point perspective and others are moving from drawing with lines and shapes to drawing more realistically.

As you explore new drawing styles and materials, be thinking about submitting drawings to the student show in May. For details: Click here

Want to compare the work of Salinas Sketchers to other schools? Check out the Drawing League to see what other students are doing: Click here

Hasta luego! --Rob

Aris

Astounding! Drawing! Aris!! You progressed rapidly through the drawings of the frog, tiger, and jaguar while keeping accurate proportions and improving the control of your line work. You worked your way through the challenges of 2-point perspective with accurately angled guidelines and 3D buildings. Then you really got into the zone while drawing VERY accurate proportions of the dragonfly's body and wings. Excellent job of drawing realistic contour lines of its legs and transparent wings. And then.... the egret! You focused on the positive/negative spaces of the reference photo to get natural looking contour edges of the bird's head and body. I really like how you made several study sketches until you found accurate proportions; then finished with darker contour lines. Keep looking for where the positive and negative space meets to draw the contour edges of things, such as the 's' turn of the egret's neck.

Eduardo

You got into some awesome drawing with the 2-point perspective lesson!!! Excellent job in drawing accurate angled guidelines to the vanishing points, making your buildings look 3D. Fantastic work in capturing really accurate proportions of the tiger's face! Nice detail work in the facial features and the gray shading. Compare your drawing of the tiger's face to the reference picture. Is the space between the eyes accurate? Keep drawing, Eduardo!

Jose

Jose, the control of your line work has improved, big-time!!! You did an excellent job of keeping accurate proportions of the tiger's face as you drew it really large. And you kept the sizes of features on both sides of the face balanced, symmetrical. Compare your drawing of the tiger to the reference picture. Is the space between the eyes accurately drawn? Great work in drawing the patterns for the textures on the lizard. And you did a really nice job of including all the details for its facial features. Keep practicing drawing light guidelines for the shapes of things before drawing darker outlines.

Pedro

I really like where your imagination went with this 2-point perspective lesson, especially your usage of textured patterns on the wall of the tower and building. The design of the ink patterns is really cool, Pedro! I'd like to see you explore this kind of ink (or pencil) pattern treatment on a larger sized drawing. Maybe take time to create an intricate design that twists and turns around images of people.

Bryan

Welcome to Salinas Sketchers, Bryan!!! Your drawing took off right away with accurate proportions (sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) of the animals and the monster truck! It's really great how you did several sketches of the crab to get used to holding your pencil on its side while drawing. As you progressed, your drawings became more accurate. Excellent job of drawing the overall proportions of the toucan. Compare your drawing of the toucan to the reference picture. Which of your two drawings shows a more accurate size of the bird's head compared to its body? Keep sketching light guidelines for the shapes of things before finishing with darker outlines.

Lizette

EXCELLENT 2-point drawing, Lizette!!! You started gaining more control of the angled guidelines as you progressed through the lesson. The angles of your buildings are accurately drawn in relation to the vanishing points on the horizon line. Great job of keeping the vertical lines of the buildings parallel and the angles of the tops and bottoms of the windows correctly drawn. Hope to see you back in class for more drawing! :-)

Carlos

Great effort at getting into drawing with ink, Carlos!!! You started off with accurate pencil guidelines of the buildings and car. Great job of drawing the angles of the open windows on the bank. Check the angles of the windshield and grille of the car to make sure that the guidelines were drawn to the left vanishing point. I think it would be great for you to explore more pen techniques in the future.