Weeks 5 & 6: Getting Abstract

The Salinas Sketchers used lines, shapes and patterns to create amazing abstract drawings. Welcome to new sketchers Gina and Desiree! Scroll down to view everyone's drawings.

After studying artwork by artists such as Kandinsky and Mondrian, students drew their own abstract compositions. Shown clockwise, starting upper left, are drawings by Deontay, Marcelo, H., and Ricky

 Gina's frog (upper left) and Desiree's toucan (upper left) show how they got right to work in drawing with lines and shapes while looking for accurate proportions.

Click 'Read more' below to view everyone's drawings...

Weeks 2,3, & 4: Form, Contours, Positive/Negative Space

The Salinas Sketchers are making BIG-time progress! Everyone stepped up to the challenges drawing realistically as we continued with measuring accurate proportions. We also explored using positive and negative space to find contour edges of form as shown in H.'s egret (upper left) shows confident contour lines, shading, and highlights. Ricky's dragon fly (upper right) shows accurate proportions (sizes of shapes compared to other shapes) and realistic contour edges.

Shown above are excellent examples of measuring proportions while looking at reference pictures. Marcelo's jaguar (upper left) and Bernabe's jaguar show 3D form of the big cat and patterns for its fur and tail.




Dangelo began to explore our upcoming abstract drawing lesson. Shown above are his sketches.

The dinosaur called Elasmosaurus (upper left) was drawn by Jesus while using one of my how-to-draw books.You can find his drawing in eXpReSsiOn sEsSiOn along with Ignacio's robot (upper left): Click here

Click 'Read more' below to view everyone's drawings...

Week 1: Lines, Shapes, Overlapping, Proportions

Pencil warm-ups (above, left and right) by H. and Ricky.

Great to be back with the Salinas Sketchers! This group of new drawing students jumped in and started learning about measuring accurate proportions. We also learned about holding the pencil on its side and using the whole arm while drawing.

     
While looking at reference lesson pictures, students learned about proportions (the sizes of shapes compared to other shapes). Ricky's sketch of the toucan (above, left) shows his accurate eye for proportions. Dangelo's toucan shows excellent control of his line work and nice application of lighter and darker tones. 



 


Students also learned the importance of sketching light guidelines and drawing on top of mistakes. The sketch of the toucan by H. is a great example of sketching accurate guidelines before adding darker outlines. Dangelo's puffer fish shows his correction to the overall shape of its body.

Highlight of the day: While learning how to show depth of space by overlapping the frog's legs, Marcello started to gain control of holding the pencil on its side for an excellent sketch (above, left). Deontay got into the Zone and started putting together accurate proportions in his drawing (above, right).

To view everyone's sketches and reference pictures...

Online Student Show, 2010

What a Year! The Online Student Show features student drawings from six different schools in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. The theme of the show is Drawing from Observation and Imagination. All students have drawings posted!

To see your drawings and other students: Click here

Week 9: Roundness, Proportions, Contours, Study Sketches, "Getting Squashed"

Because of scheduling, we only had two Sketchers last week. But they jumped in and churned out a lot of excellent work! We grabbed some squash and shells from the 'crate of realism' and got into sketching from real life. Aris and Lizette began to show their true artistic styles as they worked on showing roundness and contours in their study sketches.



As we meet for the last class and you prepare for the Peace Summit, I'd just like to say it's been wonderful sketching with everyone this year. All of you started by drawing the crab and then made your way through many different lessons about drawing techniques and visual art. For those of you who are graduating, I wish you the best for your future. I hope to be back next year with fun, new projects for returning students.

Keep drawing! --Rob

Aris

Your skills as an artist are really starting to shine in these study sketches, Aris!!! You've devoted a lot of time in developing your line work and it can be seen in your confident sketching style. The natural-looking curved contours of the squash are very accurately drawn. Very cool how you sketched right on top of your mistakes until you found accurate form; then finished with bold, expressive pencil strokes. Excellent you you showed the roundness of the squash while also showing the flatness of the area where the stem connects. You did a great job in depicting realistic form and textures of the shell. And your cast shadows underneath the objects are well drawn, too! Consider getting a sketchbook and practicing sketching quickly from real life. Keep it going, girl!

Lizette

This is simply superb sketching, Lizette!!! You REALLY got into the zone while drawing the shell! It was so cool to watch you quickly sketch loose, expressive lines to capture the pointed and curved contours of its form--very natural looking! Great job in using contour lines to show texture. The cast shadow underneath it looks realistic! Your study sketches of the squash are a great start in developing your artistic sketching style! Excellent how you drew on top of your mistakes as you found accurate contours showing the roundness of the squash. Keep practicing sketching from real life. And it great to see you jump right into experimenting with layering colored pencils in the sketch of the apple. Nice work. :-)