Parrot sketch

This is an example of what I would consider a sketch/drawing. It is specific enough that I have spent a good deal of time on it but not so specific that I would consider it a drawing. There are many areas on the drawing where the big shapes were left incorrect because I wanted to do it quickly. Your average person would not notice but if you were really into parrots you would.

I took progressive photos of the sketch at 5min intervals.

Drawing Materials

Nice post by Armand Cabrera on drawing materials. I LOVE his pencil box and the bottom of the article has a great idea about making sketchbooks.

My Zoo Sketches

It was a little difficult sketching while keeping up with the entire family but at least I came away with something. I look forward to going back to the Birmingham Zoo on my own when I hopefully will have more time..... I was pretty bummed that I didn't get to sketch any monkeys!

The Discipline of Drawing

A drawing on toned paper using
pastel pencil and white charcoal

A Drawing Using Paint
(I Will Explain on October 1 )

Now that our little sketching Journey is finished for the summer, it is time to move on to learning something a bit more complicated. Beginning on October 1, I will be doing a years worth of weekly post on how to go about learning to draw. As mentioned in "Anyone Can Sketch Part 2" drawing is a much more disciplined activity than sketching and takes a lifetime to master. Yet the rewards of being able to accurately render what you see gives you an ability that is useful in many professional fields as well as providing you with a fulfilling pastime. The year long series will cover drawing from life as well as constructing objects from our imagination and will be entitled "The Discipline of Drawing".

Anyone Can Sketch - Adventures in Home making

If you would like to see another families journey into sketching check out The Adventures in Home making Blog!

Anyone Can Sketch - Part 7 (Zoo Trip)

All summer long we have been working toward our sketching trip to the Birmingham Zoo.  I am happy to report that the trip went well and both of the little ones enjoyed looking at and drawing the animals in their sketchbooks. I was surprised to find that the movement of the animals did not bother them at all. As a matter of fact they never even mentioned it (meanwhile I was fussing at those critters to stay still!).


Here is my evaluation of my efforts to teach my children to sketch this summer.

• I would not have spread the lessons over the summer.  It would have been much better to take advantage of their initial enthusiasm instead of making them hold off on using their homemade sketch books.

• I would have been ready to teach them to draw as well as sketch.  Sketching was fantastic for Karis but Cole is much more of a perfectionist. I think he was ready, after day one, to engage in some accurate drawing. He needed more instruction on how to get things right.

• I would have had them make 2 or 3 sketchbooks instead of just ones. Karis was able to knock out a sketch in about 30 seconds.  She could have filled her sketchbook on the first day if I had let her (and I should have).

• Sketching with them watching me ( and my guiding them) was the most valuable way to show them how to improve what they were putting on the paper. Time, time, time - at least an hour a day - is the best way to show improvement.

Anyone Can Sketch - Part 6

I've been painting (which is always good when that's how you make your living).  My kids finally came down and asked "when are we going to sketch again" so I guess it is time for a post.

We were originally going to use this session to draw some of the many animals we have around our house but between the time I planned the sessions and yesterday we lost a cat and a dog to automobiles and we gave away all of our kittens.... so stuffed animals it is.

There is not much to say about this session other than what I have said before.  I set up the various stuffed animals all over the couch so the kids would have many posses to choose from. We did not concentrate on shadow or form. I just let them have at it. Once again, until we get into learning to draw, the most important part of learning to sketch is doing it and hopefully enjoying yourself along the way.

My younger daughter is pleased as punch with this approach but my son is longing to make his sketches more correct. Both are in a good place,  I just think it is about time to take the man child farther down the rabbit hole.

Our next and last sketching session is going to be a trip to the zoo in about two weeks. So it will be awhile before there is another "Anyone Can Sketch" post.

Sunday Sketches

Compositional ideas

We picked some pairs that were a little to ripe to eat. I'm hoping to put them in a still life painting with this little bowl I picked up at a garage sale. I have other priorities right now but it was a great way to fill a few minutes between the first cup of coffee and the kids getting out of bed.

Vine on The Rim

This was sketched from a container of flowers that sits on the studio porch.  I discovered during this sketch that overcast day's are perfect for more detailed renderings.  There is no need to hurry when nothings changing.

My Messy Ball Point Pen

The Hat

Anyone Can Sketch - Part 5

I'm finding that some of my own theories are being tested with this little family experiment. My hypothesis that "Anyone Can Sketch" is being challenged.  That small phrase does not take into account desire. Properly stated it would read, "Anyone can sketch if they really want to sketch".

I knew that in moving to sketching specific objects I would be presenting a challenge for my two little ones.  Both of them first responded, "I can't do that", when I told them what we were up to. Here is how I dealt with the challenge.

1. I gave them simple objects to draw.
2. Instead of having them look at the objects, while they sketched, I had them observe the objects and then draw them from memory.
3. I praised them for the efforts no matter what the results (after all this is sketching not drawing).
4. Before the second attempt, I sat them in my lap and sketched the objects while saying out loud everything I was thinking and doing.  This begins the process of teaching them to see what is really going on with the light and dark families and everything in between.

Here are their first attempts at drawing the objects from memory.

6 Year olds memory drawing of an
apple and pair

In this sketch you can see my daughters attempt on the
left as I explained the process and sketched the
same object on the right. As I was talking about the
shadow family, she cover the object in shadow and
then, via my instruction, she put the shadow on only
one side.

This is the outcome of my 8 year old and I doing side
by side sketches. Notice how general I am making the object
to help simplify the ideas for my son.

As with the other sessions one of the keys is to keep them sketching for around an hour if you can. I did this by allowing them to choose what they wanted to sketch.  The 6 year old loved sketching the still life objects I had and my studio and sketched about six different objects.

The 8 year old wanted to go back to drawing from his imagination (most of this involved explosions and battles of some type).  Both were equally adding to their skill base by training their brain, eyes and hand to work together.

I ALMOST FORGOT! - It is important when you are sketching objects to begin and introduce your students to the concept of the light and dark families. You do this by setting up the objects so that they are illuminated by a dominate single light source (see the above photo). You then need to view the objects from their view point and determine that they can see both a light and shadow side on the object. At this stage if you can get them to where they are getting this general drawing concept you are doing GREAT!  With my 8 year old I was able to also show him that most of the time the dividing line between the light and dark families is rather soft (as opposed to a hard line) and he picked it up pretty well.