About a year ago, I decided to create some free online drawing lessons. It has been fun, challenging and even a positively stressful activity.  After all, I am putting myself out there and producing all of it.  But I am learning some new skills and that is always awesome.

I knew at the beginning of this project that I was going to get to a point where I wasn’t sure just how I was going to show what I was talking about.  I was pretty sure, drawing in pencil and working light to dark, that my biggest issue was going to be when I laid down those initial light marks – that they wouldn’t be seen.  I still think about that.

I was known for my pastel paintings, but several years ago I decided to return to my first love, drawing with (graphite) pencil!  Pencil was the first medium I played with.  Recently I decided to start drawing birds.  I can’t say why exactly.  Maybe it’s because I enjoy listening to them sing.  I look forward to them showing up outside of my window when I work.  And I thought they would be easy to draw.  Silly me.  They are probably not any easier to draw than anything else.

I started this like any other drawing – with the modified gesture drawing.  I felt it looked right and continued on. But I worked from the dining room table where I could be with my family. Everything seemed OK.

As soon as I stood up and backed away from it, I saw that it was off.  My daughter even came around and pointed out what was wrong.  Which was kind of exciting! It confirmed my belief that beginning artists can see what is wrong. And if we can see it, we can make adjustments. Sometimes I verbalize it too. “This is too wide.” “This is too tall.” “The angle is wrong.”

I had the back off ever so slightly, but it was enough to make it look wrong. The third one is still off, but it doesn’t bother me as much. I see that they wings are off, which reinforces the importance of using sighting to analyzing the subject matter before starting the drawing.

I learned the importance of stepping away from my work in my first drawing class. And I thought about it a couple of times while I was sitting there at the dining room table. This experience has reinforced the importance getting up, stepping back and looking at the work from another point of view. I truly think it is the only way to really see what you have drawn.  Often I ask myself, “what is the difference between what I was drawing and what I drew?”

I want drawing to be fun, not laborious. I don’t want to spend too much time measuring everything, or drawing grids to make things fit. But pairing up sighting with the blind gesture technique makes for a powerful force.

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

Andy Warhol