Landmarks are helpful to locate ourselves as we travel through a subject's twists and turns. But what about the straightaways? How do we figure out how long a straight line is, how sharp an angle is, what the overall size of an object is, relative to another? We measure — but not with a ruler or a tape measure. We use something that lets us gauge the relative proportions from where we sit. You can use your thumb or your pen to set a benchmark. Just pin your elbow to your side, close one eye and measure the length or angle in question. Then mark it down with a little dot on the page. Turn the pen and measure the next element. Take as many measurements as you like until you feel confident.
Assignment: Pick a subject and try this measuring technique. It could be a piece of furniture, the view out a window, even your own reflection in the mirror.

Assignment: Download the PDF page of letters below, print it out, and slowly draw the negative shapes. Ignore the letters themselves and just draw what lies behind and between them.

Today we worked on contour and blind contour drawing.

Assignment: Draw a shoe without looking. Try to keep your pen on the paper as much as possible. Take your time!

Assignment: Pick an object to draw, something fairly complex but not overwhelming: an egg beater, a coffee pot, a stuffed toad, a head of broccoli.
Run your eyes slowly around the edges of the object and copy the line down. When you have that outside contour recorded, draw the larger shapes within. Then draw the details inside. Keep going until you have drawn all of the shapes you see. Use your alphabet and take your time.

Assignment: Turn the object to a fresh angle and get ready to draw it again, on the same page as the last drawing. This time look for landmarks. Notice where things protrude and intersect. Notice how things on one side line up with the other. Use these landmarks to help define your proportions and relationships.

Assignment: Time for a third perspective on your subject. Turn it again and do a new drawing, still on the same page. By now you're getting to know this subject pretty well. Apply that learning to this fresh perspective. Look for new landmarks, angles, curves. Notice how your drawing has evolved.

Assignment: Draw a variety of contour drawing of your pet from different angles on the same page. If you don’t have a pet handy, use a friend’s pet as a model or a wild animal (bird, squirrel, etc). 

Assignment: In your sketchbook spend some time drawing a bicycle. And don’t look at any reference. Just draw what you remember a bike looks like.

This exercise was probably quite a revelation. It’s amazing how much we overlook, isn’t it? That’s a key problem we encounter when we start drawing — the difference between what we see and what we think we see. 


In the project by Gianluca Gimini— he asked people to draw what they think a bike looks like, and then created 3-D models of what they would look like in reality. Check it out http://www.gianlucagimini.it/prototypes/velocipedia.html


Drawing is just a process of slowing down, observing carefully and copying each element, then the one next to it and so on. That’s what we did in the abstraction exercises on the first day, and now we have to apply that same process to drawing objects in front of us.

Next, you will be exploring "Blind Contour"
This exercise forces you to draw without looking at your page the whole time.
Your subject: your shoe. Ideally, one with some complexity, not a ballet slipper or a flip-flop. Set yourself up so you can see the shoe but not your page. Then start your engine and begin to drive your eyes around the contours of what you see while your pen tracks along.
Go slowly, go back and forth, and don’t worry about what marks you’re making. Wait to look until your journey is complete.
Assignment: Draw a shoe without looking. Try to keep your pen on the paper as much as possible. Take your time!  Once you are done this choose 2 other complex objects to also do in blind contour.

According to Gregory, there are five basic elements that combine to help you draw anything in the world. These ABCs of drawing let you talk your way through the process of observation, breaking down what you see into components that you can transfer onto your drawing.
They are:

• | Straight lines
• ( Curves
• < Angles
• O Circles - empty outlines
• • Dots - filled-in outlines

Assignment: Here are some abstract patterns for you to “read” with the ABCs. Copy the designs.

In order to get the basics of drawing its important to learn some basic skills.  The next few lunch hours we will spend time learning the basics!

We will have assignments inspired by Danny Gregory that will help you to "Draw without Talent."

According to Gregory. Talent may or may not exist. If it’s a gift you were born with, well, congratulations! But if, like most of us you, don’t think you have a natural gift, don’t sweat it.

• Talent has nothing to do with being able to draw.
• You just need to learn some basic skills.
• Then have fun practicing them until they become second nature.
  

​Assignment: Spend five minutes doing a drawing of your hand. No matter how you feel about the results, hold onto this first benchmark drawing for now — you may want to look back at it when you have finished the kourse.
Think: How was that experience? What was going on as you did it? How did you feel when you started drawing and when you were done?