I’ve never learned to draw very well, and that usually hasn’t been a problem as I’d rather use abstract shapes like letterforms, rectangles, dots and circles in my broadsides and books. But last week I needed an image of some fireflies in a jar, and my attempts to draw them were just too sad. It’s at times like this that I remember the matchbooks lying around the house when I was a kid that had ads for art correspondence courses. Usually there was a picture on the front and the caption ”Are You an Artist? Find Out FREE! Draw Me.”
My friend Cathy, who teaches book arts to kids, claims she can only draw frogs. But recently she decided to add to her repertoire when she found this how to draw a hedgehog by children’s illustrator Jan Brett.
A quick look at the online catalogue for my local library produces a long list of “how to draw…” books. I have a book to return, so I’ll be stopping in to take a look at those how-to books, as well as trying to draw a few hedgehogs.
“you make my day!”
.
thank you đŸ™‚
The book I love as a “drawing teacher” is Kimon Nicolaides’ – The Natural Way to Draw. It’s been around for thirty years and I know you can find it used. The exercises might seem repetitive at first, but it is just like have a drawing instructor at your elbow. He teaches you to see forms as they are. Old school and disciplined.
Okay, you can’t just say you need to draw fireflies in a jar without saying WHY you need fireflies in a jar. So what’s the reason?
Clearly I am much lazier than Kate. She’s taken the high road; I’d take the low road and just find some firefly drawings to imitate. Do you remember a kids’ book from way, way back called Sam and the Firefly? It’s by P.D. Eastman, it celebrates its 50th birthday this year (like someone else I know) and it stars a terrific firefly named Gus.
This sounds like something the Nicolaides book covers, but I think the biggest problem people have with drawing is that they have this idea in mind about what the object should look like and that prevents them from really seeing it. You have to do your best to turn off the verbal side of your brain which is always putting name tags on things. Look at whatever you are trying to draw as a just shape. Draw that, draw the air around it, draw the play of light and shadow and the textures and patterns – DON’T think about what it is! Just draw.
As for source images, besides books I find a lot of stuff on Flickr.com or through an image search in Google. If you are searching for some sort of living thing, insect, tree, fish etc. using its Latin name is often helpful as far as getting the clearest pictures – scientists and grad students may not necessarily be the most artistic photographers, but they do their very best to get a clear image with all the details included.