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 Drawing 1 START DRAWING

Introduction

© Open College of the Arts

2009
 Level HE4 - 40 CATS

This course has been written and illustrated by Christine Gregory, Hazel Lale and Richard Liley
with additional technical input from Jane Horton, Caroline Firenza and Cathy Ferriera
Additional illustrations by OCA students and tutors
and other copyright images courtesy of the Bridgeman Art Library.

Open College of the Arts

Redbrook Business Park
Wilthorpe Road
Barnsley S75 1JN

Telephone: 01226 730 495

Fax: 01226 730 838
Email: open.arts@ukonline.co.uk
www.oca-uk.com

Registered charity number: 327446

OCA is a company limited by guarantee and
registered in England under number 2125674

Copyright OCA 2008

Document control number: DR1 11.12.08

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise - without prior permission of the publisher

2 OCA Start Drawing Introduction

Your course pack

Your course pack contains:

• Your OCA membership card. This card enables you to gain student discounts in shops and
provides quick reference of your OCA student number

• A student profile form to compete and send to your tutor

• Six labels addressed to your tutor, to post your assignments to them

• A tube for sending your assignments to your tutor

• A selection of art materials.

Please let OCA know immediately if anything is missing.

Tutor feedback
You will have opted for either postal or face to face tuition. Between tutorials, if you have
any queries, you should make arrangements with your tutor about how you will
communicate. This may be by email, telephone or post. You may agree, for instance, that you
photograph sketchbook images and upload them to the OCA website or a free website such
as Flickr or Picassa in between tutorials, if you need your tutor to comment on something in
particular, or you have a problem that you need help with.

Send or show your tutor all of the work you have done for each assignment. You do not have
to send individual project work to your tutor but if you have a face to face session, your tutor
may find it helpful to look at the work leading up to each assignment as well. Make sure
each piece of work is marked clearly on this back with your name, student number and
assignment number. Your tutor will get back to you as soon as possible after receiving your
assignment but this may take a little time. Continue with the course while you are waiting.

Where there are ethical, practical or personal issues regarding the subject matter or type of
activity an art exercise demands, you should skip the exercise with an explanation to the
tutor or, and preferably, makes a sensible substitution based on your own initiative, in terms
of what is required, with a brief note to explain that that is what you have done. If you need
guidance on what to choose to substitute ask for advice from your tutor. However, it is fine
for you to decide for yourself within the themes of each assignment.

OCA Start Drawing Introduction 1

 Contents

Introduction
Introduction to drawing
Keeping a sketchbook
What else will I need?

Assignment one: Mark making and tone

Exercises Making marks
Basic shapes
Tone and form
Reflected light
Still life
Using texture
Enlarging an image
Assignment one

Assignment two: The human figure

Exercises Proportions
Gesture
Form
Structure
The clothed figure
The moving figure
Self portrait
Portrait from memory
Assignment two

2 OCA Start Drawing Introduction

Assignment three: Observation in nature
Exercises Detailed observation of nature
Still life
Drawing fruit and vegetables in colour
Drawing plants and flowers
Drawing animals
Assignment three

Assignment four: Drawing outdoors

Exercises Landscape drawing
Perspective
Townscapes
Drawing trees
Assignment four

Assignment five: Draw and experiment

Exercises Mark making and tone
Assignment five: option 1

Exercises Drawing figures

Assignment five: option 2

Exercises Observation in nature

Assignment five: option 3

Exercises Drawing outdoors

Assignment five: option 4

OCA Start Drawing Introduction 3

 Introduction to drawing

Drawing occupies a unique place in every artist’s creative life. It can be an immediate
expression of seeing, thinking and feeling, investigating ideas and recording experiences.
Drawing can become part of your life, not just to make art but as a way of engaging with
life: by learning to draw the world around us we can learn to see it and understand it more
clearly.

We are surrounded by drawings in our daily lives: from maps, signs and graffiti to logos on
packaging. It is a language that we are all familiar with and understand. Even when we
cannot understand a word, we can readily decipher and relate to a drawing. Some drawings
cover entire walls and need to be reached with ladders, some may require large sheets of
paper to be joined to give a big enough picture plane, whilst others can be held in your
hand.

The Start Drawing course gives you guidelines, techniques and a good basic knowledge to
enable you to establish your ability to draw, you will find that you can quite quickly achieve
some satisfying results. Part of the learning process will be how to put together a collection
of drawings of different sizes in your sketchbook and also much larger pieces of work drawn
onto individual sheets of paper. We will experiment with linear mediums such as pen, pencil
and charcoal to discover a variety of results.

Drawing needs practice. So as you follow the exercises and experiment with different sorts of
line and mediums, make a record of your observations, you will produce increasingly
confident artwork and will eventually develop your own style. As you develop your drawing
skills, you will learn to look, make comparisons and use your imagination and as you do so
your artistic awareness will increase.

We can all learn to draw, the very first step is to believe it.

“To draw, you must close

your eyes and sing.” Pablo Picasso

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Materials you will need
You will need a variety of drawing instruments, which we call linear mediums:
• 3B to 9B pencils
• Water soluble coloured pencils
• Solid graphite pencils of various softnesses
• A variety of pens
• Various thicknesses of charcoal
• Pencil sharpener
• Plastic rubber
• Putty rubber

You will also need various other items:

• Drawing board – the bigger the better: A2 is ideal
• Scalpel – very useful for getting a good point on your pencil
• Pencil case – to keep everything in
• Bulldog clips to clip paper to drawing board
• Adjustable lamp so you can direct the light source
• A3 and A4 white cartridge paper
• Fixative spray
• An easel. You can both sit and stand at an easel. Standing will give you a different view of
your subjects and give you the opportunity for broader arm movements and space to stand
back from your work.

...and somewhere to
keep it all safe.

OCA Start Drawing Introduction 5

 Health and Safety
While you are studying this course there are a few things you must be very careful about
using, and other things you must consider to ensure your health and safety.

Working outside
The course emphasises the need to ensure your safety while working outside in different
weather conditions, by wearing appropriate clothes and not staying outside for long periods
in the sun or in the cold. The course also advises you to be careful about choosing locations
to work in. Remember not to choose lonely locations, and if you are somewhere remote it is
always best to be with a friend while you work.

Using fixative and sprays

In your drawing materials pack there is a spray can of fixative to fix charcoal, chalk and
pastel drawings. All forms of sprays give off a fine vapour which is a possible health risk and
you should avoid breathing it. Aerosols of any kind need to be used in a well ventilated area,
preferably outside. Always spray well away from you.

Booklist
The Art of Drawing Landscape Sterling Publishing Company New York.
The Complete Drawing Course Ian Simpson
Dictionary of Art Terms by Edward Lucie -Smith
Drawing Keith Micklewright
Drawing Animals Victor Ambrose Grange Books
The Drawing Book by Sarah Simblet
Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters by Robert Beverley Hale
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Betty Edwards
Encyclopaedia of Drawing Techniques Ian Simpson
Figure Drawing and Anatomy for the Artist by John Raynes
A Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists by Peter and Linda Murray
The Story of Art Eric Gombrich

To buy secondhand books try www.abebooks.com and www.amazon.co.uk

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Drawing 1 START DRAWING

Assignment one:
Markmaking and tone

In the style of Bach Paul Klee

 “There are universal
shapes to which everyone
is subconsciously
conditioned and to which
they can respond if their
unconscious control does
not switch them off.” Henry Moore

Drawing before the Hostages Jean Fautrier

2 OCA Start Drawing Markmaking and tone

Exercises: Making marks
Total time: 4 hours

Drawing starts with making marks on paper. You may have something in your mind that you
want to produce or you may just be daydreaming and doodling by putting down random
lines. The unconscious marks you make while doodling can contribute to the development of
other interesting drawings.

This project will help you experiment with making different marks and using different pens
and pencils. It will also help you discover which drawing tools work best for different kinds of
mark making.

Doodling
What to do:
Lay some large sheets of paper (A2 or A3)and sketchbook on a table. You can also use the
back of wrapping paper, or lining paper.

Have pencils, pens, biros, charcoal and felt tips readily to hand.

Free your mind and make as many possible marks as your hand will let you: let it trail across
the paper slowly or use fast movements to give strong bold marks such as dashes, long wavy
lines, dots and circles. Be inventive. Don’t attempt to draw anything in particular. Just try to
become involved in the lines, dots and different kinds of shading which each medium will
produce.

Now think of a subject such as water, flowers, buildings, patterns of light or even a recent
dream. Allow the subject to influence the marks you are making but do not try too hard to
resolve any particular image.

Repeat these processes several times to give yourself time to relax into this piece of work.
Get used to making many different types of marks. Time invested in this simple exercise is
invaluable as your small doodles will grow into bigger ideas and more confident sketches.

Making marks like this is like practicing handwriting. Once you are confident about what
each medium will do you are on your way to using them to describe things you see or
imagine.

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 Mark-making techniques
Techniques associated with linear mark-making can be endless from pencil line to solid areas
of tone built up by shading. It is a good idea to make notes about the materials and
techniques you have used next to your doodles or sketches.

What you will need:

• A variety of graphite pencils, drawing pens, biros, felt tips, thick and thin sticks of charcoal
– the thicker, chunkier sticks are more versatile and less prone to breaking
• Large sheets of white cartridge paper
• Sketchbook

What to do:
Draw lots of 5cm squares using a variety of graphite pencils, drawing pens, biros, felt tips,
thick and thin sticks of charcoal – the thicker, chunkier sticks are more versatile and less
prone to breaking. Use a different technique with a different medium inside each square.

Experiment with other techniques such as hatching to indicate shape and form. Hatching is a
form of shading made by drawing parallel lines close together so that they create a tonal
effect. The lines may be thin or thick and they can be drawn carefully or freely. Practise
hatching on a piece of scrap paper. Slant the lines at an angle which suits you. Draw freely.
The lines shouldn't be ruler-straight and it doesn't matter if they sometimes touch.

Try hatching with coloured pencils to add areas of colour which suggest form and volume.

Compare the techniques and media you’ve used. Which work well, which don’t? (For example,
it is unlikely that cross hatching is either easy or effective using a thick charcoal stick, while a
fine pen is great for this kind of mark making). Make notes on your thoughts and discoveries.

4 OCA Start Drawing Markmaking and tone

 The Gleaners Georges Seurat

OCA Start Drawing Markmaking and tone 5

 Holding pens and pencils
What to do:
Practise different ways of holding your pen or pencil to see how they affect the way you
approach your drawing and what difference they make to the marks you make.

As you become able to manipulate your drawing materials more freely you will become more
confident with your mark-making and drawing.

Try holding your pen or pencil right at the top and allowing it to dangle onto the paper.
What kind of mark does that make? Then try holding it right towards the tip.

Work up some marks in your sketchbook. Then do some marks on the biggest piece of paper
you can find. Try to sweep across the paper in big gestural strokes. How does that work?
What sort of marks do you produce?

6 OCA Start Drawing Markmaking and tone

Charcoal
Charcoal (and graphite) is a wonderful and versatile medium. You can use the sticks to draw
hugely varied thickness of line, depending on the thickness of the stick and the angle that
you use it. You can also break off pieces of charcoal and lay them flat onto the paper. By
drawing charcoal across paper in this way you
can draw a straight line easily. With a sweep of a
piece of flat charcoal you can describe a curve
much more precisely than with the tip of a pen or
the end of the charcoal stick.

Charcoal is inherently messy. You are likely to get

grubby hands while working and spread smudges
around. If you want to store other work on top of
charcoal drawings fixing your work (hairspray will
do if you run out of fixative) is important.

It is easy to ‘fudge’ things with charcoal. You can

smudge charcoal work with your thumb to create
tone, and this is sometimes used to cover up a
lack of assurance about line or the flow of tone. It
is a method best avoided.

What to do:
Draw a few larger than normal boxes in your
sketchbook (charcoal almost makes you to draw
‘big’)

Arm yourself with a variety of sizes of charcoal

and graphite sticks.

Have some fixative ready to use.

In each box experiment by:

• Drawing lines of varying thicknesses
• Doing blocks of shading in different grades of
darkness
• Creating patterns
• Putting a small piece of charcoal on its side
and drawing lines and curves
• Make some notes about what you think about
the medium and when it could be good to use.

OCA Start Drawing Markmaking and tone 7

 more on line pens and biros
Once you have practised drawing lines and making other marks in pencil and charcoal or
graphite, draw some more boxes and practice making marks with felt pens, biros and if you
can find other drawing implements, use them. Try a stick dipped in ink, a bamboo pen, a
quill, pastels, oil pastels and wax crayons. Then reflect on the marks you have made, the tools
you enjoyed using, the best tools for certain types of mark, and make some notes.

8 OCA Start Drawing Markmaking and tone