Old and new sketches

As part of my attempt to sketch more regularly, I've started going through some of the exercises in Burt Dodson's Keys to Drawing. I found some I did when I first bought the book, over three years ago:

1: Drawing of my own shoes. This was supposed to be a line drawing, with no tone, using the method of 'drawing blind' - continuing to draw while looking at the subject, rather than the paper.

2. A drawing of my own hand from an unusual angle, to encourage drawing what you see, rather than being influences by preconceived ideas of what things should look like.

3. A bottle, focusing on enclosed shapes.


4. A '5-minute-burn' of my bedroom, drawing everything you can see in 5 minutes, good for loosening up your hand.


5. A copy of a drawing by Degas, to get a feel for an artists 'handwriting'.


6. A study copied from a photograph, attempting to match the tonal values.


7. Another drawing I did from a photo of myself sitting on the Great Wall of China.



8. The latest exercise, a 3-quarter view of my eyes in a mirror.

Tags: Illustration, sketches, drawing, Keys to Drawing