Chapter 8 How to Get Started In This Chapter ➤ What to draw? What to draw? ➤ Picking your paper ➤ Making arrangements ➤ Seeing, siting, and sketching ➤ You’re on your way! In order to really see, to see ever deeper, ever more intensely, hence to be fully aware and alive, that I draw what the Chinese call “The Ten Thousand Things” around me. Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world. —Frederick Frank, The Zen of Seeing, (New York: Vintage/Random House, 1973). Yikes, now what? All set up and nowhere to go? No worries here, let’s just pick an object or two and begin to draw. You’ve got to start somewhere. Look around your world and redis- cover it—after all, it’s where you’re most likely to find things you want to draw. What Are You Going to Draw? Your house is full of choices, from simple to extremely challenging. You want to start simply because choosing, arranging, composing on the page, seeing, and drawing will keep you busy enough for now. Begin with a leisurely stroll through your house. Look at it as you never have before, really seeing the things that are there. Think about how objects might look together, like that an- tique vase you inherited from your great aunt or that postmodern Italian clock left over from your last relationship. Sometimes the simplest objects can make the most interesting compositions. Part 3 ➤ Starting Out: Learning You Can See and Draw 92 Select Your Objects and Pick Your Subject Pick a few objects as possibilities, and then you can select from the group. Try for interest- ing shapes, but ones that are basic, geometric, and manageable. Possibilities include ➤ Mugs. ➤ Cans. ➤ Boxes. ➤ Vases. ➤ A few pieces of fruit. ➤ Some veggies. ➤ Toy blocks. Or, if you are feeling really confident, a toy animal, a toy car, or an old doll might be just the thing. Make yourself a little collection of possibilities. Put two or three to- gether. Then try another combination. Look for shapes that comple- ment each other. Play around until you have made a choice. Choose the Format and the Paper Next, pick a piece of paper to work on, 9" × 12" or 11" × 14", and decide on a horizontal or vertical orientation. Look at the shapes of the ob- jects you’ve selected. Are they tall or short? Do they seem to need a piece of paper that is vertical or horizontal in its orientation? Back to the Drawing Board Avoid shapeless objects or ob- jects with cartoon or caricature detail. Realistic, accurate detail is better for learning. Save the ac- tion figures and cartoon charac- ters for another time. You may be familiar with the idea of vertical or horizontal paper ori- entation from your word processing program, where it’s called portrait or landscape. A verti- cally oriented page is widest from top to bot- tom (portrait), while a horizontally oriented page is widest across (landscape). How Will You Arrange the Objects? There are always lots of ways to arrange things to draw, and no one way is best, but you want to make the best choice that you can. Oftentimes, it is the simplest arrangement that works best, especially if the objects have a lot of detail. Sometimes, a jumble of things cre- ates an interesting mix of shapes. Later on, in Chapter 10, “Toward the Finish Line,” we’ll 93 Chapter 8 ➤ How to Get Started pay more attention to tone and texture, but for now we will concentrate on arranging, see- ing, and drawing shapes in relation to each other. Seeing Arrangement and Composition Arrangement and composition are the first steps in making a good drawing out of your cho- sen objects. As you play around and change the combination and arrangement of your chosen objects (feel free to change your mind), take time to look at your choice through one of your viewfinder frames, picking the one that best frames your composition. Turn it horizontally or vertically to match your arrangement and your paper orientation. Make sure you have chosen your objects, arrangement, composition, paper size, paper orientation, and viewfinder frame so that they all work together. Whew, that’s a lot right there, but you can do it! When you’ve got everything ready, follow these steps: 1. Lightly draw in the horizontal and vertical center lines on your paper. 2. Place the viewfinder frame on the paper and line up the center lines. 3. Extend the diagonals on the viewfinder frame onto the paper. 4. Draw a box that is proportionally equal to the viewfinder frame by measuring, or positioning it on the diagonals at whatever size you wish. Now you can look at your arrangement through your viewfinder frame and begin to draw it, in the same proportion to the larger box on your paper. You can also look at your composition through a proportionally equal grid on a plastic picture plane to gauge where things are and where to start. But the main work of positioning the objects in your drawing should be done by really seeing your chosen objects as a small group and then trying to imagine them sitting evenly across the center lines of your paper. You’ll want to maintain a constant view, looking at the same spot from the same height. Of course, if you’ve got to get up, you can draw a line around an object to mark its place for later. Look again through your viewfinder frame to see where the center lines are. See what shapes are right there in the middle. Lightly sketch the main shapes relative to the center lines. Remember that objects need to “sit down” where they belong in your drawing. One way to accomplish this is to imagine them in the box they came in. Draw the box in space, and then fit the ob- ject into the box. This works for chairs, tables, boats—really, just about anything. See the View and the Distance Once you’ve made your arrangement, take a look at it through the viewfinder frame. Decide on the exact area you will draw. How you hold the viewfinder frame will determine what you draw and from what vantage point and distance you draw it. This will affect the space in your work and around your objects, or the range. Try Your Hand In more complicated arrange- ments, you may want to exclude some of the elements or some of the detail. You can “filter out,” or choose to eliminate what you don’t want, in order to empha- size what you do want. The choice is up to you. Artist’s Sketchbook Range is the distance between you and your objects: close-up (objects), mid-range (still life), or far away (landscape). Part 3 ➤ Starting Out: Learning You Can See and Draw 94 Some of the ranges you may consider are: ➤ Close-up Range: Objects that fill the frame will look close to you, almost in your face. Objects in close-up will fill the frame. ➤ Still Life or Mid–Range: Objects drawn smaller in the same frame will look somewhat farther back, as if on a table. ➤ Deep or Landscape Space: Objects drawn smaller, still in the same frame, and placed toward the top of the frame will seem far away, as if in a landscape space. Objects at mid-range will be set farther back. Objects in deep space will be seen in the distance. 95 Chapter 8 ➤ How to Get Started These different senses of space are fun to play with, but for now, let’s keep to a range some- where between close-up and still life space and leave the long views for later. Understand- ing, seeing, and drawing from a particular view and vantage point is a big step and can seem complicated, but it really isn’t. Whether you look across at your objects or down on them, and at what angle, will greatly affect what you see. This makes the differ- ence between looking at the side of a box or vase or mug and look- ing into them. On the Page First, just see your arrangement from where you are, considering the following: ➤ Can you tell where eye level is? ➤ Can you tell if you are looking across at it or down at it? ➤ Can you see the tops of things? ➤ Or into things? Probably, you can see somewhat into or over things in your arrangement. We tend to see across and down at objects on a table, for example, because we are sitting higher than the table. If we sat on a higher chair or stool we would be looking down onto the ob- jects even more. If you look straight across at your objects, you are looking at eye level. You will see just the sides or things, but not the tops or bot- toms. And if the objects were on a high shelf and you looked up at them, your view point would be lower than the middle. If the shelf were glass, you would see the bottoms of things as well. Try Your Hand To “see” means looking on the right side, without letting Old Lefty help out, to see only what is there—no thinking in ideas, only in visual, relational terms. The Art of Drawing Most arrangements and still lifes are seen and drawn looking across and slightly down at the ob- jects, but more radical views can be more interesting. They are also more challenging. Eventually, you should try drawing at all the different vantage points that you can; you may find you are particularly fond of an unusual way of seeing things. Artist’s Sketchbook Eye level is straight out from where you are, neither above nor below the level of your view. As you move up or down, your eye level and view change. Part 3 ➤ Starting Out: Learning You Can See and Draw 96 Next Step: Establish Eye Level So then, for starters, let’s say that the center horizontal line on your paper is eye level. Hold your viewfinder frame so that you are looking through the middle of it at your arrange- ment. Can you tell where the center horizontal line on the viewfinder frame is in your arrangement? That spot or line is at eye level from where you are seeing your arrangement. Site the Image on the Paper Using the Center Lines Use the lines on your viewfinder frame to decide on eye level in your view, which is called siting the image. Know whether you are looking down, and try to know how much: a little, some, more? If you are sitting in a chair, sit on a stool and see the difference, then stand up and see more of a difference. You can even stand on your chair and look down for a bird’s eye view. From a bird’s-eye view to a fly on the wall, the way you look at your arrangement will determine how it looks on the page. Making a Simple Contour Drawing Whatever view you choose, see it through the viewfinder frame and find where the center lines are, then imagine the view as you see it, centered on the center lines of the box on your paper. Then, of course, you just lightly draw it, as you see it. Nothing to it! 97 Chapter 8 ➤ How to Get Started The Lightest Sketch to Begin So do it now. Use a light pencil, HB or H, and use a light touch. Try to see the basic shapes in your objects and their relative placement, with or without the aid of the viewfinder frame or the picture plane. Don’t worry if you use either of these to check yourself or for help as you practice. You will use them less and trust yourself more the more drawings you do. Either way, take the time to check yourself in the beginning. Don’t wait. See the arrange- ment again through your viewfinder frame and on your drawing. Check It Over When you’ve finished, consider the following: ➤ Check that the image is centered on your paper with some help from the center lines. ➤ Check the view and the vantage point. ➤ Look for clues as to your view: Can you see into or on top of your objects? You are looking down. Can you see the tops or just the sides of things? You are looking across. ➤ Check that you have drawn the shapes of your objects as you see them. Correct or change any problems you see before you go on. Correct It Now, Render It Later Continue to add or refine the lines you draw to say as much about the shape of your ob- jects as you can. Look for little details in the shapes and make them part of your drawing. See as much as you can and draw as much as you can see. When you’re finished, your drawing should be a reasonable representation of the simple arrangement you chose. It should reflect the choices that you made, including … ➤ The objects you picked. ➤ The arrangement of them. ➤ The frame and the format. ➤ The distance from you. ➤ The viewpoint and vantage point. ➤ Side view, above, below, or partway in between. In addition, the basic shapes of your objects and their placement relative to each other should be clear. The detail in the shapes of each should be there. And let’s throw in a bit of your own personality, response, or uniqueness in the way that you made the drawing. Now you’ve completed your first real selection and drawing on your own. From here on, the sky is quite literally the limit. Try a few of these small, simple drawings. Try different views and ways of framing the view. In the next chapter, we’ll be taking a closer look at objects and still life composition. Part 3 ➤ Starting Out: Learning You Can See and Draw Your Sketchbook Page Try your hand at practicing the exercises you’ve learned in this chapter. 99 Chapter 8 ➤ How to Get Started The Least You Need to Know ➤ You begin a drawing by selecting your subject and deciding on the exact arrange- ment. ➤ Your viewpoint, vantage point, and eye level all influence what you can see of your arrangement and therefore what you will draw. ➤ Centering your view with the viewfinder frame and seeing the same view on your paper gets you started correctly. ➤ Remember to see shapes and relations between your objects and to draw what you see. . 8 How to Get Started In This Chapter ➤ What to draw? What to draw? ➤ Picking your paper ➤ Making arrangements ➤ Seeing, siting, and sketching ➤ You’re on your way! In order to really see, to see. it’s where you’re most likely to find things you want to draw. What Are You Going to Draw? Your house is full of choices, from simple to extremely challenging. You want to start simply because choosing,. is widest from top to bot- tom (portrait), while a horizontally oriented page is widest across (landscape). How Will You Arrange the Objects? There are always lots of ways to arrange things to draw,