Part 4 ➤ Developing Drawing Skills 190 All of what happens in your yard is material for drawing, too. The feeders and birdhouses are great for practicing perspective, too. You can hang them at various heights and draw them using informal relational perspective, or you can draw them with formal two-point perspective as an exercise. Eventually, you will find they are easy to see and draw at any angle or height. The birds and squirrels move around quickly, but if you have a good viewing window, you can begin to make some sketches that capture their gestures, shapes, and proportions. The fauna in your garden are as much a part of nature as the flora. Draw them, too. Birdhouses and feeders provide opportunities to develop your perspective skills and learn about geometric shapes, while also beginning to observe and try your hand at drawing living creatures. 191 Chapter 15 ➤ Into the Garden, with Pencils, not Shovels Chairs in the Grass Chairs in the yard are just like chairs in the house, except you can get a little tan while you are drawing. Adirondack chairs are a challenge, picnic tables need to be drawn so they stay flat on the ground, round tables with umbrellas are well worth the time to see and draw, and even a line of clothes drying in the breeze can make a nice drawing. Be aware of shadows and the shapes they make. They can add a lot to a simple drawing of a chair in your yard. The possibilities in your garden—and beyond—are limited only by your imagination. So get out there and see what you can see and draw. Get off your chair and draw it! Begin to see how to cre- ate an environment and a mood, or capture a moment in a blowing breeze, with your drawing. Part 4 ➤ Developing Drawing Skills Your Sketchbook Page Try your hand at practicing the exercises you’ve learned in this chapter. 193 Chapter 15 ➤ Into the Garden, with Pencils, not Shovels The Least You Need to Know ➤ A garden is perhaps the best reason for learning to draw: It provides an unending supply of delight and challenge. ➤ Be prepared, even in your own yard. Use a hat or umbrella. When going out in the woods or fields, take adequate protection against insects and the sun. ➤ Be a botanist when drawing from nature. Look at each specimen as an individual, and see what makes it different and special. ➤ Take advantage of garden centers, botanical gardens, if you are a city dweller you may need to resort to your local market or grocery store for a bouquet of flowers. ➤ Have some fun with statues, gates, or waterfalls. Remember: It’s your garden drawing. Part 5 Out and About with Your Sketchbook To learn about drawing the world around you, we’ll be looking at perspective, that important way of seeing three-dimensional space that artists use. Then, we’ll go outside to use your new- found knowledge and apply the principles of perspective, starting with your house, your neighbor- hood, and onward to the larger landscape of your world. . everywhere that you would like to be in order to draw, but you can use the car window as a tool to learn to draw well enough so that, in time, you won’t need a tool at all. Then you can go anywhere. challenge for you, too, but you can use it as a tool to help you improve your drawing. Part 5 ➤ Out and About with Your Sketchbook 198 In this chapter, we’ll bring perspective into clear focus and. there. Back to the Drawing Board We think it’s important to think of perspective as a useful tool rather than a problem. After all, perspective is everywhere, so you should use it to your advantage rather