quick sketching techniques-1 - cathy johnson

Cathy Johnson’s Mini-classes

QUICK sketching techniques-1

LESSON TWO–LET’S GET AT IT!

Are you ready to jump in there? You’ve gotten your supplies together and explored trying themout, now let’s get our feet wet. We’ll cover some of the basics–yep, even as basic as suggestionson how you might hold your pencil–as well as some ideas on how to get in the quick-sketchmindset!

Here are some quick tips up front–they’ll help you get in the mood for speed!

! Draw bits. Don’t worry about awhole image or filling apage–draw what you have timefor, and let GO. Just an eye? That’s fine. The shape of ahead? OK. The line of adancer’s spine? Perfect. Thebarest suggestion of alandscape? Great. These will allbring back the whole scene inyour memory. You can developit from there, or not!

My veterinarian is a wildlife rehabilitator–he sometimes lets me know when he has wild babiesor an injured bird or animal for me to draw. And of course I have to move fast, because THEYdo.

As you can see, I just draw bits, as much as I have time for. If that just means the shape of theforehead or a suggestion of a pose, fine!

1Quick Sketching Techniques, © Cathy Johnson, all rights reserved

! Look for overall shapes, the BIG shapes (we’ll talk moreabout that in Lesson 3). Go for the shape of the hair orhead, the shape of a hill, building, lake...get that first, youcan always add more if you have time!

That’s what I did with my silly old cat Belle...she moved,once I’d done a quick sketch of her head, then I startedover. She stayed put for a bit, so I added the darker areawhile I had time. I didn’t care that there wasn’t time tocomplete a whole portrait!

! Imagine superimposing rough, simple geometricshapes to help capture these shapes...a circle, oval,cone...you can develop it further if you have moretime! (More on this a bit later in this lesson.)

I was editing this lesson when a squirrel showed upoutside my window. I sketched him in the margin!


! Watch for repeated, cyclical motionsor gestures–a kid on a swing will lookmuch the same each time she reachesthat apex. A man playing ball repeatssimilar motions. A dog may cyclethrough the same moves when playing,or a cat when taking a bath. A womanbrushing her hair repeats the samepose, or one close to it. Watch for therhythm of the pose, and go for that.

That’s what I did with this sketch of my cat (yep,the same one. She mostly hangs around my studio!) She kept returning to the same basic pose, so Icould add more as I got the chance. (I finished more of her face and head as she settled in for a morerelaxed visit.)

Check out this quick video–my attempt to sketch Pepi the cat taking a bath,while balancing a journal and holding a camera:http://youtu.be/qpNPcGrD1Dg

EXERCISE:

Give it a try, deliberately choose a moving target, and just get down what you can. No pressure, no expectations, just practice. Think of it as play!


http://youtu.be/qpNPcGrD1Dg

GESTURE SKETCHING

Gesture sketches are just what they sound like–avery quick sketch that captures just the gesture ofyour subject...the shape, the rhythm. You don’tworry about detail or values, just go for the quickscribble that captures something of what you see.Gesture sketches are great when your subject isliable to move, when you don’t have much time, ofwhen you’re trying to draw unobtrusively.

You’ll be surprised what you can get done in 10 to30 seconds. Then give yourself three minutes andyou’ll think you have all the time in the world.

It’s really better practice if you sketchsomething you can see right in front ofyou in order to capture that gesture, butyou’re welcome to try a quick sketch ofEllis, he loves to pose, the little ham.

Here’s my own quick gesture sketch from that photo. Ittook less than 15 seconds...you can see you don’t worryabout likeness or accuracy, just on capturing something ofthe pose! It DOES help train your powers of observation,though.

Here’s one of my older videos on YouTube,on gesture sketching:http://youtu.be/noR0nTqSPVk


http://youtu.be/noR0nTqSPVk

EXERCISE: Get out that kitchen timer or and set it for 30 seconds, or simplycount it off as you draw (you remember, “one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three-Mississippi...” ) However much you get done in that time, stop. Choose arelatively simple subject, don’t worry about details, just try for the “gesture” orpose (yes, even if you’re drawing a banana or a leaf!)

Remember, you can’t worry about accuracy, you’re just going for the overallfeeling. Now, do it again.

And again!

EXERCISE:

Now, try a ten or fifteen-second gesture sketch. Again, this is intended to capture just thebasic form or motion; obviously, details are impossible at this speed. (So is worryingabout what you produce–it’s liberating!)

EXERCISE:

Now try a three to five-minute sketch–and see how much more you can get done in such aluxurious amount of time!


GEOMETRIC SHAPES

You may find it helpful to sketch in the rough shapesthey see and imagine them as ovals, circles, cones,tubes and so forth...if it’s helpful, take a look at yourchosen subject in these terms, and quickly sketch thoseshapes.

(Some people’s minds work this way, and they find itvery helpful. Some don’t. Not to worry if you don’t!)

Think of these as just the main shapes, notnecessarily geometric, if you prefer, –in thiscase, head, body, forelegs and haunches. Connect and refine those shapes–quickly fleshthem out with form, volume, color...

...and here’s my sketchy little squirrel,eating the corn at my feeder.

It’s a way of simplifying yoursubject–fast!

EXERCISE:

Try copying my squirrel, or better yet,sketch something you see, right now!


EXERCISE

Use one of your softer pencils and do a quicksketch of anything at all–an apple or banana,your dog, a group of people–then try blendingor smearing your pencil with your finger for abit of volume or to suggest shadows.

This was the softest pencil I could find, atthe moment, a 6B–it does blend well witha fingertip for speedy halftones, though...

We’ll talk more about fast blending andhalftones in upcoming lessons!


I was experimenting with a flat sketching pencil on thisquick, simple image of my neighborhood.

You can see the video HERE:http://youtu.be/-5o-yyeiGGk

That’s what I was doing here, with a 2B lead in my mechanical pencil one night when my husband andour friend Kevin were making music. (I think I like the quick little Kevin in lower right best! He wasboth fast and expressive.) It was fun, quick, and effective, smearing the lead to create shadows.


http://tinyurl.com/6ard3sp

http://youtu.be/-5o-yyeiGGk

EXERCISE:

Just for fun, try thissimple landscape–it’sfrom a photo I took atSan Francisco’s OceanBeach in 2005; I’vedrawn and painted fromit more than once!

See which tool you’dlike best to sketch thiswith. Somethingsofter? Harder? Graphite, coloredpencil?

What needs simplifying? Work fast!

Here’s a soft pencil thumbnail sketchI did of the scene in preparation for apainting a few years ago...as you cansee, I changed the format to a broadhorizontal and simplified evenfurther by deleting most of thepeople and focusing on what caughtmy eye or told the best story!

Note: we’ll discuss thumbnailsketches and how to use them inLesson 3!

GIVE IT A TRY! Do whatever you like with it. Change the format, leave out some ofthe people, even copy* my sketch, if you like, to see how much pressure it took to getthose values–I was using only one pencil, but got a broad range of values depending onhow hard I pressed.


TIME YOURSELF!

Work fast.

Then try it again...

Finally...an important step. Ask yourself WHY you want to learn fast sketching. Sometimesexploring our goals helps us focus–and make progress!

* Did you notice that word copy, above? There’s a lot of discussion about that,these days, and of course no one wants to be guilty of copyright infringement. It’stricky, when the web makes borrowing an image so easy.

The courts now consider publishing to the web to be, indeed, publishing, so I tryto make sure my students understand that they need permission, even if they’reworking from someone else’s photo. (There ARE copyright-free photo imagesout there, and “angel CDs” with collections of images you can work from. I evenput together some photo CDs for other artists, myself, though they’re out of printnow!)

But basically, it’s not good to copy someone else’s work and call it your own.

THAT SAID, however, one of the best ways of learning is to copy an artist’stechniques. That’s what the Old Masters did, and their apprentices. You learnjust how much pressure to put on your pencil to get that particular value, you learnhow to hold your pen or your brush, by copying.

SO–you’re welcome to copy these sketches, for your own benefit, to learn!


BONUS # 1

SPEAKING OF COPYRIGHT-FREE, PERMISSION-FREE IMAGES

Here are some resources to find copyright-free images you can work from, if need be. For fastsketching, use them as if you were there! Time yourself. Choose relatively simple images, orsquint your eyes to simplify them.

Online Resources:

http://www.morguefile.com/

http://www.pdphoto.org/

BONUS #2

A QUICK SKETCH-JOURNAL SOLUTION (if you want to makesomething easy, with paper you love.)

Accordion-style folding journals can bebought–Moleskine makes them among others, but this is oneyou can make yourself, in minutes–for only the cost of somescrap paper. (If you buy one sheet of watercolor paper you canprobably get 6-7 folding journals out of it.)

Cut a long strip of paper, fold it accordion style, add acover to protect it if you like, and you’re done. The one in theforeground is really quite small, though it doesn’t look like ithere. It’s the one I carry in my Jeep’s glove box, so I alwayshave a source of paper with me!

And of course as I said, anything you want to useworks fine! Even scrap paper...the important thing isto have SOMETHING handy, and use it!


http://www.morguefile.com/

http://www.pdphoto.org/

I thought you might like to see the little concertina journal I carried in myJeep for a couple of years–I mostly used it when I didn’t have my regularsketch journal with me, or when I wanted to travel light.

The video is here:http://youtu.be/Jhdm0r_7YQo


http://tinyurl.com/accordionsketchbook

http://youtu.be/Jhdm0r_7YQo

quick sketching techniques-1 - cathy johnson

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