The Cutting Edge

Another week (an actual week this time, I'm as surprised as you are!), another drawing exercise. This week's exercise is another Contour Drawing Exercise, but this time you're actually allowed to look at what you're drawing.

In that respect it felt like a more useful drawing exercise than any before it, as I was able to focus on what I was drawing. On the other hand, it was also more stressful than any before it too, because I was able to watch my awful attempt at drawing one painful line after another.

Here are some helpful tips from the article itself:

"Choose a small kitchen or office object, whatever you have handy. Pieces of fruit, and natural objects such as plants or leaves, are the easiest. Making your drawing the same size as the object is helpful when you are learning. Just pick a point on an edge of the object and continue along with your eyes, letting your hand copy the shape on the paper. If there is a strong line, such as a fold or crease across the object, draw that too. Sometimes it helps to squint your eyes so you can see the 'silhouette' of the object. This is the basic shape you are trying to capture."

The idea behind this exercise is again to focus on the outline of an object, getting your hand and eye to work together. It wasn't an especially exciting task, and one that I found as boring the subject that I chose; a pair of scissors.

The aforementioned scissors.

Almost identical, right?

When you are first overcome with the urge to learn to draw, it is probably inspired by some masterpiece in an art gallery, or, in my case, a mixture of diverse characters and environments brought to life on the screen of anime or the pages of comic books. What you don't have in mind is drawing the different objects around your desk. That, however, is the reality, and you have start small to get to a place where you can create your own worlds, which may inspire someone else in the future. That's the dream, anyway.

For now though, I'm just happy that next week's exercise seems to let me choose my own subject... I'll do my best to make it more exciting than scissors, which surely can't be that hard?