Ten years ago today, I was living away from my family in another city and found myself with an abundance of free time. Doing my weekly supermarket shop, completely on impulse, I bought a notebook and pen, thinking it might be fun to do a quick drawing every day. I’d never done any serious drawing before, or had any real interest in art. I went home and in the evening drew my shoe. That’s where it all began.
It certainly has sole.
Jokes aside, when you look at your technique of your first drawing, what strikes you as the most important lessons you’ve learnt?If this was a drawing someone showed me today and asked what to do next, I would say:
Slow down with your shading. Scribbling doesn’t work. Use clean lines that send an unambiguous signal to the viewer.
Be bold. Inaccuracy looks bad, but hesitation looks worse.
Understand the lines you’re drawing. Ask if the heel really does go back like that, if the front really is that shape. Understand where the line stops and ends, how it curves, where it fits between other lines.
And most important of all: do it again tomorrow!
Wow! Very impressive analysis! Self critique is tough, good on ya!
I’m in textiles. When people are first learning to spin fleece they unintentionally get it all lumpy and uneven, because it’s really hard. It takes a fair amount of practice to get even, consistent thread. Apparently this “practice thread” is really sought after by weavers because the lumps and bumps make really interesting cloth and experienced spinners are unable to make “shitty” thread once they develop the muscle memory.
Anyway, I look at this drawing like that. It has a character to it that it comes by honestly. It’s a wonky shoe, but that probably makes it more interesting than if it was photo perfect. I’d be interested to see what your shoes look like now!
I’d never heard of that. That’s really interesting!
Be bold. Inaccuracy looks bad, but hesitation looks worse.
Great line.
Thank you!
shows us a current one OP.
edit: nevermind, I saw your profile. You progressed a lot. well done
Thank you! I still have this old sketchbook and it’s nice to go through it and see how I’ve improved.
