Practice Makes Perfect

This week in Drawing in Life, we focused on the breakdown of drawing drapery on the model, aka a clothed model. Here are some tips that I’ve picked up on that have been helpful in my drawing this week:
1. I don’t know how many of you guys have taken geometry classes before but the first step in drawing drapery is breaking down the folds and shadows in the cloth into geometric shapes, for the most part triangles. Pressing the side of a stick of charcoal is a great way to make straight lines for triangles.
2. Focus more on the model and what you are viewing than on how the drawing looks initially. There is always time to go back and add detail to a drawing once the outline is drawn in.
3. A chamois cloth or a paper towel can be used interchangeably to get shading between folds in clothing. If a paper towel is being used, fold the paper towel into a desired size and use an edge to shade, pressing the paper towel against the page and dragging in the direction that you are shading.

Drapery Model
Drapery Model

Drapery on the model drawing example

As one of my goals is to be able to draw the human figure by the end of the spring semester at FIT Saturday live, understanding the importance of also knowing how to include drapery in a composition is a must. My progress so far has been noticeable from week to week. Between practice sketches at home and my time spent looking through other people’s similar art on the internet (aka my obsession with the hashtag drawing on tumblr) I have noticed the lessons I have observed in class appearing in my work. Utilizing the information that professor Martino tells me during Saturday live classes in any artwork made at home has helped me to remember what I’ve been taught and it makes a more structured composition.

The saying practice makes perfect holds true in the case of drawing. The best thing that a person interested in, beginning to, or even advanced in drawing can do for themselves is to practice, practice, and practice some more. Experiment with pencils and charcoal and I’ve learnt not to be afraid of making mistakes. Erasers are handy if when they aren’t missing, and my last piece of advice I can pass on to you in this post is to always hold onto an eraser at all costs. It WILL come in handy in any drawing class; I promise.
Thanks for reading!
Kathleen


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