Tiny lesson doodles

A lot of groups are putting little mini live sessions online as part of their offerings lately, and I attended two in the past two days. I didn't do any major work as a result of them, but I did take good notes and will get back into them later.

The first was with Salli and Nate of they_draw.com, also responsible for illustratorsforhire. I joined their "Illustrators' Circle," which includes lots of draw-alongs and contests and other features. Yesterday we did a draw-along called "Abstraction Distraction—Inserting abstraction into your drawing practice." The idea is a five-step process that consists basically of thinking of an event, a place, or an experience, and making shapes that bring it back to you, in kind of a quilt-like assemblage, with an evocative color palette. Salli gave a few examples of some she had done, and I took a couple of screenshots:

  

The first is about a weekend in Miami, while the second is Salli's take on the winter solstice. You can see how the color palette in the first, and the curving and square lines, evoke the whole atmosphere of Miami, while the second has some specific references (moon, stars, trees, village) that, along with the colors, nicely reproduce the feel of the longest night.

This whole idea/process really appeals to me, and I plan to try some with color and shapes soon. All I had in front of me during the draw-along (without scrambling to drag stuff out) was my sketchbook and the Uniball I was using to take notes, so I did a doodle of my checkerboard herb garden, attempting to make basic shapes and lines that would convey plants without actually drawing stems and leaves. Here are my "Abstract Herbs."

Today's lesson was to play with line to make "curly" faces, which is to say a mostly continuous contour drawing of a face where all your lines are moving and defining the contours without lifting your pencil much, and varying the weight of the line for emphasis.

The teacher, Dina Wakley, used a Stabilo All pencil and then, since those are water-soluble, went back in with a wet brush to use the medium for shading. She also did a bunch of messy finger-painting with white acrylic paint mixed in, which appealed less to me, but I did enjoy doing the portrait and then using the wetted pencil to make the contours, and will, again, practice this more. Here is my version of a "Curly Face."
 

No impressive art made, but some interesting techniques to play with—a nice use of a morning hour in the studio!