You Can Draw in 30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less (29 page)

Before you try to draw this on your own, which I know you will successfully do in short order, I want you to trace this building three times. “What!” you exclaim in shock and horror. “Trace? But that’s cheating!” No, no, no, I do not agree. For thirty years I have gotten flack for always encouraging my students to trace pictures. I encourage them to trace pictures from superhero comic books, Sunday comics, magazine photos of faces, hands, feet, horses, trees, and flowers. Tracing is a wonderful way to really understand how so many lines, angles, curves, and shapes fit together to form an image. Think of any of the great artists, painters, or sculptors of the Renaissance—Rafael, Leonardo, Michelangelo—they all traced pictures to help them learn how to draw. I have discussed this age-old art education question with my colleagues at Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks PDI. Each one of them unhesitatingly responded that tracing the drawings of master illustrators helped them truly learn how to draw during their high school and art college years.

For this challenge, visit my website,
www.markkistler.com
, and click on the video tutorial entitled “Deluxe House Level 2.” (Be ready to push pause on your computer screen a lot as you draw.)

Look at a few student drawings, and compare their different unique style with yours. You each followed the same lesson but had slightly different results. Each of you is in the process of defining your own unique style and your own unique way of interpreting these lessons and the visual world around you.

T
oday, as a reward to yourself for doing such a wonderful job of drawing difficult houses, enjoy drawing these flowing graceful lilies. This lesson will highlight a simple yet important line: the S curve. After you finish this lesson, I want you to take a walk around your home (or wherever you happen to be). I want you to carry your sketchbook and write down/sketch six objects that have S curves in them (tree trunks, window drapes, flower stems, a baby’s ear, a cat’s tail). You will be surprised how easy they are to spot once you open your artist’s eye. This exercise will help you become aware of how important S lines are to our aesthetic world.

 

 

1. Begin the first lily with a graceful S curve.

2. Tuck another smaller S curve behind the first one.

3. Transferring what you learned from drawing all those foreshortened cylinders in the earlier lesson, draw an open foreshortened circle to create a petal.

4. Draw the pointed lip of the petal. Draw the bell of the flower by tapering the sides down. Tapering is another one of those very important ideas that you will start to notice everywhere now that you are aware of it. Your child’s arm tapers from the shoulder to the elbow and from the elbow to the wrist. A tree trunk tapers from its base to its branches. Your goldfish’s fins, your living room furniture, that martini glass in your hand, all consist of tapered lines.

5. Draw the curved bottom of the bell. Here we’re using the concept of contour. Curving contour lines define the shape and give it volume (contour lines will be described in greater detail in the next chapter).The near part of the bell is curved lower on the paper. Draw the seed pod in the center of the bell.

6. Draw more S curves to create the tops of the leaves.