Beginning to Draw: The Foundation of Art

2007. For individual and classroom use only. Duplication or any

form of electronic or digital copying is expressly forbidden under
the laws of the United States of America, Canada, Europe and all
other countries bound by International Agreement.

2007. All rights reserved.

Page 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction

About Perception

The Arabesque
Proportion
Shape

9
19

Modelling Form

31

Constructing your Black Box

36

The Egg

37

The Singular Bottle

40

Perspective An Introduction

46

The Still Life

51

The Cast: Introduction to Portrait Drawing

60

2007. All rights reserved.

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SUPPLY LIST
Paper: Fabriano or Canson Ingres, Ivory or Buff colored (10 sheets)
1 pad of newsprint (50 or 100 sheets) 14x18
Drawing Board: 14x18 or 16x20
2 Clips and Masking Tape
Pencils: Mars Lumograph 8B (6 minimum)
3 sticks Vine charcoal medium thickness & grade
4 sticks Black conte and 1 holder
Kneaded Eraser
Knitting needle
Plumb bob (available at any hardware store. A fishing sinker or large washer or bolt will
suffice) and 16 length of string or heavy black thread
8x10 plexiglass or glass
1 watersoluble black marker (China marker)
1 small jar of Gesso (student grade) and a 1 brush
Safety razor blades and medium grade sandpaper with a sanding block (piece of wood or
small, flat object that can be held in your hand)
Mahl Stick (optional)
Easel (Many different types of easels are available. Choose one that is sturdy and easy to
use. I do not recommend using table top easels)
1 small clip on light (10 watts or thereabouts)
Blackbox (you need to build this yourself using inexpensive wood, glue and black construction
paper. You can also use a heavy cardboard box lined with the black construction paper).
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rawing is the most direct conduit of visual

expression and intention. A drawing
can be either a work of art in itself or a preliminary structure to a more ambitious medium such as painting, sculpture, film, or any other
endeavor.
As an artist and teacher I firmly believe that a
solid tri-partite foundation of craft is essential
to art-making. Drawing, composition and color
form this foundation. Of course, craft is only
one of the components in the practice of art. The other two are
expression and the construct - which is the syntax, or language,
of visual art making.
The primary agenda of the Beginning to Draw DVD workshop is
to train you in the principles of drawing and to sufficiently develop
your eye and hand so that you acquire the skill sets to pursue
your own expression and the development of your unique voice
unencumbered by faulty technique and perception.
My name is Michael Britton and I will be your guide to your initial
development as an artist.

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hen we look at a photograph we experience its

immediate fact - its frozen moment. Looking at a
photograph engages the limbic, or emotional right-side, of
our hemispheric brain. However, when we look at a realist drawing we first quickly analyze it with our brains left
hemisphere to assure ourselves that it meets a standard
of plausibility before becoming emotionally engaged.
The problem of drawing for the artist is the conflict
between the concrete fact of the object we are looking at
and our emotional disengagement and analysis of it when
we attempt to draw it. The result of this conflict is a drawn
symbolic preconception.
Symbolic preconceptions are a subconscious visual language - a cuneiform syntax that assigns generic symbols
to known objects. This language of symbols evolved as
a defense mechanism
to ensure early humanitys survival - namely,
the recognition of food
sources and avoidance
of predators.

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When we look at an unfamiliar, unknown object our subconscious mind struggles to form
a symbol. Quite often the beginning artist will draw an unfamiliar object more accurately
than they would a familiar object. However, when the same beginning artist attempts to
draw this previously unfamiliar object again - it is more likely than not that a symbol of
the object will be drawn. This is the nature of language - an object is discovered and
given a name. The named object is then assigned a symbol by our subconscious thus
establishing an association between a name and an object. Consider, for example, the
word RED. Immediately an image which is the color red comes to mind which is a
symbol for the word RED.
But if I say YELLOW and show you a blue image what you see now conflicts with the
expected image. We are momentarily disoriented until our mind reassociates the blue
image with the word BLUE. For example, This is blue.
This visual language process works at a higher level too. Consider these two similar
illustrations:

On the left is a drawn cube in space. We know that all of these lines are on the same flat
2-dimensional plane but we perceive it as 3-dimensional. Placing the letters a on the
perceived front corners of the cube reinforces our perception of this cube.
However, place these letters a onto the other, unexpected, corners of the cube and
we experience visual conflict - the expected back panel of this cube struggles to come
forward. Our preconceived symbol of a cube is disrupted until our analytical left-brain
determines that a now represents the back panel.
It is this visual conflict that artists constantly struggle with. The resolution of this conflict
of what we see and what we perceive requires training, skill set of tools.
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One overview of the historical development of drawing is an appreciation of the discoveries and refinements of perception.
The art of Classical Greece remains the touchstone of Western Civilization. What is generally not
known is that by the late 13th Century very few
original Classical Greek statues remained intact.
Even fragments of the original sculptures are rare.
All that was left to be re-discovered by the 13th
Century, the early beginnings of the Renaissance,
were Roman copies of copies of the original Classical Greek statues.
From the 5th Century AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the humanist ethic of Greek Art was
superceded by the Byzantine whose ethic ideal was
the glorification of God and Jesus. Replacing the
nude, humanist figures of Greek art were the Virgin
Mary and the Saints. Perhaps the lowest point
of Western Civilization was the Iconoclastic Period
beginning in 730AD when the Emperor Leo III, also
known as the Syrian, banned all Christian Images
and ordered them destroyed.
For 112 years all depictions of the human form were
decreed blasphemous, sought out and destroyed as
an act in the service of God. This was a time of economic decline and political upheaval in the Mediterranean world.
For almost one thousand years the Classical Ideals of
art languished and were nearly extinguished. Except
for a small number of about 50 Monks pushed to the
edge of Europe onto the Isle of Man around 550 AD the
Classical Ideals would have been irrevocably lost. In
sum, Western Civilization survived only by the skin of its
teeth.

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Although the origins of the Italian Renaissance are

vague, it is believed to have taken its first form in the late
14th Century. The first major artist of the Renaissance
was Giotto di Bondone (1267 - 1337). The achievements
of Giotto are stunning. Although to our contemporary
eye his work can look crude and amateurish it should
be remembered that after almost 1,000 years of Byzantine stylism the knowledge and skills required for realist
drawing were lost and had to be re-invented.
The early Renaissance artists struggled with the same
issues as the beginning artist today - except that they
had very little guidance. Only the ruins and fragments of
the earlier Greek and Roman empires were their references.
It took almost 200 years of struggle and re-invention
before drawing, and the expression of the human figure,
attained its apotheosis in the High Renaissance at the
turn of the 16th Century with Raphael, Da Vinci and
Michelangelo.

Giotto de Bondone

Realist drawing is an invention whose practice requires

a skill-set - a skill-set that you are now about to acquire.

Raphael
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Proportion
The first skill to be acquired is the ability to adjudge and strike the root proportion of
objects. To achieve this skill the following six exercises should be enacted in the order
presented.
Affix a sheet of newsprint onto your drawing board and over this attach your plexiglass.
You will be drawing only with your water-soluble black marker. You will need to clean off
your plexiglass before proceeding with the subsequent exercise. Hence, a wet rag will
be quite handy.
The following pages contain the objects to be used. Print out these sheets (the exercises) and affix them at your eye level onto a wall that is approximately 6 or 8 feet distance. If you dont have a printer draw and paint in your own shapes (use gray colored
poster or acrylic paint) using the dimensions of the exercises on a sheet of white paper
Set up your easel to that you can easily see both your drawing surface and the exercise
with minimal movement of your head.
The agenda is to train your eye to accurately adjudge proportion. Therefore DO NOT
PRE-MEASURE! We always strike first (our best guess) and then check it.
The DVD demonstration explains the process of checking and correcting with much
greater clarity than can be explained with text.

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We begin with the Square (which is the litmus

test to assure us that we are proceeding correctly).
First, look at the square from your station point
and then draw it on your paper as accurately as
you are able (as demonstrated in the DVD) with
your black marker.
Next, we use the square to ascertain that we are
sighting correctly. Hold your knitting needle at
arms length, keep you elbox locked, and place
the point of the knitting needle on one side of
the square and adjust your thumb on the knitting
needle so that it corresponds with the square
that is taped onto the wall.
Now turn the knitting needle perpendicular so
that your fixed thumb is now at the base of the
square. If you are sighting correctly the tip of
the knitting needle will be touching the top of the
square.
Now correlate those proportions to your drawing of the square on the plexiglass. The width
of your square should equal the height. If it
doesnt, that will tell you what your general
weakness is.
Repeat this exercise until you can strike the
square with a reasonable accuracy.
Finally, hold your plexiglass drawing up to the
square that is affixed to the wall and adjust your
plexiglass (like a camera lens) until the square
fits. This is how we ascertain correct shape.
Correct as necessary.

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Next is the Double Square.

Again, draw the double square on the plexiglass
taking your best guess.

checkpoint

Now sight the width and as you turn your knitting

needle perpendicularly you need to take note of
where the tip is on the double square. This is
called a check point. (You are allowed to make
a little mark on the exercise sheet if you find that
it helps you. Training wheels are allowed. For
now.)
Move your fixed thumb up to the checkpoint and
note the placement of the knitting needles tip.
As you may have guessed, the height of the
double square is twice that of the width. Your
drawing on the plexiglass should correlate this.
If not, correct as necessary. But do not premeasure the correction, do it free-hand. This is
how we train our eye.
Finally, hold up your plexiglass drawing to
the exercise to check its shape. Correct as
needed.

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Exercise 3, The Root 2 Rectangle, introduces a

new element.

Checkpoint 2
Adjudge the
smallest distance.

Draw the Root 2 Rectangle on the plexiglass

taking your best guess. (If you are making your
own rectangle exercises the dimensions of this
Root 2 Rectangle are 9 x 6 3/8.
Now sight the width and as you turn your knitting
needle perpendicularly note the checkpoint.
Move your fixed thumb up to the checkpoint and
note the placement of the knitting needles tip.

Checkpoint 1

The tip of the knitting needle now establishes

the second checkpoint which is above the Root
2 Rectangle.
A critical moment has now presented itself. We
need to learn to accurately judge distances. And
a small distance is more accurately adjudged
than is a larger distance. Hence, we now need
to take our best guess and make a mark on
our plexiglass where we best feel this second
checkpoint is. As you gain experience, your
ability to accurately place this checkpoint will
improve significantly.

The Root 2 Rectangle is one of the

dynamic rectangles that correspond
to natural design law. The other
dynamic rectangles are the Golden
rectangle, Root 3, the square, the
double square, Root 5, and the
square root of the Golden Rectangle.
This is fully explained and taught
in my Symphonic Composition DVD
Workshop.

2007. All rights reserved.

Now check the proportions of your drawing. The

width should equal twice the measure from the
base of the Root 2 Rectangle to the uppermost
checkpoint.
If necessary, correct your drawing to correspond
to the uppermost checkpoint.
Finally, hold up your plexiglass drawing to the
exercise to check its proportion and shape. Correct as needed. However, be aware that your
checkpoint may be off. You will get better at
this.

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Exercise 1: The Square

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Exercise 2: The Double Square

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Exercise 3: The Root 2 Rectangle

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Exercise 4: The Root 3 Rectangle

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Exercise 5: The Root 5 Rectangle

Three checkpoints will

be required for this
exercise.

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Exercise 6: The Golden Rectangle

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Shape
In addition to acquiring the skill of adjudging proportion we also need to adjudge shape.
Striking the arabesque, which is the outside shape of an object, encapsulates both proportion and shape simultaneously.
We now know how to use the plexiglass to verify the accuracy of our drawings proportion. Now we shall put the plexiglass to much greater use.
Again, enact the exercises in the order that they are presented. We are still working with
the black marker on plexiglass. Three of the exercises are demonstrated on the DVD
beginning with Exercise 1: The Peach.
If helpful, you can draw a rectangle on the Exercise page to fit the peach. That way you
can first establish the proportion and then the shape. Soon, though, you will need to
establish proportion and shape in one approach.

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Shape: Exercise 1: The Peach

Peach shape
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Foreshortened Cucumber shape

Shape: Exercise 2: The Foreshortened Cucumber

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Watermelon Slice shape

Shape: Exercise 3: Watermelon Slice

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Lemon shape

Shape: Exercise 4: The Lemon

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Pepper shape

Shape: Exercise 5: The Pepper

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Shape: Exercise 6: The Egg in a Cup

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Egg in Cup Shape

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Shape: Exercise 7: The Flower Pot

Flowerpot Shape
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Banana Bunch shape

Shape: Exercise 8: Bananas

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Shape: Exercise 9: The Roman Vase

Roman Pitcher shape

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Strawberry shape

Shape: Exercise 10: The Strawberry

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Shape: Exercise 11: The Apple Core

Apple Core shape

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orm is the 3-dimensional shape of an object. A more accurate term, though, is

plastic form. Plasticity is the illusion of 3-dimensionality rendered on a flat plane
(the 2-dimensional pictorial surface, i.e., your paper).
There are numerous approaches to rendering plastic form: Value (the relative lightness and darkness of one area to another); color; line (perspective, for example);
and tone (or shading) are some of these.
At present tone shall be the considered approach. Tone can be applied by direct
application of drawing material (such as charcoal) and then smeared, or stumped, to
describe the form of an object or by manipulation of the sharpened pencil.
The historical approach to rendering plastic form with the sharpened pencil is by
cross-hatching. Cross-hatching is the marking of a series of parallel lines within a
given area. To further darken, or tone down, that area another series of parallel lines
are laid down over the previous series. And so on and so on.
Cross-hatching is a learned skill. It looks easy to do until you actually attempt it.
Quite often, uncontrolled cross-hatching reads as flat and unconvincing. The following four exercises will develop your cross-hatching skills to a competent level. But
you do have to diligently practice.

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Cross-Hatching: Exercise 1
Using a small piece of Ingres ivory or
buff colored paper sketch out a square
that is approximately 4 x 4 inches.
Within this square using super sharp
8B pencils (any type of pencil will suffice. In fact, you should gain experience with many different types) tone
the square evenly with cross-hatching
as demonstrated on DVD 1.
The objective is to develop your skill so
that you can lay down an even tone.
Be prepared to do this exercise about
six or eight times before you really get
the hang of it.

Cross-Hatching: Exercise 2:
The 9-Tone Bar

Utilizing the cross-hatching skills you have just acquired it is now time to push those skills
further by developing controlled gradations of tone.
Dont be impatient or cheat by using different hardness of pencils, the objective here is to
begin developing the touch. This touch cannot be explained or demonstrated, really, it
is a somatic epiphany that you will know you have when you finally get it it is a feeling.
Diligently practice your cross-hatching and enjoy the meditative process.
Using a 13 x 3 piece of Ingres ivory or buff colored paper sketch out a rectangle measuring 1114 x 2. Divide the length into 9 smaller rectangles of 114 wide.
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The objective here is to apply an even tone to each small rectangle, beginning with the
darkest possible tone you can achieve on the right-most rectangle, so that each rectangle is part of an even tonal progression from dark to light.

The fifth (middle) rectangle is now toned so that it is precisely half-way between the darkest tone and the first (lightest) rectangle. This is a judgment call and as you struggle
with it your capacity to adjudge tonal values will increase dramatically. Do the best you
can keeping in mind that you will most likely have to return to this rectangle several times
before its proper value is achieved.

The seventh bar is toned so that it is precisely halfway between the darkest bar and the
middle tone (the fifth bar).

The third bar is toned so that it is precisely halfway between the middle tone (the fifth bar)
and the first bar (the lightest tone). What we are doing here is dividing tone by two. This
is much more controllable method of constructing plastic from than by gradating step by
step. We are toning from the general to the specific.
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The eighth bar is toned so that it is precisely halfway between the darkest tone and the
seventh tone.

The sixth bar is toned so that it is precisely halfway between the seventh and middle
(fifth) tone.

The fourth bar is toned so that it is precisely halfway between the middle (fifth) and third
tone.

To conclude the 9-tone bar the second tone is precisely halfway between the lightest light
and the third tone.
As your eye scans the 9 tones you will see that the dark tones are closer together than
the light tones. As objects recede into dark they present significantly less information
than what is seen in the lighter tones. Except in the lightest tones where the information
is actually bleached out by the light.
The bulk of an objects information (i.e., detail and such) is found in the middle light
tones.
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Cross-Hatching: Exercise 3
Using a small piece of Ingres ivory or
buff colored paper sketch out a square
that is approximately 4 x 4 inches.
The objective here is to develop the skill
of gradated tone using cross-hatching.
This skill is essential for rendering plastic form.
The example shown here is a gradation from dark to light radiating from
the upper right corner. Once you have
gained a competency with this, try a
variety of patterns, such as dark to
light radiating from the center and viceversa.

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Constructing your
Black Box
The purpose of the black box (also called a
shadow box) is to isolate a single light source
upon an object so that its form can be studied
without contamination from myriad other light
sources.
To construct the black box you will need 6 pieces
of 14 wood, black cartridge paper, glue and
some screws and small corner brackets. Good
workable dimensions are:
Wood
2 pieces 18 x 22
2 pieces 17 x 14
1 piece 14 x 2112 (if your wood is 14 thick or
21 if your wood is 12 thick)
14 small corner brackes and wood screws
Black cartridge paper trimmed to fit inside.
Paper glue.
You can also use a sturdy cardboard box lined
with black cartridge paper.

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the egg

A white egg provides the ideal conditions for understanding plastic form. Set up your egg in
your black box so that it is at your eye level. Very likely you will have to use books or cans
to build up the platform on which your egg will set. Cover this platform with a piece of black
cartridge paper and beneath the egg place a sheet of white paper.
Using a 5 x 7 piece of ivory or buff Ingres paper for
the drawing set up your station so that you can see
the egg and your drawing with minimal movement of
your head.
We will be drawing the egg life-size and to that end
indicate either the height or the length (your choice)
of the egg.
Let your eyes fall into soft focus and strike the arabesque of the egg as best you can using a sharp 8B
pencil and then sight and check its height/width proportions. Correct if necessary. You can also trace
your arabesque onto your plexiglass to check the
shape.
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Squint down so that your eyes see just one

big dark and one big light on the egg and
block in that light/dark pattern by crosshatching with your 8B pencil.
Do not get caught up in details. We always
work from general to specific.

Stumping down with your finger

observing the plastic form of the egg
will unify the drawing.
In painting practice this is would be
considered the underpainting.

Cross-hatching with a sharp 8B pencil

begin developing the plastic form by carefully observing the internal proportion and
shape of the larger darks. Everything
should relate to the egg as a whole.

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Stumping down at intervals will help maintain a unified look to your drawing.

Drawing is an additive/subtractive process.

You add something, you take something
away, all the while proceeding toward a final
resolution. Using a kneaded eraser paint
out the lights.
I have also indicated the reflected light at
the base of the egg. Reflected light is light
that bounces off of the surface that an object
is sitting on and reflects (weakly) into the
object. In this case, the egg.

Keeping your 8B pencils sharp carefully

observe the form and develop the egg as far
as you can by cross-hatching, stumping and
painting out as you feel necessary.
Dont think of this as a step-by-step process.
Instead thing of this as a procedure of play.
Have fun with it.

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singular
bottle

the

This exercise will present a radically different approach to

drawing than what has been presented so far. Instead of
first striking the linear arabesque and then blocking it in
we will be developing the drawing with tone only. The
purpose is to train you to draw in a fluid, more painterly
manner.
First, you need to prepare a selection of bottles, 3 minimum, whose shapes and proportions
differ significantly from each other. Second, to continue our studies of plastic form and light
each bottle needs to be painted with white gesso. A small jar of student grade gesso can be
purchased from any art store. Alternatively, you can also use white latex (non-gloss) house
paint.
As with the egg exercise the bottle needs to be set-up in the black box and lit in a pleasing light,
dark pattern. In this exercise you will draw your bottles a little less than life-size. This is so that
your final drawing can be checked with the plexiglass.
The pictorial surface of your drawing will be the Golden
Rectangle. The construction of the Golden Rectangle
is quite easy. We begin with a square whose dimensions are to be equal to the width of your drawings pictorial surface. Six inches will, in most cases, suffice.
Draw and locate the center point on the side of the
square. From that center point draw a diagonal to the
upper left corner of your square.

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That diagonal is now the radius of a circle. Using a

compass draw an arc as illustrated here.

Extend the right side of the square upwards

until it intersects with the arc and then complete the rectangle. This is the Golden Rectangle whose proportions are 1.618. The
proportion is also known as Phi, which is
the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet. Plato
referred to Phi as the number of the worlds
soul.

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9.71 inches

This classical, dynamic pictorial surface

was a favorite of Picasso, amongst others.
Assuming that your pictorial width is 6 wide
the height then will be 9.71 or slightly less
than 934.

6 inches

Using a small, approximately 1, piece of

medium grade and size vine charcoal I
have marked the top and bottom of my
bottle within the Golden Rectangle.
You are not going to strike the arabesque
proper as we have been doing. Instead
the bottle is going to be developed primarily with tone constructing the figure/ground
relationship as one unified whole. The
figure is the object (i.e., the bottle), the
ground is the background. The figure and
ground must relate to each other. To wit,
the whole must be greater than the sum of
its parts.
To that end squint down your eyes until you
see only the big light and big dark. Using
the broad side of the vine charcoal and
holding it in your finger tips strike the arabesque of the light shape of the bottle.
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Vine charcoal is a fluid drawing medium. By that I

mean it is messy and malleable.
I have blocked in the dark of my entire composition
with the broad side of the vine charcoal this is both
the ground (background) and dark pattern of the object
(the bottle). The light area is the light shape on the
bottle.
The thinking process here is quite different than that of
drawing the egg.

Stump down the vine charcoal with your finger

while considering the basic plastic form of the
bottle.
You will need a clean tissue at the ready to wipe
the excess charcoal off of our fingers. Otherwise
it will smear uncontrollably.

Using a kneaded eraser pull out the primary

light. You can also take your best guess at indicating the reflected light on the dark side of the
bottle. If your best guess is significantly off, as
Ive shown in the following illustration, no need
to fret. It is easily corrected.

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You will find it quite the challenge to accurately draw your

bottle using just the vine charcoal. Sight and verify the
proportions of your bottle.
If, like I have shown, you are significantly off correct the
arabesque of your entire figure (the bottle) with a sharp 8B
pencil.

Here I have returned with the vine charcoal and further developed the plastic form of my figure and deepened the ground.
Drawing bottles symmetrically can be a vexing endeavor. By
inverting your drawing you can more easily see what needs
to be corrected. Inversion abstracts the shapes of the object
and allows you to see past the object as, well, the object.
Even bottles have their symbolic preconceptions.

And it is back to pulling out the plastic forms of the

light with the kneaded eraser. As Ive mentioned previously, and will so so again and again, drawing is an
additive/subtractive process.

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You can choose to work up your drawing using only

the vine charcoal which I would recommend for at
least one of your bottle drawings.
For this demonstration I have further developed the
forms by cross-hatching with my 8B pencil.
The red stick, partially shown in the upper right
corner, is a Mahl stick. Mahl sticks are particularly
useful for steadying your hand and keeping it off of
your drawing so that you do not smear it.
There is no particular method to using the Mahl
stick. It depends on what you find comfortable.
Mahl sticks can be found at most art stores or you
can make one yourself using a 12 dowel obtainable
from any hardware store.

When you have taken your bottle as

far as you can verify its shape with
the plexiglass.
Place the plexiglass over your drawing and trace the shape of your
bottle onto the plexiglass with your
black marker.
Now hold it up to your gessoed
bottle and adjust as youve been
trained to previously.
My bottle does not fit. This is due
in part to distortion by the camera
lens and by me having to draw
while seated to the far left of the
drawing so that you can have an
unobstructed view of the drawings
development

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PERSPECTIVE an introduction

he understanding of perspective is actually quite recent

given the long, convoluted history of
Western Art. The idea of illusional
3-dimensional space on a flat wall
or canvas was an alien concept for
most of our history.
An example is Egyptian mural painting. Their idea of spatial illusion was to simply put one
object in front of another. For a millennia every figure, human and animal, was rendered in
profile, except for the all-seeing eye that was always looking out frontally. Although every age
invents its own forms and art, the illusion of space was not one of them.
Perspective-wise, things didnt improve much in Medieval Europe. Although a few artists
attempted the illusion of spatial depth with some very curious results.
A question one might ask is Why couldnt at least someone see or recognize basic perspective? Well, there is a very interesting historical example of why we do not see what is obviously
there.
When Columbus ships arrived in the New World at the island of Hispaniola his ships were
clearly visible on the horizon. Columbus could see the New World with his own eyes.
However, the indigenous people of Hispaniola could not see the ships. The ships were invisible
to them even though they were sitting there in plain view on the horizon. What the natives could
see, though, was a change in the pattern of the oceans current and from that they suspected
something was out there. But still, they could not see it.
The patterns of waves and currents were well understood. Generations of experience and
dependence upon fishing taught them to read the water. Large, sailing ships were completely
alien to them and, apparently, we do not see what we are not taught to see.

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It was not until the early Italian Renaissance

that perspective as we know it was discovered
and subsequently developed. The perspective
in della Franciscas Baptism of Christ is fairly
simple. Later, as the science of perspective was
developed, artists such as Raphael really went to
town with works such as School of Athens.
In this brief preamble I will discuss 1 and 2 point
perspective. Lets begin with 1 point perspective.

1-Point Perspective
First, we require a horizon line which is at our
eye-level looking straight ahead. Consider a
road in a desert, the two sides of the road will
gradually join together on the horizon at a point
that is called the Vanishing Point. As a fixed
rule: All parallel lines converge at the same Vanishing Point.
The most commonly used example of 1-point
perspective is Leonardo Da Vincis fresco The
Last Supper. Note that the primary Vanishing
Point is at Christs head.

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2-Point Perspective
Two point perspective creates an illusion of concrete 3-dimensionality and weight.
Two point perspective requires two vanishing points. Remember, all corresponding parallel
lines converge at the same vanishing point. Hence one side of our box will meet at one vanishing point, the other at the 2nd vanishing point. The box is now a 3-dimensional cube.

This is a good time to mention an important thing about objects and perspective. When an
object is below the horizon line you will see its top plane. Conversely, when an object is above
the horizon line, suspended in space for example, you will see its bottom plane.
Placing the vanishing points takes practice. Put these vanishing points too close together and
your object becomes distorted and squashed. The best way to place your vanishing points is
by eye. And that is by first accurately striking the shape of your arabesque. And youve already
been trained in that!

Depth of field problems

arise when the vanishing
points are placed too
close together and also
when placed too far
apart.

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When it comes to perspective, it is generally best to visually objects as simple cubes. Each
cube, unless all of your cubes are lined up like little soldiers, will be situated differently than all
of the other cubes. Therefore, each cube will have its very own set of vanishing points.

The grey cube has its own set of vanishing points. One vanishing point is off the page! This
could be a tragedy, except that horizon lines go on forever. Your paper does not. In this case
we need to visually extend our constructing lines and take a reasonable guess. Also, note that
the bottom of the grey cube is below the horizon line and the top of the grey cube is above the
horizon.
There are methods to accurately ascertain the far vanishing point. One could run out lengths
of black thread or even calculate it mathematically if you are so inclined. But for our purposes
assessing the angles of the arabesque will suffice.

The violet cube also has its own set of vanishing points that, incidentally, fit onto the page. And
since the violet cube is below the horizon line we see its top plane.

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The oblong blue cube is a curious fellow. One vanishing point comes pretty close to being a
one-point perspective situation, but not quite. Again, the other vanishing point is way off the
page. This is an example of how you would tackle a foreshortening problem - that is, when an
object is coming straight out at you.
To sum up, then, perspective is a science and art all on its own. What I have intended here is
to give you the basics so that when you are drawing and finding an object a bit tricky then just
knowing these basics of perspective will help you get out of a jam.
Well, now were ready to start putting all these things together -- Proportion, shape, tone and
perspective. Lets proceed to our first still life.

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the still life

The genre of still-life drawing and painting has been the primary focus of many
generations of artists. The possibilities
are infinite.
For your first still life choose three objects
that are matte white, relatively simple in
shape and that address each other in
some manner of correspondence.
Antique, floral, even dollar stores, offer
many interesting objects that can be
quite challenging to draw. Half the fun is discovering the objects for your still life collection. My
chosen objects are two plaster-cast sea-shells and a pint-size creamer.
Set-up and light your objects in your black box in a manner that you find pleasing and interesting. You will discover that there are innumerable possibilities with even this limited number of
objects.
Using a viewfinder, which is two
pieces of stiff card stock cut at
right-angles, is an excellent tool of
determining your pictorial surface.
Again, play with the possibilities
and choose a pictorial surface that
you find interesting and pleasing.
The pictorial surface that I have
chosen is a 2/3 ratio which incidentally is a classic octoval rectangle known as Diapente (and
also as Sesquialtera). Therefore,
I decided upon a pictorial surface
that is 12 x 8.
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It is, however, extremely poor practice to draw while looking through

the viewfinder. Use it only to
decide upon your pictorial field
(the terms pictorial field and surface are interchangeable) and to
gain a general idea of your proposed composition.
To place, or compose, the grouped
objects of your still-life within your
pictorial surface envision the group

An exquisite drawing medium is black cont which is what we will now use for the still-life.
Experiencing a range of drawing mediums is part and parcel of discovering art.
To sharpen your cont place and hold the stick vertically on a firm surface such as a table top
and with a safety-razor blade carve out a rough point using downward strokes. Be careful not
to break it. The cont can then be further sharpened with sandpaper.
Cont sticks are quite small and a holder is quite useful. They can be readily purchased in any
art store. The one that I use is a French antique from the 19th Century.
As you have been trained determine the top and base and width
of the grouped objects. You need
to consider your group as being
one singular object. Do not
draw one object, then another,
then another.
Strike the arabesque of the singular group and then lightly sketch
in the objects as individual entities.

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When you are striking the arabesque of a group of objects it is of immense benefit to also
gauge what is called the negative space (or better still, the interspace). The interspace are the
shapes outside of the positive shapes of the objects. I have highlighted the interspace shapes
in Yellow.
There is no set rule as to what constitutes the shape of a negative space. It is only a tool that
is useful for determining accuracy by working one against the other.

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For this still-life sight the height

of the singular grouping, i.e., from
the base of the larger sea-shell to
the top of the creamer, and use
that measure to gauge the width
of the singular objects.
The first measure reaches from
the left side of the smaller, triangular sea-shell to a point on the
larger sea-shell that is to be considered the first landmark. Fix this
landmark into your memory.
The second measure reaches
from the first landmark to the
second landmark (a checkpoint)
on the tail of the larger sea-shell.
Fix this checkpoint to memory and
assess that small distance to the
end of the larger sea-shells tail.
As you now know these measures
must correlate to your arabesque.

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Using a small piece of medium

grade, medium thickness vine
charcoal held broad-side in my
finger tips I squint down my eyes
and block in the primary overall
pattern of light and dark.

The roughed in vine charcoal is

then stumped down using my fingers while constantly wiping off
the excess charcoal onto a piece
of tissue.

With a kneaded eraser I paint out

the primary lights.

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Using the sharpened cont the

arabesques of the objects are
refined. It is good practice to
begin constructing the plastic
form of the furthest object (the
creamer). The plastic forms of
the creamer are modelled by
cross-hatching, stumping and
painting out with the kneaded
eraser.
Do not render the creamer
to full plastic resolution before
proceeding to the next object.
Instead, develop the creamer to
about 50% completion.
The smaller, triangular sea-shell
followed by the larger sea-shell
are modelled to about 50%
completion.

The rule of thumb is:

Always leave yourself room
to manoeuvre.

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The ground (background) needs

to be developed in conjunction
with the figure (objects). The
figure/ground relationship must
have a harmonious correspondence.
Using the broad side of a smallish piece of cont I blocked in the
ground.
Feeling the need to darken and
push down the ground I stumped
in the cont pressing hard with
my fingers.
Working up the stumped cont
ground with a kneaded eraser
is quite similar to painting
you are manipulating the material (the stumped cont ) by pushing, pulling, lifting out. As I have
mentioned before drawing (and
painting) is an additive/subtractive
process. The emphasis is on the
word process.

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Feeling that I have exhausted

the limits of cont regarding this
drawing I decided to switch to
my 8B pencil which will give
me greater definition in resolving the forms.
First, the arabesques is refined
further refined. Curiously, as
a drawing progresses toward
resolution one becomes more
aware of little, troublesome
issues.

Significantly deepening the

ground by cross-hatching with
the 8B pencil increases the
value range of the composition.
The objects now appear whiter.

Working up the cast shadows

in the ground, still by crosshatching with the 8B pencil and
stumping down, creates a stronger illusion of 3-dimensional
space.

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It is also good practice to step

back from your drawing and gauge
its overall effect. Stepping back
from my drawing I noticed that the
base of the creamer is too low.
Such an error is very easy to
correct, even at this late stage.
Simply re-draw it, erase the offencing marks as best you can and
remodel the corrected form.

The push towards the final resolution of your drawing is the striving
of pushing down the darks and
pulling out the lights to effect the
full value stretch of tones.
The decision where to conclude
the drawing depends upon the
individual artist. Some prefer an
unfinished look, others a highly
polished effect.
The difference in appearance of
the finished drawing to the previous developmental drawings is
the difference between video lighting and still-camera lighting. It is
a technical issue only.
There are also the differences
between what the video camera
sees and what my eye sees to be
considered when I compare the
drawing to the camera image.
Bear in mind that I am, like you,
drawing from life not from a photograph.

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the cast: an introduction to

portrait drawing

ortrait drawing has historically been considered amongst the highest endeavors of realist artists. The very real problem of portrait drawing is the psychological and perceptual
blocks of symbolic preconceptions. The human face is a powerful metaphor and, as
such, is easily given over to symbolic signifiers and codifications. For the realist artist whose
ambition is to render a true likeness these symbols must be overcome.
Drawing from the cast is an excellent, historically proven, vehicle for understanding the forms
and surface structures of the head. Considering the cast head as a still life object, rather than
as a human being, in large part obviates the insidious creeping in of symbolic preconceptions.
It is not as easy as it once was to find good plaster casts. Unfortunately most art schools and
colleges discarded their once fine collections of casts in the 1950s and 60s. Some schools as
early as the 1920s.
Plaster casts suitable for study can be found in floral and garden shops, antique stores and
even found in flea markets and garage sales. There are also companies that sell plaster casts
on the internet. These companies can be found by using this search parameter: Roman Greek
plaster statues busts casts. There is a wide range of casts available for all budgets.

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Set up your cast in your black box at eye level. Shown

here is the classic portrait lighting where light forms
a triangular shape on the far cheek. There are many
lighting possibilities and this is a good one to begin
with. It is highly unadvisable to vertically light the cast
50/50.

Use your viewfinder to determine a satisfying

pictorial surface. Ideally, for study purposes, the
drawing of your cast head should be life-size
approximately 12 to 14 from the top of the head
to the base of the neck.
In portrait drawing the measure from the base
of the chin to the top of the head is the beginning measure. With your black cont lightly indicate the top of the head and the base of the chin
where the flesh meets the neck proper.
With your eyes in soft-focus strike the arabesque
to the best of your ability. Strive to keep these
initial lines as light as possible. Ideally only you
should be able to see your initial arabesque.
Once again, do not pre-measure; that will defeat
your acquiring the necessary skills. Also, avoid
extraneous detail.
The primary objective is to establish the proportion and shape of the cast.

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Sight the width of the head at

about the level of the brow-ridge
(where the eyebrows are located).
This is the primary measure.

The primary measure (width of the head)

turned perpendicularly measures from
the base of the chin to just slightly below
the hair line.
Sketch in the hair taking your best, trained
guess. If you can strike the arabesque
with reasonable accuracy the placement
of the hairline is no great feat. I have also
very lightly indicated the jaw line.
The distance from the hairline to the top
of the head is a small distance, therefore
there is no need to add a further checkpoint.
Correct your arabesque as needed.

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At this juncture, the untrained beginner will attempt

to place the eyes. This is a fundamental error.
Instead, the brow-ridge needs to be fixed. The
brow-ridge is the heavy, bony protuberance upon
which the eyebrows are located.
With your eyes in soft-focus take your best guess
at where you think the brow-ridge is. Beware, however, that our symbolic preconceptions give significantly greater weight to the face. Hence, we tend
to think of the face as being larger than it actually is
and consequently we tend to place the brow-ridge
too high.
Ascertain the accuracy of the brow-ridges placement by sighting on the cast the measure from the
chin to the brow-ridge. Move up that measure to
the brow-ridge and accurately gauge the distance
from the top of the head to the point of your knitting
needle this is a critical checkpoint. Mark where
that checkpoint is on your drawing.
This measure, if your brow-ridge and checkpoint
are placed correctly, should directly correspond to
your drawing as shown.

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Quite often, but not always, the measure from the

chin to the brow-ridge equals the width of the face
from cheek-bone to cheek-bone. This is another
reason why the brow-ridge is fixed first and not the
eyes.

As with the brow-ridge, place the base of the nose

with your best guess and then sight and check it.
Generally, the base of the nose is half-way between
the chin and the brow-ridge. But consider that
some people have long noses and others short
noses. Always sight and verify.
I have also indicated the facial angle. This is the
imaginary vertical line running through the center
of the features of the face. The head of my cast is
at a slight tilt and my facial angle corresponds to
that.
To accurately gauge the tilt of the head hold your
knitting needle up to your cast as if you were sighting and angle your knitting needle.
Keeping your elbow locked directly transpose your
knitting needle to your drawing and check the tilt of
your facial angle. Be careful not to alter the angle
of the knitting needle.

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Using a small piece of medium grade and size vine

charcoal held broadside in your fingertips block in
the primary dark. Remember to squint your eyes
down to simplify the form.

Using your fingers (not a paper stump as

it will deaden the vine charcoal) stump
in the vine charcoal while simultaneously
considering the plastic form.
The form can be further resolved using a
kneaded eraser to carve out the lights.
With much more information known about
the cast the arabesque is now further
refined and corrected using sharp black
cont.
The width of the nose is now established
and the primary forms of the hair have
also been indicated.

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The width of the nose cannot be accurately measured. One can compare the noses width (the
wings) to the width of the face, but the incidence of error is quite high. But at this point there
is enough information to accurately fix the wings of the nose. The base of the nose has been
established earlier.
The eyes can now be placed. A plumb bob is an essential tool for checking vertical alignments.
Plumb bobs can be purchased from any hardware store or can also be home-made using anything that has some weight, i.e., fishing sinkers, bolts, heavy washers, etc. attached to a string
or heavy black thread.
First to be placed is the inside corner of the eye. Holding your plumb bob up to your cast align
it with the inside corner of an eye and see how it relates to the wing of the nose. In this case
they are both aligned.
I now place my plumb bob to my drawing, align it with the wing of the nose and place a small
mark to indicate the vertical placement of the eyes inside corner.

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The same procedure is enacted for placing the inside corner of the other eye. However, the
alignment is not to the corresponding wing of the nose, but to the inside of it.

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To ascertain the width of the eye, compare it to the width of the nose. You will also have to take
note of the angle of the eye here the outside corner is a little lower than the inner corner.
The horizontal depth of the eye cannot be measured, it must be felt. From the brow-ridge model
the form of the eye socket until you come to the crease of the upper eyelid. Strike its arabesque
and follow suit with the upper opening of the eye. All of your training to date now comes to fruition.
With one eye established, the other eye can be horizontally placed using your plumb bob like a
carpenters level. With my cast the left eye is significantly higher than the right eye. Symbolic
preconceptions will insist that the eyes are level ignore those symbolic pleadings.

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The left eye is now sketched in with consideration to the other eye and also the overall tilt of the
head.
Now, and only now, should the mouth be placed. At this point I have roughly indicated the
mouth with tone.
Using my plumb bob I determine the alignment of the left corner of the mouth vis-a-vis the eye
and the nose. I place a small mark where the left corner of the mouth should be.

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The same procedure is used to place the right corner of the mouth. Again, consider the tilt of
the head. The corners of the mouth are not align straight across.

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As was done with placing the

horizontal alignment of the eye,
with feeling the modelled form,
the same is done with place
the opening of the mouth (the
Interstice).
Carefully observe the form and
strike the arabesque of the
Interstice of the mouth. The
upper lip is comprised of three
forms: the middle portion of the
lip which is fatter and the long,
narrow outer portions.
My rendering of the upper portion of the lower lip incorporates the cast shadow, hence
its seemingly odd appearance.

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Once the features are placed and proportioned within the facial arena the plastic
forms of the entire head can now be developed. Cross-hatching with sharp black cont
the forms are developed with a sculptural
sensibility: Extra-mileage can be achieved by
cross-hatching with the planes of the form.
Constructing plastic form is an additive/
subtractive process cross-hatching, stumping, and painting out with the kneaded eraser.
If you find that you need to flatten down the
form you can pull down the darks with a flattened kneaded eraser. Pulling down is just
that, you pull down the cont work with the
kneaded eraser is straight vertical strokes across the entire drawing. If you desire a finer resolution than the black cont can render switch to an 8B pencil.
Deciding at what point to conclude your drawing is a matter of personal timbre. Some artists
prefer an unfinished look while others will spend up to a year on a single drawing. It was common
practice for art students in the 19th and early 20th Centuries to spend up to 6 months, and more,
on their cast drawings. The pedagogical efficacy of a student spending this amount of time on

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This concludes the Beginning to Drawing DVD Workshop. A great distance

has been traveled; from your initial training
with the rectangles in gauging proportion
and shape and accurately striking the arabesque to the understanding of contructing
plastic form.
This critical matrix of drawing skills can be
applied to all genres of realist drawing still
life, landscape, portraiture, etc.
For those who desire to work in the realist
portrait genre the successive workshop to
Beginning to Draw is my Mastering Portrait Drawing 1 DVD Workshop which
focuses on the frontal portrait.
What is now required for serious portrait
drawing is an understanding and knowledge of the underlying discourse of anatomical form.
My Portrait Drawing Mastery Collection
is a comprehensive education in portrait
drawing.

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