30 Minute Sketching - Keep it Simiple

30 Minute Art - Sketching
By Alwyn Crawshaw

We've finally made it my final blog of this book, in this meeting I will look into Crawshaw's final major tip on sketching keeping it simple and quick. How he puts it into words is that "a non-painter sees everything, but an artist sees only what is important to his or her sketch" (Crawshaw 41). Using a few methods can bring up the habit of simplifying things more. For the most effective way would be too use only a long hold, as making it difficult to draw would drive you to putting in too much detail or putting any irrelevant details (Crawshaw 42). 

For this final drawing I will finally time myself to the 30 minute limit, it will be a simple small forest with a dirt road. I used a 2B pencil too put in detail and make out the drawing, while buffering it with a 6B pencil to make quick and quality shading. Coming out was this final product.

Alwyn Crawshaw's 30 Minute Art book, has probably been the most helpful tool I've gotten to improve my capabilities in drawing. To finally end off I want to know what has been the most helpful system of knowledge whether it is a book, website, or video?

Drawing Nature

     After successfully drawing the basic shapes, I have decided to push myself further and draw some plants. Drawing flowers and trees are actually one of my favorite things to do.

     The first thing I made was a lily. When i was making these drawings, I thought I was done with the basic shapes. But I was wrong. Part of drawing the lily was to make a foreshortened circle. Then, Mark Kistler introduced a new technique: tapering. Tapering is narrowing your object to make it look like that part of the object looks like it is further away. "Tapering is another one of those very important ideas that you will start to notice everywhere now that you are aware of it" (Kistler 124). Using this new technique, I completed the lily (or lilies), and i think they turned out pretty good.

     The next object i drew was a tree. Using the tapering technique, I drew the trunk and roots. It took me so long to get this right in my mind because I am very self-conscious about the way my drawings look. Then as it came to the leaves, I used a special way to draw them (Kistler taught me this technique). You draw a circle, then draw little arches along the edge of the circle all the way around, and then lightly sketch some curly "Q's" inside the circle. Kistler says that having an odd amount of objects together, is a lot more visually appealing than an even amount (Kistler 166). Add some shading and wood grain texture and you got a nice looking tree.

     How do you think these drawings turned out? Could I have added more shading to the lilies, or made the tree slightly bigger?

Kistler, Mark. You Can Draw in 30 Days: the Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less. Da Capo Lifelong, a Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2011.