When I first started drawing, after I filled a couple of sketchbooks, I wanted to save some of my art on computer so I wouldn't destroy or lose it. I decided this after a drawing session in a coffee shop and I spilled coffee on what I was drawing. It wasn't a disaster, for it was just a little bit of coffee and didn't soak through the sketchbook. But it was enough to start scanning and saving my art on the computer.
Shortly after, I was surfing around for a better software program to work with my scans and I found Picassa. I loaded everything into Picassa that I had scanned. I really liked Picassa, but I kept noticing a large letter B with Blog This beside it. My first thought was BLOG YOU! It was early 2005, so I wasn't up on what a blog really was, but curiosity got me and finally, in May of 2006 I "Blogged That!" And the first post of Foxxfyrre's Black and White Art was up.
I first thought--once I figured out how to use a blog--that I'd post some of my art and maybe get some feedback on my drawing. It took a while, but I did get responses and as time grew, I made many friends because of this blog. The blog strayed a bit from just posting my art, for it went in a few different directions, but those directions still had something to do with art.
Then life got busy, again! And blogging and drawing and anything fun, went on the back burner. I shouldn't have to mention that no-time-for-blogging-equals-blog-death. Recently, I've decided that I would pull this baby out of blogatory (that's blogspeak for blog + purgatory), grab some Pledge and give her a good dusting by going through posts that have my drawings in them and update them or repost.
One of the reasons I am doing this is that I love drawing. I started to draw at 37 years of age and I am mostly self taught. I had a friend and co-worker who is an artist that got me started, but after that I was on my own. So now, I want to re-purpose the blog in an effort to help people get started in drawing. I believe that there is a lot of people out there that would like to draw, but they think that they have no talent, or think that they can't draw. Everything that I have learned in tutorials in books and around the web is that anyone can draw and it doesn't solely rely on talent. I believe those books are right. Before I sat down over a coffee with that artist friend, I thought I couldn't draw anything. I never attempted to prior to that time--not even in school, but that's another story.
I won't be posting tutorials--since I'm not a professional artist or teacher, but I will post my finished drawings that were done through tutorials from books I've used or sites on the net. I will even post some real early work to show how my art has evolved using these resources. If you check my Art Resources page, all of the resources I've used are available from that page. I'll be continually searching for more resources and work through them. If they seem to me to be helpful, I'll definitely add them to the Resource page.
The following drawings were done from exercises from Dr. Betty Edwards book, "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, 3rd Edition." This book is one of my favourite texts and changed the way I draw and approach drawing. It was also the first book on drawing that I purchased to continue learning.
Portrait Exercise
11x14
Pencil on paper
This was drawn from and exercise in Dr. Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
The exercise involves taking the subject you want to draw and turn it upside down the draw what you see. This was the my first attempt at drawing upside down, but it really is a cool way to draw. The purpose is to stop your logical left-brain from over analysing what you are trying to draw. In other-words, when the subject is upside down and you are focussing on your drawing, your left brain isn't going 'that's a finger' or that's a shoelace.
Chair Exercise
11x14
Pencil on paper
This was drawn using negative space. Negative space is basically the shapes that an object makes that aren't part of the object. If you look at the drawing above, my starting point was the small triangle that the front and back legs form just underneath the seat.
This was also drawn from an exercise in Dr. Edwards book.
Composite Skill drawing
11x14
pencil on paper
This was drawn using both principles of drawing upside down and using negative space.
That's it for this one,
Thanks for stopping in,
Franks Sirianni aka Foxxfyrre
TTFN
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