Drawing Practice: Day 9

Today’s focus was on line and texture adn the idea that line quality can help communicate e.g. how an object feels to touch. The assignment was to try drawing two things with opposing tactile qualities. I had my photos pulled up from Spain, and so I tried drawing a stone wall, and a dog called Tro.

The emphasis here was not on extreme accuracy or anything, just trying to capture the texture of things. Tro I found easier to get at when I switched away from pencil, which reminded me that “line” need not be a continuously connected stroke. I guess I could have made similar strokes with the pencil, but maybe I was already too dark. The rocks felt more straightforward.

In general, I am still feeling a bit ungrounded in my approach, both in terms of preferred drawing implement and also technique. What I think feels off for me still is how to both use the “refining from simple shapes” approach while retaining accuracy. I think I can try being more deliberate on making sure that my foundational shapes are really in the right spots, sizes, orientations. I guess I find it a little hard to tell, especially with more nuanced forms like Tro. Tro is tricky also because his fur obscures the underlying form. In looking at my sketch I can see various ways that the shape is off – his front body curves back more; I made his torso too elongated and slim. I could try to practice him more.

A bit closer but still I can see clear deviations, in similar locations really. His front paw is further back and his head are has some proportion issues I think. Also the ink marks for texture do give a textural feeling in the right direction, but not really the same as the reference; his fur is finer, for example. When I think of his fur, texturally, it is soft but maybe a bit wirey, straw-like, a bit matted. Or at least that’s how I imagine it.