I
n the last article we looked at
what an indispensible proportional
judgement tool the pencil in
your hand can be in the process of
creating an accurate freehand line
drawing. There are other techniques
in the same vein that don’t require
anything but your eyes so I will
endeavour in this case to lay down
some more very useful information
to help you with your freehand
drawing journey that with a bit (or a
lot) of practise should soak in deep
and become second nature to be
dragged out of your subconscious
instinctively whenever required and
used to mercilessly flog any drawing
project into abject submission.The first one that comes to mind is
when you are well and truly stumped
and for the life of you can’t seem
to decide why your layout isn’t right
while simultaneously knowing that it
definitely isn’t. Make sure the photo
you are drawing (or en plein air scene,
still life, or subject) is directly in front
of you and if a photo ensure it’s not
on an angle in any way. I clip an A4
photo to a piece of masonite with
bulldog clips and lean it up against
something on my drawing table so
I can finely adjust the angle I am
looking at it on. It’s very important
that it’s not standing up too straight,
leaning too much or skewed to left or
right. My apologies to those to whom
it seems I am stating the painfully
obvious but I’m always surprised
by people who don’t think it’s that
important or don’t think about it at all.
This doesn’t apply to drawing straight
from life as you are obviously always
looking directly at reality. Once you
are sure you are looking directly at
the centre of the photo study pick
up the layout board your drawing’s
taped to and tip it up so it’s on the
same plane as the photo board. I
draw flat sitting at a table so I prop
it up on the edge and rest it on my
knees (fig 1). This trick’s a lot easier
if you work at an easel as your photo
and drawing are already on the same
plane (fig 2). The idea is to be able
to see both the photo and drawing
without moving your head. Just flick
your eyes up to the photo and down
to the drawing (over and over). You
might not see anything at first (or it
might jump straight out at you) but be
patient and just keep doing it, don’t
look at anything in particular but at“More Magic Tricks”
By Brett A. JonesFig 1:.Make sure you can
look directly at both photo
and drawing without moving
your head, only your eyes.Fig 1.Pencils Down