The second part of my notes on Ethan Nguyen’s Drawing Fundamentals Pt 1: Basic Sketching Skills & Drawing Accurately course.
Measuring Distances & Proportions
Sight-size
- measurements are compared directly (1:1)
- when drawing from reference, just compare the length of a line on your drawing with the length from the reference, using a ruler, a proportional divider or the tip of your pencil and your thumb
- when drawing from life, use your tip of your pencil and your thumb to measure the distance
- keep your hand fully extended and your head close to the shoulder to reduce measurement errors
Comparative measurement
- we must compare measurements relatively, in relation one with another
- we find a base unit on the reference and use it to measure other distances
- we find the corresponding base unit on the drawing and use it to measure other distances on the drawing
- relations are often fractions - to avoid errors, try to find 1:1 matches in your subject and use the corresponding distances in your drawing to check its accuracy
Polygon Drawing Exercise
- being able to reproduce polygons is useful when doing subject enveloping later in the course
- make a template, using similar steps as when you’ve made the triangle template, but use polygons with 5-8 sides, both convex and concave, instead of triangles
- before starting your drawing, ghost over the paper all the sides to get an idea on good composition, where to place the drawing and how big should you make it
- when using drawing with comparative measuring, try to compare relations between distances to double-check your accuracy
- instead of the very rigorous process, you can use a looser one where you draw the figure freely and check afterwards the accuracy, but you should try this only once you had a bit of experience with the more rigorous process
3D Shape Exercise
- very similar with the polygon drawing exercise
- make a template with an octahedron, a cube, a sliced hexagonal column, a dodecahedron, etc.
- do some basic shading, using various lite directions
Bargue Drawings & Grid Method
- made a separate post with links related to the Bargue Drawing Method
Eye Drawing Exercise
- use course templates to draw the eyes in sight size (1:1) and comparative measurement
- the eyes are from Plate I, 1 from the Bargue’s Drawing Course
Nose & Mouth Drawing Exercise
- use course templates to draw the eyes in sight size (1:1) and comparative measurement
- the eyes are from Plate I, 2 from the Bargue’s Drawing Course
Face Drawing Exercise
- use course templates to draw the eyes in sight size (1:1) and comparative measurement
- the eyes are from Plate I, 3 from the Bargue’s Drawing Course