Thursday, March 3, 2011

Definitely not a dog

I am having fun with a great book I found called Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists. Last weeks exercise was drawing 20 quick sketches of a dog on index cards. I pulled out my kid's Winn-Dixie book to have some idea about what a dog might look like, grabbed my cards, marker and got to work.  When I was done, I spread out the cards and enjoyed a good belly laugh. I wasn't looking at a dog, maybe some other animal, but definitely not a dog!

I called the kids upstairs to get their opinions on the drawings. So here they are, some of the quick sketches and what my kids thought they looked like.

Ferret
Guy with a mustache
Pig


Just so you know, what I was shooting for was a dog that looked something like this picture of Winn-Dixie.  Ok, so I have a ways to go, but I had a great time drawing.

Last year I took a drawing course at the local college with my friend Allison and really loved it. I would love to find the time to take another course, but as we all know there are only so many hours in a day.

The Drawing Lab book is really a lot of fun to work through. The next lesson is on drawing Monkey Faces. How fun is that going to be!  So far all of the lessons have been about drawing animals and drawing quickly so you don't have too much time to think. 

I think the most important thing that I learned in my drawing course was, "draw what you see, not what you know". It's the best advice to hear when you draw because we can't help it, we start trying to draw what we think something should look like and miss a whole lot about what is actually right in front of you.

So you don't think I'm a completely hopeless drawing cause, I will close with two drawings from my class last year that I am pretty proud of.

6 comments:

anne said...

I love it Stacie! You did make me laugh and your drawings are adorable. I think the drawings from your art class are beautiful! Keep drawing. You've inspired me to do some drawing myself - which I've been meaning to get back to for ages!

stacie said...

Thanks so much Anne. Glad I made you laugh today! Thank you for your compliments on my drawing, I can use the encouragement. Your turn!

Allison said...

The dogs are CUTE!
I remember that class... it was fun taking it together!
I wanna crack open the drawing lab too. Maybe this weekend :)
Have a good one!

Renee said...

Thanks for my picture of the rabid squirrel!! Except for the first drawing, I think they look like winn dixie! BTW, love the necklace!

stacie said...

Renee, glad you like the necklace. Hopefully your Mother in law will too. Knew you'd appreciate the rabid squirrel!

stacie said...

Allison, you'll have to share your doggies when you are done. Enjoy it.