Observational Drawing
There’s something about going for a walk in the woods with a sketchbook and pencils or watercolors in hand and finding a place to plop down and paint a flower peeking out from the ground, or sketch a pinecone lying on a pile of pine needles. It is such a refreshing experience, not only to be in nature for a bit, but also to take the time to observe what is right there in front of you to put into your notepad.
That’s one of the beauties of observational drawing—drawing what you see in real life, in front of you—it makes you stop and observe what it really is that you are drawing or painting. It opens your eyes to see more details—the way a leaf curls, the veins in the petals of a flower, the highlights in a glass vase, the texture of a cloth. Slowing down and really observing and thinking can significantly improve your artwork.
It can also present both a greater challenge and reward than drawing from photos. It requires you to develop your own composition and choose what will or won’t be included in the artwork. It provides a greater opportunity to add your own touch to it, and as you take the necessary time to observe the subject, it will get you thinking about it more deeply. The finished piece will likely have more depth as the lights and shadows can be easier to see in its true lighting, and you are observing an actual 3D subject rather than a 2D photo.
There are several things to watch out for and many ways to practice observational drawing. These are just a few:
Composition
As mentioned, observational drawing requires that you come up with your own composition. What angle will you paint the flower from? Will you sketch the front or back or side of a lamp? How big will the subject be on the paper? Will it be centered or off to the side? Will there be a background, and if so, will it be clear or blurred? If drawing outside or with natural light through a window, what time of day will you work to get the lighting you want? If using artificial lighting, you have control over whether you have strong or weak lighting and the direction it comes from, and this is another decision to make.
Composition is especially noticeable in still lifes since you must set it all up yourself and find a good balance of tall and short objects, overlap to create connections, and find objects that will be interesting and work well together
Sizes
One of the difficulties of drawing from life can be getting the proportions right. You don’t want to spend hours of your precious free time drawing the house across the street and the streetlight nearby, only to find that the light looks about five feet tall compared to the house.
A way to avoid this can be to sketch out the general heights and widths before developing the subjects more to ensure that all the proportions are right first. To get these proportions more accurate, there are several methods. One way is to hold up a pencil or finger at arm’s length and measure how long it is compared to that. It can then be scaled down onto the paper. For example, from far away, a house appears to be as tall as two joints on your finger while the streetlight looks to be about three joints tall. You would put these lengths down on your paper.
Another method that some may find simpler is to look at the height of objects relative to each other. For example, maybe the bush is about a third of the height of a certain tree, while it is four times as wide as the tree trunk. You would then achieve these proportions on your paper as well.
In this sketch, the lengths and widths were measured compared to other objects, as noted by the faded lines
Angles
Another factor to watch out for is the angles in a piece. This can be especially important for pieces with perspective, such as one or two-point perspectives, rather than just straight on. If you are drawing a bookshelf in your room and the angles are not quite right, then the whole piece will feel off. One way to get more accurate angles is to try and estimate the degree of the angle. For example, from your perspective, maybe the angle between the sides of the bookshelf and one of the shelves seems to be about 120 degrees. You would then estimate to draw a 120-degree angle on your paper. Remember that just because an object has a right angle does not mean that it will appear to be 90 degrees from your perspective.
Observation of angle sizes was important for the rooftops especially in this piece
Negative Spaces
One way to practice and improve your observational drawings is to focus on the negative spaces. Negative space is the space around and between your subject, such as the background. For example, you would observe the shapes of the empty spaces on the back of a chair rather than the chair itself. This can also be a way to double check the proportions of a sketch. Make sure the negative space is the accurate size and shape in addition to the positive space of the subject.
Negative space painting of a bicycle
Values/Color
Lastly, one additional thing to be aware of while observing the subject is the values, whether working in black and white or color. This is a very important part of making the subject look 3D in your artwork. Again, comparing can be key. Look at the values of one part and see how dark or light it is compared to another part. Then when it’s done, double check these values against each other and darken or lighten areas as needed. Also, don’t be afraid to go dark. When you actually make the dark parts as dark as you can, you can use a wider range of values that adds a lot of depth to the piece.
Note the improvement in depth when the darkest parts were made darker, creating a greater range of values
Challenge
- Draw as often as you can from life, for example once a week. They don’t have to be big or complicated, just a short study of something you see will do.
- Look around for interesting subject matters to draw, and even start a collection of objects you find interesting! Then you will never be lacking something to draw.
- Practice with different subjects—nature, objects around the house, buildings, etc. This will expand the area of things you are comfortable drawing.
- Practice with different lighting. Maybe strong noon light, or morning or evening light that creates a glow on the subject with a long shadow stretching out. Or maybe use a lamp to create your own lighting and figure out where you want the shadows to fall.
- Practice at different locations, such as in a park nearby, inside your house, out your window, or anywhere else you can think of.
Drawing people at a park, a flower in the woods, a room in the house, and the view from the balcony
Visual Arts Submissions:
Next month’s topic is Artist Interviews. Create or find a previous work you’ve done that relates in some way to artists or art teachers. This could be artwork of an art studio, a teacher, an artist, a classroom, or anything that comes to mind when you think of artists. It’s very open-ended, so be creative!
Submit a piece of your artwork that fits this theme for a chance to have your art featured as the cover photo. A couple more may be chosen to be included within the article. This will be a good way to both share your artwork with the clay community and provide some inspiration to other readers.
Please submit through this Google Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-rFWU-nF4TmCC65tqWVBNL-AE9N2FkklsOcnecjBB8XiQwA/viewform?usp=sf_link
The submission deadline is December 23rd. Let me know in the comment section if you have any questions, and I’m excited to see your artwork!
Have a Merry Christmas!
Cover Photo:
Watercolor sketch of a chicken coop in the woods by Laura Cervantez.
Photo Credits:
Author unless otherwise noted
Sources:
http://tcdsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/baldwin/drawing_from_observation.htm
https://www.carrie-lewis.com/importance-of-drawing-from-life/
https://leading-learning.blogspot.com/2009/09/importance-of-observation.html