Observational Drawing

I want to share my impression of what it means when I say observational drawing.  

Many times people can get the idea that observational drawing means to literally observe every nook and cranny of the object or model.  Wrinkles, cracks, knuckles, follicles, pours, nose hairs or whatever can be seen is put into the artwork.  

I think there can be a place for such detailed type of artwork but when I teach the idea of observational drawing I teach the study of story telling through drawing.  That’s the most important part of it all.  If the drawing conveys story and meaning it’s that much more valuable as a piece of art.  

We need to connect with the meaning of our drawings.  If there's no story or meaning to the drawing that was supposed to be from observation then theres less interest by the viewer.  it becomes lines smudges and medium on paper rather than impressions of moments captured that evoke an emotion or reaction.

That’s my goal in observational drawing.  To capture a story or a meaning that makes you think or inspires you to feel something.  One thing I definitely do not do is force anyone into a particular style by forcing details into their art that don’t tell the story.  

the key is what are we observing?  the Story or literal detail that can add up to no meaning?

Don’t let style define substance.  

These one and a half second sketches were of my wife in P90x mode.  I tried to convey the energy in the effort and I thank her for letting me show these.  Frankly I should have joined her.  I could stand to loose a few pounds haha.

Monday's Class

Sometimes I get inspired to draw instead of teach as I watch the models do there great work.
Here's a few bits of inspired pieces.

Baseball Player

Here we go with the bi-daily sketch I'm doing with Jeff Snow! Baseball player is it!
sketch away! Louie Del Carmen joined in too!
check out
Dave Derrick
Jenny Lerew
Josh Lieberman
Max Lawson

Diaz VS. Marquez 2-28-09

LONG LINES

I've been yelling out for so long "LONG LINES" to all the students in my classes. The reason is so that the lines can complete themselves out! There's something that happens when you let the lines continue and go as long as they can. All to often I catch students stopping the line and cutting short its desired destination to the land of balance and rhythm. Let the lines be long and try to lay in their paths from top to bottom. Let them live!!!

This wonderful model is "Karole Foreman"

Soccer saturdays

I've been taking my son to soccer saturdays.  It's been fun to watch him run around like a crazy kid!  The other thing is I've been away from the blogging for a while and I've come back now with a new banner as you can see.  I'm keeping the domain the same so my friends can still link to me- but my reason for the banner change is for what I've been calling "the year of reinvention!"  We all come into a new at times in our life's and today is time to make the change.  Draw! Draw! Draw!

Diego chasing the ball

A mother and child watching on.

A mother chasing after her son who got onto the field wanting to play!

Diego having a "ball."

one more

the scanner cut off the feet but I still like this one.

Enjoying it

Teaching the gesture class is great and I have a blast doing it.  Everyone in the class is really into learning and they produce a ton of wonderful art.  I can't help but sit down and do a couple of pieces myself when there's so much inspiration going around.  This is Daniella Traub modeling for us, she's magnificent. 

This one was hard but I had fun trying to capture a feeling.

Daniella is tall and all leg,  she's fun to draw.

Thanks Daniella

two train sketches and two from S.D.

Gravity pulls!

Many times in class or in sketch books I see drawings that seem to be off balance or unstable. I started thinking about it. remembering that I'm constantly trying to place the feet on my sketch as quickly as possible before my subject moves or before I forget and I have a floating torso drawing.

The foot placement or contact with gravity has all the stability built in. if you find that placement and lock down those feet early, your sketch will usually feel pretty good. I've done drawings before that seem incomplete or off balance because I hadn't given enough thought to the feet{or even drew them in for that matter}. Even if the subject where to be sitting then gravity would pull from their rump and you'd want to feel that flat contact like the little sketch above. When a sketch is off balance, then it looks like the subject is falling.

So with that said..... I played around with some squiggles that showed blue stability and red gravity. It pulls!





No Problem





A little lean but still no problem




Problem! but we he can still catch himself if he tries.




He's probably not going to catch himself.



Too far gone.