Chapter Fifteen - Documenting the world outside:

In this chapter we explore the sky and it’s various moods as well as lands, oceans and mountains. By taking to the outdoors with you drawing suppliers you’ll have an endless supply of subjects just waiting to be drawn.

Each time you look or go outside during the day take a look at the sky and notice all the different cloud formations there are.  Analyse their different shapes, forms and range of values. Below are 3 drawings that Brenda has created to demonstrate the difference in the following skies.

The first drawing shows Clear and Calm: here the illusion of depth is created with atmospheric perspective (see chapter 9). By graduating the shading from dark to light you’re able to achieve this. The second drawing shows shows a stormy and angry sky: here Brenda portrays the skies ability to show anger by drawing dark skies with lighting cracking through the clouds as well as some cloud that tunnels towards the earth with the potential to be a tornado. The third drawing demonstrates cloudy and picturesque: Here Brenda demonstrates the softer side of clouds and manages to portray there fluffiness really well.

You need to think of clouds as 3 dimensional objects, that are effected by shadows and highlights like any other object and in order to draw their perspective right you need to apply the same rules you would for solid objects. The clouds closer to the horizon will appear smaller than the clouds above your head.

A tip offered up by the book suggests adding human elements to your scenes. Be it a chair, a path through a wooded area or actual people themselves. Also feel free and comfortable to modify, rearrange, completely remove or change various parts of you scene in anyway that inspires you!! Drawing is not just about copying what nature has arranged.

Next up is project 15: Dreaming of a white Christmas. Now this project was lots of fun, I think I enjoyed it because it’s like nothing I have ever done before.

Below are the pictures to show you the steps, but in order to show this one properly I’m going to have to write out some of the written instruction so you can see what techniques have been used.

1: Draw a rectangle approx. 10 x 5 inches
2: Shade in the whole rectangle inside with a stick of charcoal, using the side of the stick (as it’s faster).
3: Now take a tissue and gentle rub the whole surface until you achieve a solid tone. (this will lighten your shading a bit)
4: Use your kneaded eraser to begin erasing your light areas i.e. for trees.

5: carrying on using your kneaded eraser to add in the snow more trees and the sky.

6: Switch to your vinyl eraser to add in brighter sharper areas in the trees, sky, snow river etc.

7: Use your charcoal pencil to add in your darker areas

and Voila... a beautiful winter scene.

My winter scene

Next we face the challenges of capturing critters in chapter 16! I think this one will be tough, it's safe to say I suck at drawing animals.

(Please note: that photo examples are taken from "Drawing for Dummies by Brenda Hoddinott'' and the  above views are not representative of her and are purely based on a 3rd party view being Me! All snippets taken directly from the book are stated as been so) 

Chapter Fourteen - Saving the Joy of Flowers and Trees:

Let me start my saying I love trees! I even consider myself a bit of a tree hugger :) So I look forward to learning how to draw them, I think really old trees with their exposed roots and all make for such intricate and majestic subjects... but before I get carried away lets begin.

In this chapter it’s mostly drawings that demonstrate what Brenda is trying to explain, I will be posting them up as we go along. She also encourages everyone to go out and draw as many different kinds of flowers from all sorts of different angles, concentrating on the different textures of the petals, leaves and middle piece (forget what that’s called.) Below is a beautiful example of this.

Next we jump straight into our first drawing, a rose. Brenda takes us through step by step on how to draw it, see the images below for the steps and how my rose turned out.

First steps to mapping out your rose

Final steps of shading

and lastly my rose. 

A tip offered up by the book is; in order to draw a flower accurately you need to be familiar with all sides of it. So if you are taking pictures to draw from, remember to take pictures from many different angles.

Next we move on to the anatomy of trees, and how to draw them. Each tree is different and unique and by spending some time observing them you will be able to draw their distinctive personalities. Remember that no tree branches are straight or sit at right angles, the book suggests you study the curves and v shapes created by the branches. Apparently if you can draw a V shape you can draw a tree. Below is a great way to start practicing you tree drawings.

Just like flowers, your trees don’t need copied exactly, you can use creative license to choose what you would like to draw to represent your tree’s emotions the best.

Now onto Project 14: Lovely Lilly.  In this exercise Brenda shows us how to simplify an object that is intricate in detail. Below are the visual steps taken to draw the lilly as well as my drawing of the lovely lilly  (which i’m very proud of).

Steps 1 & 2: Simplifying your object

Steps 3 & 4: Adding in the details

Steps 5 & 6:  Adding in the details

My lilly

In this exercise I started with a B for my lines, used an HB for the medium shades, a 2B for the darker shades and a 6B for the darkest inner shades.

Next up is Chapter 15 with Documenting the world outside.

(Please note: that photo examples are taken from "Drawing for Dummies by Brenda Hoddinott'' and the  above views are not representative of her and are purely based on a 3rd party view being Me! All snippets taken directly from the book are stated as been so)