The brief

Set up a scene – a still life of easily movable objects.  This could be food, clothing bottles, packets of food, plants and shells, the contents of a handbag, a selection of tools from a toolbox.  Set the timer for three minutes and start drawing, and when the time is up, stop!  Now either rearrange your objects or move positions to give yourself something new to draw.  Reset the timer and do another drawing.

After you have produced at least two drawings, you should be loosened up and used to the limited time frame.  Now reduce the time even more, bring it down to two or even one minute, and conduct at least two drawings at this reduced time.  You should end up with at least four rapid sketches.

Setting up a scene

I am using a Moleskin Sketchbook for Part 2.  The pages are heavyweight (165g/m2) to cope with a range of materials.  In this exercise, I will only use a pencil.  Once this sketchbook is completed, I can take it apart and bind it into a new handmade sketchbook.

I have set up a scene of objects from my bathroom.  I quite like the shape of the shampoo bottle, the container of round brushes, a little book to read in the bath, a tin soap holder and a container of elastic bands.  The objects are easy to move and have the potential to add more details, depending on how much time I have available when drawing.

I have taken photos of the scene for this blog, but the drawings were done from life and have a slightly different viewpoint compared to the photo.

The First Drawing

I was very rushed to get everything on the page, but surprisingly, I was left with extra time to add some shading and labels on the bottles.  My perspective of the little book and the elastic container is out, and usually I will fix that, but I just left it and moved on.

The second drawing

In the second drawing I tried to pace myself better so my proportions and perspectives were better, but then I ran out of time and didn’t finish the brush container.  I now feel warmed up and have a better feel of how to pace myself.

The third drawing

I am happy with the outcome of the third drawing and had a better feel of how much to get done in the time I had.  I removed a few objects to make it more achievable to finish.  I first jotted down the more prominent objects and brushes and then went back to add the handle of the container and the bristle of the brushes.

The fourth drawing

I had slightly more time left at the end of the fourth drawing and started adding details such as the rim of the containers, but I completely forgot to change the still-life scene and only realised this once I started writing my blog.  It is interesting to see that drawings three and four are different to each other, even though it is exactly the same subject matter, the same position and the same time allocated.

Moving subject

Sitting in the garden one late afternoon with my two French poodles, I sketched them as they moved around sniffing and exploring the garden.  This was a lovely exercise, and I would love to do this sitting in a coffee shop, drawing people.  I have come a long way already to ‘lower’ my expectations of each drawing I make and let it be.  Seeing the bigger picture and realising that drawing is more than just making pretty pictures but also just for the sake of drawing more often and also for visual notetaking.  This is a new revelation to me, and I look forward to learning more in this unit.