Overview

When I was trying to decide if I will work through the book, I wanted to know "is it worth it"? In short, yes, for me at least. For the first 10 schedules, the exercises often yield awful drawings and I sometimes wonder if it's a complete waste of time. From schedule 5, I feel some improvement in the way I observe things, but don't really see much improvement in my work. From schedule 13 onwards, the earlier exercises finally come together and make decent drawings; this is when I really see my improvements. 


Exercise 1 - contour drawing:

I found this exercise very difficult (and painfully slow). It's for better observation as well as line quality. What we perceive as a straight line on a figure are often made of many tiny bumps, which are hard to spot unless you really stare at them.  In the second half of the book (from Schedule 13), contour drawing forms part of the process to make drawings that actually looks like what you are drawing (you can go faster and glance at your sheets more often). I was quite amazed by how much better the contour lines made my drawing look. But in order to train good hand eye coordination, I do believe it is necessary to slow down early on and just go through these exercises faithfully. 

 

Exercise 7, 22 and 23 the modelled drawing in lithograph:

Exercise 13 and 24 - the modelled drawing in ink:

Exercise 15 and 26 - the modelled drawing in watercolour:

I am lumping all the modelled drawing together in one section because I find the point of them very similar. I have written specific notes on individual material below. These exercises are different approaches to get a feeling for the shape/form of the figure. The exercises are described in a confusing manner. My interpretation is that it's the surfaces facing/coming towards you should be lighter, and the surface receding away from you darker. This is more on a local scale (i.e. if a leg is behind the other leg, make it darker overall, but still try to have a range of values representing that leg). It's almost like the light-source is directly from you. These exercises eventually turn into something akin to contour hatching. In Schedule 13, you will be doing modelled drawing, but taking account of the actual light source. Schedule 14 has detailed explanations on the importance of not relying on what we think the light/shadow shows.

These exercises describe forms in a different manner from figure construction. In figure construction, you are trying to understand the form in simple shapes, whereas these exercises aim to including all the complex details, such as surface undulation. I find it helpful to study a little bit of anatomy (or at least the major muscles in a body part you want to focus on that schedule) so you can better understand what you're looking for. The other key thing about these exercises is to separate light source from forms. It's about studying and shaping the forms, rather than using shading as crutches to define forms. I have thought about the whole "pushing" motion Nicolaides referred to, and the following is the conclusion I made. If you imagine your pencil/pen/brush/crayon being a molding tool, the paper being a flat slab of clay, the brush/pen strokes are essentially the motions you need to do to create the various shapes. For example, a rounded mound for something like the cheek, you would need to push from all sides; for a tube like shape like a long muscle group, you would need to push from either sides.  

Things I need to be mindful of when I'm doing modelled drawings are: 1) not to get confused by the actual lighting, 2) don't pay attention to core shadows/cast shadows - they might make the drawing look better but they do not represent the depth of the form, 3) make sure every corner has been coloured/shaded in at least a little bit, and 4) don't be afraid to overwork the drawing - the point is the process of feeling the form rather than getting a good end product, so it is totally ok to end up with a black mess, 5) think about gravity and weight (I always forget this). 

It's not quite the same as Nicolaides's instructions, but this post has some very nice examples of modelled drawing/contour hatching.  

 

Lithograph

You can actually sort of push the marks on the page in different directions after they are already on the page. I think that is what he meant by push around like molding a piece of clay. Almost always end up in a black mess when I spend the full duration drawing. I figured that it's the experience and time spent observing the forms that is important.

Watercolour

In Exercise 26, you are able to take colour off the page, which made a huge difference for me. I found it easier to model with viridian green and lemon yellow rather than burnt sienna and yellow ochre. This is largely because I find the whitish colour for yellow ochre and the slight translucent colour from burnt sienna means I use up a huge amount of paint without getting a wide range of value. It's important not to paint it like you would with a watercolour painting; think of paint more like clay that you slab on and carve off. I think the purpose of the yellow base layer stain the base of the paper a yellowish colour so that when you take paint off, it would have a lighter colour than if it was stained by your secondary colour (viridian green or burnt sienna). When I tried reapplying the yellow after taking the colours off, it just didn't work.

Exercise 14 - daily composition:

This is my favourite exercise, and I went a little overboard with this one and do 4-5 a day. The exercise improved three aspects hugely. Firstly, it reminds me to pay attention to my surrounding, such that even when I am just wondering down the street, I am working on improving my visual library. Secondly, I am much more comfortable with just put something down on the paper without worrying that it would turn out badly - bad drawing happens and I have got a schedule to keep. Lastly, it helps me with drawing from imagination. I used to struggle to draw without a reference, and this really broke me out of it. In addition, I started drawing figures in the scenery, rather than having floating figures with a stuck-on background at best.

I went back and read through the instructions a couple of times. Initially I tried to just capture the people, but Nicolaides said we are "to show the human being in relation to his environment", so I try to be mindful of what is around my subject of interest, sometimes after the subjects have already left the place. Themes that catches my attention tend to be the way people interact with each other or with things around them.

I usually gather material while I go around the park for exercise. I regularly revise the images I saw and liked; this is to help me remember the scenes. I find children tends to do something so weird that they stick in my mind more. There are usually some places of interest that is a safer bet for an interesting composition, such as the coffee stand, playground, certain benches, or a particular aisle at the supermarket. They would be my go to if all else fails. I find the best images tends to slap me in the face when I wasn't really looking for them. Sometimes when I sit down and draw, I would add things to the picture. I might find the picture looks a little nicer if a person is just ever so slightly taller, or that the picture would feel more balanced if I add a tree somewhere. 

I think initially I get about 5 images in around 1.5 hours, but after about 2 months, I can recall about 12 images, albeit all very faintly. I would need to pay full attention - if I was walking with someone or even just preoccupied with other thoughts, it quickly drops down to about 2-3 images for the same amount of time. On days I can't go out, I peak outside the windows for inspiration.

I went against the instructions and didn't just use pencil, largely because pencil marks show up very poorly on the newsprint I use. I initially did the sketch straight in ink, but later changed to pencil sketch with ink on top; it just makes the drawing look nicer. I try not to use an eraser mostly to save time. Each pencil sketch + ink tends to take me about 10-15 minutes. I write down the time on my paper so that I don't go over 15 minutes. At this moment, I add on about 5-10 minutes for colouring with marker pens. The main reason for this is partly because I would like to practice shading, and partly because I feel the placement of values is an important part of the composition. 

Exercise 28 - long study of drapery:

I struggled with the insect trial, which I think is largely because my initial folds were not good enough. It's best to really take your time putting down good initial gesture. Regardless, thanks to this exercise, I feel a lot more comfortable drawing fabric now.

Exercise 29 - the figure with drapery:

Given the 1 minute time-frame, it's quite difficult to both work out how the figure is posed and capture the gesture in the overlaying drapery. 

Exercise 30 - the daily composition - continued:

I find this a very challenging exercise. When drawing from something I have seen in the last 24 hours, there are not many scenes I remember. When it's anything from the past, the possibilities become endless and I ended up sitting there not drawing for 15 minutes. What I end up doing is to use drawing prompt to restrict the possibilities. Initially I think it takes me 30 minutes, instead of the usual 10-15 minutes, to finish a composition. It got faster the more I do it, but I am still taking a lot longer than 15 minutes at this point.

Exercise 32 - the sustained study:

Essentially combine the 3 main exercises in the first half of the book, gesture, contour and modelled drawing, to create a single picture. This is the first time I actually feel that I drew something that looks like what I am drawing. All that pain going through the contour drawing finally seems worth it. I almost wonder if I should go back and practice them more.