Drawing Exercises

[New Masters Academy]

In this lesson, instructors Heather Lenefsky and Chris Legaspi will walk you through how to use and sharpen your pencil. You will begin to experiment with different mark-making techniques through multiple drawing exercises.

This lesson belongs to the course The Beginner’s Guide to Drawing. It is a 12-week course designed to empower new students with a structured approach for learning how to draw. Join instructors Steve Huston, Chris Legaspi, Heather Lenefski, Bill Perkins, and Mark Westermoe as you learn the fundamentals of perspective, rendering, and composition. After completing this course, you will develop a solid foundation in drawing.

Throughout this course, you’ll have access to the NMA community for feedback and critiques to improve your work as you progress.

[Andrea Lo Rillo]

Use a ballpoint pen, graphite, Conté or charcoal pencil to fill three (3) to five (5) pages of newsprint or copy paper with the line drawing exercises that Chris demonstrated. Then move on to filling three (3) to five (5) pages of the tone and value exercises that Heather demonstrated in this lesson.A Beginner ‘s Guide to Drawing
This is one of the assigment, i wanted to ask if you had to do 3 to 5 pages every day or throughout the week because I can only draw 1-2  hours every day and I find it hard to do 5 pages every day including other exercices.

Thanks for answering

[Daniel Daigle]

Hi Andrea, you only have to do 3-5 drawings / week for each assignment. So its a minimum of 6 drawings total per week since there are two drawing assignments 🙂

• This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Daniel Daigle.

[Andrea Lo Rillo]

Ok thank you so much for your answer

[Ann-Kathrin Ullherr]

Hello everybody!

I have a question regarding the sharpening of the pencils … the way Heather sharpens the contè. I didn’t know WHICH contè I should buy. So I got two different Pierre Noire (HB and 3B) as well as a Fusian (charcoal). I could sharpen the Pierre Noire fairly well but I am struggling with the Fusian. I broke it three times although I was very careful. Is this the right way to sharpen this type of pencil? Does anybody have a similar experience?

[Daniel Daigle]

Hi Ann, I have also had issues sharpening soft medium, especially the softer conte. I think it was 4B that I could not carve away more that 1/4 inch before it would break. Luckily conte is already pretty soft IMO and in most cases, 2B and higher will work for most applications

[Kiel Ewing]

Hi! I was wondering if I should sharpen my graphite pencils with the razorblade/sandpaper as well, or just my charcoal and conte pencils? The pencil used during the line/ellipse/hatching exercises looks like it was sharpened with a regular sharpener. Thanks!

[Daniel Daigle]

Hi Kiel, if you don’t intend on using the side of the pencil with the overhand grip, you can sharpen it either way

[Kiel Ewing]

Got it.  Thanks, Daniel!

[Selorm Aglagoh]

I’m not able to do the “measure with your pencil” lesson on a digital drawing tablet. It doesn’t translate well to a tablet connected to a computer, any suggestions?

[Daniel Daigle]

Hi Selorm, you should be able to do this as long as your measurements have the same magnification on your tablet if you are zooming in on you canvas.
For example: procreate has a feature where you can quick pinch to fill the screen. Just fill the screen whenever you do you measurements. Alternatively, you can select the exact magnification in Photoshop. If your reference is on your screen, make sure your eye is always the same distance from the screen, and your elbow is straight while measuring. You may have to back away from your computer a bit. or print out the reference and hang it on your wall. Worst case scenario you can just put a ruler on the screen and convert it, but you wont develop the skill of measuring with he pencil. I recommend going out with your sketchbook and practicing away from you computer if at all possible.

I hope this helps 🙂

[williamqvillberg96]

Hi,

The assignment tabs are locked within the beta version of the website. Switching to the old website I can access them without any problems. Not a big issue, but I think the newer design of the website is more user friendly so it’s a shame to not be able to use that one.

 

Best regards,

William

[Daniel Daigle]

Hi William, please report any bugs you see by clicking “submit a bug / suggestion” on the very bottom of the left hand toolbar. alternatively you can email “info@nma.art”

[noselves]

Week 2: Drawing Exercises

These exercises were honestly tedious to me, not saying there is no benefit but I found myself getting bored doing the value scales/gradient, resulting in me having to take multiple breaks. I felt more in control using my shoulder to direct the line path of my mark, I’m doing this program alongside with the Drawabox program to work on my fundamentals and mark-making which became undertrained from doing the Anatomy Master Class and Perspective Master Course. On my value gradients some became too dark too late in the transition to the lightest value, I used a Conte Pierre Noir pencil and I felt that every mark had to be laid down and blending seem hard. I don’t maybe I made a mistake with the material. For the measuring objects assignment, I complied the objects drawn into straight angles establishing the top and bottom of my image placing the plumb line straight down these two points. I create very broad angles not very specific but just enough to get the basic shape of the object on the paper. Here is the work, posted in an album on my ArtStation, feel free to critique anything. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/5Bvrw8

[Jean Mosquea]

Can you explain how I would go about doing this on Procreate. How many sheets of each exercise should I do and how would I incorporate the different techniques?

[Author]

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