I'm showing here ALL the drawings I created during the demos - as well as a few extras - but your class project can be as long or short as you like - show us one, or one hundred drawings :)

Here are the line language sheets I created during my warm-ups:

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 1 - student project

I decided to use mostly the two pens on the right for my drawing exercises because I felt they gave me a nice range of marks to play with, they felt nice and natural to draw with, and I felt like they created line qualities which look fluid and confident.

Next here is my warm-up drawing:

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 2 - student project

I used the fine fiber tip pen for this warm-up, as that is the pen I most commonly reach for in my day-to-day drawing.

I ran out of space a little on the right-hand side, but as a warm-up it's ok.

Here are my blind drawings:

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 3 - student project

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 4 - student project

Not shown in the videos, but I did a couple of extra blind drawings with a blindfold on - I love this exercise because it's always such a surprise to see what you get!

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 5 - student project

You can see a big difference in line quality between all these blind drawings and my warm-up drawing - I think they are much more loose, expressive, playful and energetic :)

Next here is the drawing I created with my (left) non-dominant hand:

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 6 - student project

This one has quite a wobbly line quality, but I quite like that, and I prefer the line quality I have achieved here to what I created in my warm-up drawing - I would describe it as free and expressive. Although I have less control with my left hand, you can tell what object I was drawing from far more than in the blind drawings.

Next are the series of drawings I created from changing the position of my hand, body paper and pen:

First - Hand position. It's worth noting that I used the same pen in all of these:

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 7 - student project

I think this one has a similarly wobbly quality to the non-dominant hand drawing. Holding the pen by the very end meant there was less pressure on the paper, so the lines have become quite delicate. I quite enjoyed drawing like this, it felt quite meditative :)

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 8 - student project

This one is quite bold and forceful - as you might expect from clenching your hand in a fist I guess! I think drawing in this way is a great way to let go of any tension!

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 9 - student project

This is quite a fun (and funny looking!) drawing. It was also fun to make, but I certainly don't think I could use this method to draw anything more complex - it's incredibly difficult to control, and also not hugely comfortable!

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 10 - student project

I quite enjoyed drawing with this method - I found because it took quite a lot of focus, I got into quite a relaxed flow state with this. The line quality is also quite fluid, so I think it's quite an interesting method I may revisit.

Here are my body position example drawings:

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 11 - student project

Something about standing up whilst drawing really injects more energy into the line quality. I think standing up prompted me to draw more quickly - this can be quite a good thing in my case as I can tend to draw quite slowly.

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 12 - student project

I found this exercise super interesting - can't you almost feel the movement in the drawing? I've found that the drawing can also be influenced by the type of music you have on too - this could become a whole drawing project in itself! I felt quite energized whilst creating this drawing, and I think that has translated into quite an energetic, and rhythmical line quality.

Here are the examples where I changed my paper position:

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 13 - student project

What is quite interesting here is the drawing is quite squashed - this makes sense because I was looking down on the clipboard as it was facing away from me so the perspective was altered.

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 14 - student project

This one is interesting because I have drawn the shoe in reverse with the toe to the left - The drawing has quite a forceful line quality - there's clearly not much control over the outcome - it's possibly the most abstract of all the exercises so far, as essentially it is a blind drawing also with a level of restricted movement from having my arms behind my back. It was fairly uncomfortable to draw this, but I do love a surprise at the end, so I liked the 'blind' nature of this one :)

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 15 - student project

I quite like drawing in this way - being in an unusual position makes me focus more, so I find I get really absorbed in the drawing. For a longer drawing though I think you would get tired arms! You can see the line quality has that slightly broken, fragile quality a little like in the non-dominant hand drawing - you have to work quite hard to keep the pen in constant contact with the paper as its above your head, which gives it quite a lively feel.

Here are my pen position exercises:

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 16 - student project

Holding the pen at a low angle has made the lines much thicker, making them more bold and forceful. With this in mind, I think I could go a little larger in scale if using this technique.

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 17 - student project

I really enjoyed this exercise as I love trying something a bit different! The line quality is quite bold and forceful in places, although as with the last exercise, I think this technique would benefit from going a little bigger in scale to make full use of the range of line thicknesses you can achieve using a piece of card to draw with.

Here are my experiments with scale:

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 18 - student project

I find drawing small so hard! The medium drawing has lines that are quite fluid but controlled - this has quite a lot in common with my warm up drawing I guess because I had quite a lot of control - there were no constraints on how I usually draw so it makes sense that it looks a bit like my warm-up.

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 19 - student project

This is 4 times larger than most of the other drawings I have done so far, and used the wide paint marker I tried out in my warm-ups - I think the line quality is really confident in its drawing mainly because of the medium - that has forced me to draw in a more simplified way, reducing the drawing to simple strokes and pared down shapes - this gives it a really loose, free and confident quality.

Here are my speed drawings:

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 20 - student project

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 21 - student project

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 22 - student project

Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 23 - student project

This exercise taught me a lot, and I was quite surprised by the result (being a slow drawer!) because I think in this exercise, 60 seconds was too long for me - I feel that the 30 second and 15 second drawings have a more fluid and confident line quality. 5 seconds is just pushing it a bit too far - but I definitely know that I can really push how fast I draw further after doing this :)

A couple of takeaways for me and the way I draw which I will integrate into my regular drawing practice:

> Having a time limit is REALLY helpful - and I can draw much quicker than I thought :)

> Increasing the scale (and the thickness of the media I'm drawing with) is also something I'm going to try more of

> Drawing whilst standing up and moving is also something I will do more of

I mentioned in the class that warm ups are important and can become drawing exercises in their own right so I thought I'd include this little abstract series which started out from some warm ups - I love drawing in this way - it's quite relaxing to just take your pen for a walk and see where it goes :) These include some marks where I just tested out the paint marker which I built upon with some non-dominant hand marks, and little doodle tests of trying out the pen at different angles. Learn To Draw: 5 Fun Exercises To Develop Line Drawing Confidence - image 24 - student project

Mel Rye

✎ Artist + Educator

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