I feel very lucky to have found this course. I already learned more than I ever thought possible for me to learn.

First of all, I love the overhand grip, it creates an entirely new, very tactile connection between the hand and the paper.

At first I was terrified when I faced the large 18x24 sheet and my arm was sore after just few minutes of waving the pencil in front of it. Now it still gets sore but I find that drawing from the shoulder and having all this space to explore is much more satisfying than the small piece of paper I was used to.

I'm using a very basic graphite pencil that I got in a local art store - a bundle of 100 for a $1, I guess it was an elementary school special or something... It's not very uniform, but it should be good enough until I'm ready for my first masterpiece.

Thank you Brent for sharing your expertise and your skills with us. Your lessons are easy and fun to follow and I know I'll improve with time and practise.

Here's the assignment in the reverse order: Basic skills - Lesson 5 - Assignment - image 1 - student project :

Basic skills - Lesson 5 - Assignment - image 6 - student project

I find it rather challenging, somehow out of my control to place shapes at the right angle, of the right size and in correct place in relation to other shapes.

Now, after more than a month of trying to put those basic shapes together I think it's time to give it a short break, move to the next set of lessons and come back to the basic shapes again later.

I tried all 3 versions of the Scrub Jay dozens & dozens times, if the body is right, the head is too big or too small or tilted the wrong way, same with the wings, tail and legs, was not able to get a single drawing correctly so far.

Basic skills - Lesson 5 - Assignment - image 7 - student project

Basic skills - Lesson 5 - Assignment - image 8 - student project

Basic skills - Lesson 5 - Assignment - image 9 - student project

Basic skills - Lesson 5 - Assignment - image 10 - student project

Same story with the flowers:

Basic skills - Lesson 5 - Assignment - image 11 - student project

Anna Young

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