Daily Archives: December 5, 2005

First a thing of beauty:

A couple of big clumps of agapanthus in my garden are just about to burst into bloom. Look at all the stems!

Something that I often overlook is how beautiful the buds look just prior to poping. The purple and green are perfect together.

Agapanthus are native to South Africa and thrive in our climate. They are an environmental pest if planted near bush land. But I do love it so, they are clump forming with strappy leaves which stay green all winter, and summer brings those big star burst blooms.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

OK these aren’t actually meant to LOOK like hands, the exercise is meant to make you SEE what you are drawing rather than drawing a ‘hand’ which is stored as a sort of symbol in your head.

You draw the object by observing it minutely but not looking at your page as you draw. It is meant to switch off the left (logical) part of the brain and get you into a zone where you observe in great detail, the subject.

I’m not there yet. I find myself skipping over detail with fair regularity. I’ve got a few more exercises to go ’til I’m onto the Modified Contour Drawings. But so far I’m enjoying it… much better than the other drawing book I have which exhorts the drawing of many elipses!!
Continue reading →