Marie WheelerI’ve sketched off an on over the past few weeks, but I’ve neglected to post my progress in the perspective course I’m taking on Craftsy. The second assignment in this course is to complete a drawing with a border.
This assignment was interesting to me as in the last days of the Necronomicon Art Journal project, I did a lot of the pages with borders and a more graphic design feel. I really liked those pages and found it quite pleasing to the eye and to create under those parameters.
The interesting piece of this assignment, and something that I had not done before was to not go outside of the borders. In each of my earlier drawings, I had intentionally left something outside of the defined border to add a sense of depth in the page.
I wasn’t sure how I would feel about staying within the lines.
Drawing within a Border
I got out my little Handbook journal and sketched out a border with my Micron pen. I then picked a photograph as a reference and got to work sketching in the big shapes with a 2H Derwent pencil. Once I felt comfortable that all the big shapes were in the right places, I used the Micron pens to put in the big lines, detail, etc. The finishing touches were added with the Windsor & Newton Cotman watercolors.
The Verdict
I found that working with the borders was useful in terms of keeping the scene and keeping my brain in focus. I think that I would like to continue to have pieces extend outside the borders in future work, but do see the merit in this exercise.
It’s also always interesting to me how taking a look at the sketch and photo side by side, how the big shapes that looked right in the vertical can look different when compared next to each other. I think I would like to redo this scene for further practice.
As always, please support this blog through using the Amazon Affiliate links and let me know what you think in the comments section!
