Category: Drawing

Isaac Gelb– Time Capsule Drawing

Love the way you broke this into parts. They’re perfectly arranged and aligned to both hold the space and maintain their independence while also converging on the same image–wonderful job. I’d go one step farther and let go of the outer border, which feels redundant and less daring. The black outline on mine is the edge of the paper (I also tweaked the contrast and the white balance to remove that pink haze and make the lines black).

David Hockney

Ben’s Family Room

You asked about whether the photo could be better, and it could, starting with a better exposure in the camera. Make sure you have abundant indirect natural light. In Snapseed I used Details/Structure to bring out the lines (thanks, Max) and also increased the Highlights (under Tune Image) to lighten the background. Then a few touches of Selective to decrease shaded areas (on the white paper). I also used the perspective tool to straighten up the upper right corner.

Aadhya – Drawing in Place

Tangled Plant and Bedroom Windows

Using Photoshop I moved the bed closer to the plant to fill the rectangle more effectively. Note how this also uses the rule of thirds to strengthen the design:

I like the way this places the right edge of each window frame on a third, and how the plant, while mainly in the middle, sticks its nose into the left third, and the bed, while mostly in the right third, dips its toe into the middle third.

Finally, a painting by English artist Lucian Freud that your drawing brought to mind (good company to be in):

Drawing in Place- Olivia

Just a couple of suggestions. I know they can’t be made once the ink is down (well, one of them), but the lower window sills are angling up to the right, pulling our attention away from the cozy bed. By leveling them, or even dropping them on the right just a little, as I have below, they harmonize better with the silhouette of the bed and keep the focus in the room.

The second thing could still be added, which is carrying the trees all the way to window frames, so that the windows eclipse the view out the window, create a stronger, clearer sense of overlap, and create more depth (as I’ve done here in Photoshop). Yours also suggests that nature doesn’t continye beyond what we see in the window.

MW, Miami, 1974, Graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches