Introduction to Drawing - Week 3

It’s already Week 3 of ‘Introduction to Drawing’ a series of 5 workshops with Adult Learning Shetland!

So far, we’ve been focusing on line and shape, looking at small objects and constructing our drawings by using simple shapes and governing lines. Last week, proportion allowed us to develop our understanding of shape further, and also to learn the importance of the relationship between individual parts and the whole of a drawing.  

This week is about volume and spatial depth. Understanding volume and spatial depth techniques in drawing will allow us to gain insight into how a subject sits in space. We will also learn more about how to give a subject a sense of solid form, including the various ways we can use mark making and tone (or ‘value’) to heighten the illusion of depth.

Here is a sheet of experimentation with lines of different weights / pressures, darknesses, densities and with different kinds of ‘line character’. All of these variations can be used when drawing to create depth, making use of how nearer objects appear to be more defined and have clearer outlines, whereas and further away objects are fuzzier and less defined.