Learning to Draw, Day 1

This month I’m learning to draw. This is a skill I’ve never had. I once thought that there are analytical people and artistic people, but I’m no longer willing to accept that. Just like swimming or writing is a particular skill that can be taught and learned, drawing and calculus are both skills that can be taught and learned. I already know calculus (all the way through real analysis), so it is time to learn to draw.

My guide this month is Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I’m going to post my progress here.

Today was my pre-instruction drawings to establish my starting point and have something to gauge my progress against.

I had to do three drawings:

A self portrait drawn while looking in the mirror

Someone else (or a photo of them) from memory alone, nothing on-hand to reference

My hand

Here they are:

My self-portrait. I framed it up correctly from my perspective. Impossible to get a photo of the same perspective.

Amanda, with the photo I had in mind:

My hand:

I want to eventually draw illustrations for blog posts and pause to draw plants while I hike.

I have a long way to go, but I can’t get worse than I already am. The introduction to Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain emphasizes that learning to draw is actually more about learning different ways of seeing than it is about learning how to hold a pencil. I’m hoping to learn those different modes of seeing over the next 29 days!